Best of Photojournalism 2009: TV 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.

Documentary Finalists

(In Alphabetical Order)

“Journey of Hope”: Dave Wertheimer & Shawn Montano, KWGN/Denver
“The Other North Carolina”: Jay Jennings, Clay Johnson, & Laura Riddle, WRAL/Raleigh

Documentary Winners

1st: Not Awarded
2nd: Not Awarded
3rd: “Journey of Hope”; Dave Wertheimer & Shawn Montano, KWGN/Denver
HM: “The Other North Carolina”; Jay Jennings, Clay Johnson, & Laura Riddle, WRAL/Raleigh

Judges’ Comments

Terry Bulger

A Journey of Hope

This story kept me interested in the outcome and did a nice job in building up suspense regarding his.

It didn’t attempt or try to dazzle with photography, but just delivered personal and human emotion...A documentary should reflect a reality and this one did.

Made me want to know more about Parkinson’s....perhaps some info on who is prone to this illness, and maybe why?

The Other North Carolina

Nice pictures in this doc, the station gets points for effort in just producing something of in-depth information.

Scott Jensen

Few entries, average photography and poor story structuring led us to award only a third place and an honorable mention. Scott’s Journey is an example of strong commitment to a subject. I’m glad to see WRAL still produces long format journalism on a regular basis. Half of the category’s submissions came from that station.

Jon Knorr

There were a lack of entries in this category. The stories that were awarded were good but not great. A Journey of Hope was the best of the bunch, with an inspiring story of a station employee with Parkinsons Disease. There was great access to the subject in the operating room and with friends. But I feel the piece lost it in the lighting and composition. It was good to see that there are some stations still doing documentaries, The Other North Carolina told of problems that are happening across the country with the loss of employment. It was steady but not spectacular.

Shane McEachern

We didn’t award a first place in this category because there were only 4 contestants in this category. Obviously there aren’t too many stations doing documentaries these days. A sign of the times I presume. It is a shame this is the direction we are going with local tv journalism because some of the best movies I’ve seen in the theatres in the last 3-4 years were all documentaries. “Standard Operating Procedure” by Errol Morris as a good example. I hope this would be a category with more entries in the future.

3rd place - Journey of Hope - Journey of Hope was an interesting story, subject matter. Had a nice uplifting feel to it, well told story with a nice arc. Vidna’s writing carried us along on the journey of Scott and his procedure quite well. The photography was lacking in areas and some of the choices in that made were flat in regards to lighting, presentation, and overall quality. It made things confusing in areas. If an interview is going to carry a piece it shouldn’t be set in the exact same spot as a large chunk of the documentary. It needs to be separate from the rest of the format. (eg. In this case it may have been helpful to put Scott in front of a black cloth or a nondescript background to get better effect if we are going to keep seeing him throughout the piece)

HM - The Other Side of North Carolina - Subject matter is something I am very passionate about, the best photography and lighting of all the Documentary entries, it just seemed to be more of a “Special” with a bunch of packages on the same topic thread instead of a documentary. There were two entries from this station on similar subjects and they are topics demanding attention nowadays. Nicely done, just don’t think it fit in this category well.

Tom Sharkey

We gave no 1st or second place in this category. There were no outstanding stories or storytelling. A Journey Of Hope was awarded third place, this was another story that involved a station employee. I thought the story bounced around too much, going from present to past and back to present, then to the future, particularly during the head shaving segment. There was no narritive structure, in fact I was not sure what structure was used. I would have cut out the teases which would have helped out with the length and kept a few suprises in the story. During surgery it would have helped to have the doctor, or doctors wear a mic sometimes they were hard to hear. There was no lighting on the subjects it would have helped if they were shot in a non-discript background.

HM was given to The other North Carolina, This one had a few surprises in it and the photography was everyday solid but didn’t get beyond “everyday”. It screamed for extreme close-ups and Nat pops. In the end it was picking the best of the worst.

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