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Looking for feedback
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When the funeral for the first soldier in our neck of the woods killed in Iraq was held a few weeks ago, as can be expected, there was a huge media circus, and all the area newspapers and television stations were there. Some handled the situation more delicately than others.
Our managing editor was on vacation and out of town that week, and it fell to ME to do the story and the photos. Because we’re a small weekly newspaper, we didn’t have a lot of room for the photos (especially since my news/feature story was on the large size) so I took a cue from the daily paper in Wausau and created a multimedia slideshow of the images. This was the first time I’ve ever tried one of these, and literally had to teach myself the software as I went along.
We have had the link in our paper for two weeks now, and the readers found it a well put together and moving experience. Since we have a few hundred views left on the streaming video - and I’m looking for imput from people outside the area - I’m posting the link here.
The video will ONLY work on machines running Windows Media Player.
http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=9562&CID=28862
Again, these are very moving images, and I would appreciate any critiques on the thing as a whole. Thanks.
From the Northwoods of Wisconsin
Jamie “Redwolf” Taylor, esq.
Photographer, writer, really cool guy
Sports and Schools Editor
Merrill Courier
“When the going gets WEIRD, the WEIRD turn PRO,” Hunter S. Thompson
by
James E. Taylor
at
Mon Jun 12 16:54:01 UTC 2006
(ed. Mar 12 2008)
Northwoods of Wisconsin,
United States
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Jamie, the nature of your material makes critique difficult but, setting that aside, I must say it’s difficult to sit through a five-minute show of a funeral set to a stripped-down, melancholic version of Pachelbel. The whole piece is very slow. I would prefer to see a tighter edit, fewer images and some less maudlin, less familiar music. Concentrate on the images that really tell the story and do not just fill out the time required by the length of the music. Another thing you can do, and I don’t know what software you are using, is zoom in and out on some of those images, so that the whole show is less static. Zooming in or out will also let you concentrate the viewer’s attention on your best images, You can let the weaker ones, which still might be necessary as establishing shots, fly by a little faster. This will help you add some visual pacing, too. Now, you are at the mercy of the music, and that’s not good thing in my view. Again, difficult material, so I hope you take my comments in the positive spirit in which they are intended. Cheers, Preston
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I couldnt run the thing on my machine, but judging from Preston’s description I would have to agree. Pachelbel is about as hackneyed as you can get; on the other hand, judging from your audience response it may be just what middle america expects to hear. As for the static issue, yes many so called multimedia stories are coming out now, but few to none of them try to work with the film techniques and sound techniques inherent in the medium, so you end up with are rather listless rhythm in the image sequence and a lack of synchronicity between all the elements. The best software out there for this thing is Final Cut—it is designed for film makers, and while other simpler programs try to approximate it, they dont cut it. FC is the best.
Your instincts were good in choosing this medium over a few still images. There are times when the whole multimedia thing can be a real asset.
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Well, I had to do it on the cheap, as our paper wasn’t going to cough up cash for royalty free music or a license for the song I REALLY wanted, from the movie “Glory.”
So I was stuck with what music came with the program. Pachelbel was the best “fit” of all of them.
I really don’t think our publisher/owner gets the multimedia approach, as he is old school. So they weren’t going to do anything beyond put a link to it on the paper website.
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No worries, you can always retool the thing any which way you like. These programs make it fun to work with the images and create different effects. Btw, even pachelbel’s is not, strictly speaking, without some kind of licensing arrangement. There is no free music for these things and that is one problem that most of the multimedia proponents have not adequately addressed. There are synch rights to pay, for example. And then even if the song you choose is old enough for its author to have passed on, you still have to pay the interpreter of the piece (which is why on small budget films you tend to hear lots of “covers” of old hits played by cheaply hired studio musicians for that sole recording).
Maybe now with the success of this thing among your readers/viewers, your editor might start whistling a different tune.
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sorry I meant to mention this before, you should take a look at James J. Lee’s website, as he has done some very good things with his Flash slideshows using simple software that gives him some good options. The sound quality is excellent.
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You can do good stuff (and in five minutes) with Sounslides. I tried and its rocks!!!! www.soundslides.com
PS: Jon, have you the chance to read my email?
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Yes Hugo, had some outages yesterday, so internet was not available. will respond forthwith.
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