The real trick to this video was being able to be where I needed to be in the room to get each shot for my sequence. I tried to talk to the nurses in the beginning so I would know what would happen during the surgery, but in the end, I just had to feel it, as they say. I guess I lucked out because it turned out alright. I also managed to get my human story to bookend the ghastly eyeball video.

Speaking of that, nearly everyone at the paper asked me to change the screen shot image for the video on the front of the site. Something about the eyeball with clamps on the lids evoked “A Clockwork Orange” for them. I left it. To me, an eye-catching image gets clicks.

The surgeon Dr. McCaa was actually so pleased with the video that she asked me to freelance some video that she could use at speaking events.

New tech boosts LASIK surgery from Aaron Spencer on Vimeo.

Tiffany Taylor gets surgery to mend her nearsightedness with an improved LASIK procedure.

This video was the kickoff in a series of weight-loss success stories. Alisha DeVille, a mother of three, managed to lose 120 pounds in 16 months through exercise and the Atkins Diet. Since I planned to make several similar videos documenting others’ weight loss stories, I decided to focus on one element of DeVille’s weight-loss challenge: her children.

I wanted the rest of the video to be upbeat and motivational, a la The Biggest Loser. That was my inspiration anyway. I played with some image animation for the first time – note the split screen, you like that right? – and I synced it with some royalty-free music (from GarageBand).

All through the process, DeVille was really cooperative. She was actually working on getting endorsements at the time, so she was ready for any publicity. She e-mailed me to let me know she loved the finished product.

Weight loss success from Aaron Spencer on Vimeo.

Alisha DeVille, a Madison, Miss. mother of three, lost 120 pounds in 16 months with exercise and the Atkins Diet.

“Between the Lions” moved production to Mississippi years earlier, and every since it has been dear to the creative community. Let’s face it, Mississippi isn’t Hollywood. It takes what it can get.

Watching the show, I felt a bit of whimsy. The puppets behaved like actors – or rather, the puppeteers made them behave like actors. They would interact with directors as puppets, not as puppeteers. I wanted to get a good mix of the actual show and some of these behind the scenes glimpses in the final video.

One of the fun parts of the video was a little unexpected: Two puppeteers started interacting with the camera, making the puppets act in character. (They ask if I’m streaming, to which I say no because, in the moment, I thought they meant live streaming. Why I would think puppets would be asking about live streaming, I do not know. This video actually did stream on clarionledger.com).

Oh, and a puppet tip: Apparently it is a big no-no to take video of “dead puppets,” that is, any puppet that does not have a puppeteer controlling it. Dead puppets make people uneasy.

Behind ‘Between the Lions’ from Aaron Spencer on Vimeo.

Behind the scenes of the award-winning children’s show ‘Between the Lions’ taped in Jackson, Mississippi.

Today our newsroom computer guy sent me an AppleScript that solves a common problem we have in creating photo galleries.

When I first started my job, I was being trained how to create photo galleries and was shocked that I had to rename every filename of every photo (We download our photos from the server with names like “tcl-5lsbeon89w819nsmq8cc_original.jpg,” which apparently are too long or hold too many odd characters for our gallery creator software). I even looked online for a more efficient way of renaming all files in a folder, but didn’t find anything except programs that I had to pay for. Maybe I need to work on my Google search skills?

How to do it:

The process is really pretty self explanatory once you open the AppleScript editor, and it would depend on each user’s specific needs, so I won’t detail a how-to here. It’s not needed anyway.

The AppleScript editor comes standard with Mac, and it works a lot like Actions in Photoshop in that you can record what you do and repeat the process with a push of a button. In fact, if you have Photoshop CS3, AppleScript cane work with Photoshop, resizing your photos, etc

Learn more about AppleScripts here.

I get my ideas for most of my videos from the following:

1. Live news stories
2. Assignments for future stories
3. The features (lifestyle) budget that comes out in advance. This one most often provides the best video ideas

But like I said, today, I’m running on empty. So here’s my brainstorming list:

Big vegetables, world records, road side attractions - tourist office, state fair organizers, schools, churches Small crafts - craft fairs, craftsmen’s guild Fast races, new technology - body shops, small business center High sky rise construction, helicopter, sky diving - local business, social networks

Odd wild animals - Zoo Cute pets, children - parks, animal shelters, pet stores Emotional sickness, poverty, surprise party, competition - health forums, social networks, college/school PR Eye catching Art, anything involving little clothing -colleges, beaches, art classes

It’s not much, but it’s a start. It’s not even well researched. But it’s something I can keep on my desktop and add to over time.

You can probably figure out that I started with elements I think make for good visuals and then imagined what sorts of stories I could tell based on other videos I’ve seen, life experience and my imagination. Then I wrote down courses of action. I actually am already in touch with the local zoo, which has helped me a couple of times. More often than not with the zoo I get a press release AFTER the event has already happened. Ex: Once I got a press release about how two days before a baby giraffe was born in front of a group of schoolchildren on a field trip. AGH!

A lot of these ideas can be researched with a little digging on the Web. The ideas that require me to physically visit some place are going to be the trickiest. Editors hate nothing more than when I go out into the field and don’t return with anything the same day — a very likely scenario if I visit the airfield or ride around parks. But I do think it’s necessary to find stories where they happen.

If I build enough sources, I should get tips for video just as a reporter does for stories. My hope is that I can generate a reliable stream of video opportunities that come right to me.

And then, what is well-done local news? A recent expert-led undertaking in Loudoun, Va., was apparently a disappointment. So I tried to find some success stories. Here are a few:

1. neighborsgo by The Dallas Morning News
   A January post at the Bivings Report points to a NAA study that showcased how the paper works with people in the community to come up with stories and see them through. It started with a reader submission tool on dallasnews.com.

   Now, 15 editors and four assistant editors sift through information submitted online for content to include in the print editions, which run from 16 to 40 pages with circulations ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 readers.

   “We’re saying, ‘This is your turn to speak up first, and we’ll take it from there,’ ” says Oscar Martinez, managing editor of neighborsgo. “We’re not creating a need to share information. We’re providing tools to be able to do so.”

2. The Point Reyes Light, California
   This 2005 OJR story recounts when the editor at this small community paper fell under hard financial times, the community “came together and basically passed the hat and bailed him out.” Its success is credited to its interaction with its readers made newly possible by the Internet:

Even a small operation like the Light can integrate the Web into its operation. And it’s not by putting all its content on the Web and hoping that readers will go there – it’s by using the Web and its readers in a way that allows it to report on the community better than ever.

3. The Anniston Star, Alabama
   In a 2004 post (see why I said this was a reminder?) by Media Center, then-Star editor Chris Waddle stresses the importance of participatory journalism. By 2006 in this NPR feature, it had the funds to maintain a staff twice as large as what was recommended. Waddle credits the success to staying connected with communities.

So to me, it looks like hyperlocal can work, if you listen to your readers. The best strategy is to stay loyal to your readers and let them speak out. Now I wonder if we’ve discovered the best tactics…

There are hundreds of useful databases on news Web sites today. But what’s increasingly sad — almost as sad as the tendency to create and dump unrelated databases without any context into data ghettos — is the increasing tendency to create databases of information that, really, a database isn’t useful in helping to understand. In the worst instances, it really just complicates the information for the sake of saying, “Look at all the databases we’re giving you!”

Data ghettos? Nice. I agree.

First of all, I don’t think “database” is a very sexy word to the average reader. I’m having a hard time imagining people I know searching through databases. So, second, databases have to be inviting. I can’t stand to see databases like these that require user input before you can see anything. Did Tom Smith graduate this year? No. How about Molly Baker? Yes. It’s a shot in the dark. The database needs to be presented in a way that catches attention, or at least lays out all the data in a tabular format. Like this.

Loudoun, which covers a small affluent Virginian community, is the hyperlocal Web brain child of the The Washington Post, and it’s not doing so well. From WSJ:

Almost a year later, however, the Web site is still searching for an audience. Its chief architect has left for another venture in Las Vegas, and his team went with him. And while Post executives say they remain committed to providing so-called hyperlocal news coverage, they are re-evaluating their approach.

Talton says:

This was sadly predictable, and indicative of the group-think that is causing newspapers to commit suicide.

So I’m sitting here thinking, dang, if my editors ever get a hold of this they’re going to think I’m a moron. In my practical capacity as a Web producer, I’m always chiding people for putting national stories on the front of the site. That’s about as far as this argument affects me, but underneath that is a big philosophical question about what is more important to my readers. The answer I always get is, “Hyperlocal!”

But what if I (and they) are wrong? Some national stories get big traffic on the site. Anything having to do with the presidential primaries inspires a debate, even if it’s Hillary speaking in Puerto Rico. Some local stories flop. You could attribute that to good vs. bad journalism, which the WSJ suggested:

…One reason: the team of outsiders didn’t do enough to familiarize itself with Loudoun County or engage its 270,000 residents.

But what if it’s more than bad journalism? Are we overlooking an obvious question? What if it’s good vs. bad content? In other words, what if your locality is boring? I mean, that’s why we run nation/international stories in the first place. They are more interesting than the softball game on the corner or the chess club tournament in the middle school gymnasium. Even our market studies show our online audience wants local stories the most, but they also want national stories.

Now, Talton (whom I’ve never read until today) seems generally cranky about new media in journalism, so that may have something to do with his distaste for “Web geek” control in newsrooms and new approaches like at Loudoun. I do appreciate another perspective, but I wish someone would get it right instead of finding someone else who did it wrong. I need some peace of mind here.

As I’ve said before, if I use copyrighted music, I only use 15 seconds. Gannet lawyers recommend this but say under fair use there is no time percentage, only that the amount used must be fair to the “substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole,” as the copyright law reads.

I also only use music I record at the scene. I only let it play alone for no more than 15 seconds. I let the music continue playing quietly under interviews for as long as it remains natural sound. I repeat: the music is nat sound, not mood. I’ve heard many videographers use music this way — we’re all on a Gannett video listserv and this issue comes up a lot. Examples would be my videos about a ballet performance or a piano recital for a girl who has a disability. Also a video about American Idol candidates singing popular songs during their auditions would work.

These examples really just can’t be done without the music. However, they should be done with something besides music — interviews, other nats — or else they’re ripping of the musical work.

Things that are not OK (taken from the listserv):

• Event montages, i.e. clips laid over copyrighted music gathered from the scene, aka a “music video.”
• Any performance (played alone) of a work the performer didn’t create, i.e. high school band playing “Louie, Louie,” Elvis impersonator singing Elvis songs.
• Any performance in the public domain that is performed by someone with a copyright on that performance. For example, a Tchaikovsky piece as performed by the Boston Pops is probably copyrighted by the Boston Pops.

If you need random mood music, there are many ways to get your hands on music you have every right to use in its entirety. Final Cut Pro comes with music, as does Avid. GarageBand comes with loops and has more for purchase. If you get rights signed to use original music from local bands, then natch, that’s fair game too.

Editor Justin Fritscher has been pushing breaking news updates and multimedia for a while now. In April, they pushed to have eight updates a day, and in March, individual page views had increased by 100,000. The site has done some innovative stuff with multimedia, including this fun shoes gallery (my idea), and at one point it was averaging three Web videos a day.

I can remember when I was a video stringer at the Reveille a whole year ago. Ah, college.

Congratulations to everyone.