Best of Photojournalism 2008: Video News Photography: Winners

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Wednesday, March 5th

Tuesday, March 4th

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Clips from the Video News Photography and Editing winners in the Best of Photojournalism 2008 are viewable at Poynter Online.

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Medium-Market Station of the Year Finalists

(In alphabetical order)

WHTM: Harrisburg, PA
WYFF: Greenville, SC
WZZM: Grand Rapids, MI

Runner-Up

WZZM: Grand Rapids, MI

Medium-Market Station of the Year

WYFF: Greenville, SC

Judges’ Comments

Tim Griffis

The winner was an easy choice. This station gave us not only great, well-produced natural sound stories, but they demonstrated excellence teamwork with their reporting staff. From Spot news to In-depth, there were surprises, nice, natural moments sprinkled with good clean natural sound.

The debate between runner-up and the other finalist was very lively. Both entries had solid photography and great moments. The runner- up, however, slightly more focus stories.

Bob Gould

Out of the 12 entries, 3 stood out from the pack.

The judges had to make a determination which entries had the best photojournalism, along with great storytelling.

Those stories with exceptional photography but weaker storytelling DID wind up hurting the entry.

The winnng entry had a more well-rounded staff and most consistency.

What stood out was nice natural moments, great photojournalism and great storytelling.

It was close among the 3 entrants, but the winner was decided based on the above criteria.

For full disclosure: Because the judging panel awarded my former station the runner-up SOY, I stayed out of the discussion. To judge the category, we broke up into two groups initially and I was not in the group that watched my former station’s tape. The other group did NOT know it was from my former station when they chose it as a finalist.

For medium markets, I think the finalists should be proud of the work they are doing and keep up the fight to tell great stories.

Much of the success of great photojournalism is the JOURNALISM part of storytelling. Teamwork is the key.

Jeff Roberts

Very tough category with a dozen entries with lots of solid story telling along with great photographs.

The ultimate winner just squeaked by two others in the group with an overall photography, editing and storytelling balance throughout the tape. Great looking shots throughout and what looked to be a very diverse gathering of photojournalist at the winning station. I think what rose the winner to the top was the great moments and people who’s stories were told on tape.

Preston Rudie

The winner for Medium SOY was an easy selection for me. Overall, their entry exhibited some beautiful shot compassion, nice pacing, some good shot variation and “The Brotherhood” (48 Hour Feature) offered the best closing shot of any story in this category. By the way, closing shots overall seemed lacking on most station’s stories in this category. A few highlights on this tape also included a strong beginning in “All in the Family,” Nice aerial in “Airborne” and GREAT levity and unique story angle in “Paparazzo”. In fact, “Paparazzo” is a lesson on why it’s best to leave a lav on someone. Nice surprise in “Spiderman” about the hero having just one arm and in “Taking the Bus” I liked the triple box on the side with a similar technique highlighting numbers at the end of the story. “Click on JL” also worked for me because the photojournalist had a style that he/she stayed with throughout the story.

A few observations that in my opinion could have made the winning station’s tape stronger… I wanted a wide shot in “Our City Park,” there was no need for the dip to black or dissolves in “A Brush with Fire” and a stronger closing shot in “A Brush with Fire” would also have helped.

Nellie Stinson

Coming into this experience I found myself with the mindset that “great photography” would hands down win. After watching MANY great stories that didn’t have sunrises or sunsets but great storytelling, I realize that it truly is “all about storytelling.” Every station had one or two incredible stand out stories but the winner was just an all around strong contender with solid characters and memorable moments.

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