Weeks 9, 10 and 11

Graham Rahal, background, tries to pass Joe D'Agostino in the turn one hairpin during the qualifying session for the San Jose Grand Prix Champ Car Atlantic Series on Friday, July 28, 2006. (LiPo Ching/San Jose Mercury News)

FIELD NOTES, 3 WEEKS: July 18-Aug 4

I'm still working on getting comfortable with the duel roles of shooting and editing. In terms of multimedia, I usually have been helping Gary Reyes with video editing. Gary still does the bulk of the editing, I just help finesse it bit. Usually I try to help him cover his voice over interviews with the visual content or B-roll and sometimes restructure the order of shots. I think once Gray gets more comfortable with the technical aspects of editing, he'll be doing most of it himself.


Bay Area Heat Wave
Yahoo Design Expo

Gary has been in an accelerated video learning mode. He's shooting almost everything in video and (as noted by Richard) has surpassed Karen in terms of video output.

Nhat Meyer has also started to shoot more video having two video stories.

His Youth Fair works nicely as a video -- it's fun and seeing movement helps in this situation.

There's definitely much more interest in video now. Jose Lepe also shot video for the first time last night. There's no real outward pressure, but the photographers who shoot video get a lot of praise for trying it, and as I said before, there's a good competitive spirit here (they are all very good at what they do). It's really interesting how the structure is very loose and each photographer will probably develop they're own video style, much like they have they're own shooting style. There's really no pressure to conform to a certain style or method of video storytelling.

Though, after Gary's Heat Wave Video, Richard asked me to help Gary minimize his use of talking head interviews. He said this is the time to break all the rules, and that we may not have a chance to experiment as much in the future.

Technical issues:
There was a focus problem with a still pulled from Gary's video that Geri pointed out. That seems to be a matter of getting more comfortable with the camera. The other issue is the issue of shooting video for print is that it's awkward to shoot horizontals with the camera.

San Jose Grand Prix July 28-30

This was a big event and we had: 4-5 photographers shooting stills (including me); Dai and Gary shooting video exclusively (Dai also help put together and audio slideshow); Richard editing and shooting some time lapse video; and Michael Malone editing stills. Richard also created a Flash stage which included a racing game.

I think the multimedia presentation was really outstanding - probably more compelling than the print presentation. There were some really fun pieces/stories/ideas such as a ride around the track and the time lapse, and the videos really had a visceral quality. This was the perfect event for multimedia and the Mercury News did a great job The production was really well organized. Richard had the videographers bring the footage to him in 10 minute chunks, and he did a great job editing them quickly each day. He would make a very good video editor - I like his eclectic style. Jim and Joanne also gathered audio and either Dai or Richard would put together the slide show.

Here are the complete list of multimedia pieces:

Grand Prix 2.0

Drivers Seat Day 1
On the Track Day 1
Sights and Sounds Day 1
Winners Day 1
Sights and Sounds Day 2
Grand Prix Day 2
Final Day of Grand Prix
Sights and Sounds Day 3
Time Lapse Day 3

I was at the Grand Prix for two days, though I also worked through the weekend, shooting a police racial profiling story on one of the days. For the Grand Prix, I primarily concentrated on shooting stills since this was a new situation for me.

I am getting to the point where I'll attempt to shoot some video. (I probably would have been comfortable shooting video at the race, especially if someone else was editing, but I think they wanted the experienced people in the key positions). I've decided that I'm going to shoot some video on the next assignment that seems appropriate for it. For me, the mental block is the journalism, but since we're allowed to make mistakes, that'll help me overcome the block. Also, I'm feeling a little more comfortable with shooting again.

Other Issues:

I did much less editing in the past three weeks due to volunteering for the Grand Prix. But there is one interesting issue that was brought up -- balancing the coverage on the Isreali-Lebanon/Hezbollah conflict. Sometimes the news is very overwhelming form the point-of-view of one side or the other that its hard to make a visual balance, yet that's what we're being asked to do.

Other notable multimedia - two slideshows that give you a great sense of the event or place:

Lous Donuts Closes
ZeroOne San Jose


Complete multimedia list for the three weeks:

July 18-22, Tues-Sat
Techie Bowlers Video
All-Stars Shine
Bay Area Heat Wave Video

July 23-29, Sun-Sat
Vegetable Love
Lous Donuts Closes
Heatwave
Grand Prix 2.0
ZeroOne
Drivers Seat Day 1
On the Track Day 1
Gilroy Garlic Festival
Sights and Sounds Day 1
Winners Day1
Sights and Sounds Day 2
Grand Prix Day 2

July 30-Aug, Sun-Sat
Final Day of Grand Prix
Sights and Sounds Day 3
Time Lapse Day 3
ZeroOne San Jose
Yahoo Design Expo (helped)
DJ Champions the Female Voice
Youth Fair
A Generation Reflects