APPLICATIONS FOR THIS SEMINAR ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED.

Whether you call them MMJ, VJs or one-man-bands, newsrooms worldwide and in every medium are demanding that journalists have multimedia skills to tell the story on every platform. We will put Canon HD cameras in your hands and Adobe Premiere video editing at your fingertips. Come ready to work. You will shoot three to four assignments in five days even if you have never shot with a video camera or edited a frame of video before. This is an intensive hands-on experience, but you will walk away with a solid knowledge of how video works.

For those of you who want to learn DSLR technology, we can help with that too. Canon supplies the latest DSLR cameras as well. We welcome participants who want to bring their own gear as well.

This seminar is perfect for educators who need to sharpen their skills and reporters who need to learn to shoot video for online or for TV.

You’ll learn:

• To shoot and edit four assignments in five days, from the very simple to the complete story. Even if you have NO prior video experience, we will launch you on your way to shooting like a pro.
• To capture sequences and transitions.
• To work under pressure by narrowly focusing your work and capturing what you need while ignoring the noise around you that does not matter.
• To edit on Adobe Premiere non-linear video software, which we provide. We will show you how to edit sequences and mix audio.
• To Shoot on the latest technology. Our cameras provided by Canon or you can use your own gear.

Each participant will get personal coaching on their work. We keep the classes small to allow a 1:4 ratio of students to teachers. Our teachers have decades of national award winning experience in the real world of video journalism.

Our Backpack seminar participants come from all over the world and from many media. We have taught participants ranging from university professors to video producers at the United Nations. from newspaper websites to some of the best TV stations in the country.

Six months after the 2012 Backpack seminar 70% of the participants we surveyed said their “commitment to journalism is stronger” as a result of our week together.

What Past Participants Say:

“The day after I returned to work from the Poynter seminar my managers noticed a great change. I realized how my creativity could be applied to stories where I used to think there was no opportunity for it. It was life changing really! My writing improved dramatically and the way I edited video also improved. Poynter gave me so many great ideas, but the best thing I took away from the seminar is confidence.”

“The instructors and administrators are unusually generous with their time and expertise and patient with stubborn old-school punks like me.”

“I understand much better what we should be striving to do, am more enthusiastic about producing video work and consider the Poynter seminar excellent.”

Questions or need more information? Click here first: Seminar Application Information. If you can’t find what you need, e-mail seminars@poynter.org.