Here are my notes on the event:

They began by talking about how Ed focused on photography and Julie on writing. When they worked on a project called “Aging in America” Ed collected a vast quantity of images while Julie collected about 100 hours of audio, which she said was really her “way of taking notes.”

MSNBC took that audio and layered it across Ed’s images to produce a powerful audio slideshow on aging in America.

When they saw the impact of this multimedia work in terms of storytelling, Julie thought about how great it would be to to have moving pictures to the sound as well. They bought a video camera and started to shoot their next project about aging prisoners in America. They sold the work to several print publications which then subsidized their documentary on the same subject. This film, which they completed in 2003, incorporated video, photographs and narration.

The next piece they showed was about wounded veterans from the Iraq war. They continued to showcase their pieces for the next hour. Here are the valuable lessons about multimedia storytelling that I pulled from the session:

• Think about how you might re-purpose material online and into different forms–literally multiple media storytelling.
• There really is not just one way to do it. You could have stills with music, stills with a person’s voice from interviews, stills with narration and stills that combine all these things.
• They noted that even after running online, several major publications wanted the work. This goes to the heart of how there are niche audiences on the Web for all these stories and even the major publications are willing to reprint what someone already has published on the Web or in print. This is a major paradigm shift. You want to capture raw material that can be spun off in so many directions: Online, TV, print, magazines, etc. That’s now part of the game.
• Someone asked how to Ed and Julie approach organizations to do these types of projects. Ed said that you create a proposal and pitch it. He said they strive to create their own opportunities because there are not too many assignments out there anymore.They showed a couple of pieces (both in National Geographic Online) that underscores how their work continued to evolve. The first, Iraqi Kurds had stills that ran under music and Ed’s voice-over. He called it more rudimentary. The second was “The Niger Delta” for which he also collected ambient sound and voices from the field. He said the Niger piece was “getting us closer and closer to where we want to be.”
• Someone asked how they decided whether a particular moment was a still moment or a video moment. They said that the traditional attitude is that you are stuck with stills when you don’t have video. When Julie and Ed work together, she captures the video and Ed the images. They said they conceptualize the still images and video in tandem– it is not an afterthought. Ed said that melding moving and still images requires premeditation–like learning a new visual language. For example, Ed said that photographers are looking for strong images in the landscape and when they are on their game, they are able to see things that most people don’t see. Now he looks for that strong image and he listens too…he listens to hear quotes and sounds that might trigger the image. He said he can be struggling with finding the right images but then he might hear something and he know that is the story.
• They also discussed how they actually work together in the field. They admitted that they often step on each other’s toes. They find themselves fighting for turf in a crowded apartment. Even if there is space, they find themselves competing because when Julie is taping video, she can hear Ed’s camera clicking away. Each media requires a different mindset and working method. Despite the turf war, they said that each acts as a field editor for the other. One notices what he or she thinks the other might want to shoot.
• To the eternal question of whether you should shoot first and interview later or interview first and shoot later, they said that they don’t have a set way. The debate goes on: you learn so much during the interview that informs what you should shoot but at the same time, when you shoot first, what you see informs what questions you might ask so that the vocals sit well on the B-roll. But ideally, you do two interviews—one to get educated and then another interview to fill the holes from your shooting.
• I asked Julie in particular how she writes words to the video she collects. She said that she has all the interviews transcribed and she pours through them looking at the words. She said the story from those interviews is the spine of the piece. With those words and and story, matches them to the pictures. As an experiment, though, she said she is going to try to work from the pictures back to the words.