Text by Francisco Collazo & Julie Schwietert Collazo
[vease abajo para la version en espanol]
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We live in Queens, the most ethnically and culturally diverse county in the United States.

And nowhere is that diversity more clear–or more moving–than at my polling place on election day.

Under yellowed portaits of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington nailed on the wall of a school gymnasium, Pakistani and Bangladeshi poll workers check voter registration cards while a Puerto Rican poll worker indicates the line where I should sign the voting register. People waiting to vote are speaking 10 different languages–I counted.

After pulling the red lever, I come back out into the sun and meet Francisco on the sidewalk, where he is talking with Jose and Estel, a couple from Cuba. Jose and Estel are in their 80s, have been married 53 years, and have lived in the US since the 1970s. They both walk–slowly–with canes. “Could I ask who you voted for?” Francisco asks.

“OBAMA!” Estel said, without hesitation.

“He has good policies. He’s a good speaker. We have to stop looking at the world as black or white. It’s time to realize that we’re one race: the human race. I told all my friends to get out and vote for him,” she added.

If an elderly couple with two canes and two voting cards can get up in the morning, get dressed, and walk–however slowly–to the polling place because they believe democracy is that important, you can too.

NOTE: We’ll be live blogging all day (and all night!) from NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. If you have a story you’d like to share, please e-mail us at writingjulie@gmail.com.

Photo: Joe Crimmings Photography (Flickr creative commons)

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Con 2 Bastones & 2 Cartas de Votantes, Si Que Podemos

Nosotros vivimos en Queens, el condado mas diverso etnica y culturalmente en los Estados Unidos.
En ninguna otra parte esta diversidad es mas clara-o mas notable- que aqui en mi sitio de votar en el dia de eleciones.

Bajos los retratos amarillentos de Abraham Lincoln y George Washington que cuelgan en las paredes del gimnasio, Pakistanis y Bengalies trabajan fuerte revisando las tarjetas de votantes mientras su colega Puertorriqueno se encarga de organizar la linea de votantes e indicar en que seccion se deben registrar. Las personas que esperan para votar conversan en mas de 10 lenguas y dialectos diferentes-contar las lenguas y observar mis alrededores fue mi pasatiempo favorito mientras esperaba para votar.

Despues de empujar la palanca de mi maquina de votar, salgo afuera donde Francisco me espera hablando con Jose y Ester, una pareja de Cuba. Jose y Ester estan en los 80, ambos estan casado por 53 anos-nos dice Ester- y ambos han vivido en los Estads Unidos desde los ’70. Ambos nacidos en la Habana. Con sus pasos lentos y con la ayuda de baston han viajado desde su casa que esta a 4 calles para dar sus votos y hacer la diferencia-nos dicen- “Me podria decir por quien votaron?”- le pregunto.

“OBAMA!” Ester me dice sin vacilar un segundo, como si mi pregunta estubiera fuera de lugar.

“El tiene una buena politica. Es un buen orador. Tenemos que parar esa costumbre de mirar el mundo en blanco y negro. Es tiempo ya de saber que somos una sola raza: la raza humana. Yo les dije a todos mis amigos que que salieran y votaran,” agrega.

Si una pareja de ancianos con dos bastones y dos tarjetas de votantes se levantaron esta manana, se aroparon, caminaron-no importa que fuera ese paso despacio-hasta su centro para votar porque creyeron que la democracia es importante, yo creo que tu tambien puedes.

NOTE: Nosotros estaremos conectado al blog de la red todo el dia (y toda la noche) desde el edificio central de la radio publica nacional (NPR) en Washington, D.C. Si usted tiene una historia que le gustaria compartir, por favor envie a: writingjulie@gmail.com.

*Tourist remark, overhead in Union Square this afternoon

It’s true: You’re not going to find any pro-McCain gear in Union Square in New York City.

Photos shot this afternoon in Union Square:

For some sweet Obama-gear, check out GrassrootsT.com
Francisco is sporting the green Obama 08 tee; I’ve got the same design in dark blue (not pictured here; couples Obama tee photo coming soon!). Nice graphic nod to Mexico’s ‘68 Olympics in this design!

Be sure to visit CollazoProjects and MatadorPulse on Election Night: we’ll be blogging live from NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.!

Photos by Francisco Collazo and Julie Schwietert Collazo

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo & Francisco Collazo
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After reading the articles in this series, you’ve become intrigued by the possibilities of boosting your blog with video. You’ve applied the tips we’ve shared–and those that readers far more experienced with video have offered (thanks, Craig!). You’ve produced some decent video you’d like to share with visitors to your blog…. now what?

The final steps in boosting your blog with video are publishing your video and promoting it once it has gone live. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Establish a YouTube account. If you don’t already have a YouTube account, now’s the perfect time for you to get one! YouTube, of course, is a massive online archive of videos, ranging from the terribly amateur to the compelling yet obscure. Signing up really is quick and easy.

YouTube isn’t the only online video library that’s free and yours for the using. Vimeo and GoogleVideo are two similar services. Each of the services offers its own advantages; the only major drawback of all three systems is that your uploaded video gets compressed considerably, affecting the quality of your final product.

Matador Travel’s video editor, Joshua Johnson, just tipped us off to a service that we haven’t checked yet but which seems to offer some serious promise: TubeMogul. TubeMogul is distinct from the other three services mentioned above because, as its website says:

TubeMogul is a free service that provides a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed.

In other words, if you have a TubeMogul account, you upload your video there and it gets distributed across YouTube, Vimeo, and more than a dozen other online video platforms. Sounds good to us.

Finally, if you are creating videos in a particular area of interest–travel, for instance–you may wish to do a Google search to see if there’s a specialized video platform that archives and broadcasts video for that subject. TripFilms is an excellent example, though there are many more. TripFilms happens to be especially interesting because regular video contributors may be able to get paid for their footage.

Regardless of the online video platform you select, be sure to name your account appropriately. If you have a blog you’re using to promote yourself as a writer, and if your blog (as it should) has a name, then your online video account should use the same name or something really similar. You’re creating a brand for yourself; be consistent.

2. Upload your video. Once you’ve decided which one(s) of these online video platforms you want to use, upload your video. This is a fairly straightforward process, and the instructions for doing so will be on the website you’ve selected. Typically, uploading video simply involves clicking “Upload,” noting the title, category, and keywords that describe your video, and selecting the video file from your hard drive that you want to upload. Upload time depends entirely upon the size of your file and the speed of your internet connection. Expect upload times of 5 minutes or less for smaller files; several hours for longer videos.

3. Don’t skimp on the details. Before you actually hit the upload button, stop for a second and review your entire submission. Does the name you’ve selected for the video match the title that’s actually on your video (if it has a title)? Do the key words or tags you’ve included reflect the content in the video? In your key words and tags, be sure to include common variations or anticipiated misspellings for words that might be typed in incorrectly during a search.

4. Promote your video. Once your video has been published, your online video platform will give you a string of HTML code that you cut and paste into a blog post in order to embed the video. Once you’ve pasted the code into your post, be sure to preview to make sure that your video appears and runs correctly. You may want to consider creating a new category for videos on your blog; that way, visitors can conduct a search for your video content quickly and easily.

5. Manage your promotional efforts. Your video is up on your blog. Now what?! You can use all the usual techniques you use to let people know about new blog posts: Twitter, Facebook, your e-mail status bar. You can send an e-mail to your contacts announcing that your blog is now video enhanced. You’ll also want to check into your online video account regularly to see if any viewers have left comments or ratings of your videos. Viewers who are doing a casual or targeted search on YouTube may access your video through that site, not through your blog, and their comments may go overlooked if you’re not checking in on your account on a periodic basis.

So go get publishing and promoting! And let us know where we can see your video.

Photo: Frederic-Michel Chevalier (Flickr creative commons)

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo & Francisco Collazo

You’ve got your gear. You’ve accumulated some decent footage. Now, what to do with it?

Before you sit down to start editing, spend some time watching films–short or long, it doesn’t matter–with a critical eye. Now that you’ve been behind the camera, you’re likely to see the finished product in an entirely new way. The intel you take away from a couple hours scoping films will help you understand what details to attend to in the editing process.

Did you watch some films? Really?

Ok, you’re ready for the next step: editing your own footage.

The editing software you use will depend, to some extent, on the equipment you have. For instance, the footage you capture with a Flip camera can simply be downloaded to your computer, imported into Windows Movie Maker (which is pre-installed on most Windows PCs and laptops these days), edited, and then saved and uploaded to YouTube or another online video archive. The Canon HG10, on the other hand, comes with an editing program and (so far) we haven’t figured out a way to use any other program to edit the footage.

Regardless of the gear you’re using, any decent editing program should be accompanied by a manual or installed help function that will guide you through the editing tools in your particular software package or program.

While we’ll deal with publishing and promoting your videos in the final article in this series, you need to know that many online archives, such as YouTube, upload videos in segments of 10 minutes or less. Keep this in mind with editing; two or three minute videos are optimal for uploading and sharing. Besides, most visitors to your blog–even the most dedicated and intelligent ones–have a limited attention span and aren’t likely to spend much more time than that… even if your video is compelling or funny. (vis: La Corraleja, where a man gets gored and stomped by a bull. Compelling? Yes. Engaging? Apparently not, as it produced the lowest average time on our blog ever!)

Another question should inform your entire editing (and filming) process: What is the purpose of adding video to your blog? Will video be an adjunct to narrative or will it be a stand-alone main feature? The answer to this question will determine how you edit, whether you need informative subtitles, and what kinds of audio and/or still photo material you’ll need to gather in order to tell the story. It helps to answer this question before you even start filming (which is why we mentioned developing a storyboard in the last article).

Once you actually start editing, import a few clips into the editing program and use them as a means of getting accustomed to the editing tools and process. Start out knowing that editing takes time… more time than it took you to conceptualize and capture your footage. Let’s say you’ve got 20 minutes or more of footage and your plan is to produce a 2 minute video. Budget several hours–especially as you’re just starting out–to generate that final piece.

After you’ve finished editing, watch the video a few times. Are your transitions between clips smooth? If you’ve used titles, subtitles, or credits, make sure every word is spelled correctly. Have you added your name, blog URL, or some other means of contact to the final frame? How is the sound quality? Any online archive to which you upload your video will compress your file, impacting the quality of your final product considerably, so be sure that the video you’ve produced is the best quality it can be given the capacities of your gear and your editing program.

Stay tuned… tomorrow we’ll publish the final article in this series: how to publish and promote your video.

In the meantime, if you’d like to see a visit a few blogs that incorporate video, we recommend:

Emonome: Check out our friend Emon’s Central Park drummer video, which is in the top right corner of his blog.

Ian MacKenzie: You may already know that Ian’s the editor of Brave New Traveler, but you might not be aware that he’s also a new media producer. You can find lots of videos on his site.

Film editor photo: Filmingilman (Flickr creative commons)
Clock photo: Frankfarm (Flickr creative commons)

Text by Julie Schwietert Collazo & Francisco Collazo
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In Part 1 of this series about boosting your blog with video, we took a look at the gear you’ll need to begin creating video to include on your blog.

Once you’ve got your gear, it’s time to start working with it. In this article, we’re going to talk about filming. The lessons we share here were learned through trial and error… lots and lots of error. We’re still learning every time we hit the “start” button!

1. Embrace the learning curve.

If you’re brand new to video, as we were, understand that the first few weeks or even months with your camera are best devoted to on-the-street experimentation. Even if you’ve read dozens of reviews about the gear you’ve bought, even if you’ve scoured the instruction manual cover to cover, the way in which you manage your camera and push it to its limits will be unique.

Don’t make the mistake that we did and film “important” footage during this learning and acclimation phase–important being footage you’re not likely to be able to capture again. Film birds, cars, people on the street. Just don’t film that interview it’s taken you months to arrange.

Otherwise, you’ll have loads of footage you can use to write an article like this one.

2. Do a sound check. Every single time.

Sounds simple enough, but the temptation to skip sound check is strong– let’s just get to filming!–especially when what you’re filming is a scene unfolding spontaneously before you.

But if you do that silly “testing, testing, 1, 2, 3″ (Yes, every time!), you’ll save yourself the disappointment of sitting down to review your footage, only to find out that what you’ve filmed is a silent movie.

3. Get stills and filler.

No one shoots a film–no matter the length–in a single fluid shot.

A finished video is the result of the movie equivalent of a cut and paste job. In addition to capturing your primary subject, be sure to film some still and filler footage you’ll be able to use for introductions, transitions, and credits.

4. Think about the big picture. Unless you’re sending footage to “Candid Camera,” think about the implications of the people you’re filming. In certain sensitive situations, such as my recent visit to the naval base and detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, you’ll want to get verbal confirmation that your subjects are willing to be filmed. In some cases, you may even want to request that your subjects sign a consent form, which indicates their willingness to be filmed and releases you from responsibility once the film goes live.

5. Develop a storyboard. If you’re setting out to film with a specific subject in mind, develop a rough storyboard that lays out the trajectory of the narrative you want to tell. This exercise is useful for helping you anticipate the kinds of shots you’ll want to get while filming.

There are many other variables to take into consideration when you’re filming– light, angle, and sound being just three of them–but you’ll develop your own sense of the importance of each and your style of managing them the more you handle your camera. The tips above will just get you started!

Curve photo: Extra Medium (Flickr creative commons)

Microphone photo: jschneid (Flickr creative commons)

Scissors photo: reebob (Flickr creative commons)