shot{b}log

new helenair.com multimedia: tom jester's story

a demolition derby is traditionally held on the last day of helena's last chance stampede and fair.  in 2008, that demolition derby ended abruptly when #55, the derby car being driven by tom jester, burst into flames.
a day or so later, two different videos of the event made their way to our newsroom (one shot by a relative of tom's).  the fire lasted no longer than 35 seconds, and the video we produced is little more than a minute long.  the production of that video, however, probably took me the better part of an 8 hour shift.  we still got a hearty share of complaints and accusations of insensitivity, but i stand by my edit as one that would do poynter's ethics lecturers proud.
tom was flown to a salt lake city hospital where he spent months in a special burn unit undergoing extensive skin grafts and other physical rehabilitation. 
in early october, ir reporter angela brandt and photog lisa kunkel drove down to spend a few days documenting his recovery.
they checked in with him several more times in the subsequent months, and then in january we began packaging together their extensive collection of photos, audio interviews, video clips and angela's stories.
building this project was a new experience for me -- rather than heading up actual production, as is my usual role, i got to try out the role of editor. 
lisa filled the role of lead producer, and her videos and slideshows went through four rounds of edits (either after she'd finished them, or at any point during the process where she wanted a hand) -- once with angela, to make sure their stories were running together seamlessly, once with our managing editor, and then once with me before getting a final sign-off with the bossman.
i hope i didn't drive lisa crazy with my mix of storyline edits, audio tweaks and premiere tips and tricks!  it was an awesome opportunity, and i think lisa's end videos really came together well.  the project as a whole has been our most successful news-side multimedia project to date -- in the first week since publication (on february 12), angela's stories were read well over 10,000 times, with lisa's videos closely following those numbers, and her photos garnering somewhere around 5,000 views.
huzzah for a receptive audience!  you can check out the whole package here, or by clicking on the image above.

canyon ferry makes "outside"

this is the second time in a year that canyon ferry lake has made it into a national magazine (last winter, oprah, photo of the lake/mountains accompanied a story about a girl who spends christmas with one of her divorced parents who live in townsend).  pretty cool -- and y'all, this is the view from my deck.  well, accept for the iceboat during the other 7 months of the year. (my dad hates those things -- he thinks they scare the fish away, and that they deliberately steer themselves as close to ice fisherman as possible.  heh.)

facebooking @ work = work on facebook

So I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible model for the rest of my age demographic when it comes to social networking.  I don't consider myself lax when it comes to my personal profiles and managing my online identity -- but I'm definitely "lax" when you compare the amount of time I spend on sites like Facebook, Myspace, Flickr or Instant Message services to the amount of time spent on those sites by your average 20-something.  I just don't have the patience for them -- if I have something short and sweet to say, sure, but the back and forth of instant messages drives me crazy.  If you want to have a conversation with me, CALL ME.
However, I love blogs.  I adore them -- there are probably two or three dozen various journalism, photo, or arts'n'craft specific blogs that I lurk on.  I'm not good at commenting or announcing my presence with link love (I know, I know, bad me.), but people who track their stats will probably notice that my IP pops up as a visitor to their site two to three times a day.  I use Bloglines to get RSS for most of my faves, but once I see that somebody's updated, I like to read their post on their site -- it feels like more of a visual experience, and there's more personality.
Anyway, what this is all getting at is the fact that I have spent the past three work days pretty much exclusively on Facebook -- a fact I think is worthy of blog-mention.
No, I wasn't micro-blogging status updates everytime I sneezed or somebody said something within my hearing range.  Nor was I uploading photos from my December trip to Georgia with the Carroll College football team ... although I do need to get on that.
I was building a "fan-able" site for the newspaper I work for!  Check out the page and fan us!