Go ahead, embed
Posted: June 19, 2009 Filed under: Great multimedia, Great tools, Video, Work | Tags: sharing, spokesman-review, Video Comments OffJuly 1, 2009 update: I’m aware that the spokesman.com videos I’ve embedded aren’t playing. I’m in touch with the admin to see what’s happening.
We (as co-workers other than me) debuted a new feature on spokesman.com videos today: video embedding.
If you check out my previous post, you’ll note that the video player looks identical to the one on spokesman.com. Thanks to Brian Immel, it is!
To grab the code on any Spokesman-Review video, just click the <> button in the lower right of the player, click “copy code,” then paste on your blog or elsewhere.
This is a great step forward in sharing the multimedia talents of Spokesman-Review photographers and videographers. We get our content out there, and we get the clicks. But why should you care? Well…
Demolition Saturday in Spokane
Posted: April 6, 2009 Filed under: Self-promotion, Video, Work | Tags: Browne's Addition, community, construction, demolition, E.J. Roberts Mansion, eyesores, historic buildings, mansions, Spokane, Video Comments OffI guess it was the itch to shoot something fun that made me volunteer to work Saturday. In exchange I got a chance to cover the demolition of a duplex that had been cramping the style of a historic mansion in my neighborhood.
The video is below. Here’s a link to Shawn Vestal’s story on the event. Continue past the video for a couple observations on the assignment.
Blog changes, new toys and a shot in the arm
Posted: November 19, 2008 Filed under: Reflections, Self-promotion | Tags: Blogging, canon HF10, career, sennheiser, Video Comments OffI feel like I’ve been hibernating (see photo). Sure there was excitement on Election Day, but this blog has been on sedatives, and it’s been a long time since I’ve undertaken anything big at work. This is partly my hangover from the recent bout of layoffs.
Well, I’m awake now.
Exhibit A: Personal projects – I’ve given my other long-dormant blog, Burger, Revised, a new look and a new mission. I got a refresher in CSS and personalized Word Press’ Sandbox theme (built as a starter theme for designers) to make the appearance more of my own creation. If you are a vegetarian who lives or is planning to come to Spokane, my narrowly focused blog is for you.
Exhibit B: @ work – New video toys at work, and new energy for using them. Colin Mulvany has assigned me some of the gear he purchased when we were building up our videographer corps. So many of them lost their jobs that now we have a trove, and there’s no reason it should go unused.
The camera, at right, is a Canon HF10, and so far I’m in love. Great output, intuitive design, and easy import into Final Cut. Pair that with a Sennheiser wireless mic setup, and I’m geared up to go out and get better at this whole video thing. I’m developing a couple projects, but I need more story ideas.
As a result of Exhibit A, I’m not going to reinvest a lot of time into this blog. There are so many great sites out there that do a smashup job of compiling tutorials and tips that I feel like I’m shouting into oblivion. I’d rather write about a topic that I have a particular expertise in and see as undercovered.
But as a result of Exhibit B, I hope to have some new work to showcase here, so this blog won’t go away completely. This is, after all, my professional insurance policy. Expect more about more personal experience and less guiding to the best tools for learning online journalism. For that, subscribe to the sites I mentioned in this post.
Video: A meeting long in the making
Posted: August 26, 2008 Filed under: Self-promotion, Video, Work | Tags: penpals, Spokane, spokesman-review, Video Comments Off
Longtime penpals finally meet from Andrew Zahler on Vimeo.
I’m just catching up to blogging about this video I shot and produced a couple weeks back.
It’s a sweet story about two long-time pen pals meeting for the first time here in Spokane. They started corresponding in the 1930s.
I tagged along with the reporter to document the magic moment. I hadn’t shot any live events for months, so I was kind of rusty on sequencing my shots and other imperatives that I’ve been taught.
I taped while the reporter did his interview with one of the women, but there wasn’t much there I could use. She didn’t provide much when I asked some follow ups.
In the end, I was able to capture the moment they met with some OK sequencing, and when I sat the two of them down together I got some usable audio to create a simple, one-minute short.
More important than the finished product, I think, was the experience of getting back into live shooting and producing on deadline.
How to make a how-to video
Posted: August 12, 2008 Filed under: Self-promotion, Video | Tags: arts and crafts, howto, Multimedia, Video 2 Comments »
How to make a paper rose from Andrew Zahler on Vimeo.
Before I went on vacation last week, I shot and edited a video to go with a story running in our Home section. The subject: How to make a paper rose.
I had never made a how-to video before. Here’s what the experience taught me.
If you aren’t using RSS yet…
Posted: April 6, 2008 Filed under: Great tools, Video | Tags: common craft, Great tools, lee lefever, online training, rss, sachi lefever, tutorials, Video Comments Off… you should be. If you work in the media, you need this tool to keep track of the thousands of ideas, tools, projects, tips and events that are cropping up in blogs and other online media.
The video below will get you up and running better and faster than I can. Common Craft is a great site I only recently discovered and added to my own RSS feed in Google Reader. Lee and Sachi Lefever form the Common Craft team, based out of my hometown of Seattle, and they put together paper cutout animations that are fun to watch and easy to absorb. Check out the archives of the Common Craft Show for more essential video training.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU&hl=en]
A hilarious example of why YouTube requires skepticism
Posted: March 26, 2008 Filed under: Video | Tags: Eastern Washington University, New York Times, rickroll'd, Video, YouTube Comments OffFirst watch this video. Then read this story from The Spokesman-Review.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeuEMeg8eQE&hl=en]
