bob sacha » editor

Road Trip: Ohio Republicans

bob sacha — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:58:10 +0000

I was walking off the US Air flight to a snowy Cleveland, Ohio when I spied Miki Meek, my collaborator, parked on a seat near the gate, cellphone plugged into the wall. “I’ve got one,” she said “and we can see her tomorrow.”

Thus began our 5 day road trip down route 71, from Cleveland to Cincinnati and back through Ohio for Yahoo!News, talking to Republican voters and learning a few things along the way.

The character she hooked was the wonderful Ebony Grantonz, the wife of an African American minister and a registered Republican. Early next morning, Ebony and her husband and their three kids allowed us to invade their home and ride to church with them. After the service, Ebony talked about politics and religion. She was smart, well spoken, frank, and described herself as “politically incorrect.”

You can see Ebony’s story and the three other short films we reported and filmed then edited and posted in a week (without much sleep) to the Yahoo!News Destination2012 political blog. Chris Suellentrop was our wonderful editor at Yahoo!News.

2012 workshops

bob sacha — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:28:59 +0000

“Bob Sacha taught me to think about storytelling in a completely different, and much more effective, way than I ever had before.” … Chris Linder, photographer, scientist and multimedia producer

“Bob Sacha changed the way I work. His workshop helped me learn how to tap into the emotion of storytelling and the importance of good audio.”… Lauren Hermele, photographer, Fulbright Grantee and translator

Here are the workshops I’m teaching this summer. Click the name of the workshop for more info. Hope to see you this summer.

In this master class, students learn to use all the tools of multimedia more fully. Video b-roll is discussed, more advanced interview techniques, rack focusing, time-lapse and sequence photography is explored along with workflow and story structure. This medium to advanced level class is the next step, a practical guide to using these techniques in the field. Here are three great projects from the 2010 class.

Three student pieces from the Maine Media Workshop’s Advanced Class

Do opposites attract?

Shot, recorded and produced by Tucker Walsh in a week in August 2010 as part of Bob Sacha’s Multimedia Master Class at the Maine Media Workshops.

A birthday brings Teisha Jones face to face with an important date in her family’s past.

Camera, Sound and Editing by Hannele Lahti in a week inAugust 2010 as part of Bob Sacha’s Multimedia Master Class at the Maine Media Workshops.

Tariq Zehawi has going to the grocery store to pick up some toothpaste when he found his character. And what a wonderful chance encounter it turned out to be. Camera, Sound and Editing by Tariq Zehawi in one week at Bob Sacha’s Multimedia Masterclass at the Maine Media Workshops

What Does Justice Mean to You?

bob sacha — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:44:10 +0000

Dwayne Betts tells his story very well and what a story he’s lived.

This is my favorite story from the five videos I produced for the Open Society Foundation,U.S. Programs, Criminal Justice Fellows.

Formerly incarcerated, Betts is an author, poet and teacher.

You can see all Six of the videos at the Open Society Foundations U.S. Programs Multimedia page

digital dreamscape

bob sacha — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:15:22 +0000

This is an interactive portfolio, click on the arrows to cycle through the images (and my dreams).

Every Sunday I’m left as an internet widow by my partner, who writes the wildly popular website Gastropoda. So while she was ranting online about food and politics, I was posting pictures. The site was designed by Audrey Chen and Billie Mandle, making a site that reflected both my dreams and photography in an even cleaner and more clever mode than what I imagined.

Far Away Lands

bob sacha — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:52:24 +0000

This is short film I made with a point-and-shoot pocket-sized digital camera.

It was the opening piece for a lecture on travel photography at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY. The series was called Wish You Were Here.

On Thinner Ice

bob sacha — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:56:25 +0000

The news about what we’re doing to our planet keeps getting worse and worse.

My latest multimedia story was a collaboration from MediaStorm and the Asia Society, is On Thinner Ice“ a look at how we’re losing glaciers and what that means to the earth’s “bank account.”

This piece features some amazing photos by mountaineer and film maker David Breashears.

Times of Crisis: a year in the life of the financial meltdown

bob sacha — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:03:48 +0000

I’ve been living the financial crisis for the past several months from the safety of my desk at MediaStorm. Working together with Reuters on a multimedia story bringing together the past year of their reporting in words, pictures and video, we tried to explain what went wrong.

The result is the introduction, which I edited and produced, plus a very cool timeline of the year of financial meltdown. See it at Reuters Times of Crisis.

Here’s the YouTube trailer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wow, what a day!

bob sacha — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:44:19 +0000

Found out today that I’m nominated for two Emmy awards. Holy Toledo!

In the Category NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: CURRENT NEWS COVERAGE, I was nominated for Reuters Bearing Witness, 5 Years of the Iraq War which I produced and edited.

And in the category, NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: DOCUMENTARIES, I helped out on Intended Consequences, shot and reported by Jonathan Torgovnik and Jules Shell and produced and edited by my dear friend Chad Stevens. I shot the Photographers interviews at the end of the piece, a small part but I’m so happy to be a part of such a powerful project!

Poverty in the Face of Resource Wealth

bob sacha — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:14:06 +0000

I know what “transparency” is but mostly from my days as a photojournalist working with color slide film. So when the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) came to MediaStorm to create a multimedia piece explaining what they did, it took me a while to figure it out. In the process, I learned a lot more.

For this story, I had the pleasure of traveling to London. Berlin and Washington to interview 6 people that represented all sides of the issue. Fifty or more countries in the world are rich in resources: gold, silver & oil but more than half of their population lives below the poverty line. This projects looks at why.

Maybe the new paradigm is someone like me traveling with 2 HDV cameras, tripods and mic stands plus my laptop. In each country, I worked with a camera person (Kimberley Williams in Washington, DC, Karveh Shirdell in London and Bjorn Forster in Berlin. We used a single light for the interviews. I edited the transcripts and pictures and cut the piece.

Of course, none of this would be possible without all the amazing photographers bravely working in these countries.

Thanks to all for teaching me so much.

How the Sausage is Made

bob sacha — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:37:39 +0000

The folks at the American Society of Picture Professionals asked me to come speak on Tuesday March 10, 2009 @6.30pm. I thought I’d be fun to follow the genesis of my first MediaStorm MultiMedia Piece: Bearing Witness. Details. Hope you can make it.