See the projects produced during this workshop below or apply for the next round of Workshops.

Hold Out by Zachary Barr, Jeff Hutchens, Nacho Corbella and Uma Sanghvi Developers want to demolish a Brooklyn neighborhood to build a basketball arena and numerous high rises. But a small a neighborhood and a handful of residents stand in the way. See the project.

A Tail of Identity by Toni Greaves, Jeff Davis, Steve Rowland, and Gregory Warner Enter the world of identity where sometimes putting on a mask allows you to be your true self. See the project.

Behind the Scenes by Tim Hussin The MediaStorm Workshops offer an opportunity to learn in a hands-on setting with industry-leading producers adept at the changing environment of journalism. See the experience.

The Council on Foreign Relations and MediaStorm have collaborated to produce Crisis Guide: The Global Economy.

This new CFR.org Crisis Guide is an in-depth, multimedia look at the causes and consequences of the global economic crisis that seeks to unravel the questions surrounding the downturn and shed light on its policy implications, drawing on insights from leading thinkers on economics and international affairs.

This is the fifth in a series of Crisis Guides, CFR.org’s interactive, award-winning franchise, which seeks to bring context and historical perspective to the world’s most complex issues.

We will be holding the first MediaStorm Methodology Workshop July 27-31, 2009, at our offices in Brooklyn, NY.

Over this five-day course, attendees will participate in a collaborative, fast-paced, hands-on overview of what it takes to produce successful multimedia projects. They will work closely with MediaStorm producers and interactive designers to learn the essential elements of multimedia post-production, project organization and storytelling concepts.

There will be intensive business-oriented discussions as well, critiquing aspects of developing business models that support multimedia and interactive storytelling. Attendees will leave the workshop with an understanding of all the areas they need to create a comprehensive multimedia plan and to educate others on the approach.

If you are interested in attending the Workshop, please see the site for more information and application instructions. There is no deadline, but we only have three slots left for the July Workshop, so don’t delay if you’re interested. If you have any questions, please contact workshops@mediastorm.org.

Nonproliferation is the first chapter of the Global Governance Monitor, an in-depth multimedia feature examining multilateral efforts to confront global challenges.

This comprehensive guide to the issue of Nuclear Nonproliferation leads viewers from the Dawn of the Nuclear Era through current issues with Iran, North Korea, and global nuclear treaties.

Start dates are flexible. We’re looking for experience in multimedia production, design, motion graphics, and/or programming for web. Internships will be paid.

Please send email with resume, references and cover letter (discussing why you want to intern at MediaStorm and what you hope to get out of the experience) to careers@mediastorm.org

Please include:
- links to pieces you’ve produced/collaborated on (please indicate role in each)
- available start/end dates
- hours/week available
- familiarity with Final Cut Pro, SoundTrack Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Aperture, Flash, and/or proficiency in other related programs.

Email is preferred, but snail mail applications can be sent to:

Brian Storm
MediaStorm
55 Washington Street, Suite 420
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Please note that due to volume, no materials will be returned- do not send originals. There is no deadline for spring internships- applications will be taken on a rolling basis. Deadline for Fall internships is June 15.

Driftless: Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier

Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation’s economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity.

The tension of contemporary rural life plays out here: the struggle of a family farm to continue, disenfranchised youth, the slaughterhouse, migrant labor, and the aged fading from Iowa’s mythical landscape. Through their stories we gain insight to a way of life that is disappearing, a culture that could be lost forever.

As “community” continues to be homogenized in zones of urban sprawl across the globe, we must consider all that we are losing—development should not come at the expense of more fragile communities.

Jean-Pierre Laffont, Eliane Laffont, and Jean-François Leroy on their way to the Focus Awards.

The Griffin Museum’s 2009 Focus Awards ceremony was held last week, recognizing “people who are not photographers, but who have been instrumental in increasing awareness of the photographic arts among the general public.”  A well-deserved Lifetime Achievement award was given to Eliane Laffont, who has been a driving force in the industry for over 40 years.

Those fortunate enough to be at the ceremony heard Eliane’s speech, but for the rest of us, she has graciously allowed us to reprint it.  It’s definitely worth a read:

PHOTOJOURNALISM IS MY PASSION!

“Photojournalism” is a word that evokes heroic stories and the call of adventure. It is a mirror of the world and a witness to its time. When Jean Pierre, and I — along with our French partners — created the photo agencies Gamma in 1968 and Sygma in 1973, we wanted to redefine the nature of photojournalism, reveal and explain the world’s great events and consciously built a new platform. And it was not by chance that these two photo agencies grew so quickly. We were successful because we invented a new way of reporting the news and a new way of working with photographers that, despite many challenges, is still alive today.

At Gamma and Sygma, we did not see the photo as mere illustration for a text. Photos stories were developed. Photographers emerged from their anonymity, and for the first time, their names were credited beside their photographs.  Photojournalists were recognized as creators. Furthermore, they were no longer employees of newspapers or magazines, they became co-producers of their images. Photographers and their agencies shared cost and revenue. With the closing of Look and Life Magazines, the agencies photographers, not the Magazines staffers supplied the International News and most of the printed media global needs. Paris and New York became the world capitals of photojournalism, the hubs that sent great images to editing rooms around the world.

During this time, I had the privilege of working with some of the greatest photojournalists in history.  I want to mention a few, because their stories and mine are intertwine.

First, I want to mention the late Eddie Adams who photographed the Vietnam war and years later spent months documenting a story that was even more important to him: the heart-breaking images of Vietnam’s boat people directly changed America’s immigration policy toward a people that we would have otherwise abandoned. When President Jimmy Carter gave visas to hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people, it was largely because of Eddie Adam’s photos.

I also had the honor of working with Douglas Kirkland, who gained unprecedented access to the world of directors, actors, actresses on and off the sets.

With Lauren Greenfield, who documents the contemporary landscape of American girls, sometimes in disturbing details.

With Gianni Giansanti, the unofficial photographer, who, for three decades captured Pope Jean Paul II private moment with artistry.

With JP Laffont, foreign correspondent whose photos of “child labor” around the world helped reinforce the UN laws on children at work.

With Allen Tannenbaum who, like Woody Allen, reminds us that there is always something exciting going on in NY City. Allen also gave us, just a couple of days before John Lennon death, one of the last photo session of John with his wife Yoko Ono.

With Helmut Newton, who revolutionized fashion photography and invited us into his strange dreams and fantasies.

Over the years, I am very proud to have worked with the greatest photographers, Paul Fusco, John Bryson, Steve Schapiro, David Hume-Kennerly, Pete Turner, the Turnley brothers, Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Dominique Issermann, Diego Goldberg, Alain Dejean, and Alain Nogues and many more…

And in some ways, working with these photographers was the best part of my work, but I equally loved to cover the world’s most important news events.

Our book about the first Gulf War, “In the Eye of Desert Storm” published by Abrams, received the Leica Medal of Excellence for outstanding achievement in the category of Photographic Book in 1992 and the 24 photographers that covered that war, working outside the official chanel, were celebrated in magazines throughout the world.

Within five years we received four Pulitzer Prizes:
1991: Greg Marinovich (Spot News) Burning man in Soweto, South Africa
1994: Paul Watson (Spot News) Dead US soldier dragged in the street of Mogadishu, Somalia
1994: Kevin Carter (Feature) The unforgettable photograph taken in Sudan during the famine, it shows a small girl crouched in the bush and behind her a vulture waiting.
1996: Charles Porter (Spot News) A fire man holding an infant during the Oklahoma city bombing.

Ironically, while the 1990s and early 2000s were a period of great creativity and accomplishment, the ground was shifting beneath our feet. With great rapidity, the photojournalism business became less about photojournalism and much more about business.

Everything was turned upside down as the world’s news outlets de-emphasized international reportage in favor of fame and gossip. Following Princess Diana for a few hours brought in more money than six months in Africa covering the AIDS story. As most of the press was conglomerated into giant media corporations responsible to shareholders, budgets were cut, the price of the images collapsed, in-depth reportage was replaced by small interchangeable  photos and pictures of famous people were all that mattered.

The increasing value of celebrity photos had disastrous consequences:  increasingly aggressive paparazzi, then tougher laws regarding “respect for privacy” and finally what the French call “le droit a l’image” or a celebrity’s exclusive rights to own and control their own images. Today - especially in Europe - “le droit a l’image” has become a legal reality with enormous repercussions that hinder the freedom of the press.

Another more profound change took place:  Starting in the late 1990s new technologies - digital cameras, cheap storage and the internet - radically redefined the profession and led to important changes in the way photojournalism is produced, distributed and consumed. The digitization of photojournalism also opened the door to massive industry-wide consolidation.

The conversion to the digital image, the conversion of millions of pictures from film to digital and the transmission and sale of photos over the Internet was essential if we wanted to survive. Unfortunately, this conversion required what was for us a huge amount of money that we didn’t have. When we looked for outside capital, the banks balked. So, like many independent photo-agencies, selling out became our only option.

We probably should not have been completely surprised to discover that, in this new corporate Online mega companies, primary concern was not necessarily the art of photojournalism. Photographs were called “content,” and photographers: “content-providers”. A victory for marketing, finance and technology, but the world of photojournalism had shrunk into something less heroic.

Given this rather depressing state of affairs, is photojournalism dead? I would say: certainly not.

But in this brave new world, photojournalists need to reinvent themselves, need to understand how the public consumes images and identify new revenue streams that will allow them to produce the important stories that have become increasingly scarce in the mainstream media. There is a new generation of entrepreneurs and photojournalist who care deeply about the art of photojournalism. And make no mistake about it, great photojournalism is still happening every day. You just have to go to “Visa pour l’Image” in Perpignan to see photo stories of incredible quality from courageous photographers who are still managing to travel the world and inform us with their vision, less documentary more impressionistic.

We need to open new doors, the press alone cannot support such a heavy burden, there are new areas to explore: books, specialized reviews, galleries, festivals, auctions, prizes, the support of foundations, multimedia events and certainly museums.

These are difficult times. But no, photojournalism has not spoken its last words yet. The bottom line is this: As long as photojournalists believe in photojournalism, there is hope.

Vive le photojournalisme!

Eliane Laffont
May 7, 2009, Winchester

The concepts below have been compiled by members of the MediaStorm team over the course of their careers. Most of these ideas will hold true whether you are creating multimedia in Final Cut Pro, iMovie, or Soundslides.

Equipment

• Never update your hardware or software in the middle of a project. After you’ve completed your project, backup to a separate drive, then update. If Final Cut is behaving oddly, try deleting your preferences by using FCP Rescue or do it manually, using the instructions detailed in this previous blog post.   

• When building an editing suite, purchase the fastest computer, largest display, most accurate speakers, and the most comfortable chair you can afford. Tighten your budget elsewhere. These four are your lifelines. See MediaStorm’s gear kits for a more detailed list of recommended equipment.

• New technology is important only insofar as it allows you to do your job more easily. Your job is to tell good stories.

Organization

• Organize your project at the very start of the process. Doing so later will undoubtedly be more complicated and require more time.

• Give your assets meaningful names. In three weeks, you’ll never remember what “sound test 3″ refers to without spending the time to find out. For a more extensive discussion of how to organize a multimedia project, download Tips from the MediaStorm Final Cut Workflow.

• Keep lists, particularly for export and deliverable specifications and settings. Even if you’ve memorized these requirements, it’s easy to overlook small details when you’re up against a deadline. Plus, it always feels good to cross items off a list.

• Hold on to the most recent output from all of your projects. This way, when you need the file again, you won’t have to stop working in order to generate a new one.

• Keep versions of previous work. Leave them behind like breadcrumbs. Eventually you’ll need to find some missing piece of information. Make the path back easy to follow.

Producing

• The first minute of a project is often the most difficult to produce. Start with what you know, and build from there. The finished pieces will tell you what is missing. As an example, for most MediaStorm productions, including Marcus Bleasdale’s Rape of a Nation, the image edit of the opening sequence is generally produced last. That first minute is most important for capturing the viewer’s attention. Therefore, it must be truly compelling. It’s hard to know what’s most compelling until you have a comprehensive knowledge of all your material.




• 

• Confusion and disorder are where you begin. Work through it. Creating is making sense of the unknown. Simplicity comes last. The rough cut of Kingsley’s Crossing was well past 20 minutes. Only after producing everything, can you know what to leave aside.

    

• Plan to spend about 10 hours of production time for every minute that ends up onscreen.

• Editing is making a thousand small decisions. Focus on the specific. Don’t be satisfied with a decision that is not correct.

• In the beginning, every photograph, every sound bite is precious. In the end, you’ll slaughter whole sections you’ve loved without blinking. To paraphrase David Mamet paraphrasing the old editing adage, “You start with a scalpel, end with a machete.”

• You will never have all the right assets. Key images will be missing; an interview will be garbled. Limitations are opportunities to make unexpected choices.

• Understanding and completing a project happens exponentially. Completing the last 20 percent of a project will occur much faster than creating the first 20 percent. Time you put in at the beginning will pay dividends at the end. The first two minutes of Iraqi Kurdistan by Ed Kashi took weeks to complete. The last two minutes took days.
    
• 

• Viewers are far more forgiving of bad video than they are of bad audio. You can produce a successful documentary with poor video. The same cannot be said for bad audio.

Inspiration

• It’s easy for hours to evaporate when you’re editing. Try to get out of the office and go for a walk once a day. It’s amazing the insights you can have when not focused on solving a problem.

• Multimedia producing is more like making films than slide shows. Watch movies.

• Don’t rely on just the assets collected in the field to understand your subject matter. Read, read a lot, read often. Even if it’s only tangentially related, this knowledge will seep into your command of the story.

• Two books that will change how you edit:

• In the Blink of an Eye, by Walter Murch

  On Directing Film, by David Mamet

• Producing is a collaborative process. Other people’s suggestions can and will make your project better. But as David Mamet writes in Bambi vs. Godzilla, never seek advice from someone who doesn’t have a vested interest in your success.

And Most Important

• Of all your tools, story is the primary one. Every image you use, every video clip you include must, on some level, advance the story. Otherwise, it’s just technique. And technique without purpose is showing off. Viewers want story. They long for it. They crave it. Give them a good story, and they’ll always come back for more.

This grant was established in 1978 following the death of Gene Smith, the legendary American photo essayist. It is today the most prestigious honor in documentary photography. Every year it recognizes a photographer who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to documenting the human condition in the spirit of Smith’s concerned photography and dedicated compassion.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund independently administers the grant program that provides photographers with the financial freedom to carry out or complete major photographic essays. For 2009, the amount of the grant will be $30,000. An additional $5,000 in fellowship money will be dispersed, at the discretion of the jury, to one or more finalists deemed worthy of special recognition. Awards will be presented in a ceremony held in New York City in early October.

For more information, and for application forms, check out http://www.smithfund.org/

Sex in the City: “Donna will teach you how to go behind closed doors and get access to moments of intimacy, with respect and understanding, and to appreciate the courage and conviction of men and woman who are pioneers in extending the boundaries of human sexuality through freedom and unselfishness.”

Naples, Italy: “The documentary driven workshop will be a week long groundbreaking radical event in its 24 hour intense focus as Donna with her students set out to discover together what makes the Naples one of the most awesomely terrifying cities in Europe. Be prepared. Doors will open for you and you will enter with your camera. Perhaps it will be a single parent family, perhaps a lost teenage girl, Perhaps a neighborhood gang of street punks, a night driver, There will be risky assignments – and there will be safer ones. Your choice. You will choose a door and that will be where you go each day for as long as it takes.”

Check out the 360 Degree Workshop site for more info.

Given the tough economic climate and the critical need for multimedia training, MediaStorm will be holding a one-time, tuition-free Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, in Brooklyn, NY from June 20-26, 2009.

The MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Workshops are designed for multimedia storytellers who want to get to the next level. It is not an introductory course. Students are responsible for their own travel, room and board. Reporters are expected to have a high level of competency with still photography, and be familiar with audio and video techniques. Editors are expected to be comfortable in Final Cut Pro.

We only have spots for 8 participants as Multimedia Reporters, Editors or Observers so we are expecting a competitive process. Applications are due no later than Friday, May 15, 2009. Participants will be selected based on the content of their applications. (click here for application form)

For more information, and to see work produced in previous workshops, see the Workshop site. If you have any questions, please email us at workshops@mediastorm.org.

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 13th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide.

We are excited to announce a special premier of our soon-to-be released documentary Driftless: Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier.

There will be a screening of the film, followed by Q&A with Danny and the team from MediaStorm, on Monday, May 18, at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Doors open at 7pm, the film will start at 8pm. Books and DVDs will be available for purchase, with signings both before and after the film.

For guaranteed seating, RSVP to rsvp@mediastorm.org.

About the Project:

Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature.  Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation’s economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America.  Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity.

The tension of contemporary rural life plays out here: the struggle of a family farm to continue, disenfranchised youth, slaughterhouse, migrant labor, and the aged fading from Iowa’s mythical landscape.  Through their stories we gain insight to a way of life that is disappearing, a culture that could be lost forever.

As “community” continues to be homogenized in zones of urban sprawl across the globe, we must consider all that we are losing—development should not come at the expense of more fragile communities.

(Note: This list is not meant to be dogmatic. I’ve broken all these rules. They’re offered as a suggested starting point.)

1. Don’t use dissolves between images. As a general principal, these are unnecessary.

2. Avoid excessive pans and other Ken Burns-style effects. Animation on stills is effective only when done sparingly. These techniques should be a surprise like an exclamation point in literature. And as Elmore Leonard teaches, “You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.” So let’s just say two still animation effects for every 10 minutes of your project. See Finding the Way Home for an example of just how few image moves are actually used.

3. Give your images time to breathe. In multimedia, we have the power to determine how long viewers spend with each photograph. A good rule of thumb is to leave each photograph onscreen for at least two-and-a-half seconds. Three or four seconds is even better. Watch the opening sequence of Rape of a Nation for an example.

4. Show an identifying photograph or video of everyone who talks when they speak for the first time. Identify them with a name and title. It’s a courtesy to your viewers. See Never Coming Home for an example.

5. Use image sequences to transitions between ideas or themes. Think of image sequences as paragraph breaks between two big ideas. Sometimes these sequences need only be two photographs long, or on occasion even one will suffice. See the poaching sequence in Black Market for an example.

6. Work with your music. Allow your images to flow dynamically with the changes in your music. Cut on the beat. Cut against the beat. End your piece with the final sting of the music. Edit the music, cut it up, and make it an integral part of your project, not just background noise. See the funeral section of BLOODLINE.

7. Use music dynamically. Increase the volume during an image sequence; decrease during an interview. Your music should be thematic just as your photographs are. See Kingsley’s Crossing fro an example of how music weaves in an out of an interview.

8. Use one-second frame dissolves to smooth rough audio. It’s startling to hear how a one-second frame dissolve can save a clip that would otherwise end abruptly.

9. Use room tone between gaps in dialogue, even when using a musical bed. Without room tone, your audio will sound like someone dipping in and out of a cave.

10. Watch your production on speakers with someone who has not yet seen the piece. There’s something about reviewing your work with an audience that makes one more self-conscious and thus open to seeing new things.

Feel free to add your tips and tricks in the comments below.

Unlike other awards shows, The Webby Awards give the public an opportunity to decide who will take home a Webby. From now until April 30th, the public can cast its votes in The Webby People’s Voice Awards at http://pv.webbyawards.com.

Check out the other nominees and get your votes in (and of course, we’d love it if you voted for us!)

ONLINE FILM AND VIDEO ENTRIES:

Category: DOCUMENTARY: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE

• Intended Consequences
  MediaStorm

Category: NEWS & POLITICS: INDIVIDUAL EPISODE

• Bearing Witness

  Reuters/Produced by MediaStorm

Additionaly, another MediaStorm piece was named an Official Honoree

Category: BEST EDITING

• Common Ground

  MediaStorm

Time is running short to register for this year’s Kalish Workshop in visual editing. The deadline is May 15 and we have only eight spots left. We are in our twentieth year and have a great reputation industry wide.

This year only, for $500 you get five full days (June 12-14) of intense instruction in cross-platform visual storytelling from a faculty that includes Emmy winners Geri Migliecz and Brian Storm, as well as, visual editors who have worked on Pulitzer Prize winning projects, including Sue Morrow and Randy Cox. Other regulars on The Kalish faculty include Kenny Irby, John Rumbach, Mark Edelson and others. The core faculty has worked together on this program for many years and will be present during the week providing ample time to answer your questions.

This year’s workshop is sharply focused on multimedia storytelling and managing resources/visuals across platforms. The traditional Kalish values of ethical decision making in journalism and management remain. The workshop begins with a hands-on session in FinalCutPro, progresses through picture selection, multiple picture editing and news judgment, to multimedia and management.

The days are long and packed with real-life decision making exercises in visual storytelling. You will be expected to make difficult decisions about visual storytelling and then defend them in front of the group. We work hard and then we play hard. Please ask any Kalish alum about their experience with us, they are our best references.

The Kalish board, with the support of the National Press Photographers Foundation, has reduced fees this year to make the workshop affordable for individuals. Take this opportunity to invest in yourself. Email Scott Sines at sines@commercialappeal.com for details.

Scott Sines, managing editor
The Commercial Appeal
Director, The Kalish Workshop

———————————————————

The Kalish: June 12-16, 2009

WHO WILL BENEFIT? The workshop is targeted toward visual editors who are, or aspire to be, assigning editors, line editors and producers. Anyone with a substantial role in determining the visual report of their publication including, picture editing, multimedia and design will benefit from the workshop.

HOW MUCH? $500 total: $100 up front with your registration and the balance due when we confirm the final registration.

WHERE IS IT? The workshop is generously hosted by Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

MORE INFORMATION? Visit our website www.kalishworkshop.org or contact Scott Sines at 901-529-5843, or sines@commercialappeal.com

On April 7, 1994, the Rwandan genocide began, resulting in the deaths of between 800,000 and 1,000,000 men, women and children. During the 100 days of violence, Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence, perpetrated by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe. Among the survivors, those who are most isolated are the women who have borne children as a result of being raped. Their families have rejected both them and their children, compounding their already unimaginable emotional distress.

An estimated 20,000 children were conceived during the genocide in Rwanda, and many of their mothers contracted HIV during the same encounters that left them pregnant. They feel they have lost their dignity, are alone and utterly powerless.

Intended Consequences chronicles the lives of these women. Their narratives are embodied in portrait photographs, interviews and oral reflections.

The public service announcement was created to help raise awareness for Foundation Rwanda, which has been established to provide funding for the secondary school education for children born from rape of the 1994 genocide.

Watch the full story on MediaStorm.
Learn more about Foundation Rwanda.

Mulvany writes: “Now is not a time to be timid. Multimedia producers need to stand up and protect video storytelling at their newspapers. In order to stay competitive, publishers will have to refocus their efforts back on their online operations. Newspaper Web sites will not flourish if the content is just repurposed from their print products. Multimedia, in the form of Web-only video, audio slideshows, and photo galleries, is most successful when it is integrated with text. This powerful combination gives newspaper online viewers far more depth and context than they can get from any other media.”

This issue also includes several great columns, including 10 Tips for Dramatically Improving Your Videojournalism Stories, an interview with Lucy Nicholson about  One Man Brand (a piece she collaborated on at a MediaStorm workshop), and an article by Nicole Shea of the AARP Bulletin about Institutional Videojournalism- looking at how video is and can be used on organization and association websites, such as AARP.  There’s a lot to read in this issue, you won’t want to miss it!

The Workshop will be held from 10am-6pm on June 10, 2009, in Charlottesville, VA.  We hope to see you there!

What you will learn:

Narrative Storytelling
- Examples of successful projects
- Developing the best approach for creating effective multimedia stories
- Pros and cons of the various narrative approaches

Reporting Approach
- Using the best tools to get the story
- When to use a still camera, when to use audio and/or video
- Shooting for multimedia
- How to ask questions and get to the heart of the story
- Interview techniques

Post-Production
- Getting the most out of Final Cut Pro
- Effective organizing and digitizing techniques
- Integrating still images, audio and video in a multimedia project
- Common issues and how to resolve them

Teamwork
- Getting the most out of the reporter/editor relationship
- Common issues and how to resolve them

To register for the Workshop and get more information on LOOK3, please visit: http://www.look3.org/2009/workshops/MediaStorm.html

For those interested in multimedia training, the Multimedia Immersion Seminar is definitely worth checking out- our own Eric Maierson will be there as one of the coaches, along with some of the best in the industry. It will be “an intense, five-day, hands-on training experience for visual journalists looking to expand and grow their multimedia skillsets.”  You even get a discount on the Visual Journalism Workshops for attending either of the other two.  Don’t miss out!

If you’re in NYC between March 25 and April 19, you should plan a trip out to the powerHouse Arena (in DUMBO), to see the exhibition of images from Kristen Ashburn’s new book, I Am Because We Are.

“I AM BECAUSE WE ARE is a book that touches the heart. In photographing the grieving, devastated, still beautiful, children of Malawi, victims of the AIDS epidemic that has murdered their parents, Kristen Ashburn gives everyone on the planet the opportunity to come to the aid of those most bereaved and helpless in this world,” said Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple. “It is a rare gift she gives: for we know in our deepest emotions that without the world coming to the defense and care of these children, the least of these, there will be no world peace.”

I Am Because We Are is the companion volume to the acclaimed forthcoming documentary film directed by Nathan Rissman and written and produced by Madonna. This book of images by award-winning photojournalist Kristen Ashburn—culled from her work in Malawi and Africa over the past seven years as well as from her specially commissioned photographs for the film—provides an intimate look at the lives of eight Malawian children featured in the film and reveals the harsh reality of the AIDS pandemic throughout southern Africa.

Author proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the charity Raising Malawi for their extensive work with orphans throughout Malawi. For more information on Raising Malawi, please see www.raisingmalawi.org

“Imagine children as young as 6-years-old, running in and out of traffic on a 6-lane highway, trying to sell a piece of gum, wash a windshield, or juggle oranges for change. They lack education, suffer from malnutrition, and are surrounded by a world of danger and loneliness. Now imagine it is your job to tell the whole world who these children are. To breath light into an existence too few know about. That’s the critical role photographers working with non-profits and NGO’s play. It is exactly what you’ll be tasked with if you join our next Truth With A Camera workshop in Guadalajara, Mexico.

At over 5 million people, Mexico’s second largest city is one of the most modern in Mexico, though social inequity and urban poverty remain a constant and painful reality for the tens of thousands who have sunk desperately below an already subterranean poverty line. This is no vacation. During this intensive week, you will be working along side students from the University of Guadalajara, one of the largest and most respected public institutions of higher education in Mexico. After each full day of shooting, your evenings will be spent editing your work with some of the leaders in the field of documentary photography from America and Mexico. Your shared assignments, at one of our partnering NGOs, will offer you the chance to be both witness and advocate. A chance to build experience and make a difference – by donating your work to the NGO - at the same time.”

Truth With A Camera will be held May 23-31, 2009.
There are only 15 spots so you are encouraged to sign up early.
Please visit the site for more information and to register for this class.

Production Grants:

The Open Society Institute Documentary Photography Project and Arts and Culture Program announce a grant opportunity for documentary photographers from Central Asia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Pakistan. Approximately 20 grants in the amount of $3,500 each will be awarded to photographers to produce a discrete body of work on a current human rights or social justice issue in the region. Grantees will also be assigned an internationally recognized photographer as a mentor to work with in workshops at the beginning and end of the grant and throughout the grant term.

The aim of the Documentary Photography Project is to support creative work that uses photography as a means of critically exploring current social problems. The project priorities are to support photographers who address the following questions:

• How can photography support efforts to promote human rights and social justice?
• How can photographers develop effective partnerships with organizations that work to promote social justice and human rights?
• Within the conditions of a particular national cultural space, how can documentary photographers develop innovative ways to exhibit work that addresses problems related to the creation of open societies?

For more information, see Production Grants: Guidelines

Distribution Grants:

Traditional media offer limited opportunities for presenting documentary photographs in a way that creates a meaningful and lasting impact on the communities or issues addressed in the images. The Open Society Institute’s Documentary Photography Project is offering a grant to documentary photographers who have already completed a significant body of work on issues of social justice to collaborate with a partner organization and propose new ways of using photography as a tool for positive social change.

All photographers must have another entity (such as a nonprofit, NGO, or community-based organization) that will work with the photographer to design an innovative distribution strategy that targets specific communities and advocates for social change. The partner must engage with the photographer to accomplish these goals-and not just fund or publish the project.

Grants of $5,000 to $30,000 will be awarded.

For more information, see Distribution Grants: Guidelines

Of covering the story with detective Robert Kole, Suau says:

“I was on edge each time we approached a home over the next day and a half I rode with him – I always wondered what emotion we would find next. Between evictions he took me to streets on which every home was closed as a result of foreclosures. I worked the streets of crack houses and boarded up complexes as he stood closely by. “Don’t even think of coming here on your own,” he told me as we pulled away.”

Lots of other great content in this month’s issue, make sure to check it out when you get a chance!

Torgovnik’s book, Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape will be released on April 7, 2009, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of the start of the genocide.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can view the full multimedia piece here, and get more information on the project at http://www.foundationrwanda.org/.

About the Project: 3.5 billion people live in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals. With good governance the exploitation of these resources can generate large revenues to foster growth and reduce poverty. However when governance is weak, it may result in poverty, corruption, and conflict. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) aims to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. The EITI sets a global standard for companies to publish what they pay and for governments to disclose what they receive.

For more than 25 years Bob Sacha was a prize winning photojournalist constantly traveling the world on assignment for National Geographic, Life and other magazines. Then in January 2008, he joined the award winning multimedia production studio MediaStorm. His first assignment started with an email from Brian Storm: ” I have a big project for you to start with working with Reuters to create a five year anniversary project on Iraq. I think it’s going to be a really important project that will get quite a bit of attention when it comes out…..”

A little more than 2 months later, Reuters: Bearing Witness: 5 years of the Iraq War was launched.

Hear the story of how that email started the journey that ended in the multiple award winning website -http://iraq.reuters.com/

MARCH 10, 2009 
6:30 - 9:00 pm
Laura Parsons Pratt Conference Center
281 Park Avenue South, NYC 
(at 22nd Street, steps from the 23rd Street East Side subway station)

Admission:  ASPP Members $10.00, Non-members $15.00
Free to New Members Joining at the Door

Light food and beverages served after the presentation
Space is limited. 
Please rsvp by Monday March 9th.

Tim Hussin is an award-winning photographer and a recent graduate in journalism from the University of Florida.  He was named 2008 College Photographer of the Year and will intern at National Geographic in Fall 2009.  Hussin has interned at the Monroe Evening News, Deseret News and Rocky Mountain News.  He was a student at the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2008 where he was awarded an assignment at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.

We will also be seeking fall interns.  If you’re interested in applying, you can get more information here.  The application deadline is May 1.

Kevin writes:

“While the onboard mic performs as advertised, I found it to be serviceable at best. Consisting of just 3 tiny pinholes on the front of the camera body, the mic doesn’t have the greatest pickup distance or quality. It is capable of picking up general ambience and voices, but it also picks up a fair amount of handling noise, which can mar an otherwise suitable recording. So, if you’re recording video clips with the goal of having them heard as well, then an add-on mic is a must.”

They did multiple testings with several mics, and you can listen to the results at the bottom of the article.  While some of the options might seem a little impractical and unwieldy, if you’re serious about using a 5D Mk II for video/audio, you should seriously consider these options.  Even if you don’t have the camera and just record audio separately, the article is worth a read, as it provides a lot of information about different types of microphones.

Anthony Suau, USA, for Time

Congratulations to Anthony Suau, the 2008 World Press Photo of the Year winner for his image of an armed officer of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department moving through a home in Cleveland, Ohio, following eviction as a result of mortgage foreclosure.

Jury chair MaryAnne Golon commented: “The strength of the picture is in its opposites. It’s a double entendre. It looks like a classic conflict photograph, but it is simply the eviction of people from a house following foreclosure. Now war in its classic sense is coming into people’s houses because they can’t pay their mortgages.”  (you can watch MaryAnne talk about the photo here)

You can see the rest of the winners in either a gallery or a list.  There’s some amazing work in here from around the world, definitely worth checking out.  Congratulations to all of the winners!

This is a nice concept for an online publication (and not just because it features one of our projects this month).  It’s a great compilation of totally different, but all interesting stories. Makes for some great Friday afternoon reading!