Eight Things I (Re)Learned Editing Travel Anonymous

Sometimes having no limitations is the hardest obstruction. * To paraphrase the late novelist E.L. Doctorow., “[Making a movie] is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way.” * In other words, the only way out is through. * It’s hard to be spontaneous if you’re clinging to the some vague notion that what you’re doing is wrong. If you let yourself fail extravagantly, you might succeed beyond expectation. * "The first draft of anything is shit." - Ernest Hemingway * The unconscious mind loves to work out problems. You may feel doubt and uncertainty but your brain is busy untying knots. * Write down insights and ideas immediately. You’ll forget them otherwise. Seriously, you will. • The simple answer comes last, after you’ve worked your way through all the rest. It’s like sculpting: you…

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Travel Anonymous: Lessons Learned, Again

I’m a big proponent of working within a set of limitations.

I’ve purposefully done this numerous times both at MediaStorm and in my own work: from setting out to make a film that’s exactly one-minute long to creating a fictional movie with the attributes of a documentary. Setting yourself up against restrictions can be a powerful means of encouraging creative problem solving.

But with Travel Anonymous, a MediaStorm collaboration with photographer Jeff Hutchens, I could literally do anything. Nothing was out of bounds.

Case in point: at one of my first meetings with Jeff, he told me he liked the idea of using only the tiniest portions of his images. A corner here, an interesting blur there. To work without regard to the “sacredness” of a photographer’s pictures felt both exhilarating, and quite honestly, a bit blasphemous.

There was just one objective: to convey what it feels like to travel so much that you lose all sense of time and place. This was to be an immersive, sensory experience.

Early on, though, I was confounded. (more…)

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MediaStorm Workshops launch new projects

During the week of June 20-26, 2009, we brought 8 talented professionals together to collaborate with the MediaStorm team at the fourth MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop. This was a special workshop for us - given the tough economic climate and the critical need for multimedia training, we decided to hold a one-time, tuition-free Workshop, and we were thrilled and inspired at the number of people who put the time into applying for this opportunity. See the projects produced during this workshop below or apply for the next round of Workshops. Hold Out by Zachary Barr, Jeff Hutchens, Nacho Corbella and Uma Sanghvi Developers want to demolish a Brooklyn neighborhood to build a basketball arena and numerous high rises. But a small a neighborhood and a handful of residents stand in the way.See the project. A Tail of Identity by Toni Greaves, Jeff Davis, Steve Rowland, and Gregory Warner Enter the world…

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