The MediaStorm Workshops: One

About the Workshop

During the week of June 20-26, 2009, we brought 8 talented professionals together to collaborate with the MediaStorm team at the fourth MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop. This was a special workshop for us — given the tough economic climate and the critical need for multimedia training, we decided to hold a one-time, tuition-free Workshop, and we were thrilled and inspired at the number of people who put the time into applying for this opportunity.

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 neighborhood and a handful of residents stand in the way. See the project.

A Tail of Identity by Toni Greaves, Jeff Davis, Steve Rowland, 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 project.

Participant Biographies

Zachary Barr learned radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. After finishing the semester-long workshop at Salt, he moved to NYC and interned at Dave Isay's Sound Portraits Productions. Isay started StoryCorps in 2003; before that, he made beautiful audio stories for broadcast on NPR. While living in NY, Barr worked on a project about families of American soldiers killed in Iraq. Some of these interviews turned into "Never Coming Home" on MediaStorm. After three years at Sound Portraits / StoryCorps, he moved to Denver where he's a reporter and show producer at Colorado Public Radio. Barr's work has been on NPR, Slate, The New York Times, Living On Earth, Marketplace, and other outlets.


	"I work in radio but knew next to nothing about photography and video. No more! The MediaStorm workshop taught me how to take good pictures, and more importantly how to put it all together into one story. It was a chance to do the kind of work we so often wish we were doing: working without distractions, collaboratively with super talented people, all the while guided by dedicated, talented teachers." - Zachary Barr

Nacho Corbella is a hard-working and dedicated award winning Multimedia Producer with 4 years of teaching experience and 5 years of content gathering and editing for Multimedia, Print and Television productions. Passionate about storytelling, graphic design, photography, audio and video production. Nowadays he is pursuing his M.A. degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, while on a leave of absence from Universidad de los Andes, where he teaches Multimedia Narratives, Photojournalism and Infographics at the Journalism School. There, he has worked together with Rich Beckman to produce multiple award winning documentaries.


	"It was a privilege to work with such talented professionals. The workshop provided us room to play and explore our expertise in an ideal learning environment. It's always refreshing having reinforced the fact that the story is the most important thing, especially in a media world plagued by the necessity of getting content done under pressure in which sometimes the story itself is not explored deeply but just superficially in order to get the content up. Here, we had that pressure too, but it was about finding the elements to make that story better and not just about fulfilling a deadline. In few words, it was freakin' awesome!" - Nacho Corbella

Jeff Davis has worked with a broad range of local and international non-profit organizations as a documentary photographer and media producer. In addition to leading these projects, he served as Co-Executive Producer for "Art Wolfe's Travels To The Edge," an award winning, 26-part television Series that is broadcast on public television stations throughout the United States and portions of Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. "Travels To The Edge" maintains an uplifting focus on travel, wildlife, raw wilderness, remote cultures, and critical environmental themes. The show reaches an audience of more than one million people each week.

Jeff is currently producing TV and web-based documentary and advocacy-oriented multimedia projects to support awareness and expand funding for a highly successful treatment (RUTFs) that is now possible for malnourished children in sub-Sahara Africa. To launch this project, Jeff spent six weeks in January, February, and March of 2009 (the core of "Hunger Season") traveling with medical relief teams to produce still imagery and HD video footage in rural Malawi — a "hot spot" for this crisis.

Jeff's professional experience includes marketing, consulting, and management roles with I.B.M., Apple Computer, LucasFilm, and P.B.S. and a passionate and successful tenure as CEO for a 150-year-old, thriving, non-profit — Edgewood.

Jeff is an active member of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS). His formal education includes a Bachelor's degree from Stanford and a Master's Degree from Harvard.


	"A new team, an evolving story, tight deadlines, unpredictable weather, collaborative opportunities, studio lectures, on-the-go instruction, creative expression, and exposure to MediaStorm's unique approach to production came together to create an immersive, exhausting, and highly valued experience. The workshop format allowed each member of our team to contribute, explore new professional roles, experiment, and learn a ton while driving toward a finished, compelling story. As expected, there were moments of uncertainty, insight, comedy, tension, focus, disappointment, and encouragement along the way. Participating in this process from start to finish was awesome. I left the workshop with new goals for my professional development and a stronger sense for the challenge, tools, structure, and power of multimedia storytelling." - Jeff Davis

Toni Greaves is a documentary, editorial and portrait photographer with a passion for storytelling. Born and raised in Australia, Toni has lived in the United Kingdom and the USA, and is widely traveled. She has an extensive background in design, having worked for over a decade as an Art Director & Creative Director in both the USA and Europe. Her creative career now spans five continents.

Toni was recently named one of the "30 Emerging Photographers to Watch" by PDN magazine, and her work is soon to appear in the 25th anniversary edition of the American Photography annual, along with the Communication Arts Photography Annual. She has been awarded a New York Times Scholarship for her photojournalism work, was a finalist at the New York Photo Awards, and she was the recipient of a fellowship by the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, among many other national and international awards. She has served as a visiting artist and guest lecturer at universities in London and the USA.

Her photographic clients include The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The FADER, Sports Illustrated, and The New Jersey Star Ledger. Her work has been exhibited in New York, London and China and is held in numerous private collections.

She holds a Masters degree in Visual Communication Design, and is a graduate of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography, in New York City. She also holds degrees in both Graphic Design and Journalism.

Toni has a photographic reputation for "seeing beyond" what is immediately apparent in a situation in order to tell a deeper and more emotive visual story. Her personal projects typically involve spiritually and ritual, often focusing on the belief systems that shape an individuals sense of identity, connecting them to their place in the world.

She's based in the Pacific Northwest but frequently in New York City, and is available for assignments worldwide.


	"I'm very grateful for the MediaStorm team holding such an amazing workshop. It's really the pinnacle of the multimedia world to be able to work with these guys, and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to do just that. The workshop has elevated my sense of storytelling, further opened my editing eyes, and inspired me to reach even further in this medium. Also, Brian's insight into stories, and his editing skills are epic and inspiring. He could charge an admission price for that alone, but instead with the workshop you get to witness that, while being a part of the whole MediaStorm team in action." - Toni Greaves

Jeff Hutchens was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1978. The son of an American diplomat, he spent his childhood throughout the U.S. and across China, South Africa, and the Philippines. Jeff has shot professionally on six continents, where he's faced grizzly bears, lava floes, Komodo Dragons, and all manner of corrupt officials. From work on the surreality of life in China, to documenting underground epidemics in the jungles of central Africa, and photographing polar bears in the Arctic Circle, he captures images that convey transcendent moods and subtle beauty. Jeff was recognized as one of "PDN's 30" (2009) and has won multiple awards in the World Press Photo competition, National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Best Of Photojournalism competition, Pictures Of The Year (POYi) and Communication Arts (CA). Jeff is represented by Reportage by Getty Images and Orchard Represents and lives in Washington, D.C. when not on assignment.


	"The absolute highlight of the week was working with both the fantastic folks at MediaStorm and the high-caliber of participants they brought in. One of the most surprising but effective techniques I'll take home was the emphasis on the radio edit as the primary backbone of the story. It's a shift in perspective when you come from a primarily visual background, but an extremely powerful one." - Jeff Hutchens

Steve Rowland has worked in public broadcasting for nearly 25 years. He has worked as a jazz club manager, a late night jazz radio host, a radio station music director and oral historian. He is one of the most accomplished music documentarians in the United States. Rowland has produced over 50 hours of radio documentary work since 1987. All of his projects are based on extensive oral histories. His most recent work is the 11-hour documentary "Leonard Bernstein: An American Life" which is narrated by Susan Sarandon. It is based on over 100 exclusive interviews Rowland conducted with colleagues of Bernstein.

He also created the acclaimed 8-hour "Miles Davis Radio Project", hosted by Danny Glover, a 5 hour documentary on John Coltrane called "Tell Me How Long Trane's Been Gone" and individual documentaries on a number of American icons, including: "Carlos Santana: Music for Life", hosted by Edward James Olmos; "Patti LaBelle: Gospel into Soul", hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, "Frank Zappa: American Composer", hosted by Beverly D'Angelo, and "Hip-Hop 101: On the Road with the Roots", hosted by Chuck D. His work is in the permanent collections of The Library of Congress and the Museum of Television and Radio.

He has won nearly every award in radio including a Peabody, a Prix Italia, an Oral History Association top honor, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Prix Italia, Armstrong, Ohio State, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and many others. His work has been funded by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and several national foundations.

Rowland places particular emphasis on training others. He is on the faculty of Columbia University's new Master's Program in Oral History, has been a regular instructor at Columbia University's Summer Institute in Oral History, at Philadelphia's Scribe Video Center, at Philadelphia's University of the Arts, at St. Mary's College in Maryland, at Arcadia University and at CUNY's United Nations Oral History Research Project. He has lectured at Princeton, Syracuse University's Newhouse School, Columbia University, Arcadia University, University of Pennsylvania, and at dozens of radio stations nationwide. In addition, Rowland was the Mentoring Coordinator for The Association of Independents in Radio for over 8 years.

He has worked as a consultant to The Library of Congress, Music Division; the Columbia University Oral History Research Center; the Association of Oral Historians; Studer Editech Corporation; Roland USA, Pro Audio Division; HHB Professional Audio Products, The Philadelphia Folklore Project, the Atwater Kent Museum and many others.

Rowland holds an undergraduate degree in ethnomusicology and film production from Temple University and received an MBA from Columbia University in 2001.


	"We are all facing a changing world. A world that is losing traditional journalism at a time when it may be needed more than ever before. The challenges facing any photographer, radio producer, print journalist or documentary makers are enormous. Each of us is expected to know how do it all. We also have to find ways to survive as newspapers fold and government and foundation support for the arts is drying up. Enter MediaStorm. Brian Storm is a master multi-media producer, and he is committed to sharing his knowledge and helping others face these big transitions. A week of very long days working intensively with Brian, producer Bob Sacha, and 3 other wonderful workshop participants was tremendous. It was eye-opening to see the MediaStorm approach. Find the story. Keep yourself organized. Work your butt off. Be compassionate. See the humanity in all people. The story is key and every element added must have a purpose. As a radio producer I was delighted to see that my experience is directly relevant. I learned non-stop, and about each and every aspect of the process. MediaStorm is leading us into the next decade of journalism. These workshops and MediaStorm's commitment to sharing will ensure that the we have producers ready to comment on our changing world, both its perils and its joys. Excellence, commitment, vision and hard work will never go out of style." - Steve Rowland

Uma Sanghvi graduated from Stanford University in 1999 and completed her M.A. from Ohio University in visual communication. After internships with the San Jose Mercury News and The San Diego Union-Tribune, Uma joined the photography staff of The Palm Beach Post in 2003. In 2005 Uma was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to spend a year on a photo documentary project in Mauritius, Africa. Her work has been recognized by The National Press Photographers Association, the Southern Short Course in News Photography, Cox Newspapers, the Society of Professional Journalists and others. In 2008 Uma left the Palm Beach Post to pursue a career in multimedia editing.


	"The team of MediaStorm producers were fantastic teachers - energetic, patient and thoughtful 'coaches' who tirelessly led our teams in story development, reporting and editing. I hadn't thought about story structure in such a rigorous way until this workshop. What I learned about editing and pacing will change the way I edit from now on. It is a truly ideal situation - small teams of creative people with different kinds of expertise collaborating together to produce a high-quality multimedia product. This is the model our industry needs to be working towards now. What a joy to experience it in the field. I also learned from my fellow team members; being around talented, smart and driven people is a treat. All in all this was an invaluable opportunity for me not only to develop my skills - but more importantly I left the workshop re-energized and newly inspired to produce better and better work. Plus, it was just a lot of fun!" - Uma Sanghvi

Gregory Warner is an independent public radio reporter and multimedia producer. His stories from Afghanistan and elsewhere have aired on This American Life, Radiolab, and other public radio programs. He has produced multimedia stories for Global Post and POV Borders. His work won a 2008 Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Feature Reporting from the Society for Professional Journalists. He lives in New York.


	"The advanced multimedia workshop forced me to reevaluate my workflow from the ground up. Enjoyable, intense, and much more useful than the typical sit-on-your-ass-and-listen workshop." - Gregory Warner

Learn more about The MediaStorm Workshops.




The MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Workshops are sponsored by:



If you are interested in sponsoring our workshops, please contact us at: sponsorship@mediastorm.org

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