What shall we do? Recap for discussion.

Your goal is to produce, as part of a group, something larger than any one of you could produce on your own.

Under the broad heading of "things that don't get covered," we broached good ideas. Some were single-story options (keep these in mind for your personal projects), others had the complexity that would make for a large project. Some would take too much time (as with the assimilation stories); others don't mesh with our talent pool -- not enough people interested in the investigative reporting that a full-blown light rail project would entail, for example.

We will, as a class, be a multimedia team. I'll be executive producer; we'll need two producers to oversee management of the project. Others will take various assignments. Everyone's ideas and suggestions are welcome -- as with any project that expects to get done, however, some will be developed and others will not according to what works best for available time and resources.

Multimedia projects have stages: Conception, Planning & Assignments, Hunting & Gathering, Primary Editing, Production.

Conception: Brainstorming. Establishing possibilities, range of interest.

Planning & Assignments: Storyboarding. Deciding how to tell the Big Story by parsing it into parts (perhaps six short Soundslide profiles, a timeline, and an introductory text and six brief texts, one for each profile). Assigning people to get the parts that are needed according to what you need: stories, sound, video, photographs, art, maps, information, etc. Unless you're working on a story you're trying to keep from competition, this is where you negotiate any outside partnerships (as with a print publication or TV station) or find expert consultants, if needed. Set deadlines.

Hunting & Gathering: Getting it. Producers coordinate this.

Primary Editing: This is where cross-editing takes place. Do you all think you got what you intended to get? Do you have to change anything? Is there something cool you can add or something unworkable you must drop? Look at the material you've gathered: images, sound, text (make sure it's in good shape; it gets harder to copy edit beyond this point). This is a point where brainstorming is appropriate so long as it's productive.

Production: Now that you know what the project should look like, follow the amended storyboard to put it together. Assignments are made according to what is needed: Soundslides, preparation of digital images (scanning in art, for example, or cropping photos), creation of any needed illustration or art, creating the project "shell," audio or video editing, factchecking, narration. Set a production schedule.

So all that remains is the topic. Based on our class discussion, I suggest we focus on "things that don't get covered" with a slant toward unusual, off-beat and interesting. Certainly, our gambler fits in here, as does the incredible professor. Perhaps a POV piece from a light-rail worker would work here, too. How's about a profile of someone adapting to the city culture? A "profile" of an off-beat store works, too. All of these can form a collection, and the collection is our project.

Okay. Over to you for development! Feel free to post story ideas, comments, etc., in this forum. See you Monday for class.