You are not alone
Tracy Boyer at Innovative Interactivity has a list of 100 notable multimedia professionals working in the industry today.
Next week, I’ll be heading to Ethiopia, and blogging for the News Photographers Association of Canada Monday-Friday, providing this whole access to internet thing works out.
Conceptualizing a series
Tracy Boyer of Innovative Interactivity discusses conceptualizing a series, and roles each team member had in their series Age of Uncertainty, which recently won Documentary project of the year in the POYi’s :
Boyer writes:
Age of Uncertainty, in my eyes, truly exemplified the potential of multimedia storytelling. This series was the direct result of passionate journalists combining their different talents to tell one story using multiple mediums.
Editor Carole Tarrant supported each producer and his/her own aspirations for the series by providing adequate time to perfect each part. Multimedia editor Seth Gitner successfully orchestrated the online coverage and pushed each producer to attempt something new. Having such strong support and encouragement really allowed this package to become more than just an “on-the-side” features story.
Photojournalist Josh Meltzer produced his first video series, consisting of four chapters, by documenting a woman caring for her husband with dementia. Meltzer also produced eight other videos and provided beautiful photography for each written story. By capturing dozens of hours of footage over a span of nine months, he successfully presented each subject’s story with the care and respect it deserved.
Reporter Beth Macy thoroughly researched multiple story-lines to give unique perspectives on Roanoke residents faced with different variations of healthcare crises. By scouring press releases, attending meetings and following-up on leads, Macy found poignant stories that, together, told the larger story of how Roanokers were caring for their elderly.
I was in charge of creating the interactive components on the site, which consisted of the introduction piece, the three assessment tools, the memory game, the video player, and the “Geography of Aging” map. The map consumed most of my time as we had high ambitions to visually display aging statistics for every locality in Virginia over 30 years, and then compare Virginia to the rest of the nation both in terms of demographic statistics and medicaid spending.
Database editor Matt Chittum processed all of the data for my map, as well as produced the map on senior care centers. To display the map data, he had to learn how to filter government data and parse it for an XML document, which was an incredibly daunting task.
Seth Gitner pushed himself to learn Drupal to serve as the CMS for this site, which was a big first for us. He was also responsible for the design and production of the entire site.
In terms of conceptualizing a series that spans several months and/or subtopics, I would recommend concentrating on finding the right story subjects to tell specialized cases that help make up the larger story. Then, brainstorm on graphics, images and other multimedia elements that can heighten the user’s understanding of the issue.
I strongly believe that our willingness to learn was the key to this project’s success. As long as there is a set of dedicated and passionate journalists, there is great potential for a powerful multimedia package.
