Saturday, March 10, 2007

Good Newspaper Web Video

"Where's the good newspaper web video?" I'm asked.

Some of the best newspaper video is not just video but a mix of video, stills, graphics and words. Some of the best is narrative; some not. Here's are links to some cool stuff:

The Dallas News is doing some great work and is well along in converting all its still shooters into video shooters. They do good stuff almost every day. But their Katrina anniversary package is very moving: A Year after the Heartbreak shows that David Leeson understands that video - even when done with stills - is an emotional medium. Also check out Yolanda's Crossing . Dallas' Leeson has some of their good stuff on iTunes podcasts: Best Of, which includes Moments 2006, which is still on their site along with Leeson's blog, which lists a bunch of good video. Whew!

Tom Van Dyke at the Chicago Tribune did this weather feature on one of his first outings with a new video camera - and instead of trying to do TV, he found a great character:


(And why can't I embed video from any newspaper sites?)

Everyone knows about Travis Fox at the Washington Post, but they've got some other great talent: Drumline by Preston Keres has the rhythm. And Justin's Got Game is a good hoops story by Pierre Kattar.

Stephen Crowley at the New York Times (who's only been at it a year) has done some cool stuff with reporter Charlie LeDuff on their series American Album .

Roger Richards at the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot edited and produced My Favorite Child, a moving story about the lasting effects of institutionalizing a child with Down Syndrome.

And some newspaper video doesn't have a frame of video in it: Train Jumping from Gary Coronado and writer Christine Evans at the Palm Beach Post isn't video but has nat-sound driven narrative.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Richard Koci Hernandez and Dai Sugano and the rest of the staff over at the San Jose Mercury News are pushing the envelope with their interpretive video, and though there are sometimes rough edges it's always fresh: Friday Night: 7 Bamboo, a karaoke bar story by Dai Sugano is very different from what we're used to and Richard's solo production of Red Hot Rails, a Flash/video/still examination of the explosion of railroad traffic due to increasing imports, is great. And The Extreme Southwest is art, as is Richard's essay on the the Seasons.

Lest we forget our friends up north, the National Post produced Eastside Blues as their very first attempt at video. The Toronto Star's Bernard Weil has a little more experience and has a good Skating video.

UPDATE:
The Detroit Free Press is also doing some good work covering the military and Iraq: The Christmas from Fallujah video by Dave Gilkey . And the first Michigan Band of Brothers video of their training in the Mojave Desert before their deployment to Iraq. They also covered a Marine funeral, covered by two shooters (in the same video) in Iraq and Michigan. (Needs Firefox on a Mac.)

Sonya Doctorian at the Rocky Mountain News has done a lot of good stuff, including A Sister's Gift .



Please, dive into the comments and add some more!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Chuck.

In the spirit of dialogue, I have posted critiques of the first four of your "best of" suggestions on B-Roll.net. I hope you and your readers will take a look.

cameradog

Anonymous said...

Here's another one

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=0&f=/c/a/2006/10/29/BAGPQL80B0141.DTL

Anonymous said...

Actually, you can just start here

http://www.sfgate.com/video/

and pick

yelvington said...

Startribune.com has been doing great video since the days of dialup under the tutelage of Regina McCombs, who was a shooter at KARE-TV in Minneapolis before joining the newspaper’s online staff in 1997 or so. (Note: I was editor of startribune.com at the time.)

Anonymous said...

Here's a profoundly great video (via Mindy McAdams) that I can't imagine ever appearing on TV (not at least produced with this intimacy).

http://pcr2r.blogspot.com/2007/02/helping-hand-130-click-photo-to-play.html

Anonymous said...

BTW, Steve: Good pointer.

Of course, having a great photographer like Ken Riddick run things probably helps.

Anonymous said...

Sonya Doctorian's series "A Sister's Gift" is some quality stuff. Here it is: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_spotlight/article/0,2777,DRMN_23960_4828753,00.html

Anonymous said...

There's more to news sites than just news. Sometimes, It's okay to have a little fun with online video.

Here's a couple from VenturaCountyStar.com:

Against the ropes: http://web.venturacountystar.com/video/life/lovebox.html

La Vida Lucha: http://wms.scripps.com/ventura/features06/lucha0406.wmv

Unknown said...

David Leeson understands that video - even when done with stills -

Huh? I thought we used to call these slideshows? Now we are calling them still video?

Unknown said...

I really liked this one about a family whose young son was murdered.