Remembering the fires of 1910
Posted: August 16, 2010 Filed under: Great multimedia, Photos, Video, Work | Tags: 1910 fires, Big Blowup, Big Burn, Ed Pulaski, forest fires, history, Inland Northwest, U.S. Forest Service Comments OffWe’ve been hard at work these past few months on an ambitious series about the 1910 forest fires that consumed huge swaths of the Inland Northwest. The series, titled Flame and Ruin: The fires of 1910, launched Sunday, and I encourage you to explore it. It’s a treat for history buffs and lovers of the outdoors.
My favorite parts of the online package are the above video scripted by Jim Kershner and produced by Colin Mulvany and a then-and-now presentation inspired by the New York Times featuring photographs by Christopher Anderson and a Django+jQuery app by Ryan Pitts and Mike Tigas.
But I certainly don’t want to overlook the reporting and writing that went into this package. I especially recommend Jim Kershner’s opening narrative and Becky Kramer’s story about Ed Pulaski, the tunnel in which he saved his fire crew, and that tunnel’s discovery in 1979. It runs Tuesday and will be found on the main page of the special series.
Shooting in the forest
Posted: August 9, 2010 Filed under: Self-promotion, Video | Tags: collaboration, Colville National Forest, fire lookout, hiking, U.S. Forest Service Comments OffMy latest video was a collaboration with our summer intern, Asia Hege. She was interested in learning some multimedia, and when I asked her whether she had any story ideas, she pulled out a gem passed along by our environment and natural resources reporter. The video tells the story well, I think, but you can read the version that ran in the paper too.
It was a real treat of an assignment because it involved hiking in the Colville National Forest. It was a good three miles with about 1,200 feet of elevation gain.
This was a hard story to tackle for a first video, and Asia didn’t get to attend one of Colin Mulvany‘s training seminars. So after the briefest of introductions to shooting, I used this as a chance for her to practice with the camera. I incorporated a lot of her B roll in the final edit (you can tell which parts are hers because the colors are, puzzingly, richer). I also asked her help on the script, which she read well for the voiceover. And we did some of the editing together; it’s helpful to have feedback from another person, and she saw things I didn’t.