The MediaStorm Workshops: Five

About the Workshop

During the week of September 19-25, 2009, we brought 6 talented professionals together to collaborate with the MediaStorm team at the fifth MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop. The participating photographers and editors explored New York City as they documented their stories and refined their audio, video, photography, and editing skills.

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

Family Kocktail by Deanne Fitzmaurice, Stan Alcorn and Doug Grant

Kryssy Kocktail always dreamed of leaving her troubled family to join the circus. Now she eats fire and sits on an electric chair as a performer at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. She also realized her dream of being part of a family. See the project.

The Art of Attraction by Paolo Black, Melissa Pracht and Scott Lituchy

The New York Post called them "The Best Buskers in New York City." Street artist twins Tic and Tac perform their acrobatics in The Art of Attraction. See the project.

Behind the Scenes by Maisie Crow

MediaStorm intern Maisie Crow takes us behind the scenes of the MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop, to see six participants join the MediaStorm team to conceive, report, and produce two multimedia stories over the course of a week. See the project.

Participant Biographies

Stan Alcorn is the web editor/producer for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism dedicated to informed, innovative and ethical news reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. He commisions, edits, writes, produces, shoots or is otherwise responsible for all content on the Dart Center website, including the multimedia gallery, Dart Media. He has also written, edited and shot video for publications including the Orange County Register, The Nation magazine and Chinese web portal Netease.


	"Before I came to the MediaStorm workshop, I didn't know how much I had to learn, or how much I could learn in a single week. I expected technique tips and tricks; I expected a window into the MediaStorm workflow. I didn't expect lucid lessons synthesizing technique with journalistic storytelling; I didn't expect MediaStorm producers showing up early after yet another late night to set up for yet another long day of focused, hands-on teaching-by-doing. And I didn't expect this combination of theory and practice (mostly practice) to so thoroughly change how I looked at not only "multimedia" but storytelling in general. As Brian warned us early on, after the workshop, you can't go back to who you were before. That is definitely a good thing." - Stan Alcorn

Paolo Black is Head of Visual Communications at Shell International, working out of Shell's Headquarters in The Hague. Paolo is a multimedia professional, taking photographs and shooting video for a wide range of Shell frontier developments, from Russia's former penal colony of Sakhalin at minus 25 to the Gas to Liquids project in Qatar where it was 40+. Paolo has had a long career in visual journalism - from producing and directing at BBC Television to doumentary making. View Paolo's award winning documentary, a Winger and a Prayer here. Paolo has been nominated Reporter of The Year in Australia, and was shortlisted for the Moran Photographic Portrait Prize.


	"I have just been given the most wonderful opportunity to become - for just seven days - part of a far-sighted and committed multimedia workshop with MediaStorm producers. Their creativity and enthusiasm are an inspiration. Their compelling vision in anticipating the global changes in multimedia storytelling put them at the forefront of their craft. Their high quality product is thought-provoking independent journalism at its best. I'm very grateful to have worked among them, however briefly, and I will bring much learning back to my own multimedia storytelling. Oh...by the way...it was seriously great fun." - Paolo Black

Deanne Fitzmaurice is a Pulitzer Prize winning freelance photographer based in San Francisco. Her work has been published in national publications including Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the NY Times Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. While a staff photographer at the San Francisco Chronicle, she won the prestigious Casey Medal and the Associated Press's Mark Twain Award, in addition to awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, National Press Photographers Association, Best of Photojournalism, Pictures of the Year International, California Press Photographers Association, Atlanta Photojournalism Competition. Deanne was a finalist in 2005 for UNICEF's "Photo of the Year" award. Her work has been shown at Visa pour L'Image in Perpignan, France, the largest international photojournalism festival. She also has been a contract photographer for the best-selling Day in the Life books.

Deanne won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for a photo essay about a 9-year-old Iraqi boy, who was nearly killed by an explosion, and his courageous battle as doctors in California tried to mend his wounds as he adapted to life in America.

In 2005, she and her husband, Kurt Rogers, co-founded the camera bag company, Think Tank Photo. In 2007, Deanne was named one of Microsoft's prestigious Icons of Imaging. In 2006, she was selected to serve as a committee member for the NPPA Best of Photojournalism international contest.


	"The quality of the work MediaStorm is producing sets the bar high for multimedia storytelling so it was great to work side by side with producers, Eric and Brian to understand the thought process and the possibilities that goes into one of these stories. At MediaStorm, integrity and journalistic ethics are paramount as they let the story reveal itself. It became clear that their guiding principals are that the story is truthful and also fair to the subject. The workshop has given me the confidence to handle any multimedia assignment that comes my way." - Deanne Fitzmaurice

Doug Grant is Managing Partner of Brandtrust. When Daryl Travis approached Doug about creating a different kind of branding company, Doug was immediately inspired. "I was tired of the way the advertising industry had lost sight of the connection between brands and people," Doug said. Since then, he has dedicated his professional life to helping Brandtrust clients gain a deeper understanding of their customers and inspire fresh thinking among their employees.

To this day, Doug maintains that Brandtrust is the only company of its kind in the brand consulting space. "I've seen companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on strategic consulting, and they'll walk away with a huge PowerPoint deck or set of binders that doesn't effectively direct them on how to proceed," says Doug. "We're different in that we bring our clients a deeper understanding of their customers. We look at the principles and patterns of what's worked for them in the past and show them how they can build on that to move ahead towards a deeper emotional connection with their customers."

As Managing Partner of Brandtrust, Doug has led teams to develop breakthrough strategies for brands such as Nestlé, Coke, General Mills, Hewlett-Packard, Quaker Oats and Harley-Davidson.

In addition to a passionate dedication to photography, Doug likes to spend his time outside of work running marathons, cycling, reading voraciously and hanging out with his son, Reilly.


	"The MediaStorm workshop was amazing. They take you through every step of the process in such a way that you come away from the experience with both an incredible understanding of how to bring stories to life and a desire to put the knowledge into action as quickly as possible. It was a grueling week, but I've come away feeling both confident in my abilities and inspired at the potential. I'd do it again in a heart beat!" - Doug Grant

Scott Lituchy is at heart a photojournalist. Twenty years ago (back when people souped tri-X by hand) he began his career in newspaper photography at The Jersey Journal. A move to The Star-Ledger in 1994 brought new opportunities: color photography, digital photography, and finally videojournalism.

Life was good. He was telling stories, making an impact, being creative and having fun.

Then the newspaper industry started teetering, and the economy tanked.

Seeing the opportunity to try start a new adventure, he left the newspaper world and took a job as a Multimedia Producer at West Virginia University, where he shoots video and photos, and puts together video and multimedia pieces that appear on YouTube and on the University's websites.

Taking what he learned as a photojournalist and as a videojournalist, he approaches his new job with the sensibility of a storyteller who wants to explore, be creative and deliver meaningful narrative.


	"The MediaStorm workshop is great in many ways. First, Brian, Bob and Eric teach the nuts and bolts of multimedia: story structure, interviewing, audio, lighting, shooting, and editing. Working side-by-side with these dedicated storytellers brings the lessons to life. Without a doubt, their skills and passion for multimedia is an inspiration. You walk away with the feeling that you now have the tools and motivation to go out and tell important stories that people will want to see. The workshop changed me as a storyteller. I'm looking forward to getting out there and seeing what I can do." - Scott Lituchy

Melissa Pracht worked in print and online news journalism for nearly 10 years before she joined the communications department at Doctors Without Borders/Mèdecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in New York City in 2006. At MSF, she manages the Frontline Reports Podcast; edits Alert, MSF-USA's quarterly print magazine; and creates multimedia content.

Highlights of her career so far have been traveling this year with MSF to South Africa to interview some of the countless Zimbabweans who have sought shelter there, only to find even more suffering once they arrived; and a 2004 trip to Cuba with another humanitarian aid group where she traversed the island and interviewed everyone from revolutionary veterans to photographers to members of the national deaf and blind association.


	"In one action-packed week, our team learned and put into practice the MediaStorm approach to multimedia. The ability to hear and discuss the thought behind the approach as well as the hands-on experience of putting a project together, soup to nuts, was invaluable. The workshop delivered exactly what I need for my work as a multimedia editor: a solid foundation on which to build my organization's multimedia growth." - Melissa Pracht

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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