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Creating a Multimedia Project

What is Multimedia?
    “Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms…..
    The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material……
    Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms. Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices…..”

Multimedia Training

Multimedia projects offer a unique combination to the modern reporter that is not just limited to those of us who have traditionally worked on the image side of the business… Today the addition of audio to text, photo and video offers a whole new way of communication, conveying information that cannot be communicated by one single medium alone.
As technology progresses, so will multimedia. Today, there are plenty of new media technologies being used to create the complete multimedia experience. Journalism in currently is in the middle of a technological revolution that is bringing new story telling tools to the journalist. Things show no sign of slowing down! On the contrary the arrival of faster internet connections and more developed internet usage has opened a whole new horizon in the ever-growing media world.
There is an emerging opportunity for text, stills and audio packages destined for:

  • Internet: Traditional media based sites.
  • Blogs: New independent sites.
  • DVD: both education and interactive
  • Podcasts: Both video and audio
  • Wireless with the new range of I-phones, Blackberry and other 3G devices.

The still image offers an instinctive cross-barrier comprehension of a story. The text can teach and inform the reader allowing a deeper understanding of the story and the context. But…Multimedia however, can combine both the still or video image, the text and add the dimension of Audio.
These elements combined create an experience that none of the individual elements can accomplish alone.

Objective:

The objective of this series of tutorials is to offer and introduction to the world of Multimedia. Many will have seen the finished projects on say the internet, but the actual process of producing a piece will remain obscure for many.

The aim is to tailor the modules to the level of ability of each person, to help the individual to understand the possibilities of Multimedia and to teach the basic skills and techniques as well as the technical aspects of producing the material.

This will cover the range of image, text and audio techniques necessary for a project, as well as the computer applications that need to be understood and mastered for a project to come to fruition.

The aim then is to provide the journalist with the knowledge needed to become autonomous in the use of Multimedia tools, to be able to produce independently, personal and joint Multimedia Projects.

Multimedia projects are reliant on the use of a variety of computer and digital imaging and audio acquisition hardware. Just as the use of digital photography in news coverage relies squarely on Photoshop, as the industry standard, so ‘The multimedia journalist’ needs to master the whole pallet of audiovisual production software that is available to him or her in order to produce a project that is complete and can be posted on the internet as a standalone item.


These Multimedia tuition modules will have cover the following :

  • Introduction to Multimedia:  What is Multimedia? Why consider a Multimedia project? How does the journalist start his or her own multimedia project?
  • Planning:  To enable him or her to plan a multimedia project, taking into account the following aspects: Scripting, storyboarding, photos, audio, video, interviews.
    Mastery of these tools and techniques is an important step to establish a workflow and increase the quality of his or her pieces.
  • Photography: To enable the journalists from departments outside of News Pictures to learn the basics of photography in journalism and how to apply it to Multimedia project. The use of digital imaging will also be covered with tools such as Photoshop.

  • Editing: To enable the journalist to become familiar with the Tools of the Trade needed to produce the project : NLE’s (Premiere CS4, Final Cut Pro) ; and how to augment the workflow with annex applications such as Photoshop; After Effects; Soundbooth and  Media Encoders such as Adobe Flash; MpegStreamclip etc.

  • Audio: To become acquainted with Audio acquisition and its crucial application in a multimedia project. (Microphones and their use, media recording, audio levels, audio editing and application in a project). To be able to record a basic interview.

  • Shooting: To be able to use still and video cameras in a multimedia context. To be able to set up and film a basic interview.
    To know how to set up the lighting on a subject, correctly acquire high quality audio and master simple camera techniques.
  • Post Production: Finally to bring all the above together and to produce an individual Multimedia project…this will include the image and sound acquisition as well as the editing of the final project, using all the above elements, before exporting ; encoding and posting on the internet…



  • Creating a Multimedia Project
  • Available Modules
  • Method of Instruction