A screenshot of Dan Friedell's Devin Vandyke slideshow.
One of the good things about working for Patch.com as a freelancer is that the editors are pretty open to experimentation.
A few months ago, I did a piece for the Oakton, Va. site about the local high school’s strong girls’ basketball team. We miked up the coach and did a nat-sound audio photo gallery.
I decided to try a similar thing with my story about Devin Vandyke, a rising senior at South County Secondary School in Lorton, Va. I was writing about the recruiting process for Vandyke, who has decided to play football next year at Virginia Tech. We talked about how he received a fair share of letters, but also lots of contact on Facebook from coaches who were interested in getting on his radar.
So I took about 30 photos of his recruiting materials with my iPhone and then asked him to go through some of the items he had received – credentials, yearbooks, hand-written letters, etc. – and tell me what he thought of them.
It turned out he was a great narrator. Only one take for the audio. And I think the multimedia project turned out well. Let me know what you think.