Reality Check (or, Multimedia for the rest of us)

God bless Brian Storm (Mediastorm), Dirck Halstead (DigitalJournalist) and the other multimedia journalists who are showing the way into the future. They have unlimited skills, unlimited imagination and a seemingly unlimited budget. However...

Well, let put it this way. On Friday I spoke to a group of mainly community journalists from across North Carolina. I was the final presentation of the day. Earlier, in the first session, Mike Noe of the Rocky Mountain News spoke to us about his paper's multimedia commitment, and played excerpts from two absolutely mind-blowing series, Final Salute (a Pulitzer Prize winner in print), and The Crossing. Striking, stirring and everything you could ask for in an online feature. Mike talked about staffs of 10-15 people, months of planning and reporting, and budgets in the thousands of dollars. Truly, the stuff dreams are made of.

My multimedia staff at The Cary News? Me. My equipment budget? Don't ask. And I have to get up in front of a room full of people and follow that? Oy.

But you know what? YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND A BAZILLION DOLLARS TO CREATE COMPELLING MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM.

No, really. I know that you could make some rockin' projects with the kit listed above, but it's really not necessary.

(I should stop right here to thank David Hobby of Strobist.com fame for inspiring me to talk about this. David [who has no idea who I am] is a photographer at the Baltimore Sun who has created a cult cadre of photographers dedicated to proving that you can light like a pro without having to go bankrupt. I'd like to try to do the same thing for multimedia. Thanks, David!

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blog.)

I could spend $400-$600 on a recorder, $1500-plus on a video camera, and who knows how much on the extra stuff that always sneaks up on you and kills your budget. But the reality is that this is going on the web. It's going to be crushed, crunched and compressed, and unless you're producing hi-def documentaries for PBS, the big kit is just overkill.

(Would I like to have the big kit? What do you think?)

Here's what I "make do" with:

Olympus WS-300M digital recorder, street price of about $80. Available online or at any electronics store such as Circuit City or Best Buy. Available in silver or pink for those who like to match their gear with their wardrobe.








Nady SP-4C microphone. $10. Really, $10, and according to Mindy McAdams, multimedia guru of the Teaching Online Journalism blog, a great quality mike for the price.




Canon PowerShot S3 IS, a hybrid still/video camera with stereo microphone pickups. I shot a concert with this camera and was amazed at the sound quality. Around $320.







The Flip: this must be the cheapest DV camera EVER. USB, comes in 30 minute ($139) or 60-minute ($169) flavors. I haven't even seen one, much less used it, but it seems to get the job done. As an added bonus, the video downloads directly to your computer, instead of importing, which can be a big time difference on deadline.







So go out, spend a (very) little cash, and see what you can do. Check back in a day or two and I'll share some information about free or inexpensive editing software. Or, if you're in an all-fired rush to start editing, check out the multimedia resource blog I created.