Problems with PluralEyes Synced Tracks in Premiere
We have now just finished our very first television show. 13 episodes of 23-25 minutes apiece for 13 consecutive weeks. If you want to check it out, our favorite episodes are Ramon Navarro, surfer, and Caterin Bravo, fencer. It was brutal. Concurrently, Nacho was teaching, working his full time job at the Universidad de los [...]
Adobe Premiere: Pasting Effects
This week we turned in 4 video projects. In one project, we only had to subtitle 2 finished videos. In another, we staged office scenes, and integrated earlier office footage to tell the story of how a Kimberly-Clark product line can be implemented in an office for better health and productivity. And, finally, today, we [...]
Commercial Video Work – La Salud está en tus Manos
I read Clients from Hell a lot. It’s one of my default procrastination sites. It’s hilarious. But, our clients are good. Really good. And often times they push us to make a better video than we knew we could, or that we hadn’t conceived of. In this instance, Kimberly-Clark, the client, had a vision of [...]
Students + Full on commitment + No other distractions = great results
There’s no way around it. There more I do it, the more it’s confirmed. Project based classes are the best way for students to learn multimedia. Period. One full week, in the field. Gathering content, then editing. Having formal and informal meetings on their scripts and planning. That’s what we did in Valparaíso with my [...]
Construction Photos
I adore construction sites. I suppose it’s because so much of my hometown of Ubly, Michigan works in construction (road and house). Nacho and I have been hired by an engineering firm here, in Santiago, to photograph their work. This was our first go. Nacho had the 70-200 2.8 on the 7d. I had the [...]
What have we been doing?
What have we been doing? Where have we been? I left La Tercera in June. I spent the US summer/ the Chilean winter in New York, New York. Responding to a call from Mohawk Street and The Daily’s Mike Schmidt, I went to shoot and edit a video documenting the experience of a group of [...]
Thoughts on video, its future and my teaching
This was a great exercise. To look back and analyze what you’re doing should be a requirement of every journalist, especially the educators. I invite you to do the same, it will take you just a bit of time. It’ll be worth it, believe me. Everyday and at every moment we are exposed – either [...]
Teaching Multimedia all over Latin America
I have begun working with SIP – IAPA (the Interamerican Press Association), producing intensive multimedia (audiovisual storytelling) workshops throughout Latin America. The first one was in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The next one will be in March in Lima, Perú. The workshop in Guayaquil was hosted by El Universo, one of the largest daily newspapers in Ecuador. 22 [...]
Ethics in Multimedia
Not long ago, Nacho and I were asked to work with a woman from a television station. The individuals involved were looking to try out this new media, multimedia thing. We agreed. The problem was, she kept wanting to set up shots, scenes, give directions to the participants. She took audio from the projects of [...]
Examples of video principles
Nacho and I have been doing a fair amount of teaching/coaching over the past few months. We spent the summer coaching UNC’s News21 contribution, Powering a Nation. Upon return to Chile, I accompanied and assisted Nacho teaching multimedia (audiovisual) techniques to the faculty of the Department of Communications, Universidad de Montevideo. The first week of [...]
Preparing your images for the Web – quick and dirty
Toning All images need to have a true black and a true white. If printing in a dark room, this is one of the first elements you will be searching for. All digital images require toning. A big reason for this is the digital photography does not have the tonal range of film. Until we [...]
Teamwork in Multimedia Production – AARP Bike Path Video
In June, Nacho was asked to shoot a story about a bike path in a charming town in Maine called Brunswick. The purpose of the video piece was to show people enjoying the bike path. The written piece talked about the 89 year old woman who spearheaded the initiative to bring the bike path to [...]
Chile Earthquake 4 – what the ocean took
This is the video that breaks my heart. This was the most destruction I saw of all the earthquake. The earthquake left much standing. The ocean was merciless. And these people, in this secluded town, did not receive any governmental help until Thursday – a load of clothing and food. They had 5 days of [...]
Reporting in disaster zones – Part 2
When communications fail it’s really hard to deliver your material to your contractors. Yes, digital media helps in capturing and editing material far faster than traditional media, but also consumes an enormous amount of power (laptop and camera batteries) and requires a steady data connection in order to transmit, which was non-existent at the time. [...]
The Chilean Earthquake, 1 – Challenges of a Disaster Zone
Last Saturday, at 3.37am, Chile was struck by a terrible earthquake. At the epicenter, the quake registered 8.8 on the Richter Scale, one of the 5 strongest earthquakes at least since 1922. By noon, Nacho and I had been flooded with requests for photos and or video. I was hired by the AP to shoot [...]
Chased by light
My primary focus has been documentary storytelling. I LOVE spending time with people I don’t know anything about and telling their stories. It’s a great satisfaction to be able to get immersed in an unknown world and be accepted as one more in their lives while taking photos and video of their daily activities. But [...]
Canon 5D MarkII Shooting: Advice
A friend of mine is interested in getting into the video world. He’s going to enter the YouTube Project Report Contest. He asked me whether he should use his friend’s Canon that shoots video or rent a video camera. This was my response, detailing some of the things that are helpful to know before shooting [...]
Laying Multimedia Plans
Santiago’s Metro is expanding. The government opened three new stations (conveniently, days before a tight presidential election) and announced about a week and a half ago that they would begin building an entirely new line, which will connect a heavily working class area of the city with a heavily middle and upper class section. I [...]
Gone out shooting
Man it feels nice. Today I went with Eileen while she was on assignment for La Tercera, where she’s shooting some of the topics that the presidential candidates are focusing on. This time it was “minusválidos” (disabled) and for that she’s following Francisca Mardones (36) who’s 17th in the world tennis ranking for handicapped people. [...]
Fighting against the tides
Man, it’s been only 3 months, but really long ones. On one side, I’m really happy to see my family and friends in regular basis but on the other it’s been so hard to make people realize the importance of multimedia usage. There’s definitely a need for multimedia producers and they (the media industry)know they [...]
Stretching our photographic muscles
A few days after we arrived in Santiago, a friend asked us to take just a few stills of a small carnival that was going on in Santiago. “Why not make a small multimedia piece about it?” we said, so this is the result. Just a couple of hours shooting, having fun and trying to [...]
Blogging together and the Mapuche protest
Nacho and I decided to start a blog together. More accurately, I decided we should start a blog together, and he didn’t object. Why together? 1. We work together constantly. I do what I can to help him, he perfects my work. To put up work on separate blogs would really muddle the contributions of [...]