I’ve spent my spare time for the last week learning how to use Sony Vegas on my laptop. There are a lot of good tutorials on YouTube, and here’s the list I subscribe to.
A couple of weeks ago I took a dam tour of the Seattle City Lights hydroelectric project with two friends. I wanted to give my Canon HV30 a test drive and see how it did. I was impressed with the sound quality of the on-board mic, but it does need a wind screen.
It seems I list to the left when shooting and I’m not sure why. I should also use a tripod, however since I was there for recreation and I didn’t want to carry a bunch of stuff with me, I left the tripod at home.
If this would have been for work, I would’ve brought a tripod and not talked during the video. All in all, the video is an accurate representation of the trip and not bad for the first try. Suggestions are definitely welcome by the way.
I’ll be posting less frequently in the next couple of weeks because I’m trying to learn Sony Vegas, a video editing program for PC. Last weekend I took a tour with some friends to Diablo Lake.
Yes, it really was that green. The color is caused by the glacial flour of Skagit gneiss, made up of mica, feldspar (the reddish color on the rock faces) and quartz. The day was amazing. Even though it was 100+ degrees out the 36-degree water kept the trip relatively cool.
I took some video with my new camera and some stills (see eight pics I took on my Flickr photostream). Until I know how Vegas works, though, I’m not going to be doing much else other than learning how to edit. I didn’t have my tripod during the trip so it’s a little shaky, but I’ll try to post something from the trip in a week or two.
You don’t need a big budget to learn multimedia. There are plenty of low-cost tools to get you started.
Watch Kirk Mastin’s test of a $3,300 Canon XH A1 camcorder vs. a $120 Flip Camcorder (he also used a an iPod nano with a mic to record audio for the Flip video). Mastin is in the University of Washington’s masters program for digital media. Compare the footage between the two cameras. (He syncs Flip video and iPod audio with a hand clap in front of the camera and then match the audio spike in a video editing program.)
Mastin’s comparison has been making the rounds as of late, even though it was posted back in February. (There’s also a three-part Mexican Wrestling video shot with a Canon Powershot SD800 by Max Morse of ESPN.)
Also, lots of people are posting training tips lately:
Video for newspapers, by Mindy McAdams. This is an incredibly useful list of links, including shooting video for editing, what makes a good video and examples of video you have to see (like the Spokesman Review’s video of a paraplegic dog).
One of my editors asked for a volunteer to go to the fair and “find a story.” I love the fair, and I like open-ended assignments like this. The first thing I did was grab a video camera and checked the charge on it. Another editor flagged me down as I was walking out the door. My video assignment: I was to use only the newsroom’s computer to edit and produce the video.
Let me explain. All of the video we’ve run on the site so far has been produced on home computers, usually by our interns or one of our editors. The reason they’ve done so is because our work computers aren’t as great. They have iMovie on them, which I learned is not a terrible program. Like anything else there is a learning curve to using it. I’ll admit my total ignorance here and say I’ve never in my life edited video, but I have read about best practices in producing video.
This video was fun to produce, but I shot way too little B-roll for it. I groan when I watch this, but I think the girls (and the adorable calf) make up for it. If I would’ve spent even five minutes getting better B-roll it would have been 100 times better.
Of all multimedia skills that a reporter should know, video is my weak point. Sure, I’ve taken classes and read blogs about video, but how many times have I actually shot video for news purposes? It’s so low I’m embarrassed to say.
That will soon change. Friday my Canon HV30 will arrive in the mail (including a UV light filter to protect the lens). I probably spent at least eight hours last weekend researching which camera I should get and which store I should buy it from. I’ve been lurking a lot on the Canon HV20/HV30 user forums, too.
The hardest part is finding an editing program that works for me. I’ve never used video editing programs. Currently my laptop is Linux based, so I installed Cinelerra. But I hear Cinelerra doesn’t process HD video well. I think my best option is to reinstall Vista on the laptop and get a copy of Sony Vegas (at least platinum). Any suggestions for other programs to consider are very welcome.
I have a list of links a mile long on how to shoot video. As for editing it, I’ll probably search YouTube for tutorials on whichever program I end up using.
My plan to learn video is to just do it. Shoot lots of video. Try to edit at least one clip a week. The subject doesn’t matter, as long as I practice at becoming faster and more efficient with each try. The good clips will end up here.
The media landscape is changing, and Mark Glaser of PBS MediaShift is tracking newsrooms of all flavors. How are we changing? What are we doing to respond to the shifts in our market and our industry?
In early June Glaser called out for embedded bloggers in news organizations around the country. Embeds will write regular “change diaries” of what their news organizations are doing to address the changes in the industry.
My first change diary will publish on Aug. 11 and once every two weeks after that for about three months. Our reports are to be 800-1,000 words, and we must include at least one picture with every post.
Here is a list of the rest of the embeds for MediaShift:
Embeds
Tim Peek, NBC
Mark van Patten, Daily News in Bowling Green, Ky.
Kate Martin, Skagit Valley Herald in Washington state
Roland Legrand, MediaFin, De Tijd and L’Echo newspapers in Belgium
Alfred Hermida, University of British Columbia journalism school
Alana Taylor, New York University journalism student
Correspondents
Sokari Ekine, African issues
Lucie Morillon, free speech issues
Elle Moxley, Beijing Olympics
Jaron Gilinsky, Israel/Middle East issues
In June, when I applied to be an embed, the Skagit Valley Herald was not doing much in terms of multimedia. We still had seven reporters. I was the only person doing multimedia at the time, with very occasional audio presentations. We were about to publish our first video, which was terrible. (But any first step is a step in the right direction.) I had started using Twitter a few months before. And video-savvy summer intern, Keith Chaplin from WSU, had just started working here.
It was with this knowledge that I applied to be an embedded reporter. Glaser responded with several suggestions on how to approach my editor to get the OK for this project.
It shows that they are trying new things and not afraid to fail.
They are transparent in how they are changing and are letting the wider journalism community learn from what they are doing.
They can get more notoriety within the media world by being exposed to the very wired MediaShift audience.
I asked Don Nelson, our managing editor, if I could write about what we’re doing. Don said yes, on two conditions: do it on your own time and don’t make us look stupid.
Back in July I asked for advice on how to make my commute more productive. I didn’t get many posts here, but I asked Wired Journalists and on other message boards where I am a member of the community.
Many people realize that commutes are boring, and nobody really wants to be there. But as much as the commuter wants to be elsewhere, safety is a factor.
Since my radio reception is less than optimal, others suggested satellite radio, learning a new language, buying an iPod and books on tape. When thinking about this during a commute recently, I realized my commute is not great for learning a new language. The road noise is terrible. If anyone calls me during my commute (don’t worry, I have an ear piece) they can’t hear me very well. It only stands to reason I might miss a key phrase if learning a new language (my language of choice would be Spanish).
There were a number of people who suggested to pay attention to the road (with varying levels of annoyance). Jason Molinet on Wired Journalists suggested carpooling and starting a commuter blog with a dash cam. Not a bad idea, but I don’t know if I have the personality to pull that off.
With few options left, I’ve decided to just think about my upcoming day and write stories in my head. If I come across a particularly good line, I’ll dictate it into my audio recorder. I’ve been practicing this for a week and I feel more focused. Anything helps.
His project, entitled “No Snitching,” is about the culture of a neighborhood in east Newport News, Va. This is a great project with lots of content. His project has a poignant beginning with tasteful music interspersed with snapshots of the 30 people who died in Newport News in the past year.
In Al’s interview, Wilson says he never picked up a camera or knew much about Web design until he attended the fellowship.
The technology in our field has always changed, he tells Al: “The skills you have as a journalist are what matters. The ability to put people at ease and have them talk with you. The ability to find and tell a compelling story.”
Wilson does have advice for the rest of us who can’t take a 24-week break from our jobs for a fellowship:
My advice to anyone who wants to learn multimedia skills is to start doing it. Make a small, one-minute movie a day. Figure out how to see in video. Watch lots of documentaries and see how a story is told visually. Check out all the Web sites that post multimedia stories. Find a class that will teach you video editing or Flash; there are lots of them online. But most of all don’t be afraid and get started.
The e-mails I get nearly on a daily basis should not faze me. People make stuff up all the time to smear one candidate and boost another. But I get these e-mails from my relatives, for whom I care deeply. I won’t say which two are the worst offenders. My purpose is not to make them look foolish.
I open the email, and read the first few lines, then check Snopes or PolitiFact immediately. Usually eye-rolling ensues, and I fire back an e-mail reminding them to check the two Web sites, knowing it will do no good anyway.
Today I’d had enough. I got the email about Obama and McCain’s tax policies (the copy of the e-mail I received had been further altered to make it less true). The person who sent it to me is married to an accountant.
I hit reply to all. I know that’s a bad idea in almost any case. I linked to Snopes and to PolitiFact, as usual. Does anyone believe these e-mails enough to the point where it changes opinion? Somehow I doubt that. For the most part, people vote the party, not the person.
Finally, I don’t favor either candidate or party, nor would I say if I did. I don’t think reporters of any stripe should tip their hat to anyone about what they believe or who they support. But I will always be annoyed when someone spreads a lie when a simple Internet search would reveal the truth.
Our cops reporter, Tahlia Ganser, just returned from Florida after spending six weeks at Poynter’s summer fellowship(7/25: link changed, here’s a new one). She returned with many observations, exciting stories and a clear vision of the future.
For reporters, that includes video. To not study video journalism as a reporter is a death knell to your career. So where do we start?
Reporters cannot afford to wait for someone else to train us. No need to reinvent the wheel, there are plenty of training resources if you look in the right places.
