SoloJourno

Via Time Magazine:: Asylum seekers from as far away as Afghanistan try to get to Britain through France, but face a new crackdown on migrants in Calais

Read also Will France’s Immigration Crackdown Solve Anything?.

Via Poynter Online:

Last week’s demise of 702.tv in Las Vegas generated a lot of discussion about the quality and cost of newspaper Web site video. The jury’s still out, but the verdict is not looking good. “I’ve never seen a newspaper-produced TV show on the Web that has ever been successful,” writes spokesman.com video journalist Colin Mulvany, in an e-mail. “That said, I think the future is in the convergence of the Web and TV. When calling up the RSS video feeds from newspapers to view on a large HDTV becomes mainstream (and it will) then programs like 702.tv will have a better chance at success.”

Read the full article.

Via Poynter Online:

In late June, Greenspun Interactive, the new media division of the company that publishes the Las Vegas Sun, launched a video Web site named 702.tv after the Las Vegas area code. The project, described as “a Las Vegas-based news and entertainment video Web site and television program,” has been canceled after only four months, and a number of staff members either laid off or reassigned.

Read the full article.

Today was Day 3 (Video Reporting) of the multimedia training at The Toronto Star. Topics included fundamental of producing video stories, how to shoot a visual story, interviewing and script writing tips. The workshop also introduced concepts like basic edits and story planning to speed up production time.

photo credit: Robyn Doolittle
(can you tell which attendee is yours truly?)

For this workshop, Robb was set up with a mac and Final Cut Pro, but it’s not so much the tools - which one can learn at any time - but the way that they’re used that’s important. MovieMaker comes with WinOS, while iMovie comes with MacOS. They’re both pretty good little programs, and additional plugins and widgets (titles, transitions, effects, etc…) can be downloaded for them, but a more robust program that a journalist can grow into might well be the way to go when choosing an editing program. On the Windows side, Sony Vegas Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, http://www.sonycreat … oftware.com/vegaspro and Adobe Premiere Pro are popular choices. Mac Users tend to favour Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro.

Helpful tips:

• Before you leave for your interview, make sure you have everything you need. Lay your equipment out on table if need be. Make a check list, and check things off.
• Test your equipment ahead of time. Check and double-check. Then check again. Take spare batteries, spare cables, etc.
• Use a tripod. And if you're not going to use a tripod, hold your camera firmly in front of you with two hands, much like a soldier would hold their weapon.
• Remember 3-6-9: for 3 shots (wide, medium and tight/closeup) that are each 6 seconds which will make 9 sequences. This sort of shot-making is the grammar of videography and photography. Don't pan and zoom, walk the line between the subject and the camera.
• Start recording a few seconds before talking, not at the same moment there's going to be talking. And wear headphones so that you're not recording blind.

The Globe and Mail has posted Behind the Veil: An Intimate Journey Into the Lives of Kandahar’s Women, an outstanding multi-part interactive series by photojournalist Paula Lerner and reporter Jessica Leeder chronicling the lives of women in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan’s most conservative, volatile cities. <br>

Part 6: Wishing for peace - A fervent wish for peace ‘so I can see what happiness tastes like’

Shafiqa is finding happiness as a shut-in after a relative is injured in the war — she’s one of the women from Kandahar interviewed for the Globe and Mail’s six-part “Behind The Veil” series

Photo credit: Paula Lerner.