Best of Photojournalism 2009: Video News Photography: Winners

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Clips from the Video News Photography and Editing winners in the Best of Photojournalism 2009 are now viewable at Poynter Online.

Chat with Al Tompkins and the BOP TV judges — live each day at 12:00 EST. Ask the judges questions and hear what they love and have learned from the entries they have seen each day.

Small Market Station of the Year Runner Up

KTUU/Anchorage, AK

Small Market Station of the Year

KCCI/Des Moines, IA

Chair Note: Since Scott Jensen’s station was entered in this group, we asked Editing Judge Brad Ingram to join us for this category. Scott joined Terry Lovell in the Editing judging during this time.

Judges’ Comments

Terry Bulger

Really great effort overall from the small market stations that entered, many of the stories we watched showed an attempt to do all the right things to make the stories more interesting, more watchable and just better than they could have been.

1) The judges appreciated the overall consistency of this entry. From top to bottom it stood out as the best tape with the least difference in quality from story to story.

Pigs on the highway, and a cat on an electric poll have become staples of tv news spot coverage, but these two were able to rise above the expected. “Hold On To Your Handbag” was smartly told with a bit of suspense at the start, no sense in hitting folks with the Pole Vaulters right off the bat…..reporting was creative on several of the features here as well….and the commitment on Haiti deserves to be commended. But to be clear we didn’t just reward “Meals from the Heartland” for its effort, they were also well done stories.

2) This entry had some really top notch stories on it, but wasn’t able to maintain the quality from category to category. Great job in the “Running of the …What!!!” Story, the photographer was smart enough and willing enough to know that getting in there and running with the reindeer was the only way we’d see the chaos of this event. You don’t get this story on a tripod from the sidelines…then again you don’t get much of anything that way.

As a reporter, I’d have loved to come back to the station and log the raw video on this one, just great to have so many options.

Brad Ingram

It came down to two stations this year, KCCI in Des Moines and KTUU in Anchorage. While I thought KTUU photography was rock solid especially with its last two stories on there entry. KCCI last entry is what sealed it for me. Meals from the Heartland is one of the better series pieces I’ve seen come out of a small market in some time. Both entries had good storytelling, well composed photography, crisp editing follow by solid nat sound within there entries. KTUU should not hang there heads about being runner up this year. KTUU is a great shop that just fell short by one entry this year. Even though KCCI and KTUU may be small market stations they get after it every day as a staff.

Jon Knorr

The Small Market Station of the Year tapes ROCKED. There are some great up and coming photographers in the smaller markets. We could not believe the quality of the stories coming out of these markets. In a few years these photographers will be leading the NPPA contests. It was a tough decision to award KCCI over KTUU.

There tape was the most consistent, their spot news stories were very good, and they started off their tape with a hog truck that overturned, leaving some very stunned drivers. They had a good story about pole vaulting in a mall. Their tape ended with an exceptional story about a food relief in Haiti. It is amazing that a small market would have the resources to send a crew to do that story.

KTUU had a great tape also. It gives an idea of what is like to live in Alaska. My favorite was the story of running with the reindeer. They had the highest percentage of staff of any of the entries with 11 out 12 photographers represented.

Shane McEachern

KCCI had some good stories, “He’s a Lucky Boy”, “Lucky” and riveting subject matter in “Standoff”.... “Hold Onto Your Handbag” had a nice surprise....and “Spring Lake Skate” was a nice little story on an old skating rink. I like to see the efforts put into the storytelling on this tape, there were alot of good sounbites, nice writing, anticipation, and attention to getting the best possible piece on the air. “They Call Me Hammer” was also a standout. One of our judges really liked “Meals From the Heartland” and felt it was a strong In-depth to close their presentation. This tape seemed to be the strongest in all of the categories, with the best stories being very good and the worst being good as well. Some technical issues showed up on some of the pieces, and I am a harsh critic of technical problems.... but the stories were more compelling, solid, and had a more consistent feel. We rewarded stories on this choice, it was apparent that is something very important to this staff of photojournalists and reporters. These guys and gals are trying very hard at what they do and it showed. Great job! Now can anybody tell me where Lucky went? Is he OK?

KTUU had some phenomenal stories in the Feature and In depth categories, a strong Spot news presence but the middle of the tape didn’t hold up as well as it should have. “That Caught Their Attention”, “Not By Rail” had it going good for the Spot category, but were dragged down by “Too Close For Comfort”. Both of the Spot stories had very good moments which made the packages even better than an average story. “Just Another 9/11” also had a nice moment, some silliness, and incredible sound with a woman who had “had enough of the whole NY thing”. The viciousness of one of her soundbites should have been capitalized on better than it was.... I saw where the story was going but I needed a bit more. Overall, nitpicking aside, it was a great story too. “Running of the... What?” was pulled off, nicely done, a very enjoyable, memorable package. Not knocking the effort of the station in any way with this comment but If the whole tape showed the consistency we saw on this “Running of....” it would have handily won 1st PLACE.

The judges felt consistency won first prize in this category.

Tom Sharkey

I was pleasantly surprised by the over all quality from the small markets. I hate to say it but station for station and entry for entry the small markets looked much better than the medium market stations. The small market photojournalists hustled and were thinking on their feet and they weren’t shying away from experimenting and trying new things.

The winner: KCCI had rock solid photography throughout. They were putting wireless mic’s on people and backing off, letting the moments happen. I don’t remember seeing a stick mic anywhere. The editing was crisp and well paced. The runner-up KTUU had some of the Best Stories in this category, they were really outstanding, unfortunately they also had a couple of average ones which allowed KCCI to grab the number one spot. Good job everyone, all of you looked much better than larger markets. You have a great future in this industry!

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