EPJ Final Project

For my final project in EPJ, I have finally figured out how I want to organize things in order to make a multi-chapter presentation.  Now the hard part will be getting photographs that support all of the chapters and relevant facts and statistics.  I think since I have been shooting for this project since the beginning of October, I have actually been kind of lazy and shy.  Every time I go to shoot, I do not do everything I should because I have assumed I will get the necessary pictures or names later on.  Now it is crunch time, and I have a lot of work to do.  Maybe it is nice that I have laid the ground work and can now just go and get the really important stuff.  However, it would have been nice to have some more substantial stuff at this point.  I have a lot of pictures of kids studying and playing but Centro Latino does so much more for its community that I do not have.

Centro Latino Update

Because I have been working on my project on Wednesday afternoons, I have no real recent progress to discuss on my final EPJ project.  I was not able to photograph last week because of CPOY, and I will not be back until this Wednesday afternoon.

As far as my general progress goes, I am not feeling extremely confident.  I just have not found any particular stories to focus on at this point, and I feel like at this point it is pretty late in the game.  I think this is a project I will continue on with and think there will be lots of stories over the next year, but so far all I have photographed is kids studying and playing.  I am not totally sure where to go from here.  I think I will try to do an audio interview with one of the kids and my video component as a video interview of Eduardo Crespi the founder of Centro Latino.  Eduardo is the real story to me, but I think I need to try harder to follow him because he has been a little more difficult for me to spend much time with so far.  He is always working in his office and leaves before the kids and counselors.  I would really like to hang out for an entire day.  I was hoping to do this yesterday, but it did not work out.  So I am hoping that I can make it work over thanksgiving break provided someone will be there.  I am not sure this will be the case.

So, while I am not totally unhappy with the stuff I have gathered so far, I am getting a little antsy about getting something new and different in the next few weeks.



Trapped: Multimedia Critique

For my second multimedia critique I wanted to go with a piece that was a little more serious.  I choose “Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons” by Jenn Ackerman.  Ackerman was actually a student when she did this project and has received numerous awards for it including first place in COPY’s multimedia category last year.

© Jenn Ackerman

As far as content goes for this project, access alone is extremely impressive.  For journalistic multimedia, it is really good.  The topic is really complicated, and making it into a package is a successful way of approaching it.  Also, the topic is somewhat controversial so having such a strong audio and visual component to draw the audience in is really nice.  I also really liked that Ackerman wrote and article on the topic and included it.  It showed her commitment to the project and provided another way to present the information.  There are so many ways this project can appeal to and catch audiences’ attention.

As far as design is concerned, this project has a very clear theme and consistent design.  It is a straightforward design that is accented nicely by the simple color scheme.  And the clean design is really complimentary to the text and images.  Overall, the project has such a professional look it is hard to believe it was done by a student.  This professional look adds to the credibility of the story.

Finally, the interactivity of this project is done really well, especially considering there is so many aspects to it.  I especially liked the button links.  I was a little confused by them at first.  But once I realized they all referenced certain aspects of the particular content, I thought it was really clever.  For instance, the link titled “in their corner” leads to a clip about the orderlies with a voiceover from one of them.  When talking he says the inmates need someone “in their corner.”  It seemed well plotted out.

“Fake Blood, Guts and Gore” i.e.Multimedia Critique

The project that particularly stood out to me was “Fake Blood, Guts and Gore” from the New York Times’ website.  This project includes photos  and audio from a New York haunted house attraction with voiceovers from the critic who did the story.  I think it is a really creative and engaging way to do a write-up.  Seeing the images and hearing all the sounds from the performers and from behind the scenes is very effective and so much more exciting than a written review.

Source: New York Times

As far as usability goes, the project is put on a clean grey background.  There is a play button and a scroll bar.  When the project is playing, the play button becomes a pause button.  The audience can also scroll over the bar to determine which image to jump to.  It is pretty straightforward in a good way.  There is not, however, a direct link back to New York Times’ homepage, so that is the only thing I might criticize.  Of course users can hit the back button, but having a direct link is also nice.

As far as design goes, the layout really emphasizes the images.  The background is very simple.  There is little text and what is included is small.  The design is very professional as it is the same standard background used for all of the New York Times’ multimedia projects.  In this case it is a little contradictory because the project and photos are so bizarre, but it is not a major distraction.  The color scheme is dark grey with white and light gray writing, which again help to emphasize the images.  The layout is pretty standard, but it works well.

For this project, the audio is extremely effective.  There are not any graphics, but the audio is matched well with the images.  At one point a crazy woman in a hospital gown pops up on the screen and the audio cuts to a creepy girly laugh.  At another point, someone talks about the kitchen and the images from that room come up.  It all works really well together to support the overall effect.  Additionally, brief captions are included under the scroll bar that provide details such as the names of the actors and the locations of the photos.

In the end, the only thing I did not particularly care for was the voiceover and the critic title page.  The title page and audio that goes with it do not really go with the rest of the project.  I think there may have been a better way to handle this.  Also, I think I just do not like voiceovers in general.  If you go through the trouble of getting audio, then I want to hear the people from the story, not the reporter.  I found the reporter’s voice distracting.  I would take it out if I were to redo it.  It seems that the answers are given in a way this may have been too difficult to accomplish, but I would have tried.  During the POYi judging, all of the judges were turned off by voiceovers too.  Let the subjects tell the story.

Final EPJ Project Update

Initially, for my final project I said I wanted to do a piece on a single mother.  Now, my project has completely changed.  I think if I ever come across a single mother I would like to work with, I will.  But looking back now and based on my experiences in trying to find a single mother, I think this topic is a little more focused.  For this project, I think I would like to do something broader that will hopefully lead to more personal stories later.

In searching for story ideas, I stumbled across the Centro Latino, founded by Eduardo Crespi.  The program serves Hispanics in the Columbia, Missouri area.  Crespi is also currently building a community kitchen that will serve as an addition to the Centro and focus on helping people learn healthier eating practices.  Unfortunately, the new project will probably not be finished by December, so I don’t think I can just focus on that particular aspect.

http://centrolatino.missouri.org/

As far as a schedule goes, I just met Crespi this past Saturday.  We only spoke briefly, and he asked me to email him.  I think it is a little to early to lock down a schedule, but I can make a short term goal of emailing him and meeting up with him again by this time next week.  I think Crespi and the Centro Latino will be a neat project because I think the program is so important.

Critique of Photographer’s Portfolio Website

Something I am struggling with is finding a good way to incorporate both my commercial and my editorial photography into the same site.  So when I found Kevin German’s site, I got really excited.  I first looked at German’s site because I bought a copy of one of his prints this summer at the POYi awards.   Because of my previous familiarity with Garmin’s coverage of the 2008 Olympic games I was already excited about the content I would most likely find and was more curious about the presentation of the work.

I found German’s website so exciting because it has photo links on it to his commercial portfolio and his editorial portfolio.  Additionally, German’s home page uses white space well to emphasize the two different portfolios he has available and to emphasize his contact information, which is centered between the two images.  I think this is a great way to highlight two different types of work in one site.  It is a very simple design that left me wanting to see more.

http://www.kevingerman.com/

After navigating around German’s site, my final impression was not all that far from my first.  Both portfolios have links to contact Kevin German.  They also have links to his biography and his blog and even to the website of the photo organization he is belongs to, Luceo Images.  I think it is very smart to make all of these links constantly available to visitors.  However, the one thing I would have liked to have seen is the links to the actual sections of the portfolio at the top of the page with all of these basic links at the bottom.  As it is, the links at the top emphasize German’s contact information and other sites he is included in over his actual photography.  I think it should be the other way around.  This is his personal site, so why shouldn’t his work come before links to his blog and to Luceo?  Also, when clicking on the portfolios, it took a while to load some of the pictures, and they were brought up in a smaller, separate page.  I thought this was almost confusing and not necessary considering all the links to the side that would get visitors back to the homepage easily.

Despite these minor issues I have picked apart, I really do like German’s site and believe I will be using it as inspiration when finishing my own.

© Kevin German. Screenshot of photograph I bought this summer. German recieved an Award of Excellence for his photo essay about what the Chinese government was doing to "beautify" their country for all the tourists. I actually saw this essay judged back in January and it was nearly thrown out of the Olympics Sports Feature category because there were no sports included. However, the judges decided to keep it in and recognize the impressive and thoughtful journalistic work German did to show the uglier side of the 2008 Olympics. I was so glad they did as I felt this picture story was incredibly important. It is exactly what photojournalism should be.

Website Critique of Media Corporation

http://www.mediastorm.com/

For my critique of a media organization I am choosing Media Storm.  Media Storm’s website provides a fresh and inspiring forum for visual journalists around the world.

The content on Media Storm’s website includes various multimedia projects ranging in length from about two to fifteen minutes.  In general the site focuses on in-depth journalistic multimedia.  The various projects serve to raise awareness about issues plaguing various societies internationally.  They are not necessarily focused on current events, in fact the current-ness seems to be outshined by the impact of the issue.

The design of the Media Storm site is effectively modern.  A black background offsets the home page with photographs from various multimedia projects serving as the main emphasis.  There is a muted-blue banner across the top with various quotes from the different projects scrolling across it.  At first glance, the design seems simple and straightforward.  The fonts are sans-serif and small.  The various menu options are sleekly organized above the blue banner.  Overall it appears clean and engaging.

However, when it comes to interactivity I would not give Media Storm any praise.  First of all, on the home page, Media Storm commits one of the most offensive crimes we have discussed in class, imposing audio.  When scrolling over the images and links to the various projects, the audio for the projects automatically begins.  I also could not find anyway to turn the audio off on the main page, and as a somewhat sophisticated Internet user I found this frustrating.  I think it could even deter people from coming back to the site.  I would rather see an option to turn the audio on for the home page, as we talked about in class.

Additionally, the navigation is confusing.  The only visible button or link to other pages on the site is the menu when you first get to the site.  Then, once you click on menu all of the other buttons appear.  Not only was this confusing, but it was annoying.  The other buttons were designed well so there seemed to be little obvious reason for the designers to hide them when people first arrived.

How navigation bar appears when you arrive.

How navigation bar looks after clicking on MENU button.

Media Storm is geared towards journalists, but it serves a great public service, and I believe in its current state it is just not user friendly.  I think as is, it runs the risk of alienating less tech savvy-audiences.

EPJ Final Project Outline

Final Project Outline

For my final project in Electronic Photojournalism, I would like to do a multimedia project about a single mother.  I have not yet found a subject to work with, but I would like to follow someone who lives in or near Columbia so I can spend as much time with them as possible.  This project could be really in-depth and interesting because the children in the situation could be great sources, as well as other people like employers or the single mother’s family or friends.

I am not sure exactly what sort of problems may arise out of this.  My biggest concern will be finding someone I may follow at their workplace.  I do not want to put anyone in an uncomfortable position, so this could limit who I can work with.

I think this will be an interesting topic to explore as there are some classic single mother themes most people will identify, but I think it could go onto to explore whether the traditional stereotypes and expectations are still present.