Best of Photojournalism 2007: TV News Editing: Winners
Editor’s Feature Finalists (Photographers)
(In Alphabetical Order)
- “The Aftermath of Agent Orange”
- Travis Fox/ Washingtonpost.com
- “Being a Black Man: Off the Cuff - The Jailed”
- Ben de la Cruz/Washingtonpost.com
- “Dust Off”
- Stephen McGee/Detroit Free Press
- “Prisoners Guide Teens on Tour of San Quentin”
- James Irwin/San Francisco Chronicle
- “29 Palms”
- Stephen McGee/Detroit Free Press
- “Two Dads, Five Sons, Forever Family”
- James Irwin/San Francisco Chronicle
Winners
Full coverage of the Best of Television Photojournalism 2007 — including streaming video of selected winners--are available from Poynter.org.
- 1st
- “Prisoners Guide Teens on Tour of San Quentin”
- James Irwin/San Francisco Chronicle
- 2nd
- “Being a Black Man: Off the Cuff - The Jailed”
- Ben de la Cruz/Washingtonpost.com
- 3rd
- “The Aftermath of Agent Orange”
- Travis Fox/Washingtonpost.com
- HM
- “Dust Off”
- Stephen McGee/Detroit Free Press
- HM
- “29 Palms”
- Stephen McGee/Detroit Free Press
Judges' comments
- Michael Humphries
The 1st Place entry, "Prisoners Guide Teens on a Tour of San Quentin" was an outstanding piece of editing. The shot selection and natural sound combined to make the story appear seamless. The editing did not draw attention to itself and allowed the viewer to go along on the tour of one of America's most infamous prisons.
The 2nd Place entry, "Being a Black Man: Off the Cuff--The Jailed" also took us inside a prison. Again, the editing was outstanding. Instead of covering many of the interviews with video, the editor used the "picture in picture" technique to show both video and interviews simultaneously. While it wasn't "invisible editing", the technique helped to illustrate the story in a unique way.
In "The Aftermath of Agent Orange" , the editor seamlessly used natural sound and great shot selection to tell the story of how the Vietnamese people are still dealing with the effects of the defoliant used more than thirty years ago.
The two Honorable Mention stories, "Dust Off" and "29 Palms" were also outstanding entries. The editor for the former did an excellent job of using still and video images of the same events to dramatically illustrate the story, while the editor of the latter piece used a more conventional approach. Though they used different techniques, each worked in their own way to tell great stories.
Overall, this category had excellent entries. The extra time that the editors had to work on these stories was very evident. Surprisingly, even though the story times in this category were much longer than those in the 48 Hour Web category, the pacing on most of these pieces was much better. For the most part, they moved well and didn't seem to drag much.
The one thing that the five finalists had in common over many of the other entries is a definite beginning, middle and end. Many of the web stories (both 48 Hour and News Feature) just sort of "stop", without a definite conclusion to the story.
- Stephanie Ottjepka
I was completely absorbed into the winning story, the editing was seamless. It was insightful storytelling with wonderful reactions and moments. It really stood out.
"Being a Black Man: Off the Cuff-The Jailed" has a wonderful style. The use of double boxes with moving portraits next to the soundbites was very cool. The dips to black worked with the pacing. The interviews and various viewpoints were incredibly interesting.
"The Aftermath of Agent Orange" had particularly good sequencing and shot selection.
"Dust Off" had an interesting juxtaposition of still photographs and video of a spot news event. The stills were good enough to really capture the moment perhaps in some cases better than video would.
"29 Palms" had good sequencing, pacing, use of slow motion and great music.
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