Best of Photojournalism 2008: Video News Photography: Winners
Clips from the Video News Photography and Editing winners in the Best of Photojournalism 2008 are viewable at Poynter Online.
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General News Finalists
- “30 Hours 30 Thousand”
- Andy Shilts, KMSP/Minneapolis, MN
- “Air Them Up”
- Jonathan Haas, Bay News 9/Tampa, FL
- “Clancey’s Dollar Bill”
- Chris Mullen, WBBH/Ft. Myers, FL
- “Dead Man’s Curve”
- Anthony Oliveira, WFAA/Dallas, TX
- “Forgiveness”
- Everett McEwan, KWGN/Denver, CO
- “Iditarod on the Yukon: The Front Door”
- Scott Jensen, KTUU/Anchorage, AK
- “Healing Touch”
- Jonathan Malat, KARE/Minneapolis, MN
- “Humbled Humor”
- Emmanuel Tambakakis, CNN/New York, NY
- “Squint, Strain, & Stare”
- Jason Hanson, KSTP/Minneapolis, MN
- “Veterans Memorial Day”
- Arturo Quezada, KMEX/Los Angeles, CA
Winners
- 1st
- “30 Hours 30 Thousand”
- Andy Shilts, KMSP/Minneapolis, MN
- 2nd
- “Squint, Strain, & Stare”
- Jason Hanson, KSTP/Minneapolis, MN
- HM
- “Humbled Humor”
- Emmanuel Tambakakis, CNN/New York
- HM
- “Air Them Up”
- Jonathan Haas, Bay News 9/Tampa, FL
- HM
- “Iditarod on the Yukon: The Front Door”
- Scott Jensen, KTUU/Anchorage, AK
- HM
- “Dead Man’s Curve”
- Anthony Oliveira, WFAA/Dallas, TX
Judges’ Comments
- Tim Griffis
General News is what most of us shoot everyday. So you would think the entries in this category would be great or thru-the-roof…well that was not the case. All stories we saw were just fine. None of them jumped out at us.
Once we separated the content from the technique and execution, we were able to finally make our decision. One suggestion from this judge is: cut-a-ways of lifeless objects don’t advance the story. I’d rather see jump cuts than random shots of inanimate things.
- Bob Gould
The judges stayed up late on Wednesday for this category. We were pretty disappointed with the overall category, because nothing blew us away, but ultimately, we found a winner.
"30 hours, 30 Thousand” had a lot of nice elements. It was a battle of 2 bell ringers and the photog went back and forth between the two bell ringers who were competing for money in the red kettle. It was borderline feature, but the fact that the Salvation Army’s donations were down and the competition was for a charity, it gave it a news peg.
The 2nd place was a story about the Minnesota bridge collapse. It was a good reaction piece and nice “pulse of the community” story. The pacing was good and had some nice emotion.
We did not award a 3rd place, but we did give 4 honorable mentions, some of which had more potential, but had some structural flaws.
- Jeff Roberts
Another long debated category that held us once more late into the night debating the merits and flaws of each of the finalists. As we narrowed it down we saw lots of commendable stories that were solid news pieces that should have all been winners. An imbedded photographer and reporter following a raid on Al-Qaeda, a story of a curve in a road where many traffic accidents occur, a piece about how keeping proper air pressure in your tires can save you money with your gas mileage. Stories that impart information to the viewer in a compelling way that make the viewers win.
- Preston Rudie
Truthfully, I was very disappointed with our group of finalists. Most had one or more technical problems, everything from jump cuts, scratchy audio on a stand-up, to not enough source video in a dissolve. I know photojournalists can and do produce better stories every week, but they were not submitted.
That said I did enjoy “30 Hours 30 Thousand.” It was entertaining, contained a few nice moments and had some good pacing. The closing sound bite begged more questions and the ending did not match the outstanding start to the story. I commend the people who worked on “Air Them Up,” nice outside the box thinking with a story we could all do in our market.
- Nellie Stinson
Unfortunately there were no stories in this category that stood out above the rest. The winner had a more visual story with multiple characters.
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