When the newspaper’s video equipment arrived two months ago I was anxious and excited about the prospect of shooting video (see “the future has arrived” post). Now, I’m just excited.
Over the weekend the Herald-Republic hosted the Northwest Video Workshop. Spearheaded by YH-R web producer T.J. Mullinax, the two-day workshop brought together newspaper photographers, reporters and web folks to learn the basics of shooting and editing video. We were taught by two of the best videographers in photojournalism – Colin Mulvany of the Spokane Spokesman Review and Kurt Austin of Portland’s KGW-TV television.
Their energy and enthusiasm helped me get over any reservations I might have had about picking up a video camera in addition to my still cameras.
During the workshop We shot and edited a very basic project (thanks to the young ladies carolling in front of Wray’s Thriftway at the Chalet Mall – they were the subjects of my team’s video) which will be posted on the workshop Web site (video.yakimablogs.com/) in the future. The video cameras are the new tools of storytelling and now we have the knowledge of how to use those tools. Or at least the basic knowledge such as which button turns on the camera and how to move video and sound clips around in the Final Cut Pro editing software.
I’m looking forward to when I can shoot and edit a video package for yakimaherald.com. It will be probably be a while, though, before I can get something up on the Web site – I still have to help put out a newspaper each day with local photographs which itself is a full-time job. It’s going to be fun, frustrating and challenging to learn this new way of telling a story. The learning curve is steep and I’m sure my first efforts are going to be rough but I’m asking for the viewers’ patience.
A couple of photos from the workshop:
Central Washington University student Maggie Schmidt photographs the singers at Wray’s Thriftway.
Yakima Herald-Republic reporter James Joyce, left, gets editing help from workshop trainer Kurt Austin.
—Gordon King
