Innovative Individuals

Innovative Individuals: Colin Mulvany

This post is also available in Spanish

I first learned of Colin Mulvany‘s work more than a year ago when I started reading his honest and sightful blog, Mastering Multimedia. (Side note: His blog title actually inspired me to test out different alliterations for my blog, thus the creation of “Innovative Interactivity.”)

Colin’s emotional documentation of his personal experience transitioning from photographer to multimedia editor and back to photographer made a big impression on me as I questioned why there wasn’t a better business model to support passionate individuals like Colin. His contributions to the NPPA’s monthly multimedia competition and Mastering Multimedia garnered him this week’s title of “innovative individual.”

Below are some of my favorite blog posts over at MM from the past two years. If you haven’t spent some time on his site, I would encourage you to look through his rich archive of posts. You can also learn more about him via Twitter, LinkedIn, and his video journal blog on The Spokesman-Review’s site.

How best to approach a video story
Sequencing: The foundation of video storytelling
Great audio starts in the field
How to make your audio slideshows better
Google Maps: Answers to your questions

Q) How do you drive innovation in your work?

A) Innovation is one of those words that get tossed around in newsrooms a lot. In my own work, I tend to think less about being innovative and more about being a better storyteller. When you think about it, the best TV videojournalists have been cranking out great stories for decades. They are the innovators in the video medium. I’m just building on their hard work as I try and shape my video storytelling for a new web-based audience.

Q) What piece in your portfolio are you most proud of and why?

A) I have many favorite videos I’ve shot over the last six years. For me, the simple stories stand out. Loose Moose was one of my first videos I did after attending the Platypus Workshop and it still makes me smile when I watch it. More recently, I have been collaborating with Spokesman-Review reporter Kevin Graman who writes and does voice-overs for some of my videos. Two recent examples of this collaboration – In the Realm of Fairies and Beyond the Yellow Ribbon – stand out as my best work in 2009.

Q) Please provide a brief educational and professional history.

A) I’m one of those self-taught photojournalists from the ‘80s who scored a job at his hometown newspaper and never left. The ‘90s was the golden age of photojournalism at The Spokesman-Review. I got to work on many amazing long-term photo-driven projects. We had unlimited space and a photo friendly management. All that changed when the Twin Towers came down. Space dried up and the focus turned to smaller photos and shorter stories.

After buying a small digital camcorder in 2003, I began to see the potential of video storytelling at newspapers. The ease of shooting and editing, and the rising number of people with broadband Internet in 2004, pushed me to make the jump to video. In early 2005, after a year of shooting bad videos, my paper sent me to the Platypus Workshop, a nine-day video storytelling boot camp in Ventura, Calif. Their mantra was to: “Tear the still photographer down and build you back up as a videojournalist.”

The skills I learned at Platypus profoundly changed my professional life forever. As a mid-career photojournalist, I was given the opportunity to reinvent myself. No longer was I defined as being just a photographer. I was now a multimedia producer dabbling in many different mediums. My new skills brought a fresh creative energy to my work.

In 2008 I was made multimedia editor. I had the honor of training 14 reporters, photographers and online producers to shoot and edit video. Unfortunately, most of these people were laid off late in 2008. I’m now back in the photo department as a multimedia producer/photojournalist.

These last five years has been a whirlwind of learning new skills, challenging newsroom conventions and telling visual stories that are important to my community.

Q) Where do you believe multimedia fits into today’s society and how will that role change over time?

A) A whole generation has now grown up in front of a computer screen. These screenagers are what will drive multimedia content in the future. They will demand it. If newspapers and other publications can’t provide a steady stream of multimedia on their websites, these viewers will go someplace else to find it.

As the Web becomes more visual, the need for multimedia content will grow. After retrenching to try and save their print publications, publishers will soon refocus their attention back on their websites. The true test for multimedia will be the touch tablet computer. If it catches on, it will redefine how we produce and consume professional journalism.

Q) What is one thing on your “To-Do” list?

A) As newspapers struggle to figure out what their future is, I am always looking for a plan B in case I’m tossed out on the streets like so many other fine journalists. Learning how to set up a freelance business tops my to-do list.

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Want to nominate a deserving colleague, friend or inspirational figure to be highlighted in this series? Confidential nominations can be emailed to tracynboyer@gmail.com on an ongoing basis. Self nominations are also welcome. A person will be featured every Friday, so look for the next “innovative individual” Friday, January 29th!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Innovative Individuals: Henrik Kastenskov
• Innovative Individuals: Simon Sticker
• Innovative Individuals: Brent Foster

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