POYi

While watching POYi this year I had a completely new experience compared to previous years. The Judges critiquing multimedia portfolio section came from a more diverse background than I have seen before, which so we heard from a new perspective.

The judges were: Mike Zerby from the University of Minnesota; Drea Cooper, filmmaker and commercial director; Meg Theno from the Chicago Tribune; and Kim Grinfeder from the University of Miami.

Drea Cooper spoke his mind and offered a unique perspective that stood out and gave a new flavor to the judging. In the beginning of the event they were rating the portfolios based on the difficultly of the work presented inside. They kept going back to a few pieces looking at how they had differed and what made them special.

Cooper had said, “The most difficult element to master is capturing a close personal story while working in our field.”

This outlook made Cooper ranking many of the stories different from most of the other judges, and they debated placing the final three projects.

Another very interesting point in the debate came when Zerby added that you don’t always have to follow the rules. One piece didn’t have a strong subject to hold it together. It jumped around showing different elements from the event and he said, “It just had a lot of good moments strung together to evoke a strong emotion.” The other judges recognized what he had said, and they awarded the piece an Award of Excellence.

We had discussed breaking the rules in class, but it was great to see the judges in POYi awarding those projects that decided to venture outside the norm.

One piece about Haiti had many different stories about Haiti and the judges awarded the project for looking at the entire area and they really dived deeply into the culture of country and told the viewed more than the effects of the earthquake.

This piece was viewed very highly by the judges, but they ended up pushing down in the awards based on the lack of total diversity.

I believe that the Judges did an excellent job looking into each piece and viewing the work in its entirety. In the end I did agree with most of the decisions made by the judges. I love multimedia and seeing some of those projects really showed me the work you can do through multimedia.

The Los Angeles Times had a strong variety with excellent multimedia pieces that pulled it up the ranks. It stood out above the rest for the time and dedication they put into their stories. They had some incredible work that blew me away.

I feel that the judging this year has been more balanced and I agree with more of the decisions made this year compared to previous years.

-Daniel Longar

Reading for Picture Story

Reading Blog Post #2

I really enjoyed the Bill Jay and David Hurn reading about selecting a subject. Selecting subjects is a difficult topic that I have been struggling to overcome since joining this school. I seem to always search for stories that interest others while what I want to do seems to be thrown on the back-burner. By looking into the subjects that I truly care about I understand that it will reflect in my work. I have been looking into final topic subjects, and I really want to peruse white nose syndrome that has entered Missouri and continues to move west spreading by both humans and bats. I also understand that to have an audience which is greater than one person I need to have a subject that is universally interesting, but I cannot just sacrifice what I am interested in for the PoY type story.

The Lamott reading makes a lot of sense when thinking about story subjects. It is important to just start looking or thinking. One method which I have started to use is work through the Internet the way it was intended. YouTube is one of the best examples of moving through the Internet world. Start at one topic that interests you, and then look at the links and see where you go. As you are going through the videos think is there a local angle on this type of topic. This could produce all kinds of story ideas. By looking at videos that interest you there is an interest that can develop into something more. With this reading I believe that the key is to keep looking and you will run into ideas that will produce more ideas. Keep track and even if you are not ready to handle the idea right away, save it and it may have more relevance later.

These are the Images I would use in my Layout.

Layout for the father-daughter project

I began with the father holding the dress as the opening cover. This single image tells the entire story, it reflects the father's drive in the competition and the importance of his victory. My initial image is the father sitting on the couch cleaning his daughter's shoes. He is looking down with his eyes shadowed by his hat. I believe this would draw the reader into the story leaving them to ask more questions. Leaving the daughter off the first page shows that this competition isn't for the girl, it is for the father.

I believe that introducing the daughter watching the TV on the second page shows this this is a family story. The second spread brings us into the competition. I used the transition of the girls eyes looking up to the right to move into the competition with the bright lights in the upper right hand corner of the beauty contest. I felt that in the second spread I want the viewer to move through the show as if they are there watching the competition themselves. Letting the viewer see the show as it happens brings them into the story. Letting the view be a part of the story is much more effective than telling them how the story happened. I believe that the images speak for themselves and they don't need to be explained.