Location & Dates

The workshops will be based at MediaStorm's office in Brooklyn, New York.

Next Workshop:
January 10-15, 2011
*Apply By: November 1, 2010

Sign up for updates as additional workshop dates are added.

Application

If you are interested in participating, please email workshops@mediastorm.com, with the following information:

Name
Bio and CV
Current Position
What are your goals?
Why are you interested in attending this workshop?

Over this five-day course, attendees will participate in a collaborative, fast-paced, hands-on overview of what it takes to produce successful multimedia projects. They will work closely with MediaStorm producers and interactive designers to learn the essential elements of multimedia post-production, project organization and storytelling concepts.

There will be intensive business-oriented discussions as well, critiquing aspects of developing business models that support multimedia and interactive storytelling. You will leave the workshop with an understanding of all the areas you need to create a comprehensive multimedia plan and to educate others on the approach.

Who Should Apply

• Educators looking to build out multimedia programs for both undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Organizational leaders and Entrepreneurs looking to build successful multimedia departments and companies.

What You Will Learn

Essential Multimedia Skills

• Distilling the bells and whistles down to what you really need to know
• Prioritizing skill sets
• Optimizing the workflow

Interactive Graphics

• Fundamentals of web design and interactivity
• Creating appropriate graphics packages for cinematic narratives

Putting the Package together

• Efficient and appropriate ways to showcase work on the web
• Encoding and distribution for various platforms

Business Model

• Syndication models
• Funding projects
• Understanding the costs and time investments required
• Getting others onboard - the politics of working with other departments to build a successful multimedia program

This workshop is not designed to teach you how to use Final Cut Pro or how to shoot video. You will not produce a story while you're here. You will leave the workshop with a full understanding of what it takes to produce quality multimedia journalism, from software options to story selection to distribution.

Educators will leave with a solid plan for designing a curriculum that meets their students needs and abilities, and organizational leaders will leave with a clear idea of how to leverage existing assets and knowledge to build (or grow) a successful multimedia organization or department including how to best implement a multiple platform strategy.

Each workshop will be tailored to individuals attending.

Participants will be expected to bring a laptop.

Workshop Staff

The team assembled to lead the Workshop has extensive multimedia experience both in the field and in post-production. As a group, we've attended, led or taught at the top workshops in the profession.

Workshop Director	Jessica Stuart
Executive Producer	Brian Storm
Multimedia Producer	Eric Maierson
Interactive Designers	Tim Klimowicz and Jacky Myint

Biographies of the MediaStorm Workshop team can be found here.

You can't put a price on something like the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop. Brian Storm and his team are open, insightful and provocative. They have been there and done what most of the rest of us have only thought about, and they are willing, even anxious, to share the knowledge they've gained.

David Carlson
Executive Director, Center for Media Innovation + Research
Cox/Palm Beach Post Professor of New Media Journalism
University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications
The methodology workshop has already proven to be a very wise investment of my time and resources. After 5 intensive days in a room with 5 leading figures in methodology and curriculum development, I could see clearly the tremendous potential that exists in this disruptive moment of communication. Less than two weeks since the conclusion of the workshop, I have already implemented effective changes in the way I approach my work as a creative artist and the leader of a small company.

I was inspired by the MediaStorm team's ability to harness rapidly changing technology and concepts, which has enabled them to narrow the gap between impulse and execution and focus their energies on producing extraordinary stories. MediaStorm's work is a testament to what happens when one combines craft and technology to remove obstacles between audience and exceptional experiences of the body, mind, and heart. MediaStorm's commitment to quality and purpose-driven work is powerful and inspirational.

Tavia Gilbert
Alum of Salt and Cornish College of the Arts
Audio producer, director, narrator, writer
The Mediastorm Methodology Workshop exposed me to the inner workings of one of the most celebrated multimedia houses in the history of the medium. I watched as MediaStorm multimedia producers and interactive designers created cutting-edge multi-platform multimedia in real-world environment where creativity, technology and economic survival meet.

My hypothesis about teaching all the skills necessary to do original, compelling multimedia were validated--the student needs to found their career on a core competency. There are processes that students need to understand and there are prosesses that students need to know, to know as well as a jazz musician knows their instrument.

The temptation is to try make multimedia students "jacks of all trades", but the MediaStorm experience shows that graduates who are "masters of one" seem to be getting the good jobs. Students with a rich portfolio and an original point of view will have an advantage over those who have "shown competency" in all of the multimedia disciplines.

In short, there are things to know and there are things to truly understand. The multimedia project should be thought of as a production, so we should be educating "producers" who are proficient to the point of originality and insight about their multimedia core storytelling competency (video, audio, stills, etc.), and knowledgeable enough about the other skills needed to be able to assemble the best team of interactive designers, video editors and coders, to get the job done.

For the multimedia teacher, the first day of class might best be compared to the first day of football camp or the first day of band camp. Who is a natural-born quarterback? Who aspires to play the trumpet? Once this is decided, the process of teaching music and football can begin.

As much as multimedia teachers don't want to believe it, there are natural-born coders and back-end people in other departments who need story content for their projects.

And that's what it's all about, really-- telling a story. The only people calling this "new media" are the teachers. Most of our students have grown up with digital photography. Some might have already shot and edited a short video. To add too much weight to the teaching of the technical aspects of multimedia, to the detriment of the fieldwork and storytelling, is the equivalent of spending a semester teaching a group of aspiring writers to be better typists.

The Mediastorm Methodology Workshop gave me the confidence to set these priorities:

• Find a student's core competency and light a fire.
• Encourage collaboration.
• If you are practicing true multimedia storytelling, the story will tell you, as producer, how it should be told and what the proportions of video, audio, stills, and interactive design will be.
• Encourage entrepreneurship. There will never be a time in your students' lives when it will be easier to crash on a friend's couch and eat Taco Bell while inventing the next breakthrough in multimedia storytelling.

What a week! Do it!

Kim Komenich
Assistant Professor, San Jose State University
Can you even think of a time that you walked into any kind of business, studio or workshop that threw open their complete book of success, then stayed to make sure you grasped the concept completely. I can't!!! Well until recently, when I joined four others for the first Mediastorm Methodology Workshop.

The workshop designed by Brian Storm and his crew, is intended to have the attendees leave the workshop with an understanding of all the areas you need to create a comprehensive multimedia plan and to educate others on the approach. For me this was a very creative and collaborative experience. The workshop group was limited to five and Brian Storm, we spent 8-9 hours a day in a think-tank atmosphere.
The staff of Mediastorm instructed on their areas of expertise and there were guest speakers. What is really important is the make-up of the group. Everyone had their own purpose or agenda for attending but it is critical to have dialogue and an exchange of ideas. We did, and it added an entire layer to the workshop. Perhaps the most valuable for me.

For the last year and especially the last few months, I have read and pondered so many opinions about the future of journalism/photojournalism that I was overwhelmed with other's thoughts and my own were not focused. This workshop helped extend my existing link to now and open me for the future. Think that sounds silly? Then you are not one of the many journalists caught up in this storm and sea change.

Janet Reeves
Former Senior Editor/Photography/Multimedia at The Rocky Mountain News
The methodology workshop gave me time to stop and step into a different way of seeing journalism. I came away inspired by what's possible if we commit to a different way of thinking about stories.

Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 1
Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 2
Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 3
Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 4
Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 5
Ten steps news organizations should take to embrace a multimedia future

John Temple
Former Editor, President and Publisher at The Rocky Mountain News

What gear will I need to bring? Will anything be provided?
We will be providing high-end Macintosh computers and all software needed for the post production workstations. Each participant should also bring a laptop with the latest version of Final Cut Pro installed, and an external hard drive with 250GB of free space so they can take final projects and examples with them.

Where will participants stay?
Participants are responsible for their own room and board. We will provide local hotel and neighborhood information to accepted participants. MediaStorm is easily accessible by subway, so location is flexible.

Do you offer introductory workshops?
No. We feel there are already several terrific workshops out there offering introductory and intermediate instruction (see below), so we are focusing exclusively on advanced training.

Are there other workshops like this?
We think the MediaStorm Workshops are unique because of the small number of participants and the focus on advanced multimedia storytelling. With that said, there are a number of great workshops to consider:

• UNC's Multimedia Bootcamp
• NPPA's NewsVideo Workshop
• NPPA's Multimedia Immersion Program
• Poynter's Online and Multimedia Seminars
• The Kalish Workshop
• Digital Journalist's Platypus Workshops
• Knight Digital Media Center's Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop
• Eddie Adams Workshops
• Mountain Workshops
• Maine Media Workshops
• Santa Fe Workshops
• Missouri Photo Workshop
• The Compelling Image
• Backpack Journalism Workshops

Are you ready to apply?
If so, send us an email.

I'd like to learn more about other MediaStorm Workshops.