MediaStorm

The MediaStorm Field Guide to Powerful Multimedia Storytelling is now available for the iPad on iTunes. Featuring interactive guides, photo galleries and videos from the MediaStorm Online Training series, the iBook is the most comprehensive field guide we’ve produced to date.

The MediaStorm Field Guide outlines fundamental concepts for gathering multimedia content in the field for documentary films. The guide is based on MediaStorm’s years of experience shooting and producing award-winning projects.

The guide serves as a quick reference for important concepts, from picking appropriate gear, to setting up audio correctly, to shooting b-roll and backing up media.

Additionally, each chapter’s most important points are conveniently repurposed into a series of checklists to make it easy to remember best practices even when on the go.

Featuring in-depth explanations of key concepts and video examples from the MediaStorm Online Training series and the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop, the MediaStorm Field Guide to Powerful Multimedia Storytelling is a handy companion for professionals and students alike.

Chapter Breakdown

1. Gear

Provides a list of essential gear to bring to the field, plus an interactive gear guide and discussion with director of photography Rick Gershon about his kit.

2. Finding the Story

Discusses the keys to finding good characters.

3. The Video Interview

Explains how to visually compose the interview, set up audio and lighting equipment, and details best practices for conducting an interview.

4. B-roll

Outlines shooting techniques used to create good b-roll, including how to sequence and shoot for continuity, and tips for shooting on and off tripod.

5. Stills for Multimedia

Explains how to shoot stills for a multimedia piece, including how to shoot good portraits, details and sequences.

6. Audio

Shows the basics of capturing good audio, including avoiding common problems like plosives and detailing the importance of ambient audio.

7. Organizing for the Edit

Explains how to organize and backup media in the field.

8. Checklists

Provides checklists with key points from each chapter to make it easy to remember best practices even when on the go.

Example Screens

Testimonials

“If I could have one single text for teaching video storytelling, it would be the MediaStorm Field Guide. It’s easy to use (mobile friendly and accessible in the field), and most importantly, easily digestible. Students just learning video storytelling are often overwhelmed with too much information about camera settings, editing software and story concepts. Of all the different text books, manuals, handouts and online tutorials, the MediaStorm Field Guide is the one that majority of students actually watch and absorb. The interactivity and ‘tell, then show’ approach simplifies the fundamentals and gets the whole class up to speed quickly to start building their own video narratives.” - Gary W. Green, Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Journalism

Customer Reviews

divinitynine

Just great.

Quick and succinct. Demonstrates the workflow used by the team to make their products in the field. It's literally a field guide. So good I'm buying their post-production workflow course on their Web site now. Recommended if you're thinking of moving from still photography to multimedia.

_eliasp

Better than expected

Most of these so called Field Guides we find on the market focus too much on equipment and gear. Chapter 2, finding the story is as crucial as the technical part and I really appreciate you guys included that. I can't say a lot because that's where I stopped reading it before I left for work, but as a photojournalist and photography instructor your ten dollars will be well worth it.

ShawnCet

Invaluable

The MediaStorm Field Guide is an incredible resource. Especially for beginning up to intermediate-level film makers and multimedia journalists. With the glut of disparate and not-always-helpful learning resources online, this guide offers comprehensive and succinct guidance from skilled and experienced visual storytellers. For $10, you get info that, if applied, will improve your work. As a filmmaker and photographer specializing in documentary, editorial and commercial imagery, I ask all assistants I work with to get and read this field guide.

AJO TECH

What a great guide wow!

I have always studied MediaStorm’s videos in great length for guidance, so to have this guide was simply mind blowing! I have read it cover to cover and have picked up so much I can't wait to read it again. Thank you MediaStorm! Now if you can create a guide on motion/info graphic elements I will look forward to purchasing it for my iPad as well.

LewisWilk

Concise Review of Essentials & Great Checklists

This is a great application of iBook capability. It provided me with the concise just-in-time knowledge when I needed it yesterday and I could show it to my assistant so he knew what I wanted. For that reason alone I am taking it on every shoot. Super for any photographers moving into multimedia. I love it for the checklists, too.

grevindev

A must read for photo and video journalists

This truly is an essential book for anyone who wants to learn about what it takes to put together top notch multimedia pieces. Includes great technical advice, as well as artistic pointers. $10 is a bargain, I'll be referencing this over and over again. MediaStorm always produces quality work, and this book doesn't fall short of their standard.


The MediaStorm One Day Master Class provides a general, yet precise, overview of documentary video and multimedia storytelling approaches. MediaStorm founder Brian Storm will walk you through specific examples as well as proven tips to improve your interviewing, editing and distribution techniques.

These are the upcoming one day workshop dates:



The MediaStorm Methodology Master Class gives participants a chance to look inside the workings of a successful film and interactive production company, while taking them step-by-step through both the creative and business aspects of digital storytelling.

Founder Brian Storm will share MediaStorm’s workflow and storytelling methods and discuss essential elements of project organization and storytelling concepts.

You can attend the workshop in Los Gatos, CA in person or online via Zoom.

Upcoming date:



MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop Stories

A Thousand More

A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.

Take Care

Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.

Remember These Days

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.

The Amazing Amy

Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.

The American-Made Benny

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.

Coney Island Jay

Jay Singer has been in love with one Brooklyn neighborhood his entire life. He grew up there, pined for it when he was forced to leave and returned when he couldn’t stand to be away. “Coney Island Jay” really loves Coney Island.

Finding Balance

Tim Obert has been a commercial fisherman since he was 12. But regulations aimed at saving whales and salmon in California leave him struggling to find balance between his dream, his family’s needs and the industry he loves.

Family Kocktail

Kryssy Kocktail grew up in troubled family and, as an adult, followed the mythic path of joining the circus. Amid the lights and energy of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, she has found something that she never dreamed would be hers.

Hold Out

One evening, David Sheets read a story about a new basketball arena proposed for his neighborhood. Then he realized the plans were drawn right over his house. Hold Out is the story of a few neighbors who haven't been very easily dislodged.

Broken Lines

Joe Soll has spent half of his life searching for his birth parents, in the process he uncovered a mystery that’s haunted him for years.

Exodus

Diana Ortiz spent over half her life in prison for a crime she committed when she was a teenager. Now 45, she has turned her life around and works to help other inmates rebuild their lives. Exodus is her story.


Additional Training Products

MediaStorm's award-winning team of producers and cinematographers lead online training videos with lessons learned from their experience producing films and training groups and organizations around the world.

Developed over seven years and more than 100 projects, our downloadable post-production workflow covers every phase of editing, from organizing assets through outputting final projects and archiving.

Available for iPad on iTunes, the MediaStorm Field Guide outlines fundamental concepts for gathering multimedia content in the field for documentary films.


MediaStorm Project Showcase

Back from the Brink

Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the Santa Catalina Island Fox made a dramatic recovery. Its resurgence marks one of the greatest conservation success stories in United States history.

Lights in the Shadows

In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. Skyrocketing housing prices in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that impacts everyone in the community.

Zora J Murff

This page recognizing Zora J Murff for ICP’s 2023 Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism features a film about his life, a slideshow of his projects and extra clips of his thoughts about his work and motivation.

Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado says "a good picture, a fantastic picture, you do in a fraction of a second, but to arrive to do this picture, you must put your life in there."

Esther Horvath

Esther Horvath has sent questions to the universe and she has received answers. She found her calling to tell visual stories that show the full research story behind our climate data.

Acacia Johnson

See photographer Acacia Johnson’s growth from her earliest explorations of Alaskan landscapes to a National Geographic cover for a documentary project among indigenous people of the Arctic.

Don McCullin

Sir Don McCullin never intended to become a photographer. He found it hard to believe he’d ever escape the poverty of North London. But a spur of the moment photograph launched McCullin into a career spanning 50 years in photography.

The War Comes Home

As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O’Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.

Zadie Smith

Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture.

Fight Hate with Love

As a formerly incarcerated person, Michael struggled for work, and found purpose in being a husband, father, and activist. But 7 years since his release from prison, the cost of Michael’s activism is evident.

The American-Made Benny

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.

Amber Bracken

Photographer Amber Bracken recognized something deeper than a protest was afoot when hundreds of tribes gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A Shadow Remains

How does the death of a child change a parent? How does the death of a parent change a child? How do these moments change us as we develop and grow further away from who we were as children?

Maurice Berger

Maurice Berger–cultural historian, and columnist for the New York Times’ Race Stories–has spent his career studying and teaching racial literacy through visual literacy. 

Japan's Disposable Workers

Japan’s Disposable Workers examines the country’s employment crisis: from suicide caused by overworking, to temporary workers forced by economics to live in internet cafes, and the elderly who wander a town in search of shelter and food.

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.

The Last Move

Michael Thomasson has devoted his life to video games. It’s been his passion and his obsession for more than three decades. He owns over 11,000 unique game titles for more than 100 different systems.

Michael Christopher Brown

A film about Michael Christopher Brown for the 2017 ICP Infinity Awards.

The Long Night

The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.

Jonathan Harris & Gregor Hochmuth

Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth have a complicated relationship with the internet and have worked together to develop an artwork that explored some of the more difficult consequences of what it means to live with the internet.

Inside Tracks

In 1977, Robyn Davidson walked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. National Geographic sent Rick Smolan to photograph her perilous journey—a trek that tested and transformed them, forming an immutable bond that continues to this day.

Driftless: Stories from Iowa

Once at the center of the U.S. economy, the family farm now drifts at its edges. In Iowa, old-time farmers try to hang on to their way of life, while their young push out to find their futures elsewhere. Driftless tells their stories.

Common Ground

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 27-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land.

Remember These Days

For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.

Art: Larry Fink

Larry Fink has spent over 40 years photographing jazz musicians, wealthy manhattanites, his neighbors, fashion models, and the celebrity elite. His archive is a thoughtful collection of American history, and Fink’s experience of it.

LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.

Tomas van Houtryve

Tomas Van Houtryve wants there to be a permanent visual record of the dawn of the drone age, the period in American history when America started outsourcing their military to flying robots. In order to create this record, Van Houtryve sent his own drone into American skies.

Evgenia Arbugaeva

Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the magical town of Tiksi, Russia. This barren, arctic landscape influenced Arbugaeva in almost every aspect of her dreamlike photography.

Surviving the Peace: Laos

Surviving the Peace: Laos takes an intimate look at the impact of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam war in Laos and profiles the dangerous, yet life saving work, that MAG has undertaken in the country.

A Thousand More

A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.

Lynn Johnson

Inspired by the photographs of the Farm Security Administration growing up, Lynn Johnson has spent nearly 35 years as a photojournalist working for LIFE, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and various foundations.

Resetting The Table

Resetting the Table takes a unique, personal look at the impact Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA program has had on the American Mug & Stein pottery facility in East Liverpool, Ohio.

Hungry Horse

Hungry Horse captures the spirit of renewal, peace and serenity through stunning landscapes and intimate oral histories.

The Amazing Amy

Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.

The Bride Price

In many countries, girls as young as eight are forced into marriage by their families, culture and economic situation. This practice destroys their chance at education leading to tragic results.

David Guttenfelder

Surreal and mysterious, North Korea was a black hole to outsiders wanting a glimpse of the country. That all changed in 2012, when AP photographer David Guttenfelder led the opening of the bureau's newest office inside the North Korea.

Take Care

Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.

A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan

Based on 14 trips to Afghanistan between 1994 and 2010, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan is the work of photojournalist Seamus Murphy. His work chronicles a people caught time and again in political turmoil, struggling to find their way.

Intended Consequences

In Rwanda, in 1994, Hutu militia committed a bloody genocide, murdering one million Tutsis. Many of the Tutsi women were spared, only to be held captive and repeatedly raped. Many became pregnant. Intended Consequences tells their stories.

The Marlboro Marine

To those who serve in the armed forces, what is the aftereffect of war? The Marlboro Marine is photographer Luis Sinco's portrait of Marine Corporal James Blake Miller, whom he met in Iraq. For Miller, coming home has been its own battle.

Ivory Wars

Zakouma National Park is one of the last places on earth where elephants still roam by the thousands. In a land where poachers will slaughter the huge animals for their tusks alone, it takes armed guards to keep them safe.

Kingsley's Crossing

Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's dream to leave the poverty of life in Africa for the promised land of Europe. We walk in his shoes, as photojournalist Olivier Jobard accompanies Kingsley on his uncertain and perilous journey.


Collaborate With Us

We collaborate with a wide range of clients to tell their story. Our services include reporting, post production, interactive design and interactive packaging.

The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet. 

Learn storytelling, filmmaking, video, multimedia production and business skills through MediaStorm’s intensive, hands-on workshops and in-depth online training resources.



The MediaStorm Platform is an advanced video platform that extends the user experience beyond linear video to include the interactive capabilities of the Internet. 


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