http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/ A blog on visual journalism, including documentary and news video. en Copyright 2007 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I'm always up for helping out a colleague, but I hesitated when asked to help produce a story on teenagers growing up without their fathers - afraid the story was too personal to cover. I haven't lived with my 5-year-old son in three years. He currently lives in Italy, so we don't see each other as much as I would like. There's one long stint - about two months - in summer, two weeks for Christmas, and around 10 days for his birthday in March. I ended up doing the story. To my surprise, the kids actually lined up to talk about a subject that most hadn't even discussed with their mothers. They needed to talk about how it felt to grow up without a father, and I needed to hear what they had to say. Most of the kids were angry because their fathers never followed up on their http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2007/01/in_assignment_i_saw_me_and.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2007/01/in_assignment_i_saw_me_and.html Pierre Kattar Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:00:00 -0500 I usually jump at the opportunity to produce videos involving music, musicians or composers. Music can be very inspiring, and it is a rare treat to be present while a musician's creative process unfolds. The first long-form, music-related video I did was about a German-born vibraphonist named Lennie Cuje. It took about a year, and it was something I worked on between other assignments. The more time I spent with Lennie, the more complex his life's story became. Born the year Adolf Hitler came to power, this former Hitler Youth fell in love with jazz at age 12 right after the fall of the Third Reich. To Lennie, jazz represented individualism, improvisation and freedom of expression - all things that were stifled during his childhood in Nazi Germany. I could have stopped reporting this story sooner than I did and produced a very nice package. However, if I had http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/more_than_music.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/more_than_music.html Christina Pino-Marina Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:21:36 -0500 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/from_class_clown_to_head_of_th_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/from_class_clown_to_head_of_th_1.html John W. Poole Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:46:24 -0500 Bill Cosby doesn't like my video. When I first heard that he "attacked" the piece at a forum on black youth in D.C. last summer, I was shocked and a little perplexed. I mean, c'mon he's famous, a comedic genius and played Dr. Huxtable on TV. So why would he bother commenting and with such apparent anger? His problem was apparently that he thought the video (which asks folks to define what it means to be a black man) neglected to include any mention of the important role of family and fatherhood as part of being a black man. It is a point he's been hammering home to mixed reactions from black audiences for at least the past several years. Of course, I do feel some need to defend the video, which I produced with Post reporter Hamil Harris. So by way of rebuttal, I direct your attention to the http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/bill_cosby_and_me.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/bill_cosby_and_me.html Ben de la Cruz Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:00:00 -0500 One of the most fun video experiences I have had this year had to do with coverage of Mexico's elections. When I heard about a Mexican nonprofit organization's first attempt at its own "Rock the Vote" campaign, I was definitely interested in covering it. I used to live on the Texas-Mexico border, where I would hear interesting "Rock en Espanol" on Mexican airwaves. I wanted to see what some of those bands were up to and how they were getting involved politically. Organizers of "Tu Rock Es Votar," which translates literally as "Your Rock is to Vote," were running black and white ads online and on Spanish language MTV. The ads featured Mexican rock and pop stars telling young viewers to "shut up" if they don't go to the polls. The message was direct -- if you don't vote, you can't complain about the results. The ad was bold http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/little_havana_hates_castro.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/little_havana_hates_castro.html Documentary Video Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:15:19 -0500 In the weeks leading up to the elections, I traveled to Michigan, the epicenter of American manufacturing. Cutbacks at the Big Three are pushing the economy there into a tailspin. I hung out at one of the state unemployment offices for a few days and listened to people who'd just lost their jobs talk about how bleak the situation really is. To drive the point home, one of the guys who came in had just been laid off from the factory that was literally next door to the unemployment office. The entire factory was closing. The Michigan economy is being impacted because fewer people are buying American cars, there is a sense that American cars aren't what they used to be, and health care and benefit costs are astronomical driving companies both small and large out of business. For those that can afford to stay in business, many of them http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/detroit_rock_city.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/detroit_rock_city.html John W. Poole Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:10:35 -0500 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/the_weather_factor_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/the_weather_factor_1.html Pierre Kattar Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:00:00 -0500 Since 1998, a team of videojournalists, multimedia editors and designers have been creating a new form of visual journalism using the strengths of video and interactive media to tell stories on the Web. In doing this, we are deliberately trying to create a new model of storytelling harkening back to what Marshall McLuhan once described as an "acoustic space" that had more in common with cave paintings and oral storytelling tradition than the linear narrative forms that have flowed from text in the last 500 years. We produce video stories in which the subject is more important than the storyteller, differentiating ourselves from the anchor-driven, reporter-driven model of broadcast news. We strive to create subject-driven narratives where people, places and events drive the story. We aim to connect our audience to situations, personalities and news events that shape their world. I believe that Web-driven visual journalism is still in its http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/welcome_to_behindthelens.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/welcome_to_behindthelens.html Tom Kennedy Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:00:00 -0500 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/who_we_are.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-lens/2006/12/who_we_are.html Documentary Video Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:00:00 -0500