Multimedia:Links

Hi All -

This story follows a group of reformed gang members as they attempt to educate the children of an extremely impoverished and violent rural Alabama town. The well-crafted piece is eye-opening and uplifting.

A tip of the hat to the excellent http://www.multimediashooter.com for letting me know about this must-see story from the LA Times. It's always reason for celebration when Katy Newton and Sean Connelley release another project. Add to it the photography of Liz Baylen and the editing of Mary Cooney and you've got a can't miss project.

Hope all is well -

Chris

Hi All -

I thought I would pass along this documentary that former newspaper photo-stud and current Ohio University Master's candidate Francis Gardler produced about legendary photographer/teacher Dave LaBelle. Lots of great interviews, photos and a great subject make for a piece that's extremely watchable - despite its cheesy music.

Kudos Francis. Thanks for sharing such an inspirational person with us.

Direct Link - http://www.vimeo.com/7866068

Hope all is well -

Chris

Hi All -

Sorry I've been out of the game for a few weeks. I was sick. I was on vacation. But now...I am BACK.

So without further ado, here is a must read Smashing Magazine story about the fantastic possibilities of blogazines. Possibilities that new news orgs should seize by the balls

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/the-death-of-the-blog-post/

While content management systems, widgets, embeds and a thousand other little toys have made websites clean, easy, and web 2.0-able, they have also made them a bit predictable. Let's face it, you set up a site and before long nearly every page on that site looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Sure the content is different and content is king, but - and it's a big but, what happened to visual variety?

I'm thinking especially about news sites here. In the print world, the glorious layout was the ultimate payoff for days, weeks, months of work on a story. Designers, photographers, writers and editors sat around tables and computers talking about how the design would best suit the story, and the results - as evidenced in books like these (http://www.amazon.com/Best-Newspaper-Design-29-v/dp/1592534767) - were inspired.

Now due to a multitude of factors a newspaper or magazine that for years has been known for outstanding and original design churns out page after exact-same page of web product.

But, my friends, we live in revolutionary times. And the death of the boring web post is at hand. Someday soon, when kids who grew up eating code for breakfast are designers at new news organizations we will once again bask in gloriously original news design.

This post about the birth of the blog-a-zine is a preview of what's to come. And I for one cannot wait.

Hope all is well -

Chris

List of the Day

Browse List of the Day

Page 1 of 5

Upton Sinclair, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein may have set the standard for muckraking in the 20th century, but their heirs apparent are as likely to pick up a video camera as they are a pen when they fight the battles of the 21st. Technical advances have put professional tools into the hands of amateurs, but they explain only part of the reason that so much muckraking has moved from newspapers to video.

Living in an information-rich society, we’ve all become skimmers. Reading a book from cover to cover, is a luxury that fewer people indulge in, yet the headlines, sound bites, viral videos, and tweets that season our daily ambiance don’t have the depth to help us understand an increasingly complex world. Bridging that paradox is the documentary film: short enough that it doesn’t require a major commitment but long enough to make a complex argument without interruption.

Whether you think they’re full of holes or iron-clad, films like An Inconvenient Truth, Sicko, Bowling for Columbine, Expelled, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Corporation, and The Fog of War—all made in the past decade—present arguments that develop only with time and concentration.

And where the problems are too complex for even 90 minutes, a hybrid approach can work. The best example is the recent film Food, Inc., which opened many eyes to the major problems of the country’s food supply, mostly by skimming ideas that are probed more deeply in the books of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. Having seen the film, newly engaged viewers, energized by its potent, condensed content, might next turn to the books themselves, and maybe the authors’ blogs, for more information, letting the media work in tandem.

Given the troubled state of theatrical distribution, many documentaries are more likely to be seen at home than the mall. But who will finance them? Even with so many outlets—from traditional theaters and aging broadcast television to new and unproven avenues like SnagFilms, YouTube, and Netflix Instant—most documentarians are unlikely to earn enough to keep working. It’s a gap that’s yet to be bridged: the distance between the obvious value of hard-nosed reporting and the cost of getting the results in front of an audience. Robert Davis

25. Food, Inc. (2009)
Director: Robert Kenner
Starring: Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

Instead of filling his film with scary, hard-hitting footage, Kenner made a well-reasoned documentary that politely pushes you towards its viewpoint. This lack of radicalism has made the film one of the most effective propellers for expanding the farm-to-table movement.

24. Dig! (2004)
Director: Ondi Timoner
Starring: Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Anton Newcombe
Studio: Palm Pictures

Chronicling seven years of the turbulent, fast-paced career of The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dig! reveals the gritty, messy details of the ’90s rock scene and complicated friendships and ambitions that formed it. The film goes beyond footage of sex and drugs to tell the urgent and compelling story of two bands seeking fame and radical musical revolution. Plus, the whole thing is available to view for free at Hulu.com. Caroline Klibanoff [You can watch the full movie by clicking the video above, thanks to SnagFilms]

23. Gleaners and I (2000)
Director: Agnès Varda
Starring: Bodan Litnanski, François Wertheimer
Studio: Zeitgeist Films

The law of the ancient Israelites commanded farmers not to be overzelous in harvesting so that some crops would remain for travelers and the poor to collect (Leviticus 19:9-10). This tradition of gleaning from the fields—and even from urban environments—continues in France, where director Varda follows the various gleaners in the city and country. Josh Jackson

22. The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006)
Director: Jeff Feuerzeig
Starring: Daniel Johnston
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

A haunting profile of a man obsessed with the devil and plagued by mental illness, and the transcendent music he made throughout his life. Daniel Johnston captured the hearts of critics and fans while being shuffled in and out of mental hospitals, burdened by his demons and liberated by his piano keys. Caroline Klibanoff

21. No End In Sight (2007)
Director: Charles Ferguson
Starring: Campbell Scott
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

After several years of fine and varied documentaries on Iraq, Ferguson came along to sum up the American side of the debacle—the fear, hubris and missed opportunities—with great efficiency. It’s an especially good, if infuriating primer for those who’ve grown exhausted of following daily reports from the Persian Gulf. Robert Davis

Hi All -

As the decade draws to a close we'll start seeing a lot of best of the the aughts lists. Here's a good starter from Paste magazine- the 25 best documentaries of the decade.

I would add Steve James "Stevie" and Laura Poitras "My Country My Country" to this list. Any others?

Direct Link - http://bit.ly/gzpYE

Hope all is well -

Chris

Seize the opportunity to create the job you've always wanted.
Help heal the economy.
Make a difference.
Take your business to new heights.
But most importantly -
Remember when you were a kid, when everything was within your reach
And then say to yourself quietly, but with determination
It sill Is...

Hope all is well -

Chris

Hi All -

Magic Bullet Looks is all the rage right now, and for good reason - think of it as a non-destructive photoshop for your non destructive editing environment. This video tutorial will get you started with the basics of this extremely powerful plugin.

Here's the direct link to the tutorial from ProLost - http://prolost.com/blog/2007/10/22/magic-bullet-looks-getting-started.html

Here's the direct link to the Magic Bullet Looks site - http://prolost.com/blog/2007/10/22/magic-bullet-looks-getting-started.html

Hope all is well -

Chris

Hi All -

Here is a great tutorial on how to export your cuts from a non-linear editing system to best create a killer .mov file. Rather than poach the content I'll link directly to this post here -

http://www.vimeo.com/forums/topic:4038

This is really useful, trust me.

Hope all is well -

Chris

Hi All -

It's about time somebody did a serious story on one of the most talented and influential musicians to emerge in the past decade. Current TV's music show "Embedded" sent two journalists on tour with Mos in Japan and the resulting piece is watchable and soulful.

A friend once told me that when you are first getting involved in a serious, long-term story that you want to "cast your characters wisely." What he meant by is that when approaching a documentary, especially a profile piece, make sure the person is interesting. At that point you are honestly half way there. Unfortunately the next half requirres countless hours of work. But when the result comes off - as in this piece about Mos - then something really meaningful will have been created. Connections will have been made; creativity will have been harnessed; and hopefully the world will be just a little bit better than before.

Hope all is well -

Chris

P.S. thanks to Brad Zweerink (http://www.twitter.com/zrink) for the heads up on this.