Best of Photojournalism 2008: Video News Photography: Winners

Friday, March 7th

Thursday, March 6th

Wednesday, March 5th

Tuesday, March 4th

Monday, March 3rd

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

View the daily webinar — live each day at 12:00 EST, and archived thereafter:

Join Al Tompkins to learn what impressed the judges, what ethical issues arose in this year’s entries, and how the backpack journalist trend is affecting photojournalism.

Team Entry Finalists

“Longest Day of Golf”: Robert Cook & Chris Wood, News 12 Connecticut
“Relay For Life”: Frank Bruce & Jim Mennino, News 12 Connecticut
“The Cliffs at Mt. Marathon”: Scott Jensen & Jason Moore, KTUU-TV/Anchorage, AK
“Trivial Pursuit”: Gary Knox, Jonathan Malat, & Andy Sugden; KARE-TV/Minneapolis, MN

Winners

1st: “The Cliffs at Mt. Marathon”; Scott Jensen & Jason Moore, KTUU-TV/Anchorage, AK
2nd: “Longest Day of Golf”; Robert Cook & Chris Wood, News 12 CT
3rd: “Relay For Life”; Frank Bruce & Jim Mennino, News 12 Connecticut
HM: “Trivial Pursuit”; Gary Knox, Jonathan Malat, & Andy Sugden; KARE-TV/Minneapolis, MN

Judges’ Comments

Tim Griffis

All four finalists were pieces represented the true spirit of what the “team entry” category should be. The cliff race story had moments, crisp natural sound and a decent story. The degree of difficulty in shooting this piece was not lost on the judges. If you’ve ever climbed up a rocky slope with heavy camera gear, you know it’s not easy.

The golf story showed up a lot quick editing combine with crystal clear sound and tight sequences. It’s only real downfall was it lacked of a real personal story to build upon.

Bob Gould

The judges decided on 4 finalists. The 1st and 2nd place winners were very close.

“The Longest Day of Golf” which wound up 2nd had some wonderful technique and a great story to go along with it. The team really worked their tails off to pull this story off.

With what some may call “cliché” editing with quick nat hits of golf balls…it really worked in this case, because they were playing “speed” golf to get 5 rounds in for the whole day. The story wasn’t just about someone trying to break an endurance record, but to help out a charity…that gave it a little more newsy edge to it.

“The Cliffs at Mt. Marathon,” the 1st place winner, showed some great moments and the difficulty was high in shooting and editing this.

I enjoyed this piece. I felt like I was there as the team showed us the pursuit of this race.

“Relay 4 Life,” for me had some nice moments, but I believe it fell short in the storytelling. There were some confusing elements in this story and I wondered if the story was about the teacher; the students on the relay team; or the event as a whole. The event DID features some good elements and that’s why it was a finalist.

“Trivial Pursuit” received an honorable mention. This fast paced shoot/edit had a lot of natural moments, but I think it was almost too fast at times and I had trouble at first understanding how the event worked. There were so many things going on, I had a hard time following it. I also felt like I wanted to hear more of the trivia questions and answers. That said, a ton of work went into the production of this piece and the crew should be commended.

Jeff Roberts

Some nice stories that we had seen before during the judging in either POY or SOY so it made the whole process a little easier this round. "The Cliffs at Mt. Marathon" was a nice story about a foot race up the side of a mountain with all the moments from falling rock hazards to nice little snippets of sound from the runners. The "Longest Day of Golf" was one of those fast paced stories with quick edits that usually have more style than content but this was an exception in my book. This could have easily took first with nice moments and sound of the golfers spun through the fast paced editing along with flawless sound.

Preston Rudie

Loved the top two stories in this category! “The Longest Day of Golf” took what could have been a very boring story and made it entertaining and fun to watch. To the photojournalists who worked on the story… thank you for being consistent and WOW when it came to editing. People who watch this story should note all the subtle sound bites that were woven into this story. I can’t say enough about this one… I just loved it and in my book was number one.

That said, “The Cliffs at Mt. Marathon” was a wonderful story as well. Kudos to the team for letting the moment breathe after the girl was hit by the rock. Many photojournalists and reporters would have felt compelled to move on to the next shot or begin with more track right away. Nice job. I think the story could have been a bit tighter, in other words a little shorter and not suffered, but overall great work on what clearly was a physically demanding story to shoot.

Nellie Stinson

When it came down to the top two stories in this category, it was hard to tell that more than one photographer shot the story. This was a good thing. Having similar shooting techniques didn’t draw my attention away from the story. I chose the winner because of a couple of reasons…one: the sound editing flowed through out the story, two: they had more moments and three: the photographers seemed to be all over that mountain side and it felt like there were more than two people shooting the story.

NPPA Marketplace:

$10,000 PRIZE: Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for work in 2006 by newspaper and wire service photographers. Deadline Jan. 31, 2007. Entry form online.
BGAN: The new mobile satellite service with simultaneous high-speed data (up to 492kbps) and voice connectivity that goes wherever you go, throughout the world.
NPPA Photo Club: Your digital workflow demands the best gear. And your NPPA membership entitles you to the best prices on all the great stuff in our web store.
Join the NPPA: NPPA members receive a wide range of benefits, from educational opportunities to mentoring, discounts on equipment, insurance, business tips, and much more.