Multimedia in Minutes

This Week’s Multimedia Round-up, January 2

Brian James Kirk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:56:42 +0000

Due to the holidays, this week’s round-up is coming a few days late. Some really exciting projects were released before the new year. The Washington Post has a compelling multimedia package entitled Voices from the Bay, spanning all mediums—video, interactive, panorama, and more, to show the struggles involved with living in a small Chesapeake Bay community in light of pollution and other bay problems. The San Jose Mercury News takes a different approach to showing population and poverty issues in India with an non narrated, slow-motion video that does well with setting the mood. The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, and Dallas News also made this week’s round-up for their great work with interactive, slide show, and video content.

Failing the Chesapeake - The Washington Post

The Washington Post has put together a great package covering the Chesapeake Bay area and the problems facing it in recent years. The layout, only part of which can be seen in the above image, utilizes a wide breadth of multimedia content. The map of the area, with associated pictures (shown above) is a good introduction to the stories. An interactive timeline is simple, well-designed solution to interactivity. The writing and video content is below the time line, followed by a smart “recent headlines” section. Advertisements by Google flank the content and offer specialized ads specific to the content.

Left Behind - San Jose Mercury News

By using slow motion video, exploring the depths of poverty with great visual contrast, and utilizing a sound track that is mix of live audio and ambient, torrential music, this is one of the more interesting videos I can remember seeing this year.

Please Touch Museum - Philadelphia Inquirer

A creative exploration of the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, utilizing a fictional children’s journal/storybook to tell a story and show features of the museum.

A New Fleet of Spacecraft - The New York Times

New York Times has a linear, interactive tour of the Ares I, part of the NASA’s newest proposed space fleet member. The linear storytelling here is very effective and a staple of NYT’s multimedia arsenal.

At the Edge of Life - The Dallas News

This is a tough story, and even more tough to see on video. I don’t think any other medium could be as effective as video in telling this story. Visually, the impact is substantial.

This Week’s Multimedia Round-up, December 21

Brian James Kirk — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:28:57 +0000

Simple interactive design explains new light rail system in Arizona

Arizona’s East Valley Tribune has an interactive feature package on its new light rail system. Its simplistic navigation and linear-storytelling design is ideal for small newsrooms and students to produce. Later this week, we’ll have a breakdown of the interactive’s features. [Via East Valley Tribune]

Database interactivity explained by comprehensive audio and slide show function

St. Louis Post-Dispatch hit one out of the park with this interactive database showing home foreclosures in the metro area. With economics that are tough for anyone to digest, users might initially be overwhelmed or unsure of what they’re looking at. The feature has an interesting solution to an important dilemma—an audio clip that tells the story, explains the features and shows what the package is all about. [Via St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Great videos and why they work

Globe and Mail’s online Globe Docs series has posted a video about pet rehabilitation. Note what they’re doing right: a strong narrative, a variety of interesting interview shots, narration over action shots, unusual camera angles. However, I find that the video is a little long for online purposes. Still, great inspiration for aspiring videographers. [Via Globe and Mail]

It might just be the black and white photography, but this video has impact. The intimate, close-ups give it the right tone, and the video is not hurt by a lack of b-roll. Story-telling at its simplest. [Via Northwest Herald]

Another simple video done in a low-budget setting. Although this video goes long, I enjoy the writing and believe that even a story this small, that probably escalated from coffee at the drug store, has great meaning. [Via Star Tribune]

Use Garageband to mix audio snippets into great audio presentations

Brian James Kirk — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:58:28 +0000

Creating good flow in your audio slideshows, interactive presentations, or podcasts is as easy as importing your clips into GarageBand and including the quick tricks included in this tutorial.

Right-click here and select “Save As…” for the associated project files

Make colors POP in your digital photographs

Brian James Kirk — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:51:41 +0000

This quick tutorial will show you how to improve the color, contrast and clarity of your digital photographs with a simple edit. Using Photoshop’s advanced Levels technology, you can make your pictures burst with life.

What is Twitter?

Sean Blanda — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:46:37 +0000

Twitter is a valuable networking and reporting tool for journalists, but for those unfamiliar with its fundamental concepts, it might seem like just another drop in the social networking bucket. Sean Blanda explains what makes it such a great tool for journalists and how to get started.

Preparing your images for the web

Neal Santos — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:59:09 +0000

Taking great, high-resolution photos is an art. But saving those photos for the web is an art too? You might not believe it, but scaling those images down to web-ready formats is as important as framing your subjects.

Creating lower-thirds in Final Cut Pro

Brian James Kirk — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:12:20 +0000

This tutorial will teach you how to create a clickable button in Flash that will trigger an event. This is one of the foundations of using Flash, and will help you be able to edit or create Flash files in the newsroom.

Shadows and highlights in Photoshop

Neal Santos — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:04:04 +0000

Editing the brightness and contrast of your images is a quick way of improving their quality. The next step is correcting shadows and highlights. Background too dark? Sunlight causing a glare? You’ll be surprised how easy it is to bring out unseen detail or hide something that doesn’t look right.

Creating simple, interactive buttons in Flash

Brian James Kirk — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:43:49 +0000

Designing and coding buttons in Flash is the fundamental stepping-stone to creating fantastic interactive designs, and the gateway to advanced multimedia. Learn how to tackle the 3-step process. We make it look easy. Because it is easy.

Click here to download the associated project files.

Multimedia in Minutes Launches

Brian James Kirk — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:07:00 +0000

Welcome to Multimedia in Minutes. You are currently viewing a pre-launch version of the site, so please be advised that it is a work in progress. We’re hoping to launch in January and we will release content on a weekly basis after launch. Until then, take a look around the site and see what we have to offer.

If you’re interested in partnering with Multimedia in Minutes or contracting tutorials for your educational institution or news room, please e-mail brianjameskirk@gmail.com.