New Stories from the November 2012 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop

We are pleased to launch two new stories produced in the November 2012 MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop. In our November 2012 Storytelling Workshop a team of journalists collaborated with MediaStorm to create, The American-Made Benny and Luv Schtick. During the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop participants work directly with MediaStorm staff to create an intimate, character-driven documentary in just one week. Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge. Read the accompanying blog post, "The Challenge of The American-Made Benny." Dani Luv is a musician and comedian at the well-known Sammy’s Roumanian Restaurant in New York. Luv likes to sing classics from the likes of Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong. We are currently accepting applications for two upcoming MediaStorm Storytelling Workshops in…

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The Challenge of The American-Made Benny

We had numerous challenges in reporting, producing, and in making the decision to ultimately publish this story. We feel this story is incomplete due to access issues and time constraints inherent with MediaStorm's approach to a workshop story. Sometimes you can learn as much from your shortcomings as from your successes. As such, we hope this will serve as an important case study about the ethics of storytelling. - Brian Storm, Executive Producer, MediaStorm Unanswered Questions: On the Limits of the Single-Subject Interview by Eric Maierson By any measure, the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop is an intense week. It is a product-focused experience, meaning that unlike in other teaching environments we are wholly focused on producing the most compelling story possible, one that demonstrates the collective skills of the participants and the MediaStorm staff. The week consists of one day of lectures, three days in the field, and another three days editing. Workshop…

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MediaStorm Guide to Rendering in Adobe Premiere Pro

This article is part of a new series of posts with tips and tricks from our producers' experience working with Adobe Premiere Pro after years of working in Final Cut Pro. To read more about why we made the switch, check out this post. Today's post was written by MediaStorm producer Eric Maierson. If you’ve spent any time in Adobe Premiere Pro, you’ve probably noticed the various colors above the timeline. According to Adobe’s help pages they can be decoded as follows: Green: There are preview files available for this section that will be used during playback. Playback will be in real time. Yellow: There are no preview files available for this section. These sections will render just before the playhead reaches them. Playback will probably be in real time. Red: There are no preview files available for this section. These sections will render just before the playhead reaches them. Playback will…

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Finishing is the Hard Part

Creative work is of course never really finished. As the saying goes, it’s only abandoned. Nevertheless, the last few days of production can feel excruciatingly difficult. At MediaStorm, we often say that the last 10 percent of work requires 30 percent of the effort. So why is that? I think the struggle comes from two equally strong and opposing forces. On the one hand, there’s a certain impatience at the end of a project. Often after spending weeks or even months on the same piece, I’m frankly ready to be done. I’m ready for others to start watching. On the other hand, finishing a project requires a meticulous attention to detail. Just as my work feels like it’s coming to an end, there’s a barrage of tedious but requisite tasks that need to be finished: adding room tone, mixing and repairing audio, color correcting video. So even as there’s a strong pull…

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