Critiques just went out, take a look and start thinking of what your game plan is for tomorrow. I’ll open up the lab at 9:30 and you’ll be free to work through the whole class period.

At 12:15, the server will go offline – you must have your work on the server by then. Submit it in the same format as the project – a date and name coded folder, inside should be your written story, your still photos and just one version of your video. You don’t need to run it through Compressor, just click on your (renamed) sequence and Export it as a QuickTime movie.

Make sure you budget time for the export – you should have a sense of how long it will take.

You also need to return all of your gear tomorrow – the cameras, cords, chargers, card reader, tripod and bag. Anything not returned will result in a daily fine of $50 until it is returned. (Yeah, onerous – make sure everything’s in your bag.)

See you in the morning.

WORDS: You will need to produces a 250 word story that sums up and connects your video and still photos. This is pretty short, so you’re going to need to keep it tight – this is not a New York Times Sunday center piece. The goal here is to tell the story in about one screen, meaning a reader wouldn’t have to scroll down on a web page.

PICTURES: You need to shoot a 5-10 image photo story to go with your words. Think about long shots, medium shots and closeups. It would be entirely reasonable to have a portrait in here, perhaps even a mug shot (thought the latter shouldn’t be part of your 5 photo minimum). Give us a sense of place and time, give us a sense of who your subject is and what they are about. Look for moments and interactions – those are the key to great images. Then look for details, the little things that we are trained to look for, things that add texture to the story. Look at hands or tattoos or scars or photos or tools – whatever it is that your subject surrounds themselves with.

VIDEO: This is the big part, this is what you really want to concentrate your efforts on. Hearing your subject tell their own story is so phenomenally powerful … it’s just an amazing thing. Keep it tight, you’re aiming for a 90 to 120 second long piece. Get a great interview, then go find the b-roll to make it work. Long, medium and closeup – use the formula, learn to love the formula so at some point later in your career you can ignore the formula. Keep the camera steady, always thing about sound. We didn’t do much with this as on my examples we took all the b-roll sound out, but we can layer it underneath your main interview audio if it helps. We can blend it in so it’s back there, ever so subtle or really prominent. We have a lot left to learn in this area.

Watch the American Soldier piece and look at the way Craig Walker builds images. Even though the core of that story is still photos, it’s still a powerful visual narrative. Look at the moments. Look at the light. Look at the backgrounds, or lack thereof. Look at the way he controls your movement through the frame.

Think about composition, especially the rule of thirds – it will make your video look so much more polished. Watch out for low light situations – image quality plummets on these Kodak cameras when you get into very low light levels.

On Tuesday, you’ll have 45 minutes to finish up your matched action video, then we’ll export and watch those – that will help get you ready for your major project. From there, I’m going to let you work at your own pace. Each morning, we’ll convene at 9 and talk about some small things, then let you get to your work. Your words, photos and video will be due on the server by 12:15 p.m. on Friday, June 3. We will watch them on Monday and then you’ll have until the end of class on Tuesday, June 7 to get the final versions of these on the server.

Remember, there are two reasons you’re doing this. First, because this is the future of journalism, this is what you’ll be doing through most of your career. Second, because these stories matter. The only reason you should be doing this – journalism – is because you care about your communities and you want to tell their stories.

Lastly, have fun. This is cool.

To help prep you some more, make yourself some popcorn, grab a can of pop and head over to those Digital Literacy videos. Number 10 will be handy to help you get comfortable with the camera. Numbers 11 and 12 are the basics of video editing – conversion, importing, in and out points, adding tracks and adding b-roll. Those two will help you get through Thursday’s class. (You can peak ahead to next week by watching number 13 – graphics and exporting.)

You’ll want to bring some headphones to class in the morning. I have a few pairs, but not many. If you don’t have any, you’ll have to edit with the volume turned down which will be, uh, difficult.

Once we start up, you’ll have until 10:45 to get your videos edited, exported and dropped on the server. We’ll take a short break, then watch all of them. After that, we’ll finish out the day by talking about your story ideas – come prepared. The more you know, the easier this will be.

As for the quizzes … no one has come to see me at this point. I will review them from 8:15 to 9:15 tomorrow morning, and then the grades stand. First come, first served – if we don’t get to you, there are no additional times available. No one came in Wednesday morning and no one appears to be coming today.

I will post a sign-up sheet in the morning to help keep you in line.

The second quiz is rescheduled for Wednesday, June 1 – not Tuesday, May 31.

Make sure you use the mic when doing your interview. The interview only needs to be about one minute in final, edited length. Think carefully about the location of the shoot – you want good light and a clean background. Shoot reasonably tight – just over the top of their heads to just below their shoulders – and move them to the left or right side of the frame so they are not dead center. Use the tripod if you can.

For the matched action clips, illustrate whatever it is you interviewed them about – cooking, chopping onions, tying their shoes. Shoot it from different angles and, for the closeup, get in so close you need to use the macro mode.

We’ll convert and start to edit tomorrow morning. Have fun.

From the Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency, please read chapters 11, 12 and 13. Again, we won’t use iMovie or Movie Maker (shudder), but the basic ideas will carry over.

Please go look at some breaking news video packages and find one that you like, then post a link to this blog. Give us a few sentences on what you like and what you think could be improved on it. Given the recent weather events in Missouri, might be a good idea to start looking at some of those.

Lastly, please make sure your Kodak camera is charged and ready for tomorrow. There’s a black cable in your kit with a USB jack on one end and a round connector on the other. The USB jack plugs into the black brick which plugs into your wall socket and the round end gets connected to the camera. It will need a few hours to charge fully, so just set it up this evening and let it charge overnight.

On the quiz … I’ll get these back to you Tuesday morning. As noted in class, our goal is to teach, not to grade. You can meet with me before or after class on Wednesday (I’m here by 8:15 a.m.) or before class on Thursday (again, here at 8:15 a.m.) and we’ll go over what you got wrong or weren’t clear on. Prove to me you know what I was asking about and you can earn back lost points.

And there will not be a word search on the next quiz … maybe a crossword? Let me know if that would be more beneficial.

But I won’t.

It will deal primarily with the basics of photography (ISO, aperture, shutter speeds, focal lengths) and draw some terms from the readings in Journalism 2.0 and the lectures. Essentially, anything I’ve told you to read or put up on the big screen may be on it.

The format will probably be ten short answer question, but may be something else. I’m thinking on that.

Now, a tip here – you still have to look at the shutter speed it chooses in the viewfinder. If it drops below 1/60, your images are going to turn into mush. If it’s stuck at 1/4000, there’s a chance that you have too much light and will need to either lower the ISO or stop the lens down (lower the aperture opening) – you’ll need to check for flashing highlights on the screen.

Just because you are being allowed to shoot in a semi-automatic mode does not mean you are allowed to blame the camera for bad photos – you’re still responsible for your images.

You’ll still need to focus (the autofocus on this camera/lens combo is okay at best, what-the-heck-happened at worst), but the aperture priority mode should simplify your life a bit.