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Fusionspark Media produces online media that’s been called Interactive Narratives, Web Documentaries and Digital Storytelling. The bottom line is that Fusionspark Media is at the forefront of a new kind of storytelling. It’s not the tired old "push" formula of TV where you sit back and passively absorb whatever someone has decided to tell you, then flick at commercial time. An online story by its nature is interactive. That means you can do something. The viewer is suddenly part of the story.
The topics Fusionspark Media covers are stories that matter to people. So far, subjects have been focused on environmental and conservation concerns. Recently, Fusionspark Media completed its first production on a medical subject called, "The Gift of a Lifetime." This project was an in-depth look at organ and tissue transplantation in the United States.
 A trademark of Fusionspark Media’s storytelling is its "live" expedition component, where it literally reports "from the field" to the Web site as the story is unfolding over a two-week period. Combining the best of real-time news reporting with the depth of a long-term investigative documentary, this intense two-week period requires a huge volume of content creation and management.
"iView MediaPro has enabled me to do things I couldn’t do before. For the most part, it was an issue of speed and efficiency. For our work in the field, iView MediaPro definitely saved time time that we needed to sleep!"
Co-founder Russell Sparkman recently took time from his schedule to describe the project. Russell is photographer and designer, as well as handling business administration and new project development. His partner is his brother, Kevin, who produces FSM projects, as well as oversees marketing, PR and business development.
According to Russell, "When we're shooting a live documentary, I may shoot hundreds of frames per day onto either 128, 256 or 512 mb Compact Flash cards. We document about a 36-hour period of time before shifting into production mode. During production, I have to edit through hundreds of frames to select the dozen, to a dozen and a half that I think will work in tandem with the writer's and the audio technician's content."
 Prior to using iView Russell used the Nikon browser bundled with his Nikon digital camera. A photographer for most of his life, Russell reports that image management has always been a challenge for him. Given that media management is the problem that iView MediaPro was designed to solve, Russell decided to use it for the first time during the Gift of a Lifetime project.
"I installed iView shortly before we began our live expedition component of The Gift of a Lifetime. This was, essentially, a baptism by fire as I had little time to adjust to, or learn the program deeply. I found that I was able to access and use the features I needed quickly. The entire project lasted about 6 months with a 2-week period of time at UCLA (the live expedition component) during which we were reporting in a 48-hour cycle, every 48 hours."
Not only was the schedule physically grueling, the subject was one of deep human drama and emotional intensity. In that kind of an environment, it is easy to become sleep deprived quickly. Russell reports that he was impressed with iView MediaPro’s speed at handling the images he threw at it.
MediaPro fits seamlessly into Russell Sparkman’s image editing and selection process.
After a day of shooting in the field, he copied the camera’s memory cards to a hard drive each night. Then he would burn a minimum of one or two CDs from the hard drive to ensure accurate backup. Once he had the CDs, he would delete the data from the memory cards. He describes the process that followed:
- Create Catalogs I'd create a catalog for each discrete folder of images that I created from the original take with descriptive names such as "heart transplant." This allowed me to open catalogs and review them quickly. Also, when I burned a CD, the catalogs were saved with each folder, making them more accessible when archived. It's faster to scan through catalogs than folders of images.
- Assign Label (keyboard command) - The keyboard key for "1" labels an image by changing its name to red, from black. I found this a great way to create an initial edit, and create sub-sets, out of dozens and dozens of images. Then, I could review, with the other team members, just the labeled set to make final image selections.
- View Image Data Occasionally I'd refer to the image data that's saved with each image to confirm w which White Balance setting I'd used on the camera, or to check whether I used fill-flash or not, etc.
- Open With I’d use this feature to open an image with Adobe Photoshop for more in-depth image editing. Then from Photoshop I’d send it to folders and on to the server so designers could access it and upload the image to the web site.
"There are no downsides that I can think of using iView MediaPro, though I can't say I'm totally familiar with all its functions, yet. I feel that I’ve barely scratched the surface of the program."
Russell Sparkman
President, CEO
Fusionspark Media: Digital storytelling that bridges inspiration with action |
