The next Multimedia Immersion will take place in Syracuse NY on May 14th through 18th, 2019. It is an intense, five-day, hands-on training workshop for visual journalists looking to expand and grow their multimedia skillsets using the latest technology.

Our focus is on mixing photos, video and audio content and editing them into multimedia presentations.

View a showcase of examples of video storytelling from the Multimedia Immersion students.

Our previous students have ranged from multiple Pulitzer Prize Winners, Best of Photojournalism winners, the current White House Photographer, academics, editors, students, working professionals and freelancers all looking to supercharge their careers.

What You Will Learn:

• Effectively planning and developing your story to save time on your workflow and increase the quality of your pieces
• Professional audio recording techniques in the field from audio documentary experts
• Hands-on explanations and experiences on how to use audio, video and photo gear -- along with recommendations on gear
• Training on how to shoot visuals for multimedia storytelling including techniques for documentaries and working as a one-person-band or mobile journalist
• Hands-on video production editing training and experience on Adobe Premiere and ethics and legal issues
• How to navigate modern freelance, business and legal issues when working in multimedia
• Inspiring information on how the most cutting edge multimedia projects were created from the industry leaders that worked on them
• Emerging platforms and new tools for storytelling from mobile devices to drones.
   

Hands-on Coaching: Unlike other multimedia training workshops, we provide the most personalized training experience with the lowest student-to-teacher ratio (with about 20 coaches for 40 students). Students will be personally coached by industry leaders and the best educators in the country.Every student will produce their own finished, professional project -- from capturing all the content to editing to compressing the final files.

Tools: Participants will be provided with computers and software to use for the week from the S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communications at Syracuse University. Cameras from Canon and Sony will also be provided for use on site.

Students are strongly encouraged to bring whatever audio and video equipment you use on an everyday basis so learning can be done on gear that will be used back at home in the field. But if you cannot bring your own there will be equipment onsite for you to use.

Travel Details:

Hotel reservations should be made at the Sheraton Syracuse University at 801 University Ave · Syracuse, NY 13210, which is very close to the Immersion. Special rates have been secured for Immersion attendees. Subject to availability by calling (315) 475-3000. Be sure to mention that you would like the NPPA rate. The last day for the hotel special rate is April 15, 2019.

Attendees can arrange to share rooms through the Multimedia Immersion discussion group.

Students that do not drive to the event are encouraged to rent a car to go out and shoot stories.

Hotel Information:

Hotel reservations should be made at the Sheraton Syracuse University at 801 University Ave · Syracuse, NY 13210, which is very close to the Immersion. Special rates have been secured for Immersion attendees. The group rate of $134 (plus taxes) per night will be available until April 15, 2019. Subject to availability by calling (315) 475-3000. Be sure to mention that you would like the NPPA rate.

Attendees can arrange to share rooms through the Multimedia Immersion discussion group.

Students that do not drive to the event are encouraged to rent a car to go out and shoot stories.

FAQ

If you have additional questions about the Multimedia Immersion, please contact event co-chair, Seth Gitner.

Who is the workshop for?
This is a workshop for still photographers to learn how to properly use a HDSLR to tell video stories. From freelancers, to non-profit and NGO storytellers, to university and corporate multimedia producers, to military photographers, to photojournalists, to advanced hobbyists, to educators looking to raise their visual skill sets -- we have a very diverse array of student backgrounds at the Multimedia Immersion.

What should I expect from this workshop?
Rest up, because we work hard and we play hard. Here’s a visual view of some of the previous workshops.

You should expect to have the most rich learning experience available, immersing yourself deep in multimedia storytelling and technology in five intense, long days.

We start early in the morning and some nights go late (especially on the production nights. So expect 12 or more hour days. On most days, we start at 8 a.m. and end by 9 p.m. (and then we usually have some sort of optional happy hour or social networking event planned), except for on the final production day, which can run late into the night (luckily, Insomnia Cookies is across the parking lot to keep you on a sugar high). Don’t worry though, your coaches and the support staff will be there with you.

At the end of it all, every student produces a polished story that they can take home and add to their portfolio. They also receive a binder full of training materials, extra information and tutorials from the week, as well as dozens of new friends, leading experts and a whole new network of resources to call upon for future questions, advice and job opportunities.

How much money will I need to spend in addition to the fee?
In addition to registration, plan on budgeting for:
Travel (train, plane, bus, hovercraft, whatever you need to get to Syracuse)
Hotel (the official hotel at the Syracuse Sheraton is one block from the workshop and dozens of restaurants and bars, so it’s very convenient logistically and with the NPPA rates of $127 (single/double) $137 (triple),and  $147 (quad), not a bad deal, especially if you split with another student. It’s location alone is worth a little extra money because it will save you valuable time during the Immersion. You don’t need to stay there though, Syracuse is pretty cheap especially off-season when school is out so you can usually find deals comparison shopping at Kayak.com or Priceline.com)
Most meals and drinks (we usually are able to get a couple meals sponsored and provide coffee in the morning)
In-town transportation (Planning on having a rental car for Wednesday and Thursday, or cab fare, to get to your story is also needed)

We do our best to help keep down the costs associated with the workshop, so we heavily encourage students to share rooms, travel and car rentals if they’re interested. Prior to the workshop we will set up a Facebook group where participants can meet and connect with each other to do this. Syracuse now has both Uber and Lyft, so getting to and from assignments is much easier without the need ot rent a car.

We also recommend that each student bring an external hard drive (to take all their finished project files and raw multimedia home), extra memory cards, a tripod or monopod and headphones (because other people’s earwax is gross).

When should I plan my travel for and when/where should I show up?
For flights/travel arrangements, we'll begin at 7:30 a.m. on the Tuesday that the workshop starts and we wrap everything up around 4 p.m.ish on Saturday when it ends.

Most people stay that night and go out dinner/drinks together, then leave on the following Sunday, but if you need to to get out that evening, we'll be finished by 4 p.m.

Please plan on working full days for the workshop. If you want to do some tourist activities, meet with locals you might know or things like that, please save that for before or after the Immersion. This is an intense, fully-immersive workshop and we want to give you as much as humanly possible for you money, so we normally go from at least 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, with a couple days that sometimes go later than that when we're doing final production on the projects. You get what you put into the workshop and we want you to get a lot out of it, so we expect a lot out of our students.

Where does everything happen?
The workshop location is Newhouse III at Syracuse University, the official hotel and the area has lots of restaurants and bars nearby. Set your GPS for teh hotel - 801 University Ave, Syracuse, NY 13210 - Newhouse III is across the street.

Where should we park?
Parking at the hotel is included if you’re staying there, and it’s only a block from the workshop.

For those of you NOT staying at the Sheraton Hotel, you should park at the Van Buren and Irving Street garage (it's on the google map above). It costs $7-15 a day depending on which lot you stay in and when you arrive. Here's more info about the parking lots and pay structure: http://parking.syr.edu/Parking/display.cfm?content_ID=%23%28%289.%0A

How do I get from the airport to the official hotel?
There is a free shuttle from the airport to the Syracuse Sheraton Hotel (the official hotel with the NPPA discounted rate) The airport is 15 to 20 min ride from Syracuse University / the Sheraton When you land at the just call the hotel and they will come to pick you up from: 5 am to 10:30 pm. Phone: (315) 475-3000 Toll-Free: (866) 716-8115

Do I need to find my own story?
Nope, we find local story topics and characters for you. Each participant picks their story out of hat at the start of the workshop, so you can focus on learning the technology and storytelling, and less about parachuting into a foreign town to try and find an interesting story out of the blue.

Having said that, if you are working on a beat or want to cover a certain topic in Syracuse and already have a story idea, you’re welcome to do that, but setting up those logistical details are up to you.

What kind of stories have students produced in previous years?
Check out the hundreds of examples from Pulitzer Prize winners, White House Staff Photographers,  leading educators and more Immersion alumni.

What software will I be learning?
We will be training with Adobe Premiere on 24” iMacs provided by Syracuse University.

Do I need to bring my own gear?
We recommend you bring your own gear so that when you return to work you have all the answers to your gear questions, but having your own gear prior to the workshop is not required both Sony and Canon will be on hand to loan out gear -- usually the latest gear that each brand has available, and Syracuse University provided 27 inch iMacs and the software installed on them to be used for the workshop.

What is the student to teacher ratio?
We make it so that there is 1 coach for every 2 participants, the highest of any workshop or other training experience short of a personalized mentorship! This allows you to get very personalized training from the top visual storytellers and educators in the industry.

Who are the coaches?
The team changes a bit every year, but here’s last year’s warriors to give you a feel. We pride ourselves on the extremely high quality of our family of coaches. We select them specifically for five core reasons:
They’re excellent teachers with years of experience coaching.
They’re innovative visual storytellers who have a mastery of the technology.
They’re hard workers. (This workshop goes long and it goes hard. It’s an Immersion, so your coaches will be up with you, coaching by your side throughout the night if needed.)
They’re from a diversity of backgrounds, mediums, skillets and experiences.
They’re great to have a beer with. (We work hard, we play hard.)

We also have official reps from Nikon and Canon on hand throughout the week to answer questions and help with the gear (as well as show off some of their advanced features and pro-tips).

Do you have any discounted rates?
Outside of the discount for NPPA members, we don’t offer any other discounts. Those rates are $1,095 for NPPA members or $1,205 without a membership.

Do you have any grants available?
Not this year.

I don't want to take the workshop I just want to observe can I do that?
Sorry, we don't allow any outside observers due to space constraints.

Can I ask for a specific coach to work with?
We match coaching teams to the participants skill sets, so while we will do our best to match up participants with appropriate coaches, we can’t guarantee anything.

Where can I get more information about the workshop?
Feel free to email us! We are very good a responding to email quickly.

Do you ever sell out?
Yes, in the past we have sold out almost every year and we cap the workshop at 40 participants.

When do you start registration?
We plan to start registration in mid-February, if you want us to notify you when we launch registration email us and put *immersion* in the subject line or follow the @NPPAImmersion Twitter, Multimedia Immersion Facebook , or MultimediaImmersion.com.

The list of faculty for the 2019 workshop include so far but is not limited to:

• McKenna Ewen - CNN
• Jenni Pinkley - Minneapolis Star Tribune
• Eric Seals - Detroit Free Press
• Steve Elfers - USA Today
• Evey Wilson - Independent Videojournalist/Filmmaker 

• Mike Greenlar - Photojournalist, syracuse.com
• Mari Lu Fretts - Independant Photojournalist, Syracuse, NY
• Ashley Kang - Director, The Stand Newspaper Project, Syracuse, NY

Workshop Co-Directors

• Seth Gitner - S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
• Jamie DePould - Cleveland Clinic
• Carli Cichocki - Independent Videojournalist

Workshop Directors

SETH GITNER - Co-Workshop Director

Seth Gitner has been interested in multimedia journalism since 1998 when he first learned about pairing recorded audio with still photographs. Now he teaches multimedia storytelling at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

Before coming to Newhouse, he was the multimedia editor at The Roanoke Times and Roanoke.com, and also served as a staff photojournalist there for four years. While he was multimedia editor the newspaper won the APME Convergence Award multiple times, the Scripps Howard Foundation Web Reporting Award, the Newspaper Association of America's Digital Edge Award for most innovative multimedia storytelling, and the Online News Association Award for general excellence.

Gitner is national secretary of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). He is also co-director of the NPPA's Multimedia Immersion Workshop, held each May at Syracuse University. He has received NPPA's Joseph Costa Award, President's Award and Robert F. Garland Educator Award.

Gitner's multimedia work has been recognized by NPPA's Best of Photojournalism contest and Pictures of the Year International. He writes a monthly column on multimedia storytelling for the association's monthly magazine, News Photographer.

Gitner is the author of "Multimedia Storytelling for Digital Communicators in a Multiplatform World."

CARLI CILCHOCKI - Co-Workshop Director

Carli Cichocki is a visual storyteller based in Cleveland, Ohio. She works to tell thought-provoking, documentary style, stories to connect us as people and inspire positive social change.

Before embarking on a career in visual storytelling, Carli practiced public relations at Spitfire Strategies, a national communication firm, which works with nonprofits and foundations to help create their vision of a better world. She also worked in Washington D.C. for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and toured the country with The Do Good Bus, which accompanied Grammy nominated Foster the People on its 2011 North American fall tour.

Carli served as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's videographer at the end of the Obama administration. There, she created video content that reflected the Vice President’s values and showed his experiences at home and around the world.

She enjoys helping individuals, nonprofits, news organizations and community minded businesses use visual communications to tell their stories, advance their missions and accomplish their goals.

JAMIE DEPOULD - Co-Workshop Director

As a video producer at Cleveland Clinic, Jamie De Pould contributes to stories about medical innovation, the patient experience and what it means to be a caregiver. He also serves as director of photography for special projects, most recently a baseball-themed TV spot and a featurette for new employee orientation.

He holds a B.A. in Music from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and an M.S. in Photography from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

Since 2010, he's filled a variety of roles at the NPPA Multimedia Immersion--most importantly chief of coffee services--and this year is proud to serve as a co-director.

In the past, he's done work for commercial, editorial and nonprofit clients, and his work at Cleveland Clinic has been recognized at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, the Telly Awards, the Communicator Awards and the Hermes Awards.

He lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife, Ana, and their son, Ben.