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This week in my online journalism class, students were asked to shoot and edit their first man-on-the-street video in groups of two or three.

They chose a question and had to get at least four responses. Students were asked to keep lighting, framing, background noises and a few other shooting tips in mind. They had one class to shoot and one to edit, using either iMovie or FinalCutPro.

As I should have expected, two groups had video files that could only be processed on a PC, not on the Macs in our lab. When we got to the PC lab, codec issues continued to prevent us from accessing one group’s files. The other group used Windows Moviemaker to edit for the first time.

It was frustrating for the group who had to sit through class, watching everyone else edit. But I let them know it’s very reflective of life in multimedia journalism. You never know if something screwy will happen to your tape, or if you’ll be asked to process a foreign file for the first time. The only thing I can guarantee students of multimedia is that you can never anticipate what you’ll be asked to do or what will happen.

My co-workers and I have a saying for the unexpected situations: Yay for freeware, shortcuts and not having a clue what we’re doing!

It sounds scary, but I’ve actually learned to enjoy it. I took the video files we could not access back to the office and wound up converting them using Ultra Video Splitter, one of the first video programs I ever used for RandomThis at it’s inception. I don’t even remember the last time I opened up the program either.

The group wound up getting a crash course in FinalCutPro and produced this video about the UT men’s basketball team in 20 minutes. Another group used FinalCut for their video on the election. They chose this program so they could fix sync issues with their audio and video. One group worked completely independently of any help and used iMovie to make this video on Candace Parker’s decision to leave UT early. Here is the second video produced in Moviemaker, also about UT sports. And lastly, check out this one on UT dining and health, also produced in Moviemaker. It has a nice surprise twist ending.

Breaking, exciting news for knoxnews.com: We won three Digital Edge awards this weekend for Best News Site, Most Innovative User Participation (School Matters, managed by Web goddess Jigsha Desai) and Best Site Design this weekend at the NAA conference in Orlando.

Last year, knoxnews.com won for RandomThis video blog.

See a full list of winners here.

Today I assigned the first blog assignment to my students in JEM222.

They’ll be pretty green with it, as only a few have their own blogs. I encourage you all to check out the blog and share some comments with them. They’re a quick bunch, so I’m looking forward to some good commentary and thoughts about the multimedia industry.

We’re busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You’ve no idea what we have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy
Much, much too busy for you.

-Veggie Tales

I’m sure I wouldn’t be too busy for you, but 2008 has already been a hectic year. Some things I anticipated going in and others happened unexpectedly. On a side note, my friend has a 5-year-old, hence the inspirational song lyrics.

I’ve gotten behind again on updating my blog, so for starters, how about a candidate video? Or 34? Or 50? The number keeps growing and I lose track.

And here’s a white chicken chili recipe I’ve definitely got to try next time I attempt the dish. My flaming version from several weeks ago still has my throat fearing of my combo of chili powder and cumin.

And since I love chocolate and coffee, I took on Coffee and Chocolate, a new shop in downtown K-town.

$10,000 is at stake. Check it out:

Since 1953 the Scripps Howard Foundation has honored the best work in journalism through its National Journalism Awards program. The awards honor excellence in 17 categories, including one that you will find of interest. The Web Reporting Award carries a cash prize of $10,000. The postmark deadline is Jan. 31; winners will be announced March 7 and honored at an awards presentation April 18 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Here are details:

WEB REPORTING AWARD

Honors the news organization that demonstrates the best use of new media technologies and innovative techniques to report on a news story or news event while maintaining the highest journalistic standards.

Open to any news organization whose primary function is the gathering and disseminating of news information to the general public. The news story or event must have been originally published online in 2007. Also open to organizations that combine their traditional field with new media efforts or organizations that focus solely on online formats. No college news organization work is eligible.

Entries must provide a URL(s) for judges to view the news story or event. Entry must include a written narrative describing the organization’s efforts, a description of the news story or event and its components, original date published online, as well as justification of why the entry should be presented an award. $50 entry fee. Prize is $10,000 and a trophy. Entry form available at: http://foundation.scripps.com/foundation/programs/nja/nja.html Questions: Sue Porter at 513-977-3030.