Again a late multimedia post, and again it features something from St. Cloud … mostly because I am reflecting on my internship and because I am driving across the U.S. and haven’t had time to look at new multimedia.

In my opinion, this piece is representative of why I had such a good time during my internship. The video was made by multimedia intern Breanna Roy and reporter Brian MacPherson. Brian thought it would be fun to do a “cribs-style” video on the stadium at St. Cloud State. He and Breanna went together to film and interview and then they both edited it.

I thought it was also indicative of the creative freedom that was allowed at the Times, whether that was in video, print or photos. The editors were pleased when we tried new things (though they maybe didn’t always work) and, when shooting video, never limited us in any way, be in subject matter or editing techniques.

Just to touch on this whole longtail for video, fastermore/biggerbetter thing … I know that most of what came out of the Times was not hard-hitting in-depth investigative journalism video. But I also know that people cared about them. Though comments are currently not available in their movie player, we would inevitably (the town was small) run in to either people who watched the videos online, or people that we had interviewed and filmed. We had people tell us they enjoyed watching the work, express gratitude that we made them, and even ask if they could purchase a copy (why can’t we sell videos like we sell photos?).

When someone like Ryan Sholin suggests that the faster/more strategy is more viable for smaller market papers, he isn’t suggesting that you turn out crap. He (I think) is just saying the more the merrier. If you can put up a clip that someone in your community finds informative you have done your part. Also, just because you happen to be doing “faster/more” work, doesn’t mean you can’t do bigger/better work (we all want to). And, if you can find the time to create a more in-depth multimedia project, as the St. Cloud Times did when reporting on Downtown After Dark, more power to you.

Oh and, like photography, shooting more video improves the quality of your work. So for all of those photographers out there who are afraid of video because the quality of work they turn out will not mirror the kind of quality they can produce with a still camera, there is only one way to improve.