© Star Tribune – Republished with Permission. This video appeared on StarTribune.com on December 31, 2011.

Video by: McKenna Ewen
Photography by: Jerry Holt

© Star Tribune – Republished with Permission. This video originally appeared on StarTribune.com on June 15, 2011.

© Star Tribune – Republished with Permission. This video originally appeared on StarTribune.com on August 11, 2011.

All work © StarTribune.

Quarterback Brett Favre celebrated after throwing a 23-yard touchdown pass to Percy Harvin at TCF Bank Stadium.

Quarterback Brett Favre threw a pass under pressure from Lions linebacker Ashlee Palmer.

Safety Donte Whitner intercepted a pass intended for Sidney Rice. Jackson threw three INTs in the game.

Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick fumbled a snap on the Vikings' one-yard line. Linebacker Ben Leber recovered the ball.

Brett Favre ran onto the field to play the Green Bay Packers at the Metrodome.

Albert Young tackled by safety David Bruton.

Quarterbacks Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers after the Green Bay Packers' 31-3 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

Broncos wide receiver Alric Arnett caught a 14- yard touchdown pass over cornerback Marcus Sherels.

Adrian Peterson pulled a Miami linebacker in the second quarter. Peterson ran for one TD and 145 yards.

Running back Adrian Peterson handed the ball to a lucky fan after a touchdown run.

Quarterback Brett Favre recovered a high snap in the final game of his 20-year career.

Brett Favre grimaced after taking a hard hit from Arthur Moats and left the game with a shoulder injury.

Randy Moss returned to the Metrodome for his first home game with the Vikings since leaving the team in 2004.

Brad Childress unsuccessfully challenged a Green Bay touchdown. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf fired Childress shortly after the game.

Vikings ownership fired Brad Childress and named Leslie Frazier interim head coach.

The Metrodome's roof collapsed after a winter storm swept through the Twin Cities.

Brett Favre celebrated after throwing the final touchdown pass of his 20-year career.

The Vikings introduced John Randle as one of the team's 50 greatest players during halftime at TCF Bank Stadium.

Wide receiver Johnny Knox caught a 67-yard touchdown pass over Madieu Williams.

Wide receiver Devin Aromashodu celebrated the Chicago Bears' 40-14 victory over Minnesota Vikings 40-14.

Brett Favre walked off the field after playing the final game of his 20-year career.

Video © Star Tribune

Danfung Dennis previewed his latest project, “Battle for Hearts and Minds,” which he shot with a Canon 5D while embedded with a combat unit in Afghanistan. Dennis, a still photographer who worked in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2006, said he couldn’t “get across the seriousness and the complexity of [military] stories with stills.” As a result, he moved into video journalism.

Dennis said DSLR video has allowed him to transfer the intimacy and astetics of still photography into videography to produce documentary films in a very cinematic way. In Afghanistan, he used a Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70 f/2.8, Sennheiser ME-66, G2 wireless system, Singh-Ray variable ND filter and Beachtek 2XAs (discontinued – now using a JuicedLink adapter) mounted on a Glidecam 2000 HD. His focus was to have a light camera with very little gear separating him from his subjects.

“I’m trying to utilize new technology to shake people from their indifference. To be able to tell stories in a completely new way – in a way that makes people look at it and ask – is it real? And, when they realize it’s real, it hits them even harder.” – Danfung Dennis

Travis Fox is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur in New York City. He previously worked as a videojournalist at the Washington Post before starting Travis Fox Films, which produces video journalism and documentaries for outlets such as PBS Frontline.

During his latest project, Fox teamed up with NPR business reporter Adam Davidson to produce a documentary for PBS Frontline on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. It was impressive to see the collaboration between a former newspaper videographer and radio reporter to produce a television documentary.

Before Fox started using DSLRs for video, he primarily shot with video cameras, specifically the Sony Z1U. He switched once a few essential DSLR accessories became available. Fox said he still feels like he is using a video camera with his current Canon 7D rig. He uses a separate audio recorder (MAudio Microtek) to gather audio in the field. The recorder has a “line out” and a “head phone out” so he can record audio with the recorder and the camera at the same time. This allowed him to meet Frontline’s audio specifications because the JuicedLink adapter wouldn’t cut it. In addition, the separate audio helped bypass the 12-minute recording limit on the Canon 5D and 7D cameras and allowed for a continuous interview.

For his Haiti project, Fox shot about 100 hours of footage and synced the audio each night using Plural Eyes, which automatically synchronizes the audio and video clips. Then, he would re-export the interviews using the higher-quality audio files. Fox said the Plural Eyes software is about 95-100% accurate as long as you’re using the same audio source. If it doesn’t work, it is usually with ambient sounds that are tough to match up.



Rii Schroer works as a photographer and videographer for the Daily/Sunday Telegraph and The Times, UK. Schroer shoots daily still and video assignments. To do so, she emphasized the importance of planning ahead and thinking about story structure before you start an assignment. That makes it easier to gather all the pieces for a story and helps decided when to shoot stills versus video.

“If you go to a job, obviously you want to keep the story open. Don’t have too much of a preconceived idea in your head or you’ll miss the really lovely things… Expect the unexpected and try to go along with the story.”

As an example, Schroer showed the hilarious awesome snail racing video that she produced for The Times, U.K.

Schroer used to shoot stills and video with two separate cameras, but now she sets up both cameras for video just in case. She records her audio using a separate Mrantz audio recorder and a Rode video mic on the camera as a backup. She also recommended Joby’s GorillaPod for a steady, light-weight tripod to carry in the field.

“In video, you work toward the pictures,” Schroer said. “It’s a completely different way of thinking.” At the same time, there are a lot of still-photography skills that can transfer directly to video storytelling, such as composing images, using natural lighting, building rapport with sources, anticipating moments and sharing a passion for visual storytelling.

Similar to Dennis and Fox, Schroer expressed the importance of packing light. “My rule of thumb is to be as light as you can plus one,” she said, with the plus one being any lens or accessory that could help experiment with news ways to visually tell the story.

It was very helpful to see how the three panelists are using different products and workflows to produce video stories with DSLRs. If you’re interested in learning more about DSLR video, you can check out NAU professor and panel moderator Kurt Lancaster’s book here: DSLR Cinema: Crafting the Film Look with Video. In addition, if you have a DLSR workflow that has worked for you, please comment below and I’d love to hear your thoughts as well. Thanks!

After looking through the projects, I found some very impressive photographers, videographers and multimedia producers that I hadn’t discovered before. I posted a few Twitter handles at the end of each project to help follow some of their latest work. A lot of these projects involved large teams and I couldn’t mention everyone. Let me know if there’s anyone that I missed and I’ll add them to the list.

The first five entries were nominated in the “Current News Coverage” category. According to the entry requirements, the judges were looking for “creative and innovative approaches to the practice, presentation and delivery of news & documentary programming.” Enjoy!

1) Behind the Veil

Globe and Mail – A six-part multimedia series that talks with women from all walks of life about their lives in one of the most dangerous cities in Afghanistan.

Reporting by Jessica Leeder and photography by Paula Lerner. The multimedia producer was Jayson Taylor (@jaysontaylor) with design and development by Chris Manza.

2) Flipped

New York Times – How private equity dealmakers can win while their companies lose. A link to the story is available here.

Produced by Amy O’Leary (@amyoleary), Jigar Mehta (@jigarmehta), Krishnan Vasudevan (@kvasudevan), Zach Wise (@zlwise), Tom Jackson and others.

3) Times of Crisis

Reuters – In-depth multimedia charting the year of global upheaval following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. See how lives everywhere have changed as a divergent world embarks on a new era of historic uncertainty.

Produced by MediaStorm’s Brian Storm (@BrianStorm), Alba Mora Roca (@albamoraroca), Bob Sacha (@bobsacha), Tim Klimowicz, Jacky Myint (@jmyint) and Jason Burfield (@jburfield). Also produced by Reuters VP of Pictures Ayperi Karabuda Ecer and Head of Visual Projects Jassim Ahmad (@JassimA). Reuters is on Twitter at @reuterspictures.

4) Disabled in Vietnam

San Jose Mercury News – Disabled students in Vietnam find hope in an IT Training Program.

Produced by LiPo Ching.

5) Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope

Reuters, Red Cross and Media Storm – Combining imagery by Reuters photojournalists with eyewitness testimony and interactive graphics, Surviving the Tsunami reveals the strength of the human spirit in the face of catastrophe. These are stories of compassion and hope. The project marks the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Produced by MediaStorm’s Brian Storm (@BrianStorm), Eric Maierson (@gboy) and Tim Klimowicz. Also produced by Reuters VP of Pictures Ayperi Karabuda Ecer and Head of Visual Projects Jassim Ahmad (@JassimA). Reuters is on Twitter at @reuterspictures.

The next six projects were nominated in the documentary category. They’re all pretty awesome…

1) Alabama Homeboys

LA Times – For three years, L.A.’s Homeboy Industries, a nationally recognized gang intervention organization, has sent a select few of its members on an extraordinary pilgrimage to work with impoverished kids in Alabama Village, Prichard, Ala. Tucked away in the southwest corner of the state, the small community is rural, largely segregated, oppressed by violence and ignored by the surrounding community. Its young people have come to know their enclave as “Death Valley.”

The poverty of the children of Alabama Village is shocking — even for the Homeboys, who come from the tough inner-city streets of Los Angeles. But there is also much the Homeboys recognized; drug dealers, shootings, dead-end choices and the desperate situation of youth facing no way out.

It is in these children 2,000 miles away that the visitors from L.A.find their calling.

Produced by Katy Newton, Liz O Baylen, Sean Connelley, Mary Cooney and others. You can also follow @LATimesPhotos and @LATimesVideo on Twitter.

2) Driftless: Stories from Iowa

MediaStorm – The thriving Midwestern family farm is no longer, having been choked by industrialized agriculture and replanted with subdivisions. A shifting economy, combined with an old-fashioned lifestyle that doesn’t translate from generation to generation, is forever altering the landscape.

Carrying one camera and one lens, Danny Wilcox Frazier walks Iowa’s gravel roads, gets his feet wet in the milking barn, pulls up a stool in the small-town bar. Through black-and-white photographs, he makes a record of his own emotions as he travels through the state. What results is a complex portrait of a well-loved American landscape at a time of enormous cultural change.

Produced by Danny Wilcox Frazier, Brian Storm (@BrianStorm), Eric Maierson (@gboy), Taylor Gentry, Tim Klimowicz, Jessica Stuart (@jessstuart) and Tim Hussin (@timhussin).

3) Secret Life of Scientists

NOVA – Welcome to “The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers,” a web-only series that shows what happens when the lab coats come off. Meet intriguing scientists and engineers. Watch their videos. Ask them questions. Find out how their surprising secret lives fuel their work, and vice versa.

4) One in 8 Million

New York Times – New York is a city of characters. The Green Thumb, whose community garden in a Brooklyn housing project shows children that eggs don’t come from eggplant. The Dictaphone Doctor, last of a dying breed. The Jury Clerk, who says ‘Good morning’ 200 times a day, and means it. The Teenage Mother. The Singing Waitress. The Blind Wine-Taster. The Tabloid Photographer. The Iraq Veteran. The Walking Miracle.

Each week in 2009, The New York Times introduced such individuals in sound and images, inviting ordinary people to tell their extraordinary stories — their passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions.

Series produced by Sarah Kramer and Alexis Mainland (@lexinyt), photographs by Todd Heisler (@heislerphoto) and interactive development by Tom Jackson.

5) A Life Alone

Soul of Athens – Farmer, husband, father and now widower. For 63 years, Tom Rose and his wife, Mary, built a life together on his family farm on Canaanville Road. Then last year Mary passed away, leaving Rose to face the future alone, surrounded by a lifetime of memories. Impressive work by Maisie Crow.

6) Ted Kennedy: A Life in Politics

The Boston Globe – Affectionately called Ted or Teddy by voters and those closest to him, he was known to the public for a booming voice and occasionally boisterous — and some notoriously reckless — behavior.

If you haven’t had enough yet, here are a couple more posts that are worth checking out. Both are great blogs and filled with a lot of awesome projects!

Multimedia Shooter: 13 Projects Worth Watching
MediaStorm: (16 projects) Worth Watching

We have collected their responses and built them into a Web site to give voice to the future of journalism. The project includes perspectives from young journalists around the country who continue to pursue careers in journalism despite the industry’s struggles.

As part of the site, I also created an audio slideshow with young journalists from around the country to share their perspectives on the future of journalism. The interviews were recorded during Poynter’s 2009 College Fellowship, which I was very fortunate to attend.

Here’s an excerpt from my essay on the future of journalism:

The journalism profession is facing its own struggle for survival. Many mainstream news organizations are now counting page views in place of meaningful impressions. In better times, I would have graduated and applied for an entry-level reporting position. I could have started in a small market and worked my way through the system, but many of those opportunities are no longer available.

In August, 2009, I founded Ewen Media, a multimedia production company that uses interactive multimedia to share meaningful stories. I am definitely taking a risk by branching out on my own. In three months, my student loans will arrive in the mail and I will likely be crushed by financial burden. However, I am prepared to move forward knowing that I am a fighter, willing to take big risks and make bold decisions, in a desperate attempt to protect the profession that I love.

The future of journalism will be strong because thousands of young journalists are willing to follow their hearts and pursue a profession much greater than themselves. 20 years from now, I am proud to know that my colleagues and I will be the ones who ran toward the industry while all others were running out. Together, we will form a “profession of the passionate” and forever change the world.

For the final presentation at this year’s conference, the organization hosted a panel with three of the finest storytellers in their respective forms. I wanted to share some of their collective thoughts on the future of storytelling as the various mediums converge into one.

Creating an ‘audio illusion’

Sasha Aslanian, Youth Radio Series and special projects producer for Minnesota Public Radio, represented the radio producers on the panel. Aslanian argued that radio was the most visual medium because of the elements that you cannot see in a story. She used a couple examples to demonstrate how effective audio can create stronger visual stories.

Animal Minds
The full story from WNYC is available here.

Constant Crisis
The full story from American RadioWorks is available here.

Aslanian described the two most important elements of storytelling to be the story’s scene and characters, which were highlighted by the previous two clips. The biggest takeaway was making sure that audio does not take your listener away from the experience. Every bad edit reminds the audience that they are listening to the radio, rather than becoming part of the illusion.

Strong audio is about creating an illusion, she said, and one bad edit can pull listeners out of the illusion. If you limit those mistakes, it will help carry people to the end of your story and make audio storytelling a much more visual experience.

Building the story

Kare11’s Jonathan Malat, who is one of the most talented news videographers in the country, represented the TV perspective on the panel. Malat focused on the importance of storytelling to engage users with a particular story.

“TV used to be the only place where you could get this visual news and we were very spoiled for many years. Whatever crap we would put in the box for you – you would watch. There’s a lot of people putting crap in a box now… so we’ve had to up our game.” – Jonathan Malat

Malat stressed the importance of “staying in the moment” with news stories. That means using material from the scene to help limit distractions and allow viewers to feel like they are there. To highlight his point, Malat showed the piece he produced with Kare11 reporter Boyd Huppert during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

(Also, here’s a link to the live interview with Jonathan Malat shortly after he was released from police custody.)

Spot News: KARE 11, Jonathan Malat, “Freedom Met its Limits” from Poynter Institute on Vimeo.

Rather than using sound from public officials and breaking up the story, the sound bytes reacted to the current situation. Adding interviews from police officers after the fact would have broken up the story. By keeping the story active, it kept viewers in the moment and provided a much more rewarding experience.

Second, Malat emphasized the importance of keeping stories the appropriate length. Most television packages are under two minutes, but he said having longer stories doesn’t necessarily make them better stories. He used this as a criticism for all video, not just online video, which could be shortened to make for stronger stories.

“You have all this stuff and you feel like you need to use it… but sometimes less is more,” he said.

Malat helps produce the 10,000 Stories series, which is consistently some of the best feature reporting in the country. To do so, he stressed the importance of vision and focus with his work, rather than collecting a “bunch of stuff,” and how he constantly thinks about story structure to make for a complete story.

“We talk about the public’s right to know, but as storytellers, it’s the public’s right to know when I tell you so.”

Lastly, Malat highlighted the importance of rewarding viewers by adding surprises along the way. He described a lot of video stories as having “Fred Flintstone feet” because the subject keeps running and story doesn’t go anywhere. “You say the same thing 20 different ways and that isn’t rewarding to the viewer,” he said.

One of my favorite examples of story structure was “Crash for Clunkers” by Joe Fryer, which won the feature category for NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism. Malat didn’t show this story, but I wanted to include it because it’s full of awesome and exciting surprises. When I watched this story, I immediately thought about how other mediums would try to tell this story. It’s simply not the same story without the narration setting it up.

Waiting for the moment

Star Tribune photographer Jim Gehrz has a unique ability to capture human emotion. He was previously named NPPA’s Photographer of the Year and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Gehrz showed three audio slideshows during his presentation, including The Wonder of Flight, Locked in Limbo and A Prayer for Father Tim (pictured below). I have worked with Gehrz at the Star Tribune and always admired his ability to photograph intimate moments in people’s lives.

There were several notable things about Gehrz’s presentation that can be applied directly to other mediums. To begin with, Gehrz said this is one of the most exciting times of his career because of the new opportunities to tell stronger stories. He can use new storytelling tools, such as the Canon 5D, to experiment with new storytelling techniques that he had never tried before.

“After being in still photography all of my life, it’s now like I’ve opened the window,” – Jim Gehrz.

Gehrz said the new technology has also led to an added level of intimation for journalists and their subjects. He recalled a story earlier in his career where he put a wireless mic on a subject and asked for permission to visit a different part of the exhibit. When the subject asked permission from her supervisor, she added, “He doesn’t know what he’s doing.” She was right, Gehrz said. The added technology destroyed his rapport and ability to work with them. As a still photographer, he would never have had a problem, he said.

Gehrz had one comment that I found particularly interesting:

“As we get more and more into these new mediums, these stories are really a process of discovery. I don’t know what the story’s going to be. [The story] is kind of telling itself. If you leave yourself open and try not to go in with preconceived notions, some pretty amazing things can happen.”

I found the comment interesting in contrast to Malat’s comments from earlier in the presentation where he was always thinking about story structure as a means to focus the story in a particular direction. It was a very subtle difference, but I think it leads to an interesting discussion about the direction of visual journalism.

To produce packages like Kare11′s Crash for Clunkers, there is a certain level of involvement from the reporter and photographer that is necessary to shape the story. Certain questions have to be asked to push the piece in a particular direction. That involvement can be great for storytelling as long as the journalist does not shape the story into something it is not.

On the other hand, the multimedia from newspaper photographers often has a raw feel like there was no journalist involvement at all. Subjects can take the story in any direction, but it becomes much more difficult to advance the story without the narrative track. If the story is not moving forward, especially online, then viewers are not going to stay.

To see a good example of a newspaper moving a natural sound story forward, check out the Washington Post’s In The Moment or MediaStorm’s Leveling Appalachia.

Final Thoughts

The three panelists helped highlight some very significant differences between the mediums. However, at the core, everyone appeared to agree on the importance of basic elements of storytelling. Stories need a beginning, middle and end. They need characters, conflict and surprises. Most importantly, they need to move forward and reward the viewer along the way. These elements, regardless of their format, can turn any medium into a powerful story.