Multimedia

VR Mobile Apps For News And Documentary

Multimedia, Tech stuff, Thoughts, Virtual Reality

Do you love virtual reality or have some interest in its potential for journalistic use? The best place to start, without paying a dime, is by downloading a few apps on your mobile device. Try these out, explore a little bit, and see what you think. You don’t need a virtual reality headset or even the affordable Google Cardboard viewer to experience VR videos on your phone. Just download the apps and view the videos. If you do have Google Cardboard or a similar VR viewer, you can use those with most of these apps, too. I didn’t include the two most obvious apps, because you probably already have them, but make sure to try 360-degree videos on Facebook and YouTube. If you haven’t noticed yet, you can already view VR on these apps.

  1. Vrse (iOS + Android) These are the folks behind some of the bigger New York Times VR projects that received a lot of attention lately. This app features the NYT projects such as The Displaced, but you can also find the short horror fiction piece Catatonic. A fun one to watch after you’ve scarred yourself with the horror film is Lucy Walker’s A Short History of Cuban Dance, which debuted at Sundance.
  2. Littlstar (iOS + Android) This one is a bit more exciting. Their plan seems to be to become the Instagram of VR. You can make a profile, upload VR videos, like VR videos, scroll through a timeline, etc. You can already find videos from big names like ABC, NPR, the Kansas City Royals, etc. It will take some time to feel more authentic once actual, like, real people start sharing more content.
  3. Vrideo (iOS + Android + Samsung Gear VR) Vrideo seems very similar to Littlstar but I would say it leans toward a YouTube feel. Yes, you can like and follow people, but it seems to be less of a community and more of a collection of channels. They use the term “subscribers” instead of “followers” (Littlstar uses “followers”) so maybe that’s why I’m getting the YouTube vibe.
  4. RYOT (iOS + Android) RYOT is a news site that donates a portion of its earnings to non-profit causes. They have a VR app with two main sections: “Films” and “360 News.” As of today, the News section was filled with Iowa caucus content (even though today is Super Tuesday) but it’s safe to say they are invested in VR news since it accounts for 50% of their app’s categories! The Films section has a great documentary feel to it. Unlike the other apps, you don’t get much of a corporate branding influence, and one of the projects is a five minute collaboration with the Associated Press on “The Jungle,” the infamous refugee encampment in Calais, France.
  5. Jaunt (iOS + Android) Jaunt is another slick one with travel, documentary, and corporate content mixed together. You can watch a funny promo for Zoolander 2, a Disneyland 60 promo, NHL hockey content, or a North Face piece shot in Nepal. CBS and ABC also make appearances in this app. Judging by all of the branded logos, there must be a fair amount of money flowing through this content, and probably the app. I assume that is a good sign for the app’s staying power, but as a source for news and information, it doesn’t have the same distinctive vibe as something like RYOT, or the next two apps.
  6. WSJ (iOS + Android + Oculus Rift + Samsung Gear VR) The Wall Street Journal app is kind of convenient in that if you already have the regular news app on your phone, you can just open it up and scroll down to the “Virtual Reality” tab. Click on a few videos and learn about how Ikea rugs are made in India, etc. Pretty cool!
  7. NYT VR (iOS + Android) I credit The New York Times with bringing VR journalism to the mainstream when it released The Displaced, an in-depth feature produced by NYT Magazine, along with free Google Cardboard viewers bundled into subscribers’ Sunday Times last November. The NYT VR app is nice, but single publications like NYT and WSJ are going to have a hard time keeping me coming back when they are so slow to add new content. Hopefully soon, budgets will swell with all of that post-Spotlight Oscar journalism love from viewers and advertisers 🙂 Hey, a guy can hope, right … ?

Red Giant Shooter Suite 12.6 Review

Gear, Multimedia, Tech stuff, Thoughts, Video

Red Giant Shooter Suite, now available in version 12.6, is a suite of six plugins/programs that offer an array of video editing tools. I took it for a spin and will explain what’s in the package in case you are shopping around for tools like these. Here’s what you get for $299 ($149 for an academic license): PluralEyes, Offload, Denoiser II, Instant 4K, LUT Buddy, and Frames. Below is a quick breakdown of each of those.

 

PluralEyes 3.5

Red Giant PluralEyes is technically an entire program of its own, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility. It was the first Red Giant product that I had ever heard of and has always been a reliable solution for synching audio and video. It’s a classic. If you learned on Final Cut Pro 7, like I did, you probably learned to use PluralEyes when syncing your DSLR footage with the external audio that you recorded. PluralEyes has always been great and continues to be one of the best in the game. If you use Final Cut Pro X, as I do, you know that there is now a built-in audio sync feature. So for me, I don’t really need PluralEyes. Some FCPX users will still use PluralEyes because you can actually still sync inside PluralEyes and then export a sequence for use in FCPX, but I don’t really need to use that step. As far as compatibility goes for that sequence exporting feature, PluralEyes does work with the major video editing programs: FCP7, FCPX, Premiere, Avid, and Sony Vegas.

 

The PluralEyes interface

Above: A detail of the PluralEyes interface

 

LUT Buddy

Red Giant LUT Buddy will generate Look Up Tables for use in Adobe After Effects and Premiere. Essentially, Look Up Tables are little formulas for color that help you get your footage to look good in its final medium – which could be actual printed film, for instance. Let’s say you have color corrected your video project and it looks good on your calibrated monitor. Well, when you print it to actual film it may look different due to the color cast, contrast of the film, etc. It’s kind of like when you have a photo that looks good on your screen but when you print it out it’s too dark, etc. This is an age old problem for photographers. Anyways, LUT Buddy is popular industry tool for using LUTs.

 

Offload

Red Giant Offload pretty much works with every camera/memory card system out there, according to Red Giant. What it does is manage the import of your media. For me, this is the one inclusion in the Red Giant Shooter Suite that isn’t a must have. The program does verify the files and make sure that everything was transferred, which is kind of comforting. Sometimes I scroll through the finder on my Mac and look to see if everything made it, and might even check the size of the folder to make sure it’s correct, so I guess Offload would, er, offload some of the stress of making sure my precious media assets are safe and secure on my drives. You can also program it to create an automatic backup upon import.

 

Denoiser II

Red Giant Denoiser II might be the most aptly-named and straightforward tool in this collection. It, well, it denoises your footage. It’s a solid addition to your kit and can help with those clips shot at high ISOs that you’ll want to clean up without losing detail. Just like the noise reduction slider in Lightroom.

 

Instant 4K

Red Giant Instant 4K builds upon the older Instant HD, which made HD footage out of smaller resolution footage. Instant 4K makes high resolution out of HD and smaller resolution footage and is supposedly four times as fast as Instant HD was. Basically, the program has an algorithm that takes your footage, be it SD, HD, or whatever, and creates new pixels, adds sharpening, anti-aliasing, etc. to create new high resolution footage. You just pick whether you want to output your footage as 720p, 1080p, 2K, or 4K.

 

Frames

Red Giant Frames can de-interlace your interlaced footage to output as 24p. I believe this feature is built into Adobe Premiere, but Frames has added features for cropping and broadcast details, like NTSC, PAL, HD, etc.

I think this is a good package, and there is a significant savings in choosing the package deal; however, you can of course pick and choose from these six and select only the tools you want. Personally, I would skip Instant 4K, only because I would generally just shoot 4K if I needed 4K. Of course, it’s probably meant to help you in a pinch when you have a 4K project and maybe just one or two clips from an HD camera, but if that’s the case then I probably wouldn’t use the tool enough anyway. All in all, these are all fine products and I don’t see any red flags that I would want to pass on to my colleagues, so, happy editing and good luck.

 

Polaroid Cube Review

Gear, Multimedia, Still photography, Video

The Polaroid Cube is an amazingly affordable little video camera that is going to capture a lot of potential GoPro consumers. It is essentially a stripped down GoPro with the basic features you need: 1080 HD video capture and 6MP still photos. You can also put it in an underwater case or use the built-in magnet to attach the Polaroid Cube to metal objects. Other accessories are available, too.

At $99, the camera makes a lot of sense when compared to GoPro models ranging in price from $130-500. Coincidentally, GoPro has just released a new comparable camera, the entry-level HERO, that hits that lower-end $130 price point … Have a look at this Polaroid Cube review and decide for yourself what fits you.

Polaroid Cube Review: The Basics

 

The Polaroid Cube is a little cube with a lens, and not much else. This is great, in my opinion, because it keeps filmmaking fun, easy, and accessible. That’s the point of a camera in this market; if you want something more professional for, say, an interview, you probably already own a DSLR or something better.

Here’s what you get: A tiny, 1.4″ cube of a camera that weights 0.1 pounds. It’s got 32GB of internal memory and a slot for a microSD card. It records sound, but that might not be as important to you as the video quality. The video looks a little better than a GoPro does, from what I’ve seen, but the still photos aren’t going to be as good.

The pros: It’s tiny, light, and easy.

The cons: The Polaroid Cube only comes with a magnet mount, so you’re going to have to bust out the gaffer tape or buy accessories to mount this thing on a tripod or anything non-metallic.

 

Polaroid Cube vs GoPro HERO

(Above: GoPro’s entry-level HERO camera)

So, what do you want to buy? You’re getting essentially the same thing with both cameras. When it’s Polaroid Cube vs GoPro HERO, I recommend the Polaroid Cube. They are both basic, useful HD video cameras. If you want something that can shoot in 4K or has remote capabilities via wifi and mobile apps, then go for a higher-end GoPro, but if you’re staying in the entry-level range, stick with the Polaroid Cube. Review them for yourself though, and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Sniffing for Whale Scat | Recent Work for The Wall Street Journal

Education, Multimedia, My work, photojournalism, Published work, Still photography, University of Washington, Video

Conservation Canines invited Wall Street Journal reporter Joel Millman and I along for a whale scat collecting trip out in the San Juan Islands recently, and we were joined by Tucker, a black lab mix, who helps researchers find whale poo. His nose can catch whale scat that can be hard to find, and much smaller than you might expect.

The orca whale crew is affiliated with the University of Washington, and is part of a larger project that uses dogs for many different kinds of searches. The orca crew can use the whale scat to test for many things, like identifying individual whales, checking for stress, pregnancy hormones, diet, and more.

I shot photographs of the recent trip as well as footage for a short video, which is below and was edited by John Hubbell. Also, check out the article at WSJ.com. Thanks for looking.

 
Video:
 

 
 
Photos:
 

Deborah Giles, who goes by her last name “Giles,” searches for whale scat aboard a research vessel near San Juan Island, Washington on July 16, 2014. Giles works for Conservation Canines and searches with whale scat detection dog Tucker, a black lab mix, for elusive samples of whale scat for research purposes.

 

An orca whale surfaces nearby as whale scat detection dog Tucker, a black lab mix, sniffs for whale scat.

 

Elizabeth Seely holds binoculars and searches for whale scat.

 

Tucker follows a scent.

 

Liz and Giles scoop poop.

 

Whale poop can be tiny.

 

Tucker’s reward is a little bit of time with his green ball. He goes crazy for it.

 

The whales play, too.

 

Tucker takes a nap while locked back in the crate. He stays in here during any down time.

 

I’m telling you, whale poop is tiny.

 

Loading poop into plastic test tubes.

 

Liz holds a sample.

 

Into the centrifuge it goes. We’re doing science here, after all.

 

Dumping out some extra water (no pun intended).

 

A glorious sample shines in the sun.

 

Giles sports a wildly inappropriate shirt.

 

Giles and Liz catch sight of some more whale scat. Their own noses are good enough that Tucker may often stay in his crate.

 

Tucker is out this time, though.

 

The nose, at work.

 

Orca whales, presumably pooping, near a whale watching tourist boat.

 

There is the treasure.

 

A nice sample. Their notes include a list of the following description options: “snotty, wispy, mucusy/slimy, stringy, piecey.”

 

Liz passes a sample to Giles for storage in the cooler.

 

Giles, right, with Liz and Tucker on the dock.

 

 

 

 

Soccer, Made in America | Recent Work for The Wall Street Journal

Multimedia, My work, Published work, Seattle, Video

 

 

 

This was a fun one to work on, especially since I love soccer so much.

Matthew Futterman of The Wall Street Journal wrote a nice in-depth piece about the transformation of the U.S. men’s national team and the influence of coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s attacking style. I contributed by filming interviews with current Sounders coach Sigi Schmid, along with players Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans.

Have a look at the piece on the front page of today’s issue of The Wall Street Journal, or see it online with great interactive features, including my video work.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

TrackX Review For Final Cut Pro / SliceX Review For Final Cut Pro

Gear, Multimedia, Tech stuff, Thoughts, Video

(Can you spot where an object was removed in the frame grab above? And no, I would never use this for a documentary project, but it could be useful otherwise!)

 

The creators of TrackX and SliceX recently sent me copies for review, and they seem like quite useful products. Developed by Mocha, the TrackX/SliceX combo of plugins for Final Cut Pro X offer some great effects without ever having to leave FCPX. The bundle runs $149 or $99 each. Normally, to achieve some of these tricks, you might have to open another program like After Effects, which also happens to require a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud. With this TrackX review and SliceX review, you can learn a bit from my experience testing the two products out and see if they are right for you.

SliceX Review

First off, SliceX has a lot of features, which is nice. In the video below, you can see a little demo of the Object Remover function. In the first clip, try to see if you can notice anything missing. The removed object will return later in the clip.
 

 

SliceX tools include: Blur Shape Mask, Color Correct Shape Mask, Depth of Field Shape Mask, Object Remover, Pixelate Shape Mask, Shape Mask Layer, Skinfix Shape Mask, and Vignette Shape Mask.

The tools in this plugin are quite easy to use, as it only took me about two minutes to install the plugin and start removing objects with the Object Remover function. They probably aren’t going to be as robust as After Effects and other competing stand-alone visual effects programs, but they are still nice and worth the $99 price of SliceX. I’m pretty excited to use some of these tools in upcoming and current video projects. I had a great time learning how to use Slice X; review it for yourself though and let me know if you think it’s right for you.

(Below: The SliceX Official Tutorial)

 

TrackX Review

TrackX is pretty awesome and straight forward. I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, and now I have a simple plugin that lets me track text to a moving object in the frame. It’s great.

Another effect that I’ll mention in this TrackX review is that, using the same technology, you can track a video clip to the surface of a screen. Imagine you have a computer screen or an iPad in one of your clips, and you want to make it look like a certain clip is playing on that screen. TrackX makes it easy to add any clip onto that screen. See below for an example in a video provided by the TrackX creators:
 

All in all, I have to say that these plugins are a good deal at $149 as a bundle. They accomplish very targeted goals, which means that a more robust stand-alone program might be a better choice for general visual effects creation; however, for a couple of quick solutions, TrackX and SliceX work great for quickly elevating your productions to a high level.

Feeding the Homeless | Recent Work For NationSwell

Diversity, Multimedia, My work, Published work, Seattle

 

homeless-seattle-photograph

(Marvin Baker enjoys a hot meal at Seattle’s Outdoor Meal Site.)

 

I met some really cool people recently while contributing interviews and footage from Seattle for a short documentary film about the Food Recovery Network, produced and edited by NationSwell. The Food Recovery Network started as a project that took extra food from college campuses and fed that food to homeless populations. Now, the project has expanded to include restaurants, caterers, and dining halls, in an effort to further pursue the issue of hunger in the U.S.

See the short film below, which highlights the TASTE restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum and the local Seattle-area non-profit Operation Sack Lunch.

Read more on the NationSwell site.

 

Into the Mud: Video Work for The Weather Channel

Multimedia, photojournalism, Published work, Video

“If I close my eyes for more than five seconds, I see that wall of mud.”

Robin Youngblood faced certain death yet survived the devastating March 22 mudslide near Oso, Washington. You can listen to Robin’s powerful reflections on her experience below, along with words from Kris Langton, who helped rescue four people.

I interviewed the two for an in-depth online feature for The Weather Channel that you can see here at Weather.com. Be sure to set aside some time to read the powerful written piece by Stacey Solie.

You’ll also see a lot of photos by me and my colleagues, made throughout the two weeks following the tragic first day.

Robin Youngblood stands for a portrait on April 3, 2014 in Marysville, Washington. (Photo by David Ryder/weather.com)

 

Recent work for UW Bothell: Science, Technology and Society major

Education, Multimedia, My work, Published work, University, University of Washington, UW Bothell, Video

The latest video in my series of promos for the undergraduate Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences majors at the University of Washington Bothell is below. Take a look and learn about the Science, Technology and Society program.
 

Recent work for The Wall Street Journal: The Lobotomy Files

Multimedia, My work, photojournalism, Published work, Still photography, Video

A month or two ago, The Wall Street Journal had me illustrate portions a very powerful story by reporter Michael M. Phillips called The Lobotomy Files, which was finally published over this past week in three different chapters. The story received great play both in print and online, with beautiful layout, design, and interactive online features. Michael did an incredible job with the reporting, too. It was an honor to be a part of this project and to help tell this important story. Please take a look at the full project online, and see my contributions below. I did the filming for two short videos in addition to doing portraiture and other relevant still photography. This was my first time on the front page of WSJ, which was great.

Video:

Photos:

Frances Malzahn sits for a portrait in her home in Granger, Washington on October 15, 2013. Malzahn’s uncle, Emil Kauzlarich, was a Coast Guard veteran and was lobotomized in 1951. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Frances Malzahn is pictured in her home in Granger, Washington on October 15, 2013. Malzahn’s uncle, Emil Kauzlarich, was a Coast Guard veteran and was lobotomized in 1951. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Pictured in her Granger, Washington home on October 15, 2013, Frances Malzahn holds a flag used in the 1984 funeral of her uncle, Emil Kauzlarich. Kauzlarich was a Coast Guard veteran and was lobotomized in 1951. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Frances Malzahn holds an undated photograph of a young Emil Kauzlarich, a Coast Guard veteran who was her uncle. Kauzlarich, who passed away in 1984, was lobotomized in 1951. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Photographs of Emil Kauzlarich (left, in both images) in his Coast Guard uniform are seen at the home of Frances Malzahn, who is his niece. Kauzlarich, a Coast Guard veteran who passed away in 1984, was lobotomized in 1951. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Edna Schauer sits for a portrait in her home in Port Orchard, Washington on October 14, 2013. Schauer’s brother, Eugene Kainulainen, was a U.S. Army Air Forces veteran and was lobotomized in 1953. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Edna Schauer sits for a portrait in her home in Port Orchard, Washington on October 14, 2013. Schauer’s brother, Eugene Kainulainen, was a U.S. Army Air Forces veteran and was lobotomized in 1953. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Pictured in her Port Orchard, Washington home on October 14, 2013, Edna Schauer holds two mugs made by her brother, Eugene Kainulainen, after his lobotomy. He dreamt of attending art school, and these mugs are some of the only reminders Schauer still has of her brother. Kainulainen, now deceased, was a U.S. Army Air Forces veteran and was lobotomized in 1953. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

Edna Schauer reads a magazine about flowers and birds in her kitchen in Port Orchard, Washington on October 14, 2013. Schauer’s brother, Eugene Kainulainen, was a U.S. Army Air Forces veteran and was lobotomized in 1953. CREDIT: David Ryder for The Wall Street Journal

 

The front page of The Wall Street Journal weekend edition, Dec. 14/15:

 

Edna Schauer’s interview video as it looked on the WSJ.com home page:

 

Recent work for City University of Seattle

Education, Multimedia, My work, Published work, Seattle, University

City University of Seattle recently commissioned me to produce a video to honor their 40th anniversary, which allowed me to meet and interview some really cool alumni. Check out the video below to learn a bit about CityU, its alumni, and some of the support CityU provides to veteran students. Thanks for looking.