Tutorials

Canon VIXIA HF10

Updated Sept. 18, 2008 (2 months ago) in Video

This tutorial will cover the basic use of the Canon VIXIA HF10 video camcorder, as used in a journalistic application. This tutorial is written specifically for the students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Although the information will be catered toward the school's use, we are making this available to the general public.

Using WordPress

Updated Oct. 13, 2008 (1 month, 1 week ago) in Web Design

New to WordPress? This tutorial will guide you through the basic steps of publishing with the WordPress 2.5 publishing platform. Learn how to post and mange your content, as well as upload media.

Using Free Web Designs

Updated May 27, 2008 (5 months, 3 weeks ago) in Web Design

Multimedia web sites often take the form of mini sites that don't utilize your publication's design templates. Coming up with fresh, professional-looking web designs for multimedia projects can be tedious and time-consuming. Fortunately, there are literally thousands of downloadable free web designs out there, ready to be customized and modified. In this tutorial, we point to some of the best resources for free web design templates, and also provide detailed instructions for modifying our own freely downloadable web design.

Map Mashup Resources

Updated May 5, 2008 (6 months, 2 weeks ago) in Mashups

This is a set of resources for map mashups. The resources include links to sample sites used in the KDMC Tech Training Workshops and links to online resources for creating your own map mashups.

This is not an exhaustive list of resources available; the list will get you started. If you find a great resource, please let us know and we'll add it here.

Building Flash Templates

Updated Nov. 19, 2008 (1 day, 7 hours ago) in Web Design

This tutorial will go through the process of constructing a simple Flash template with three buttons. Each button will take you to a different section of the project that will showcase your videos, photo slideshows, or a Google map mashup. This tutorial was written for people using either Flash 8 or Flash CS3, under the ActionScript 2.0 language.

Using Spreadsheet Data in Google Maps and Google Earth

Updated June 27, 2008 (4 months, 3 weeks ago) in Mashups

How do you take spreadsheet data and turn it into a great looking map? How do you do this without writing a lick of code? These simple steps will make your mapping work fast and efficient.

Google Map Basics

Updated July 24, 2008 (3 months, 4 weeks ago) in Mashups

This tutorial will show you how to create your first Google map. These step-by-step instructions are guaranteed to get you started in one of the coolest—and easiest—Web technologies.

Flash Templates

Updated Sept. 23, 2008 (1 month, 4 weeks ago) in Web Design

A tutorial on how to create and use templates for creating news projects using Adobe Flash. A general understanding of the basics of Flash is required for this instruction on implementing the templates.

Audio Recorders

Updated June 23, 2008 (5 months ago) in Audio

This tutorial covers some of the basics in portable digital audio recorder devices, and their use in a journalistic capacity. There are several factors to consider when purchasing a digial audio recorder, including cost, quality and durability.

Soundslides Slide Shows

Updated Feb. 15, 2008 (9 months, 1 week ago) in Web Design

Soundslides has become one of the industry standards in creating audio slideshows due to its simple interface, low cost and its devotion to journalistic storytelling.

Multimedia Storytelling

Updated May 13, 2008 (6 months, 1 week ago) in Reporting

Not all stories make good multimedia stories. The best multimedia stories are multi-dimensional. They include action for video, a process that can be illustrated with a graphic (e.g., "how tornadoes form" or "how this new surgery works"), someone who can give some pithy quotes for video or audio, and/or strong emotions for still photos and audio. Most multimedia ...

Dictation Recorders

Updated Feb. 15, 2008 (9 months, 1 week ago) in Audio

Many times professional digital audio recorders such as the Marantz PMD 660 are either not available or are too expensive. This tutorial will show one cheaper "non recommended" alternative when other options are not available.

HTML 101

Updated Nov. 19, 2008 (1 day, 10 hours ago) in Web Design

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is simple document markup languaged used for creating Web pages and other information viewable in a Web browser.  This tutorial is a crash course in basic HTML - enough to get you up to speed and help you feel comfortable with general HTML syntax and structure.

Digital Still Cameras

Updated Sept. 13, 2007 (1 year, 2 months ago) in Photography

There are two basic kinds of digital cameras: Digital SLR (single lens reflex) and non-SLR. Digital SLRs are generally more expensive and more accurate than non-SLR cameras, and include more professional features.

Compact Flash Audio Recorders

Updated Feb. 13, 2008 (9 months, 1 week ago) in Audio

A compact flash audio recorder is a digital audio recording device that saves audio onto a compact flash card - the same kind of card used with a digital photo camera.

Video Cameras

Updated Sept. 13, 2007 (1 year, 2 months ago) in Video

Digital video cameras store video as digital bits on a mini-DV or micro-MV tape, as opposed to analog cameras that record a continuous signal. It's similar to the difference between an old record album and a CD.

So why use a digital video camera rather than a usually cheaper video camcorder, like an 8 mm Hi-8?

The main reason ...

Photoshop

Updated Nov. 13, 2008 (1 week ago) in Photography

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for working with digital images of any kind. This tutorial will take you through the entry-level steps of using the program to open, crop, resize, adjust and save a photographic image. While applicable to earlier versions, this tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop version CS3.

Dreamweaver

Updated Sept. 13, 2007 (1 year, 2 months ago) in Web Design

Dreamweaver is a Web page design program that lets you type text and add media elements directly into a page, much as you would with a word processing program like Microsoft Word. Dreamweaver converts your text and graphical page design into the HTML code read by a Web browser.

Minidisc Audio Recorders

Updated March 5, 2008 (8 months, 2 weeks ago) in Audio

A minidisc recorder is a digital audio recording device that saves audio onto a minidisc. Each minidisc holds up to about 80 minutes of recorded audio.

Video Camera Accessories

Updated Sept. 13, 2007 (1 year, 2 months ago) in Video

There are several accessories you should have with your camera to improve the quality of the video and audio you get, and to protect your equipment.

They include things like different microphones and a set of headphones, a tripod and a carrrying case, and various adapters, filters and cables.

Multimedia on a Website

Updated Feb. 14, 2008 (9 months, 1 week ago) in Web Design

This is where your skills come together - Web page creation skills, interview skills, audio and video editing skills, and storytelling skills all converge at this point. Inserting media into Web pages is a bit more difficult than creating plain old HTML with graphics, but if you've mastered the other tutorials in this site, you'll do fine.

Soundtrack Pro

Updated March 5, 2008 (8 months, 2 weeks ago) in Audio

Soundtrack Pro is an audio editing program designed to work in concert with the Final Cut Pro video editing program. It can be used for more fine tuning of audio tracks in your video files than is possible in Final Cut Pro. It also can be used to edit audio files that are not attached to video, such as audio you recorded on a compact flash recorder or a minidisc recorder.

Video Techniques

Updated March 5, 2008 (8 months, 2 weeks ago) in Video

People invariably make the same sets of mistakes when they first start shooting video: Trees or telephone poles sticking out of the back of someone's head; interview subjects who are just darkened blurs because there was bright light in the background or beginners take boring shots of buildings with no action.

Here are some shooting tips to help you avoid some of these common mistakes...

Flash Tutorial

Updated Sept. 13, 2007 (1 year, 2 months ago) in Web Design

Flash is Macromedia's powerful vector-based animation tool. Flash is the defacto standard for Internet multimedia because it allows authors to create online multimedia presentations with minimum file sizes. With Flash, Web presentations can blend text and pictures with video and audio, interactive buttons, and animated charts and graphs.

Flash is also becoming a rich ground for multimedia journalism, because ...

Pro Tools

Updated March 5, 2008 (8 months, 2 weeks ago) in Audio

ProTools is a professional audio engineering software program made by Digidesign. Although it's used by top-notch pros in the radio industry, ProTools has a fairly easy learning curve, making it just as good for beginners.

Standups and Voice-overs

Updated Sept. 13, 2007 (1 year, 2 months ago) in Video

A voice-over is a narration done by a broadcast reporter, usually reading from a script and a standup is when a television reporter appears in front of the camera to narrate part of a story - most often at the beginning to set up the story, or at the very end.

However, reading that script is an art that requires both smooth delivery and emphasizing the key points in the story.

Here are some tips for doing these standups and voice-overs...

iMovie

Updated March 5, 2008 (8 months, 2 weeks ago) in Video

iMovie is a simple, easy to use video editing program that comes free with the Apple operating system (it has no Windows PC version). Despite its simplicity, iMovie offers many of the same features — dropping clips on a time line, cropping them, adding transitions between clips, etc. — as more advanced video editing programs like FinalCut Pro or Premiere.

Final Cut Pro

Updated March 5, 2008 (8 months, 2 weeks ago) in Video

Final Cut Pro is a very sophisticated video editing program made by Apple. It is the editing software of choice for multimedia journalists using Apple computers, and is comparable to Adobe's Premiere video editing program for the Windows platform (Final Cut Pro does not make a version for Windows, and Premiere has discontinued making a version for the Apple platform).

Final Cut Pro is particularly popular with video journalists working in the field who want to edit their video on a laptop computer.

Premiere

Updated Feb. 14, 2008 (9 months, 1 week ago) in Video

Premiere is the most popular video editing program for people using Windows PCs. Made by Adobe, it is comparable to the Final Cut Pro video editing program for the Apple platform (Adobe used to make versions of Premiere that could be used on Apple computers, but that's been discontinued).

Premiere is particularly popular with video journalists working in the field who want to edit their video on a laptop computer.

Video on the Web

Updated Feb. 13, 2008 (9 months, 1 week ago) in Video

Once you've finished editing your video (or audio), you'll need to greatly reduce its filesize so that it can be transferred over the Web effectively. Compressing audio and video can be as much an art as a science, but we've attempted to simplify the process here.