kick-start

After much thought I am starting back up again.

Until newspapers are able to answer some vital questions about their purpose as news gathering organizations or how they will fit into the future, it doesn't do me much good to write, review and think about multimedia.

So with that in mind I offer up Ryan Sholin's 10 obvious things about the future of newspapers you need to get through your head
and its folo One Year Later.

The basic outline is:
1. It’s not Google’s fault. Get over it, professor.
2. It’s not Craig’s fault.
3. Your major metro newspaper could probably use some staff cuts.
4. It’s time to stop handwringing and start training.
5. You don’t get to charge people for archives and you certainly don’t want to charge people for daily news content. Pulling your copy behind walls where it can’t be seen by readers on the wider Web. Search rules. Don’t hide from it.
6. Reporters need to do more than write. The new world calls for a new skillset, and you and Mr. Notebook need to make some new friends, like Mr. Microphone and Mr. Point & Shoot.
7. Bloggers aren’t an uneducated lynch mob unconcerned by facts.
8. You ignore new delivery systems at your own peril. RSS, SMS, iPhone, e-paper, Blackberry, widgets, podcasts, vlogs, Facebook, Twitter — these aren’t the competition, these are your new carriers.
9. J-schools can either play a critical role in training the next generation of journalists, or they can fade into irrelevancy.
10. Okay, here comes the big one: THE GLASS IS HALF FULL. There is excellent work being done in the new world of online journalism and it’s being done at newspapers like the Washington Post and the Lawrence Journal-World and the San Jose Mercury News and the St. Petersburg Times and the Bakersfield Californian and all sorts of papers of all sizes.

By all means read the post and the folo.

The central element to all of this is that the web is moving forward faster than papers are able to understand or are willing to address.

So, how will we move forward as new gathering orgainzations recognizing the list and how management is approaching the future?

Video at TBC

It is a new world at The Bakersfield Californian. In a recent reorganization, video has been folded into the now 'visual' team. What is funny is that way back when, when I was a fellow at Poynter, they divided us up into the 'visuals' and the 'verbals.'

Anyway, trip down history lane aside, we have launched a Brightcove player and are stoked with the new video love.

Check us out!

new year

Happy New Year!

In 2007 The Bakersfield Californian went over the 1 million videos viewed mark, just under the wire in December. The actual number is something like 1.12 million, but let us not pick nits.

So, in recognition of this and because we like to have fun, we presented the Top 10 videos as viewed by our readers/viewers and our staff picks for 2007.

It is an interesting contrast between what got hits versus what we liked or thought was good video.

Let me know what you think.

in god we fuss

It’s a done deal.

With some fanfare and much confusion, the Kern High School District board of trustees finally voted to post a medley of our founding documents including the constitution, bill of rights, declaration of independence and our old and new mottos: "e pluribus unum and in god we trust."

So, how does a newspaper go about covering these stories with video, more often than not, on deadline?

Last night, the vote was finally held.

This entire saga started out when a pastor on the board brought up the idea to post the national motto on a poster with an American flag behind it. Needless to say, folks came out of the woods to debate the proposal. We called the first salvo, "in god we fuss."

Then there was a public forum/debate of sorts that one of our AMEs participated in.

And then last night…

Setting aside the political chicanery, dubious arguments, hair rending and gnashing of teeth, the pictures of democracy in action emerged. It is messy, and unless leaders work very diligently and hard to moderate the proceedings, both sides can emerge feeling bruised.

Shooting on tape slowed us down on the second night. We used out point and shoot Casios on the first and third nights, and supplemented all three with stills. Used Windowsmoviemaker for 1st and 3rd and Final Cut Pro for the second. We also learned NOT to let our writers use the camera/files to get their quotes until AFTER we pulled the files into our editing programs (cuts down on time.)

As always, your feedback and thoughts are welcome.

Links to stories…

Story #1

Story #2

ken burns and his effect

Today I found out that our most popular video this week has been a 'video' about an attempted carjacking that was not actually shot on video, but instead were stills assembled in Final Cut Pro. There is some debate as to why the 'video' is so popular, including if the word carjacking caught people’s attention, if it was a good story, if the video worked well despite a disconnect between the audio and visuals.

Secondly, I offer up a soundslides pro project that we did the 'old fashioned way,' called 'No Place To Heal.'

I would make the argument that the Ken Burns effect has its place in both still and video, that being said, I think it can be overused. The trick is finding that fine line, utilizing movement when needed and not becoming a 'one trick pony.'

I am not arguing that either of these are successful, well, I think 'No Place' is much stronger, there are some problems…but for a shoot in one day, grab some audio and put together a solid daily piece it works very well.

daily video

Part of my new job is the editing of daily video.

I won't bore you with trial details, and the first minute or so if a recap; but the second half of the video is where I get to do something fun.

Usually daily court video is a dull voice over with grainy video, medium shots and some stills thrown in when we have them, and yes, that is the first part of this. I edited this with the idea that the audience either does not remember all the details, has not followed the case or this is their first time learning about the trial.

Then I get into what I call dueling lawyers or what our web video guy calls a 'quote train.'

The basic and essential idea is to move the narrative forward with tight audio clips that inform and play off of each other. Generally in video, you use 'B roll' to hide your cuts in the narrative interview so that it does not appear that you have edited the audio. Here the quick cuts help move things along in what is otherwise a fairly static video.

For those of you not yet into video, 'B roll' is all that stuff, detail shots, action shots, long shots, essentially the cutaway shots that help keep video interesting. It is all that boring stuff TV shoots to put on the box when the talent is talking.

Yes, the quality of the video capture is not great, yes, it was assembled on Windows Movie Maker, and yes, there are some other issues, but for an on deadline web piece it works surprisingly well.

Next up will be the Ken Burns effect in Final Cut Pro and Soundslides Plus.

operation first casualty

Sorry for the delay…

I have been meaning to blog about this video for a while.

I am not sure if it was the mood I was in that day or a great video, but I really like the Iraqi Veterans Against the War's Operation First Casualty video.

The surreal aspect of these guys patrolling the streets of America really brought home the futility of war and the sacrifices soldiers make on our behalf. There are a number of strong storytelling aspects to this video, including a strong narrative through interviews, there is a little 'shaky cam' action but it is shot fairly cleanly.

I can vouch that the way they hold their hands is often how they do 'glass house' drills and is authentic. Some of the soldiers talk about how reenacting these moments helps them.

Check it out; let me know what you think. Check them out too.