LUCEO Announces Creation of Student Project Award

If you aren’t familiar with the work of Luceo, they’re worth checking out. There are some terrific photographers in the collective, working to support each other, and they’ve just announced that they will be funding a Student Project Award, to help support a developing photographer.

More from Luceo:

Luceo is united in a common belief that, through these times of change, the still image continues to be relevant. We believe that history extends beyond the news-cycle, and that ordinary people and personal struggle are avenues through which we can explore the bigger issues facing our world. It is with this purpose that we have created the Luceo Student Project Award.

Luceo Student Project Award:
Luceo also believes that developing photographers need support. To advance this cause,
they have created the Luceo Student Project Award. This award will be disbursed annually to a talented student photographer in support of a significant and developing body of work.

This year’s recipient will receive $1,000 along with mentorship for the project from one Luceo member.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 11:59pm EST May 15, 2010. Finalists will be
announced in late May. A select panel will judge from the ten finalists and the winner will be
announced in June.

You can find out more about Luceo, their Student Project Award, and the Luceo Images Project Fund – another new initiative to help members fund personal work – at their site.

Brian Storm to give keynote address at ASPP “Reinvention Weekend”

The American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP) and the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) invite you to Reinvent, Reimagine and Reinvigorate your career or your approach to the photography business at their “Reinvention Weekend” April 15th – 18th in Boston.

Keynote speaker, Brian Storm of MediaStorm, will join an incredible line up of speakers: Rick Smolan/Against All Odds, Ilise Benun of marketing-mentor.com, Allen Murabayashi of PhotoShelter, Caitlin Jewell of Silverscape, Nancy Andrews/Detroit Free Press, Lou Jones, Ian Ginsberg of VII Agency, Dane Howard of vuvox.com and others. Click on the links at www.aspp.com to read about our speakers and sessions.

The registration fees for this 3-day event is only $495 for ASPP and PACA members, and $590 for sister organizations. You can now register at the ASPP site.

A one-day Trade Show will be the kick-off event on Thursday 15th, and display tables are still available for $150. During Trade Show hours on Thursday, PACA is providing a demonstration of their newly launched pacaSearch. This mega meta-search engine is setting a new standard for stock image searching. The event will be open to the public too, so a great opportunity to showcase your products and services to a local audience as well as attendees. To register for the Trade Show, go here.

The Omni Parker House Hotel is in downtown Boston, and is offering us a special room rate of $199, from April 12 – 18. Click here to book your room at the hotel.

If you sign up for the Reinvention Weekend before March 15th you will be eligible for a drawing for a complimentary 12-month membership in ASPP (or extension of your existing membership). In addition, for all attendees, ADBASE will be raffling off an amazing annual regional subscription to ADBASE, with a value of $695.00. This raffle will take place on Friday morning, but you have to be present to win.

Internship Opportunity: TIME.COM seeking spring photo interns

TIME.COM is seeking spring-term interns for its Photography Department.

Internships are paid and not for credit.

Ideal candidates can start as soon as possible and are able to commit to 3-5 days, 20-30 hours per week over the course of 4–6 months.

Primary Duties:
Interns will assist the Photo Department in researching and sourcing archival and current content, building photo galleries, scanning, retouching and performing other tasks not yet specified. TIME provides unique opportunities for it’s interns to become deeply involved with ongoing projects and upcoming content.

Applicants should be employment ready, self-motivated, detail oriented, and able to remain focused on long-term assignments.

Skills Required:
An passion in and familiarity with current and historical news events, proficient with Photoshop; strong retouching ability; keen visual sense; articulate; able to work independently; able to learn quickly; possess a positive, can-do attitude. Prior web experience is a plus.

Please direct cover letters and resumes to Skye Gurney. The subject line should read “TIME Photo Intern”. No phone calls, please.

Job Opening: Freelance Multimedia Producer at The New Yorker

The New Yorker is looking for a Freelance Multimedia Producer.

Company/Project Description: The New Yorker is a weekly magazine with a signature mix of reporting on national and international politics and culture, humor and cartoons, fiction and poetry, and reviews and criticism of books, movies, theatre, classical and popular music, television, art, and fashion.

Position Description/Breakdown: The New Yorker is looking for a multimedia producer who can handle pre-production, planning, logistics, shooting, editing video and audio, and posting the final product online. And would have aptitude with a mini DV camera. Experience with Final Cut Pro required. Knowledge of Pro Tools, Flash, blogging software or other CMS a plus. Must be able to juggle multiple projects, meet tight deadlines, uphold journalistic standards, and work well with others.

Application/Submission Instructions: Please submit a resume and cover letter, and links to previous work to Blake Eskin with “multimedia producer” in the subject line.

Position Title/Role: Multimedia Producer

Type: Freelance

Start Date: March 15, 2010

Salary / Rate: TBD

Benefits Information: None

Job Opening: Creative Director at Story River Media

Story River Media has a job opening for a Creative Director, based in Washington, DC.

The Creative Director is responsible for designing sophisticated and engaging visual multimedia and interactive stories and supervising the work of others, staff and freelance. More specifically, the Creative Director will develop and refine visual design concepts, participate in web interactive concept definition, present her or his work to different teams, participate in critiques, manage production, and align himself or herself with the company’s overall goal of creating high-end interactive multimedia stories across all platforms for corporate, government, non-profit and publishing clients.

The ideal candidate will be have strong visual design skills, design research skills, an innovative approach that breeds new thinking, a strong understanding of graphic design (type, color, layout, composition, motion graphics), a current understanding of the Web evolution, trends and current approaches, an understanding of Web technology, and an ability to work collaboratively. A deep appreciation for great interactive design and a good sense of humor are required.

Duties & Responsibilities

The Creative Director will:

• Conduct Design Research

  Participate in conducting trend, design, competitive, and qualitative research and presenting relevant findings to peers and managers, gather relevant data and capably represent his/her point of view.

• Create Initial Design Explorations

  Develop directions that reflect new, fresh and exciting approaches, a clear organization of information, and the willingness to take risks. The senior designer is expected to develop a broad range of interactive stories, and present his/her work with both confidence and adaptability. Working quickly and iteratively is a must; SRM is a very-fast paced environment. The Creative Director should have an understanding of information architecture so that information and interactivity is incorporated in a clear and engaging way for the user.

• Refine Designs and Present them

  Create rapid and compelling prototypes of interactive stories using paper, images, Flash and other tools.

• Apply Problem Solving Skills

  The Creative Director must have strong problem solving skills and be able to overcome barriers that stand in his/her way. A ‘can do’ attitude is a must; the designer will constantly need to find ways to overcome challenges and solve problems.

• Create Static and Animated Solutions

  Employ an understanding of Flash, CSS, DHTML and other client-side design and technology solutions in order to create innovative and compelling content that leads the industry in engagement, collaboration and fun-factor.

• Present

  Must present his/her work well and defend it in both small and large meetings. Strong persuasive skills and an ability to influence are required.

• Flexibility and Collaboration

  Must be flexible, and challenge-oriented, able to excel in a fast-paced environment. Must have strong collaborative skills and be able to accept and thrive on good direction from other sources. Must bring a spirit of teamwork to their projects.

Job Qualifications

General Skills:

• Outstanding creative, visual design, and technical skills
• Strong communication skills and client orientation (including interaction with teams and other departments)
• Excellent people and project management skills
• Expertise in negotiating with other functional areas as well as externals

Specialized Skills:

• Thorough understanding of Graphic Design and Web Design
• Conceptual research and design skills
• An ability to create Photoshop comps of stories, web pages and more
• Expert knowledge of CS4 (with an emphasis on Photoshop and InDesign).
• A working knowledge of Flash and HTML is a plus
• Experience in animation a plus.
• Strong working knowledge of creative team dynamics
• Strong working knowledge of corporate team dynamics
• Skilled in communicating constructive criticism while inspiring

Experience

• Candidates will have at least 4 years of visual design experience

Education

• A Bachelors Degree or advanced degree in Graphic Design or other related areas from an Arts College or accredited University

Please send resume and salary requirement to jimgaines@storyrivermedia.com

MediaStorm welcomes Tim Matsui

We are excited to welcome Tim Matsui as a Spring 2010 intern.

Tim Matsui is a multimedia journalist whose recent work focuses on human trafficking. He is a past Blue Earth Alliance Project Photographer and a recipient of grants from the Open Society Institute, Fund for Investigative Journalism, and King County 4Culture. Tim earned a bachelors degree in journalism, with a minor in geology, from the University of Washington. He is the founder a 501(c)3 non profit using documentary multimedia to create dialog about the lasting effects of sexual violence. Tim co-founded the Travel and Outdoor Photographer’s Alliance and organized several state-of-the-industry panel discussions with leading photographers and editors. The World Affairs Council regularly invites him to speak with international visitors hosted by the US Department of State.

Tim will be spending the next couple of months in Brooklyn with MediaStorm, but is usually based in Seattle where he lives with his Brazilian sweetheart, Luciana, a six year-old boy skilled in the art of Lego battles and ninja moves, a princess of a cat, and a tail-less clown fish not named Nemo.

Interested in interning with us? MediaStorm accepts interns throughout the year, in multimedia production, design, motion graphics, and/or programming for web. The deadline for our fall 2010 Internship is June 15, 2010. See our site for more information.

MediaStorm’s Guide to One-Frame Audio Fades

In previous blog posts, I’ve described the cure-all properties of the one-frame fade. (See Ten Ways to Improve Your Multimedia Production Right Now and Ten Tips for Working with Music in Multimedia).

Here’s how to set up a one-frame fade as your default audio transition:

Open the Effects window (command-5). In the Audio Transitions folder, note that one of the transitions has a line beneath it. The line indicates that it’s the default transition.

If you have not previously changed the fade time, you’ll see ‘00:00:01;00′ in the length column. That’s a default time of one second, zero frames.

Highlight the number in the length column and enter ‘1′ (just the number, no quotes). Then, press return.

Your default transition time should now be set to one frame.

Sometimes though, due to a Final Cut bug, you may find that when you now select an audio edit point and add the default transition (option-command-T), the fade remains at one second.

To fix this, right-click Cross Fade (0db) and select Set Default Transition. The default line now appears beneath that transition.

Next, repeat the procedure back on the Cross Fade (+3db). Right-click the transition and select Set Default Transition.

Now, when you select an audio edit point and apply the default transition (option-command-T), the fade will be one frame.

Additional quick tips: to change the time of an audio fade that’s already been applied to the timeline, right-click on the fade and select Duration. In the pop-up window, enter your new desired time.

In Final Cut 7, if you select the entire audio clip and apply the default transition, an audio fade will be applied to both sides of the clip.

2010 World Photography Festival and Sony World Photography Awards to be held April 22-27, in Cannes, France

The 2010 World Photography Festival and Sony World Photography Awards will be held April 22-27, in Cannes, France.

The Festival offers photographers and its industry a fantastic 3 day program and features events such as talks by veteran photographers, portfolio reviews given by experts in the industry, exhibitions, screenings, workshops, daily live shooting stations and an industry symposium for all to attend and listen to renowned industry leaders talk about the current trends, issues and debates concerning photography today.

The Awards ceremony showcase is for the first time open for the everyone to attend and will deliver a visual journey through many diverse genres of photography.

The festival organizers have kindly offered our readers a 15% discount on all tickets for the Festival and Awards ceremony event. Tickets start at £15 – £30 and portfolio reviews start at £60 for 3 sessions.

Confirmed leading industry participators this year are photographers Nadav Kander (UK), Bohnchang Koo (Korea) and Pablo Bartholomew (India), Chloe Limpkin (UK) (Photo Director of Harpers Bazzar), Aidan Sullivan (UK) (VP of Getty Images), Bill Hunt (USA) (Co-Founder of Hasted-Hunt Gallery), Trisha Ziff (Mexico) (curator and filmmaker), Zelda Cheatle (UK) Curator and Portfolio Manager of Tosca Fund, Roberto Koch (Italy) (Publisher of Contrasto and Founder of FORMA), Monica Allende (UK) (Picture Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine), Mark Sealy (UK) (Director of Autograph – the Association of Black Photographers), Michelle Dunn (USA) (Co-Publisher, Aperture Magazine; Editor-at-Large, Chronicle Books), Grant Scott (UK) (Group Brand Editor of Imaging for Professional Photography and Photography Monthly magazines), Scott Thode (USA) (Freelance Curator and Picture Editor), Sue Steward (UK) (Photography Critic, Writer, Radio Broadcaster and Photo Editor), Adrian Evans (UK) (Director of Panos Pictures Agency), Adrian Boot (UK) (Music Photographer and co-founder of www.urbanimage.tv), Jonathan Torgovnik (USA)(Photojournalist and Founder of Foundation Rwanda), Idris Khan (UK) (Artist) and many more to be announced.

For discounted tickets, visit the Festival website, and use promotional code SWPA15.

The website for the Festival will offer you additional information about the program and continuously update as they confirm new events and participators.

Job Opening: International Monetary Fund looking for multimedia storyteller

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) based in Washington D.C. is ramping-up its communication outreach in the area of multimedia, interactive and video technologies. Key to this outreach is the use of visual story telling to illuminate the work of the Fund and how it affects populations around the World.

Effective immediately, the IMF has an opening for a full-time contractual multimedia storyteller. The position requires an experienced individual capable of producing photographs, video and audio using Adobe and Final Cut Pro applications to tell compelling stories concerning the work of the Fund.

Specifically the position requires capturing and acquiring content and composing stories for distribution to the Internet and Worldwide news media outlets. Some international traveled required. Full benefits provided. All tools provided including a recently constructed HD broadcast capable Multimedia Center.

Send inquiries and include contact information to Phughes@imf.org.

Knight Digital Media Center looking for News Entrepreneurs and Newsroom Leaders for Upcoming Workshops

If you’re looking for professional training opportunities, the Knight Digital Media Center has a couple of great programs coming up.

The News Entrepreneur Boot Camp is designed for 20 competitively selected digital entrepreneurs with great ideas for community news and information initiatives in the public interest. The boot camp will be held May 16-21, at USC Annenberg. Deadline for applications is February 19, 2010.

The Transformative Leadership Institute is looking for people who are already positioned as the new leaders of news and information in the community interest. They are looking for leaders from major established news organizations that are transforming themselves and also for news entrepreneurs who are reinventing models for news and information. You can nominate yourself, or anyone else you feel is qualified for this program. The final list of fellows will be named in May. Deadline for nominations is March 31, 2010.

You can see a full list of upcoming seminars and workshops at their site. If you have questions about either of these opportunities, you can contact Vikki Porter, Director of KDMC, at vporter@usc.edu. For updates and announcements on new programs, you can also check them out on twitter: @kdmc.