I made a mistake in my post last Wednesday, but that’s OK. Correcting the mistake has turned into a windfall of the learning. The mistake (now corrected) was that I told you (incorrectly) that the 10 tips from Eric Maierson/MediaStorm came from “MediaStorm’s Ten Ways To Improve Your Multimedia Production Right Now,” when in fact they came from “MediaStorm’s 10 More Ways to Improve Your Multimedia Right Now.” The “More” is critical, and I was silly to miss it, especially since it made me overlook Maierson’s first 10 tips, which are as concisely invaluable as his second ten. I highly suggest you read them.

Maierson’s Editing & Educational Prowess

I’m eager to send major kudos to Maierson, both for his editing genius and for helping us lesser multimedia editors in understanding how he approaches the process.

Beyond the two posts mentioned, Maierson was nice enough to respond to my last post, greatly helping me advance my understanding of what it means to “edit rhythmically.” Very nice of him, indeed.

One great quality of Maierson as an educator is that he links his tips to samples in projects hosted on MediaStrom, so we gain the chance to understand what he is saying in action. This is no small matter. As he wrote when telling me about editing rhythmically, “It sounds a bit oblique written out like this. . . ” Indeed. Samples are required for advancing learning.

Learning To Transition Ideas & Themes Watching “Black Market” by Patrick Brown

Of Maierson’s first 10 multimedia editing suggestions, the one that most caught me attention was #5: “Use image sequences to transitions between ideas or themes.”

“What?” I thought. Maierson explained:

Think of image sequences as paragraph breaks between two big ideas. Sometimes these sequences need only be two photographs long, or on occasion even one will suffice. See the poaching sequence in Black Market for an example.

I loved the idea, but it wouldn’t have meant much if I hadn’t carefully watched “Black Market” by photojournalist Patrick Brown. “Black Market” is powerful, sad and important — classic in-depth photojournalism brought to much fuller affect (and to a much wider audience) thanks to the use of beautifully executed multimedia (produced by Brian Storm and Eric Maierson). And the numerous, well-crafted transitions between ideas are critical to the success of the 10-minute piece.

Watching To Learn, Without Completely Understanding

As I watched “Black Market” I was following Maierson’s advice, carefully on the lookout for the poaching sequence that would help me understand how to use image sequences like “paragraph breaks between two big ideas.” However I admit that I wasn’t sure exactly where to look, even though he had mentioned the “poaching sequence.”

Many times before the poaching sequence arrived I found myself noting breaks between paragraphs, transitions between ideas — especially beautiful transitional moments in the time line at 4:05, 5:00, 5:48 and 8:46 — and so I wasn’t clear if I was totally understanding Maierson’s point, even though I felt like I was seeing it in action.

I’m almost hesitant to share these specific moments in the time line of “Black Market,” as you might head right to them, looking for the answer. But what I’m learning from Maierson’s teaching is that there is no one, specific answer.

I often offer up multimedia and video samples as great inspiration, saying, “Here! Watch this!” But perhaps inspiration on its own is not enough — not if it doesn’t foster our thinking in ways that help us to improve our craft. Maierson is showing me that the best way to learn multimedia is not to:

A) Just watch and be inspired, and also not to:

B) Watch expecting a specific lesson to simply sink in, but instead to:

C) Watch with an idea of what can be learned — with a little guidance from the likes of Maierson — and then try to figure it out myself.

Tags: Animal Poaching, Black Market, Brian Storm, Conscientious Photography, Editing Strategies, Environmental Photography, Eric Maierson, MediaStorm, MediaStorm’s 10 More Ways to Improve Your Multimedia Right Now, MediaStorm’s Ten Ways To Improve Your Multimedia Production Right Now, Multimedia Editing, Patrick Brown, Photojournalism