Best of Photojournalism 2009: Video News Photography: Winners

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.

48 Hr. Feature Finalists

(In Alphabetical Order)

“The Dream”
Jonathan Malat, KARE/Minneapolis
“Ghosts of the Civil War”
Darren Durlach, WBFF/Baltimore
“It Would Be Nice”
Chris Wood, News 12
“Junior”
Drew Cook, WAVE/Louisville
“Operation Guitar Drop”
Anthony Oliviera, WFAA/Dallas
“Pillow Fight”
Craig Norkus, KARE/Minneapolis
“SRV Blvd”
Doug Burgess, WFAA/Dallas
“Stock Footage”
Anne Herbst, KUSA/Denver

48 Hr. Feature Winners

1st
“Ghosts of Civil War” Darren Durlach, WBFF/Baltimore
2nd
“Junior” Drew Cook, WAVE/Louisville
3rd
“The Dream” Jonathan Malat, KARE/Minneapolis
HM
“Stock Footage” Anne Herbst, KUSA/Denver

Judges’ Comments

Terry Bulger

“Ghost of the Civil War”- A simple story, nicely told. No unnecessary dramatization, just the reality of bags, candles, and a moment in history. I just thought it was a respectful treatment of a mostly forgotten day in American History.

“Junior”- Got a real feel in this one for the character of this Kentucky establishment and the people who have such a connection to it.

“The Dream”- Masterfully done...a couple of areas felt a little forced to me, perhaps trying too hard to establish the obvious. Still very thoughtful and well done.

Scott Jensen

We are conscious that “Amazing Grace” being played in the winning story might bring criticism. I can hear the calls of cliché already. But we think it has the strongest imagery and the strongest storyline. “Ghosts of the Civil War” is beautifully shot and there are parts that demonstrate the photographer actively thinks of marrying video and sound. I think that skill is rare.

Jon Knorr

This was a disappointing category. The overall quality of the stories was extremely poor. Only a few stories stood out. We spent more time arguing wheather one story had staged video. Though it was a well put together piece we decided the questionable shots should disqualify it.

“Ghosts of the Civil War” was well thought out by the photographer. It covers the lighting of remembrance candles that paid homage to the fallen soldiers during a battle in the Civil War. The photographer did a wonderful job capturing moments and sound to tell the story.

My favorite, “Junior,” was an extremely well shot story about a small Kentucky town mayor. The piece conveyed the essence of small town Americana. Framing in this story was extremely good, though it seemed to be lacking in nat sound.

Shane McEachern

Another fine bunch of stories but a few less than the regular feature category to choose from. There were four winners:

1st

“GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL WAR” - an excellent photo essay on a minimalist subject, very sparsely shot and precisely edited... we had a tough time between this one and 2nd place because of story. This one won because of technical skills in photography and editing. It had a moment and got the job done but some felt it was dragging a little too much in the middle. Very effective with the reveal and the ending was nice.... although I would have stayed with the 2nd to the last shot instead of going back to the bagpipes to wrap it up. We all had a problem with that. This story did more with less the whole story and the last edit felt rushed to me and it shouldn’t have felt that way.

2nd

“JUNIOR” gooooood storytelling here.... excellent subject matter, great writing, fine shooting and editing. Not much to pick on here. The only reason it got a second were again technical reasons. It needed more NATS and flavor in between the soundbites, it needed a couple shots to be steadier, and it needed a better ending shot... all in all we loved “JUNIOR” and it would have placed higher if it would have had some of those elements. Keep up the good work.

3rd

“THE DREAM” was a nice, solid 48 hour American story. This took a story we all had to cover and m ade it sing. It had all the right elements and I wanted it placed higher in some respects because I really felt something on this story.

“THE DREAM” was the best written of the category and it was shot well but some thought we had better stories overall and better pictures overall. This piece really touched me and captured the historical aspect of the evening very, very well.

HM

“STOCK FOOTAGE” yet again a well written story, tight editing, nice shot variety and not much to complain about here. There were just other stories more compelling than this one. Nice to see reporters weaving themselves into stories in a creative way, nice to see photographers making a story out of something that wasn’t the most visual in the world. This held my interest the whole way through and would have placed higher on some of our lists if the other three would have been lesser stories in the subject matter department.

Tom Sharkey

There were a lot of entries in this category they ranged from the shouldn’t have been entered, (fogged-up lens for the whole story), to rock solid shooting as in the winner: “The Ghosts of the Civil War”. It had it’s flaws like the ending shot but was solid enough in it’s storytelling and photography to go ahead of the others. Most of the stories didn’t look like they were a 48hr. turn they looked more like a daily turn which is probably the case at most stations today. Who has the luxury to spend 48hrs on a story anymore?

That was the case for “Junior” which could have easily placed first if it wasn’t a total lack of nat sound. Not just sound-pops but we heard no sound under the track. Despite that it was told very well with surprises and moments from the sound bites. “The Dream” was a solid performer but we thought the writing was better than the photography, that’s not to say it was bad it just didn’t rise-up equal to the writing.

“Stock Footage” was original and was a good effort but I thought the cows moo'd one too many times. We spent quite a bit of time discussing whether the main element in one of the stories was staged rather than take the chance we threw it out.

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