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.

Weekly Assignment Winner

HM: “Chime Masters”; Leigh Paynter

In Depth Winner

HM: “An American Spirit”; Kat Keene Hogue

Thanks to the students who entered and to their advisers. It shows motivation and your strive for quality. Keep that up. There were few entries this year so judges did not award 1,2,3 place winners. Kat Keene Hogue won again this year for, “An American Spirit.” It was rich in craft, color and texture. The content and storyline however, was weak and monotonous at times. This short documentary did tell one man’s story. Yet it was difficult to stay interested. Keep up the good work, but fine tune your content, focus. Find the stories within your stories. Everyone does have their own personal story to tell, but the job of the video journalist is to make it relevant or compelling for viewers to watch. So dig deeper and find the hook.

“Chime Masters” showed a lot of effort. There were sequences and natural sounds. Yet judges felt there was little payoff for viewers. We wanted to hear more of the music, as someone outside listening would. The viewer of your story is the most important element. So try to watch your stories from the viewer’s perspective. If you are doing a story about musical performance, the viewer wants to hear it too (from the outside of the chime tower.)

Overall, we encourage students to work on structure and focused storytelling. Keep motivated and keep working! The NPPA has a lot to offer.

Judges were Bob Pearce, Kevin Strong, Dale Atchison and Eric Blumer of KCNC TV, Denver.

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