How important is video and multimedia

This is the third in a series of articles to assist you in making a career out of photojournalism.  Here are links to article one and article two if you missed them.  Wherever one gets it, entry-level photographers can no longer just think of themselves as “just” still photographers. Still photographs are part of the content package that includes slide shows with music, recorded audio of the story’s subjects, narrated audio, and eventually, video story telling. Once can begin with still and audio slide shows while in school. This will help carry a photographer into the video world.

How can yo display your work?

This is the key element that allows the visual storyteller—whether still photographer, multimedia storyteller, documentary video filmmaker—to show at what level they are capable of working.

Still photographers should start building a collection of solid stand-alone single pictures. They should be technically proficient, display excellent color correction skills on the part of the photographer and have complete caption information. Eventually these photographers will want to move beyond single pictures and take on longer stories and projects as their skills advance.

Documentary video filmmakers should begin with short storytelling projects, perhaps in the 5-10 minute range. After honing their skills with projects of this length, they should expand their storytelling over time to projects in the 20-30 minute range. Here solid skills of shooting, gathering audio and editing must be shown. For a portfolio on a DVD, students should have a 1-2 minute “trailer” for any longer project. Editors will look at a summary such as this, which may get them interested in the longer piece. They probably will not commit themselves to a 20-minute film unless they already know your work or you have won an award of some significance.

Multimedia storytellers can start with simple slide shows of still pictures set to music. As one’s skills grow, learning to gather audio in the field is a necessity.  This insures the audience can hear the voices of the subjects in the story. It also opens the door to more sophisticated and complex story telling on the part of the photographer.  In our next article we will talk about internships.  (Info courtesy of NPPA)