If you're using slide shows to create multimedia packages for your web site at school (and you should be), don't miss
these great tips on how to do it well.
Regina McCombs, a multimedia producer and photographer for
StarTribune.com, wrote a helpful piece for
Poynter Online called "
Blurring Boundaries: What Print Journalists Can Learn from Video Editors."
Here's one tip, from
John Hyjek,
NBC News editor, who sees many slideshows that he feels are too slowly paced.
McCombs writes:
He says he uses his 'Rule of Waldo.' Based on the comic character
created by Martin Handford,
Waldo
is a figure hidden in each of his illustrations. "What happens when you
find Waldo? You turn the page, of course. You move on to the next
illustration. In the same vein in video editing, the moment you glean
the important information, it's time to move on to the next shot."
Hyjek has been a television photojournalist for 30 years (and a
co-worker of mine for a chunk of that time), and he says an editor has
to fight the urge to linger on a shot because you love it, that you
have to avoid saying: Look at my picture! Look at MY picture! "It's
egotistical to be sitting on a shot instead of moving the emotion of a
story forward with a succession of photos."
For more tips, including advice on transitions, editing to sound and new story forms, read the rest of
the story.
