Don’t get me wrong, I love drooling over the latest DSLR features or bloviating about the superiority of Final Cut Pro. But the equipment doesn’t make the journalist, and the people with the best story to tell usually aren’t the ones with the most money to invest in equipment.

For example, when we started the Common Language Project back in 2006, we reported our way across Asia, building a multimedia website from scratch as we went, and the only gear we had was an ancient Canon DSLR, a minidisc recorder and cheap laptop with free software.

In that spirit, here’s hope for storytellers and journalists on a budget: you can get everything you need for mobile multimedia production for under $1000. With this basic toolkit you’ll be ready to record, edit and distribute both video and photo slideshows with audio.

(Note: MCDM students can get their hands on a lot of this equipment and software for free. Try it out before you buy it for yourself.)

Camera/Video:

Sony Cybershot DSC HX5V or Panasonic Lumix DSC zs7 (plus extra battery and 2 8GB SD cards) $350

Read more…

MCDM Director Hanson Hosein and MCDM Associate Director Anita Verna Crofts along with some help from William H. Gates Sr. kicked off the Seattle hosting of the TEDxChange event “The Future We Make” convened by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Hanson started the morning with some inspiring epic words introducing the MCDM idea to create a signature Seattle event called “Four Peaks” highlighting the magnificent activities of our region regarding: Innovation, Community, Entrepreneurship, and Entertainment. Anita followed with a short and powerful talk  “Transforming the Transaction: Food for Thought on Partnerships that Change the World.” Bill Sr. then introduced Melinda Gates who was in New York to begin the world-wide web cast of TEDxChange “The Future we Make.” TEDxChange marks the anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals: Ten years in, where does the global community stand in the work to save and improve lives around the world? And what does the future hold?   We heard from the Gates Foundation that, “Bill Sr. was beaming with pride both over his love of the Huskies, and the amazing work of his daughter-in-law.”

KCTS 9 and InvestigateWest have partnered to bring a unique brand of journalism to the Pacific Northwest.

It may seem like an unlikely union: an old-guard public television station paired with a small, online journalism start-up. However, the two share the same commitment to strong reporting and storytelling.

Each organization, said KCTS Senior Producer Ethan Morris via email, brings different strengths to the collaboration: “InvestigateWest’s reporters are seasoned investigative journalists who have a specialized set of skills that literally take years to develop: in-depth research, database analysis, Freedom of Information Act requests, cultivating confidential sources, etc. Our producers have a separate set of skills in visual storytelling. We build our stories around the video and audio we collect with a specific focus on story narrative and arc.”

The first result of this collaboration, a 12-minute video called “Lifesaving Drugs—Deadly Consequences,” aired on KCTS on July 9 and 12; MSNBC, the Seattle Times, NPR and PBS also shared the piece. The organizations plan to collaborate on four projects a year, with a focus on environmental issues.

Carol Smith, Senior Writer at InvestigateWest, sees the collaborative model play a role in the future of journalism: “Collaboration is a way to leverage each other’s resources and talents to get the most eyes and ears possible on stories that matter.” Read more…

Throughout the Spring quarter, Flip the Media has been featuring some of the best video projects from the winter Multimedia Storytelling classes. This is the final installment of this MCDM Showcase series.

“Locks of Love” by Nicole Siegel

The subject of my video is Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to children who have lost their hair due to illness. Volunteers donate at least 10 inches of hair to be used for the hairpieces. Locks of Love’s mission is to restore self-confidence and normalcy for children suffering from hair loss.

I chose Locks of Love for my project because it is a wonderful charity that helps minimize the suffering many children endure when battling illnesses that result in hair loss. My objective was to increase awareness of the organization and to stress how easy, painless and rewarding it is to get involved.

I wanted to capture multiple angles of the haircut (and I am neurotic) so I actually used several cameras, including two Flips and three Canon Vixias.

As a beginner project, this took more time and patience than I had ever imagined. I reworked the story several times – even minor tweaks changed the delivery/outcome of the piece. With something like a haircut that can only take place once, proper planning/storyboarding is crucial. Good audio is also crucial (I learned that lesson the hard way).

Throughout this quarter, Flip the Media will be featuring some of the best video projects from the winter Multimedia Storytelling classes.

“What’s Your Pledge?” by Amy Rolph and Amy Rainey

Our client was Seattle-based Undriving.org, an environmentally conscious organization that helps people make small creative pledges to reduce their driving. The goal of our video was to inspire online participants who are trying to find an Undriving pledge that works with their lives, as well as educate people about the organization.

After researching Undriving and learning more about the pledges undrivers have already made, we wrote a script and created a storyboard to help map out the video. We shot the video with Canon HV30 cameras and Rode microphones and edited in Sony Vegas.

We’re both journalists, so this was the first time we’ve created a scripted video. It was a fun challenge. One thing we learned: No matter how a scene looks on the storyboard, it’s best to shoot it several ways from multiple angles. We learned how much thought and planning goes into every tiny shot – from pushing down on a bike pedal to climbing on a bus.

Throughout this quarter, Flip the Media will be featuring some of the best video projects from the winter Multimedia Storytelling classes.

“Honor & Tradition” by Stephen Brashear and Xurxo Martinez

Our client was Academia della Spada, an academy that teaches 16th Century sword fighting techniques and frames them as part of Western Martial Arts. Every other year, the academy organizes a symposium on Western Martial Arts called 4W. The goal of our video, which focused on 4W, was to explore and explain Western Martial Arts through the words of instructors and participants.

We shot the video with a Canon 5D Mark II and recorded the audio with a lavaliere micro and a Rode shotgun. We edited the video in Final Cut Pro.

We learned that it’s difficult to put together interviews that were recorded in different settings with very different background noise. Additionally, we learned the importance of planning the video before you start shooting.

Throughout this quarter, Flip the Media will be featuring some of the best video projects from the winter Multimedia Storytelling classes.

“I am a Flip Camera” by Anna Pan & Antika Emyaem

Our video is a promotional video for the UW Pocket Media Festival 2010.

The goal of the video was to convey that everyone can use a pocket camera and be a video producer, in addition to encouraging people to participate in the 2010 festival.

We shot the video with a Canon HV30 and edited with Final Cut Pro.

Throughout this quarter, Flip the Media will be featuring some of the best video projects from the winter Multimedia Storytelling classes.

“Cooking Up Ideas, Cooking Up Community” by Michael Bean

The subject of my video was The Food Education, Empowerment and Sustainability Team (FEEST) that meets every Wednesday afternoon at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle to learn about food, themselves and one another – all while preparing a healthy and delicious dinner to enjoy with friends and community members.

I chose this subject for two reasons: I love to cook and always enjoy the social nature of cooking with friends or family, and FEEST is a youth-led initiative. I found it interesting and impressive that a group of young people would be taken with the idea, and I immediately knew I wanted to hang around and film them after dropping in one Wednesday to cook with them.

My goals were to highlight a cool youth-led initiative; produce a video that showed youth participating in their lives and communities in a unique way; and give a glimpse into just how amazing the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is.
I think my video benefited from my strategy to first do some ‘deep hanging out’ – as Scott Macklin likes to say. Rather than simply showing up with cameras and expecting people to cater to the needs of my production process, I went for the first week and simply cooked and established a rapport with the group. (It helped also that I did most of their mountain of dishes).

After that, I had no issues when I came with cameras on subsequent weeks. During the cooking on the third week, I was able to get some really good footage (with the help of Scott), felt comfortable asking for quotes and generally just felt like I was welcome and trusted.

Showing up repeatedly, rather than hoping to get everything in one session, also helped when it came time to piece a story together.

I shot the video with a Panasonic GH1 Digital SLR and a Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera. To capture audio, I used a Rode Mic. I must say, this might have been the most important part of the production process. I am very inexperienced with cameras and had some trouble keeping the camera steady. However, because the audio quality was generally great, it made it easier to not dwell on that less-than-stellar aspect of the video. I used Final Cut Pro 7 to edit.