You may have seen their footage from protests, sporting events and the Nepal earthquake. You may have watched them whizzing around public parks and beaches. But, thanks to stringent rules set up by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), drones are still a limited part of the modern journalist’s reporting arsenal.
Lea Khayata and Elettra Fiumi met at Columbia Journalism School in 2011. They worked on their master’s project together and got along exceptionally well. When the school year ended and they started looking for jobs, they couldn’t find anything that suited them. “Everything was very particular: only research, or only shooting, or only editing, things like that. And the way we had learned things was to do everything from beginning to end,” explained Lea. So with a little encouragement from their teacher, they decided to take the jump and create their own production company: Granny Cart Productions.
In this video, they explain their work and how they put their company together.
The freelance market can be precarious, especially for those who are just starting out. Journalists complain about poor pay, unclear expectations and needy editors - a contract can help you avoid these problems. Columbia Visuals reporter Joanna Plucinska met with Bill Loundy, the Director of Talent Management at Content.ly, to discuss some of the things that every freelancer should keep in mind when drafting a contract.
Prior to entering journalism school, I interned for the digital department at an entertainment company in NYC. One main objective at this company was to create videos that had the potential to get lots of views, i.e. videos that would go “viral.” As long as the videos were entertaining and attracted lots of eyeballs, they were considered successful.
I began to understand what made these types of videos popular, but I wondered if the producers of videos that dealt with more serious topics followed the same guidelines. Was there someone in every newsroom video department saying things like, “Make that petty theft more entertaining, so it gets more views”?
There are some companies out there who are successful at getting more important stories to go viral – Mashable, BuzzFeed and YouTube are some of the better-known examples. In journalism school, we didn’t learn “the rules” of producing viral news content. Do rules even exist?
Cyrus Fakroddin and his pet goat Cocoa take a taxi ride in New York, April 7, 2012. Fakroddin said. / Photo by Allison Joyce
A police officer receives first aid after being attacked by rioters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 17, 2013. / Photo by Nicolas Tanner
April 21, 2012: A moment of political passion breaks out amongst tens of thousands who gathered for a pre-election protest in Tahrir Square. / Photo by Amanda Mustard
The 2014 Angola Prison Rodeo in Angola, Louisiana on April 26, 2014 / Photo by Cooper Neil
Photojournalism can be a very lonely profession, especially as a freelancer working in remote areas. That’s why photographers Alex Potter, Allison Joyce, Amanda Mustard, Cooper Neill and Nicolas Tanner decided to form their own collective.
GIDEON’S ARMY, an award winning documentary that premiered at Sundance Film Festival and on HBO in 2013, follows the stories of three young public defenders who are part of a small group of idealistic lawyers in the Deep South.
The main characters work to challenge the assumptions that drive a criminal justice system strained to the breaking point. They struggle against long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads; even the most committed often give up in their first year.
The director of Gideon’s Army, Dawn Porter, recently spoke at the Columbia Journalism School during Film Fridays. These are some highlights from the conversation, led by professor Betsy West.
We spoke to the talented photo editor Myles Little of Time magazine about his day-to-day job, choosing photographers and images for TIME magazine covers and his advice for aspiring photographers and editors.
Duy Linh Tu, professor and Director of Digital Media at Columbia's Journalism School, shares his advice on breaking into the video production industry.
The following are excerpts from a panel with duPont winners from This American Life and "The Revisionaries," discussing their approaches to long-form projects.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
This is a selection of images from Bought & Sold by Katie Orlinsky, one of the photographers that photo editor Lauren Steel represents at Reportage.
Lauren Steel is a Managing Editor at Reportage by Getty Images and is responsible for a group of renowned photographers. She started at Getty Images in 2003 as an entertainment assignment editor for the newswire, and she has been a part of the Eddie Adams Workshop faculty for the last 8 years. what she looks for in photographers, and what photojournalists who want representation with Getty need to pay attention to.
Walter Murch’s “In the Blink of an Eye” discusses the art and craft of video editing and attempts to answer the most basic editing question: why do cuts work?
A family sits outside their home in the remote Afghan village of Khandud in northeastern Afghanistan. From the Soviet invasion to the Taliban takeover and anti-Taliban resistance, the Wakhan Corridor has remained largely free of strife. / Photo & caption by Diana Markosian
Dzhenet Achalimova, 25, stands beside her two children in their home in Kirov-Aul, Dagestan. Achalimova says her husband, Magomed Nasibov, 31, along with his cousin were abducted and killed by men in camouflage in Russia’s volatile republic of Dagestan. / Photo & caption by Diana Markosian
A light beam shines on an Afghan woman as she bakes bread in the border town of Ishkashim, Afghanistan. More than 12,000 people live in the 220-mile corridor, a series of broad valleys and high-altitude plateaus carved by the Panj River. / Photo & caption by Diana Markosian
The Dead Sea extends like a shimmering sheet of turquoise toward the hazy mountains of Jordan. The ancient salt sea is the site of a looming environmental catastrophe with water levels falling at an average rate of three feet per year. / Photo & caption by Diana Markosian
This post on working with undocumented immigrants is part one of our Covering Sensitive Populations series, where we help dissect the intricacies of working with subjects that may be made vulnerable to media attention.
Sisters alongside the road near their home. Allensworth, California.
Boy with an old farm truck. Teviston, California.
Fishing in an irrigation canal. Corcoran, California.
Texas migrant at his home. Allensworth, California.
Is a photography internship necessary? Will it help you find a job? Are unpaid internships terrible? What will you learn? In this post we answer these questions, and more.