This audio slide show is from the May 16, 2009 Blessing of the Bikes in Palmer, Alaska. It was strange covering something without the support of a media organization, mainly because I didn’t have a good answer when subjects asked where the story would appear (one woman asked if I was doing it for a school project).
I collected the audio with my G9 and built the slideshow in Final Cut Express. I don’t think I’ll buy a personal copy of Soundslides, in part because FCE does the job but also because it’s easier to upload the slideshow as a video to Vimeo or YouTube and embed the code. Sending viewers to a video site for still pictures is confusing … perhaps I need to build my own framework.
I was pleasantly surprised last night as I watched my journalism students combine still images and audio in iMovie HD for their multimedia projects. I’ve had a vaguely negative perception of the new version practically since it came out, but I can’t remember why. Maybe I’ll find out when they turn in their final versions….
UPDATE: The reviews are in! iMovie HD *IS* horrible. Recommendation: don’t upgrade.
I bought a Sony SR11 as part of my equipment purchase (on the advice of former Rocky Mountain News multimedia journalist Wes Pope). I wanted to move away from tape but that means embracing AVCHD … which is a bit of a problem when one works for a newspaper with increasingly out-dated equipment. To unpack AVCHD files on a Mac one must have an Intel processor and Final Cut Pro 6.0.1, Final Cut Express 4.0 or iMovie’08. We’re using FCE 3.5 at the Anchorage Daily News, and have only one machine running iMovie’08.
I opted to buy a copy of FCE for my home laptop and carry two computers to the office when necessary. Ordinarily I object (strongly) to financing my work for a big corporation but these are desperate times and if things go south at least I’ll be able to use it to freelance.
Thing is though, it’s worth the upgrade. The camera itself is very nice, especially with a Sennheiser MKE 400 shotgun mike attached, but I’m sold on Log and Capture in Final Cut. Speed is decent, even on my 2-1/2-year old MacBook Pro, and the process is much faster.
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