Bootcamp Ends

Bootcamp closed today with messages from Pulitzer-Prize winner Jan Schaffer, I.F. Stone’s son, and former CBS correspondent Thalia Assuras. A fitting way to end a course packed with professional insights.

Schaffer, founder of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, spoke about her path to interactive work.

Jeremy Stone, son of I.F., spoke about the erudition of his father and the ground-breaking independent newsletter I.F. Stone’s Weekly.

I sense a definite tension in the journalism climate between neutrality and opinion. I.F. Stone’s example shines for its subjectivity. But Assuras emphasized removing political associations from Facebook.

This experience has been rich and…crazy. Class for eight hours a day plus hours of blogging, reading, and studying takes its toll. But I am not afraid of hard work, and the content of this program so engaged me that three weeks flew. I am so grateful American University provided us an opportunity to build such a well-rounded base for our studies.

I’ll always remember the stories of Pomfret and Zirinsky, Bolling’s energy. I know images from our trips to the Associated Press and Newseum will drive me on frustrating days.

I’m excited for the year to come. If I’ve learned anything these past weeks, it’s that I want to be a part of the solution to the challenge facing journalism.

Breaking-Down Video

I’m always excited to show others my work. As a kid, I literally ran off the bus with my essays and tests to show my family. It’s obviously a little different in graduate school, but I was excited to get feedback on our video after so many hours of learning and editing.

Keosha Johnson’s words about coming here to learn, not to get good grades, stuck with me. This week made me so eager to improve my skills.

We began our last full-day of Bootcamp with a class critique of our videos. My personal favorite video was “DC Screams for Ice Cream,” by Claritza Jimenez and Will Cummings. I loved its story-telling and shooting.

Criticism for our piece included the relative low volume of Pat Beerothai’s audio and the overhead angle from which we shot her interview. The class also said they would like more close-ups and interviews of the kids.

Generally, the class learned the importance of framing the interviewed subject so that he or she is talking into the environment space. Many videos — ours included — framed subjects so they appeared to talk to the screen’s edge.

A talk from Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com, and a lecture on video terminology completed our day. Brady spoke about the considerations of entrepreneurial journalism and explained how to monetize content and maximize blog readership.

Professor Olmsted broke down the elements of a television news broadcast. We watched examples of VO’s, SOT’s, and B-roll and then defended our selections for inclusion in a news story.

The Final Cut (almost): Embracing the Fear

Above is the final cut (for now) of our video story.

You can hear Tauren over Tanya Cardona. We undoubtedly would like to change that. We also wish we held the microphone closer to some subjects. And Brandon’s last name would be a good thing to have. If we asked all of our subjects their occupations and placed them in the super, we could have also established diversity and added to their personalities. All lessons for next time.

Our (almost) final cut of Bootcamp starred a skyped interview with Susan Zirinsky, executive producer for 48 hours.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a job I was ready for,” said Zirinsky.

The above quote was the theme of our conversation. She called “fear” her major motivating force and stressed that it indicated she was on the right career path. She encouraged us to challenge ourselves.

Sliding into Video Editing

Water shoots out at a sprinkler park in the center of Downtown Silver Spring.

The generosity of a Boston University professor and a class soundslides critique marked my day, but we spent the majority of our time learning to edit and tackling our projects.

Professor Olmsted appropriately began with a speech about not fearing new technology. From there we went right to a class on Final Cut Pro basics led by Rob Roberts. He stressed organization and saving as we followed his lead in a simultaneous practice edit.

We then returned to the theater to critique our soundslides. This forum, led by Professor Hatch, proved very useful in our later video editing — what we learned about matching video to audio and blending natural sound with interview tracks translated easily across platforms.

This later video editing would of course not have been possible without the kindness of Eric Bullock of Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts. After witnessing Tauren and I leave our camera on the Metro, he returned the equipment to our media production center. A huge thank you to Mr. Bullock. I know my luck won’t be as good for a long time.

Shy children created a missed opportunity for colorful audio.

A lack of close-up shots became apparent immediately as Tauren and I logged our tape. The close-ups we did capture were a little shaky because we didn’t have a tripod, and we had to resort to zoom often to avoid splashing on the equipment.

But biggest challenge we encountered in our first phase of editing was our lack of meaningful, clear audio from children.

While we attempted to interview several kids at the pool, we did not find a child who was receptive to the camera. We knew that a kid-oriented story would suffer without this voice. But we didn’t have an option, and we moved on.

Both of these obstacles were a little daunting as we began to edit, especially after a morning of editing lecture. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from today, it’s that you learn from your mistakes, and sometimes it just takes a little luck to set things right.

My stories won’t always be in sprinkler parks. The kids I interview won’t always stare blankly into the camera. And just like I (hopefully) won’t leave my camera on the Red Line again, I’ll learn to shoot and interview better.

Video Adventures

Shops and restaurants frame the sprinkler park.

The day I waited for since the start of Bootcamp — video day — finally arrived. It started with a crash course in shooting Web video and continued with a fun afternoon of shooting at a local sprinkler park. But then the day that began in a crash course absolutely crashed. My partner, Tauren Dyson, and I watched as the train pulled away from Tenleytown station — with our camera inside.

After an hour sitting by the station manager as he called all stops between Tenleytown and Shady Grove three times, we decided to talk to Professor Olmsted. A depressing conversation with a police officer (“During rush hour? You’re not getting that back.”) sealed our defeat.

I’m writing this blog on Thursday. I can tell you now someone returned our camera. And the pictures on this post scream that fact. But man, it was a rough evening.

Back to the beginning: Rob Roberts, senior video editor at USA Today, spoke about his rules of Web video. Generally, creative, dynamic characters are needed for video stories, he said.  Natural sound, natural action, interviews, and B-roll constitute a complete shoot. And those interviews, he said, should be environmental portraits, when possible. The interview frame should provide contextual clues to the shot location.

A child plays in a sprinkler at the center of Downtown Silver Spring.

“Every piece of information [in your shot] should be relevant,” he said. But Roberts warned against extraneous cues and also suggested tight shots to establish subject-viewer relationships.

The Adventure Begins

Professor Olmsted then set us loose across the DC Metro Area to film stories about the record-breaking heat. Tauren Dyson and I headed to Downtown Silver Spring to film at a sprinkler park.

The afternoon in itself was a learning experience. Our interviews got better as we learned how to ask open-ended questions about our topic. After handling the camera for a little while, we became more adventurous with our shots, varying perspective and zoom.

…And Ends

But then came the strongest lesson of all: Be responsible with your equipment. After being so careful not to get the camera wet, even in sprinkler mist, we left it on the Red Line.

Not good. And especially disappointing to someone who prides herself on responsibility.

The Promised Soundslide Project

After a few Saturday hours — here is the final version of my first soundslide effort.

My biggest editing challenge was to make use of audio largely overpowered by natural sound. I’ve learned my lesson to interview in a quieter environment.

I’m most proud of the foresight T and I used shooting. We noted what photos would match each interview and shot accordingly.

The Journalist’s Skill Set

Visits, lectures, activities — all pointed today to one, albeit obvious, lesson: a journalist is only as good as his or her skill set.

Professor Olmsted opened with a lecture on correct radio terminology. Over a background of wraps and readers, she emphasized that using correct terms is key to success.  Even behind newsroom doors,  journalists cannot afford to misstep in a profession where every word counts and style breeds credibility.

Olmsted taught how to  select effective soundbites:

• Pull bites before writing copy.
• Get to the heart of the story with bites — You (the reporter) can say information on your own.

She also advised using new information in soundbite intros to avoid redundancy and to best use alloted time.

Our day’s agenda taught us that interviewing is just as crucial as correct terminology. “The talent in [interviewing] is to get them to say what’s on their mind,” said speaker Jim Asendio, news director of WAMU.

“You have a certain skill set you carry with you,” he said. The more journalists know, the more “portable” they are.

In reference to journalists who refuse to move with the times, he said, “If you stay still, you’re crazy.”

He also stressed the importance of past work history in seeking employment. Never burn bridges and remember that your actions and words always follow you, said Asendio. He shared how his record of success prompted WAMU to seek him out.

Two AU alum, Rawand Darwesh (’05) and Keosha Johnson (’08), also relayed their belief in the basics of journalism. Darwesh currently works for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Northern Iraq, but he has not lost his passion for journalism.

“It is a holy profession,” he said.

As a government employee, Darwesh’s journalism experience helps him relate to media personnel. He called journalism “the responsibility before everything” and urged us to “cover all aspects” in our future reporting.

Keosha Johnson, a recent WAMU hire and alum also of the NBC News Associates program, emphasized the importance of having a varied skill set. Proven experience with these skills via clips and internships is crucial, she said. Johnson advised us to be honest with who we are and to show our genuine interest in journalism to recruiters. Learning skills, not getting good grades, should be the focus of our study here, she said.

The Application

After all of this talk about skills and understanding of basic principles, it was time to test what we had learned. And not just via Quiz #2 — via continued production of our soundslides. For the second afternoon, we tediously worked our way through dozens of sound and photo files and struggled to learn the art of audio editing.

After so much input about mastering the basics and following the core values of journalism, I admit I became a perfectionist with my soundslide project. This approach wasn’t a good one; masterfully executing a skill learned one day previous is not realistic. I learned the hard way that background noise can ruin an interview and that ambient sound is useless if not recorded for a substantial period.

Look out for my first attempt at soundslides in my next post.

Field Learning: Soundslides at the National Zoo

One of three National Zoo elephants.

The hippo never surfaced and the elephants  never left the fence  — not Bootcamp’s typical problems. Cheers erupted in the lab when Professor Olmsted announced we’d take our morning’s lecture on soundslides to the National Zoo. But students eager to leave the classroom didn’t expect the new breed of puzzles awaiting  in the field.

Given only the instruction to find a good story, pairs of students entered the zoo with audio recorders and still cameras. T Braunstein and I first attempted to follow a Christian camp group energetically pursuing a scavenger hunt. But when the campers’ concentration waned, so did ours.

We decided to pursue a story that could be heard all around us. Persistent sawing, humming and clanking of construction equipment mixed with the birds’ chirps and rustling leaves.

A worker explained the noise would eventually produce an expanded elephant breeding and living grounds. Our soundslide was born.

After a quick tutorial on Soundslides Plus from Professor Hatch, we were on our way. I learned the hard way that construction and loud indoor spaces do not make for good audio. Check back in a few days for my result.

Sounds of the Classroom

Today, we learned to gather and edit audio. That agenda may sound dry, but under the direction of radio journalist Deborah Bolling, it was quite the opposite.

Bolling wore her winged sunglasses both outdoors as she led us around the quad in observant silence and indoors as she energetically lectured about story-telling. She casually sat at the desk at the front of the room or leaned against the lectern in her color-splashed tank-top dress and wood beads. No business suit for this woman.

To Bolling, journalism is about texture.

“You’re not just going for the environment, you’re going for the mood of the environment,” she said.

She emphasized accuracy and spoke vehemently against selective portrayal. “You go into journalism because you are a living, breathing, walking historian,” she said.

After a crash course in both audio editing with Audacity and audio ethics from Professor Hatch, we dove right in. Students spent the afternoon editing interviews conducted of other students.

Listen to graduate student T Braunstein tell her Bootcamp story:

Tamara Braunstein goes by "T," "like the letter T."

From China to Bosnia to DC and back to the Web (again)

Reflection on the power of journalism reigned as speakers John Pomfret and Chuck Lewis related their experiences as war-time correspondent and investigative giant, respectively. Pomfret, now a The Washington Post “Outlook” editor, once dodged bullets in Tiananmen Square and Bosnia’s “sniper alley” in his quest to globally relay injustices. Lewis, founder of The Center for Public Integrity, broke the secret Patriot II Act and the Halliburton contracts.

These two inspiring individuals had the full attention of 36 young journalists. Each gave a brief overview of his career and then asked for questions.

According to Pomfret, war-time correspondents should “look at [preparation] as a backpacking experience.”

“Bring a flashlight,” he said. Also recommended were power converters, water containers and filters, and, of course, Purell.

He related the most frightening moment of his time abroad: when he awoke in the middle of the Sarajevo night to an explosion at his window and shrapnel in his headboard. Pomfret wrapped himself in a flak jacket and slept on the basement floor.

As for the “rule” that journalists cannot be touched in wartime, “That’s done. It’s gone.”

He explained that in Tiananmen Square, it was true students “knew [the foreign correspondents there] were their bridge to the outside world,” and the students tried to protect Pomfret. But, “When things got really bad, everyone was trying to protect themselves.”

On June 4, 1989, Pomfret moved with protesters and then rode parallel to the military on his bicycle until he finally gained entry to the square. When he got there, he thought, “I’ve made it.” But then, “You idiot, how are you going to leave?”

World Impact, DC Source

A student captures Lewis as he explains his vision for investigative journalism.

A professor at AU, Lewis’ accomplishments resonated worldwide, though they originated far from the battlezones Pomfret covered. His Investigative Reporting Workshop is the only such institution in the nation’s capital. Also in DC, The Center for Public Integrity, a well-known, non-profit investigative body, rose from Lewis’ vision.

“I think the heyday of investigative reporting is yet to come, ” he said. Lewis cited the abilities of computer assisted reporting, the rise of citizen journalism, and new investigative bodies as evidence. He believes we “are at the beginning of a new ecosystem” for journalism.

In typical Bootcamp fashion, the class circled back to the internet. We watched tutorials about WordPress applications and navigation. For the second day, Professor Hatch answered our blogging questions and helped us make more organized, functional sites. Though important, this information was an aside for me on a day where two individuals who achieved my personal goals spoke about how they came to accomplish them. To me, journalism is about relaying unspoken truth, and it was refreshing to meet two people who share my vision.