Best of Photojournalism 2008: Video News Photography: Winners

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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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Spot News Finalists

“Brewed Before it Boiled!”: Jonathan Malat, KARE/Minneapolis, MN
“A Giant Matchbook”: Jeff Christian, KMSP/Minneapolis, MN
“High School Melee”: Joshua Miller, WBFF/Baltimore, MD
“The Mess Left Behind”: Mark Neitro, KCNC/Denver, CO
“Off His Bike”: Dan Bolsem, KCCI/Des Moines, IA
“Oh Domino”: Sean Filburn, WBFF/Baltimore, MD
“Thought They Had It”: Jake Carpenter, KCCI/Des Moines, IA
“What Usually Happens in Ditches”: Everett McEwan, KWGN/Denver, CO

Winners

1st: “Thought They Had It”; Jake Carpenter, KCCI/Des Moines, IA; Note: “Thought They Had It” also won the Spot News category in NPPA’s 2nd Quarter National Clip Contest. You can check out the judges’ comments from that contest as well.
2nd: “Brewed Before it Boiled!”; Jonathan Malat, KARE/Minneapolis, MN
3rd: “What Usually Happens in Ditches”; Everett McEwan, KWGN/Denver, CO
HM: “Off His Bike”; Dan Bolsem, KCCI/Des Moines, IA

Judges’ Comments

Tim Griffis

When there isn’t one or two stories that knocks the judges socks off, that means the level of competition is very close and the of course, makes our job as judge very difficult. The winner was solid and captured the emotion and the urgency of the church fire in a small town. The lake fire, the ditch rescue and the bike story were all excellent examples of how spot news should be done.

Bob Gould

I must say that overall, I was disappointed with 90 percent of the entries in this category. Plenty of fires that failed to excite and very little emotion. With a major bridge collapse in Minnesota, we only saw a couple of entries in that category and they weren’t very good. I think that people shied away from entering overall because they didn’t think they would win. I say it’s important to enter because you never know if something is going to win.

This category resulted in another spirited debate. The winning entry --which was about a church fire-- had some wonderful shots and some nice sound bites, that showed some true emotion. The editing was tight and we all enjoyed the closing shot with flames rising past the cross on the steeple.

I really liked “What Happens in Ditches”. The story had some really nice pacing and the photographer busted his hump. The rain made it difficult, yet the photog kept a clean lens. There was a lot going on at the scene and the photographer seemed to be everywhere.

“Brewed before it Boiled” has some really great urgency and emotion. The natural moments helped make this a finalist.

Jeff Roberts

I found most of the entries in the spot news category disappointing. I have to believe there is better spot news being played on the airwaves every day and we are just not seeing them here. Could it be that photographers at the network level and stations geared more toward harder news just don’t have NPPA members in their ranks? I hope not. Is the pressure of always being first and going live preventing photojournalists from gathering the pictures and the sound from stories to produce those winning packages? I hope not. (You don’t have to be an NPPA member to enter this contest. And, it’s free to everyone!)

The winning entry “They Thought They Had It” had all the components of a strong story, plus just a little too much in my opinion. Action, reaction, shoot, move, wide, medium, tight, supertight, clean sound, interviews that tell the story from a gaggle of people. A beautifully shot story with great sound. The only problem I had with this entry was the pacing of the edits. For no apparent reason at all, the cliche honk honk honk of the fire truck horn along with three super quick jolting edits that interrupted the story twice. They didn’t move the story anywhere except make it look like one of those “contest style entries” that photographers like to gather in edit rooms to look at but are a disservice to the viewer.

Preston Rudie

In my opinion, “Thought They Had It” was the best story in this category. The shot composition was tremendous and the ending shot was clearly the best of any story in this category! The sound bites also underscored the importance and love the people of this community had for this catholic church. Great effort for a natural sound piece. My second place choice was “Brewed Before it Boiled.” I loved how the photojournalist worked to capture the urgency in this piece. The photojournalist also had some wonderfully composed shots, like the dock along the lake with the fire in the background.

Nellie Stinson

Why do some photographers feel the need to throw in EH-EH-EH, or WOOF-WOOF-WOOF, or BEEP-BEEP-BEEP in a story for no reason at all? (Did you catch that there were three?) Just tell a good story without an effect or funky technique. The arguments for these stories and for all of the other stories was just that.

Having said that, the winner in this category was yet another nat package where the photographer hustled to get a variety of sound and weave it into a complete story. The ending shot was to me the most powerful image that we have seen in any story so far.

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