Jan 14 2011

Multimedia Easy Start: Still Images with Photographer Voice-over

Category: Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 10:25 am

“Face-off With a Deadly Predator” is a great video — wonderful story, amazing images. From a tech point of view, it offers great inspiration to those of us moving into motion.

When it comes to video production it doesn’t get much simpler than “Deadly Predator.” Yet, as far as the quality of multimedia storytelling is concerned, it doesn’t get much better. Notice that the decidedly simple approach to the video interview of Paul Nicklen doesn’t detract from the piece — at all.

As you watch “Deadly Predator,” consider how you can put the still images in your collection to motion — adding only your own voice

To be clear: You don’t need to record yourself on video. As Bill Cunningham proves, voice-only voice-overs can work quite effectively when creating a video from still images. (Consider adding a little royalty-free music for drama, as in “Deadly Predator.”

A big thanks to Mary Lynn Price for strongly suggesting I watch this video, when I interviewed her for “Adventures in Motion.” “It’s so simple and yet it’s gotten more than two million hits on YouTube,” she said.

Price told me that as long as we have a good story, multimedia can be as simple as mixing our images with our own thoughts in our own voices.

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Dec 27 2010

Walking Into a Sharply Intelligent Documentary

Category: Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 1:39 pm

As Jason Nunes suggested I watch it, I would have anyway. But I just had to watch “Running with Scissors” because, as timing would have it, just two days before receiving Nunes’ recommendation I had read “The Memory Addict” by Sam Anderson, a fascinating article published in New York Magazine. (May 5, 2008.) In the piece, Anderson explores the complex intersection of memory and the memoir, focusing in on Augusten Burroughs, author of the bestselling memoir, “Running with Scissors.”

For two reasons, I suggest you watch “Running with Scissors,” the 11-minute documentary by Ricky John Molloy, Thomas Tolstrup and Nancy J. Hawsyou. As Nunes told me, “It’s really beautifully shot, in a style that I think is very influenced by photography, not film making.” In other words, good inspiration for us (mostly) still photographers.

More compelling — and the reason you need to make it to the seven-minute mark — while “Running with Scissors” starts out featuring simple, straightforward storytelling about a sweet, easy-to-digest topic, it takes a well-crafted turn that involves more complex, less obvious storytelling about more profound issues.

With a light and intelligent hand, Molloy, Tolstrup and Hawsyou shift from straight reporting and welcome us to contemplate the relationship between our life experiences (or memories, our personal memoirs) and how these influence how we live our lives in the present. As such, “Running with Scissors” serves as a nice counterpoint to Anderson’s “The Memory Addict.” (An amazing read, Anderson’s article questions whether Burroughs has the uncanny memory he is famous for, or whether he is full of shit, or whether both are true, or neither, and whether it really matters.)

How I Saw “Running With Scissors”

Disclaimer: My viewing experience is less important than yours, and “Running with Scissors” takes advantage of unexpected (but not underhanded) turns of plot. So read the following only if, A) You won’t be watching the film or, B) You already have.

I was encouraged and sucked into the documentary when Continue reading “Walking Into a Sharply Intelligent Documentary”

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Sep 10 2010

The Value of Shutting Up

Category: In-Camera Techniques, Multimedia & Video, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 11:30 am

AC_Blog_100910_Shut Up_1More than once Gail Mooney has advised photographers new to video to shut up when recording audio interviews. I got the point — I thought. If we are not quite, in general, or jump to quickly to the the next question we risk making a mess of our audio files, making editing a real bitch, possibly losing precious soundbites. That made sense. But I’ve discovered that Mooney’s advice actually is much more deeply valuable than had thought.

When Mooney was here in Buenos Aires finishing up her “Opening Our Eyes” reporting, she invited me to help her and Erin Kelly (her daughter/project partner) with one on their interviews. My job: to help with translating. Mooney gave me a quick prep talk before the interviewing, insisting that I shut up as much as possible, and advised me to nod my head, make eye contact and try to encourage further talking — on the subject’s part — by not doing any talking on my part.

If you’ve ever met or been interviewed by me, you’ll know that one of the hardest things for me to do is shut up. I talk, talk, talk, talk.

But then, on location interviewing Maria Eugenia Cuyas, with Mooney working the camera and Erin and I asking the questions, I saw the value of shutting up in action. It wasn’t — as I had thought — just about not jumping on top of the interviewees final words. It was about eliciting much more interesting, expansive answers by using the power of silence.

A Chance to Shut Up for The Master

On Mooney and Erin’s last day in Buenos Aires, I was honored to have the chance to interview them both. That’s right, in the “making-of” video short Mooney created on returning home, she and Erin are responding to my questions — and even more, to my silence. They had tons on their mind, and just needed a little prompting.

The more silent I forced myself to be, the more Continue reading “The Value of Shutting Up”

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Sep 08 2010

Christopher Cairns on the Value of Music and Friendship for Visual Artists

Category: Multimedia & Video, Photographers — Ethan G. Salwen @ 12:34 pm

Christopher Cairns says his sculpture transmits an impeding sense of disaster that is born out of his attitudes about modern life. Cairns, who relies heavily on music for inspiration, also notes, “The detachment of the contemporary culture from classical music and serious jazz is a disaster.” Regarding the value of friendship, Cairns says, “Part of being an artist is to try to find other people that you can share feelings and ideas with.”

Cairns’ sculpture is powerfully evocative and his sentiments about music and friendship in relationship to the visual artist’s life will be of interest to photographers. Although I can share all this about Cairns, I only know the artist through this five-minute video created by Richard Anderson. This speaks to the incredible storytelling power of documentary shorts. It is also reason to applaud Anderson for taking a great leap forward in his video-making pursuits.

Last month I reported that Anderson was just getting started in video by learning multimedia techniques by experimenting playfully. His latest creation, a personal project, proves that Anderson is getting great results — fast.

Check it out this video for inspiration from both Cairns and Anderson. Take particular note of how Anderson puts his photographer’s eye to excellent use. His framing of Cairns among his sculptures is fantastic and not typical of standard documentary interviews. And Anderson’s still images make wonderful b-roll that clearly reveal Cairns’ vision of impending disaster.

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Aug 17 2010

Documenting Tango to Learn Multimedia

Category: In-Camera Techniques, Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 6:33 pm

Yesterday I headed over the tango festival going on here in Buenos Aires to photograph a workshop being given by Claudia Bozzo, my tango teacher. She had seen my tango stop-motion movie and asked me if I could document her class and “make something special,” which I heard as, “Here’s a chance to practice your multimedia skills.” This seemed like a good idea given my work for Human Rights Watch. It also seemed like a good time to put my photography skills to work documenting aspects of a culture that daily becomes more my culture.

Carla, on sound, interviews Claudia, on tango.

Carla, on sound, interviews Claudia, on tango.

You can check out the down-and-dirty gallery of images I’ve selected to form the base of the what Ralph Clevenger calls a “music motivational piece.” As you can see, none of the images are stellar, but that won’t be critical — once they are zipping by to music. You can see that I was taking Mary Lynn Price’s advice and working to record the full spectrum of activities in wide, medium and close-up shots.

My girlfriend, Carla, did a great job recording sound, although I didn’t do a great job of instructing her how to do so. I wasn’t clear on what audio I wanted. I also wasn’t clear on how to shoot video segments, which I did frantically with my Canon G9 in between photographing stills.

Frankly, I found the experience overwhelming and confusing. And that wasn’t because there were more than 100 people stuffed into a very tight area, making it very difficult to move around. The real problem was that I was not clear on how I would be using the images and/or video and/or audio to create my piece. However, I wasn’t dismayed.

Thanks to advice from many photographers, I realize that creating multimedia is all about editing. And now I have some raw material to get into Final Cut Express and get editing. As I figure out what I can make, I will undoubtedly learn how I can better balance capturing stills, video and audio to record this kind of event for multimedia.

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Jul 04 2010

Royalty-Free Music Rocks, Rolls and (Legally) Produces Drama

Category: Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 10:55 am

“Most songs are copyright protected, and cannot be used unless they are licensed,” Ralph Clevenger emphasized when we talked the other day. Actually, he emphasized this point a number of times, noting that this very obvious point is not so very obvious to many photographers putting images to sound.

I wasn’t to me, which is why for my “Milonga de Sal y Pimienta” video, which I posted here in May, I totally — major oops — stole music from Gotan Project to achieve my artist goal. I just wasn’t thinking, inspired by the music itself to make my video. Heck, the music is the best part of the piece!

It’s no excuse, but I think my music-using ignorance is somewhat understandable. After all, millions of YouTube videos feature illegally-used music, and, right or wrong, this has given me a sense that using music any which way is AOK. Well, it’s not. Just like it’s not OK for people to use our images without permission.

To get myself on the right side of the intellectual property of music, yesterday I threw this little baby together, appropriately called, “Royalty-Free Buenos Aires.”

It’s clearly nothing special, but Continue reading “Royalty-Free Music Rocks, Rolls and (Legally) Produces Drama”

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Jul 02 2010

Take a Flight to Antarctica

Category: Books, Multimedia & Video, Viewpoint — Ethan G. Salwen @ 3:56 pm

“The way I approach multimedia is to think about each project as a storyteller and then to think about what tools I will need to best tell the story,” says Mary Lynn Price, who since retiring from practicing trial law in 2003 has dedicated herself to video journalism, with specific interest in natural history stories that support conservation efforts. Just as Ralph Clevenger told me, Price explained to me than nothing matters more than thinking about story when putting together “music videos” — her name for multimedia projects that tell stories without narration or even graphics, but just smart use of images and music.

Price proves her music-video storytelling prowess in “C-17 Flight to McMurdo Antarctica.” In less than two minutes, she takes us from baggage security scanning and flight boarding to landing on “The Ice,” having shown us tons of interesting close-ups during this famous, windowless flight.

“Famous” is, um, definitely too strong a word for this particular flight that takes scientists and support staff to the McMurdo Station. But I’m an Antarctic exploration junkie so I’ve sure heard about it plenty, although I could never really imagine what it would be like — until I got taken for a ride with Price’s great documentary vision.

What does it mean that I’m an Antarctic (and Arctic) exploration junkie? It means that I’ve read Alfred Lansing’s “Endurance” three times, twice read “Shackleton’s Forgotten Men” (by the brilliant Lennard Bickel) and at least once just about all of the other classic books about frostbite and suffering in pursuit of knowledge at the southernmost (and northernmost) tip of the world.

I’m kidding about the pursuit of knowledge. Continue reading “Take a Flight to Antarctica”

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Jun 28 2010

Telling Stories with Music Motivational Pieces

Category: Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 12:30 pm

“Even music motivational pieces have to have a storyline,” Ralph Clevenger told me in regard to multimedia production. “Photographers tend to freak out when they hear the word ’story.’ Unlike with still photography, in multimedia you are now creating a piece that has a beginning, middle and end. That’s a story.”

“Music motivational pieces” are what Clevenger calls multimedia pieces that consist of still and/or video captures set to a music-only soundtrack. No need to deal with the difficulties of recording or editing complex soundtracks — new territory for most photographers.

“They can be absolutely wonderful,” Clevenger said of music motivation pieces. (Many photographers refer to them as “music videos.”) When getting started in multimedia, Clevenger says, “Most still photographers will go the route of creating these beautiful little pieces with beautiful images.”

Continue reading “Telling Stories with Music Motivational Pieces”

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Jun 08 2010

Tony Wu Heads into the Uncharted Waters of Final Cut Pro

Category: Creative Process, Multimedia & Video — Ethan G. Salwen @ 11:19 am

How’s that for timing? Last Thursday I feature the underwater storytelling of Tony Wu, on Friday I make a case that we should embrace the opportunities of learning multimedia on the job, and then today I hear from Wu. “I’ve been offline for a while,” he writes. “I was in the midst of editing this.”

“This” lead me to Wu’s “Adventures with Craig” blog post, which features his latest video, “Captain Craig,” a project which required Wu to head into uncharted waters with Final Cut Pro. “This is the first time I’ve edited anything with Final Cut Pro and Motion,” Wu notes in his post, and asks us cut him some slack regarding aspects of his video that might need improvement.

Cut some slack? Huh??? The piece is great –  successful in terms of what might be considered “traditional multimedia journalism,” but which also focuses on the more “cinematic experience” that Ian Shive told me about.

Dangerous, Uncharted, Satisfying Waters

Continue reading “Tony Wu Heads into the Uncharted Waters of Final Cut Pro”

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