Congratualtions to the Intern finalists …

TRAVIS LARCHUCK … Penn State University
AMY DUNCAN … Ball State University
ADRIENNE DYE … Indiana University
BRIDGET O’DONNELL … University of Michigan
ALLISENCE CHANG … Michigan State University
REBECCA ROLFE … University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
STEPHANIE YIU … Northwestern University
NICOLE DAVIS … Ohio University
CARL HENNIES … University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
DARLA CAMERON … University of Missouri

See you in Boston!

Yes, we’re a little late. But at least all our respective publications have made deadline, right? Um, yeah.

We’re narrowing it down for the last of the list. It’s been an interesting experience in picking who will get to come to Boston for a week to compete. And those who submitted their work, well, you didn’t make our job easy. There was some great stuff.

But enough of this and that, I need to get to a meeting to discuss the final list. Interns, we thank you for your ideas and your patience.

Watch this space … the Top 10 are coming …

An eager student journalist wrote to us recently asking if she had to register for the conference in order to attend the student sessions on Thursday.

This from Elise Burroughs at SND HQ:

The Thursday student program is free and open to all students,
whether or not they register for the Annual Workshop.

The Thursday speakers volunteer their time and we usually find a
sponsor for pizza, so we are able to welcome any student who wishes
to participate.

Yippee! Pile your friends in the car and come on down!

If you can’t stay for the whole weekend, you can still come for the Thursday session, get a big cup of coffee after dinner, and pile back into the car for the drive back to campus.

Thanks to Katie S. for her good questions. Other folks are probably wondering the same things, so here goes…

What time do the student sessions start on Thursday and how late do they run?
Sessions start in the morning and go until 5:30pm.

Also, on the registration form I saw there are quick courses for $75 on Thursday. Is there a time conflict between those and the student sessions?
The student sessions and quick courses do have some time overlap. You may come and go as you like with the student sessions. If you want to do a quick course that day, you are welcome to do so.

Several folks have asked if there are cheaper hotels in Boston. Yes, there are some cheaper ones (we’ll do some research and get back to you).

But in the interest of not missing a beat at the Workshop, we encourage you to stay at the hotel, but in a more efficient way. We’re inviting you to post in our comments here on the blog to find roommates or offer a space to a promising young person who is short on cash. We’ll also start a thread on VizEds.

We’ll keep an eye on postings to see if we can help guide the discussion, but we expect you’ll work the details out amongst yourselves. Go forth and collaborate!

There have been several questions and comments about tracing for the The intern storyboards.

From the applications materials:

THE STORYBOARD PROJECT
You’ve done class work. You’ve done real-world work. Now you get to do whatever you want. The entire focus of the storyboard project is to get out of your head what may surprise us and even you.
THE ASSIGNMENT: Storyboard a six-page special section and a one-page explanation of your approach.
The STORY LINE : What if the draft were implemented, requiring young Americans to join the armed forces?
THE FORMAT: Undecided. YOU decide. Do you do a broadsheet, a tabloid, something we haven’t heard of yet. Do you draw
up six pages of a multimedia piece? Do you do a little bit of both? It’s up to you and your imagination.
THE CATCH: Pencil (or pen) and paper. ONLY.
That’s right. No computers. Just raw creativity and a cocktail napkin, so to speak. That doesn’t mean we don’t want you to be detailed. For example, say you have the idea for the content of a graphic. Of course you don’t have the hard numbers, but you know you want it to show the number of troops compared to something. Draw little stick figures or circles or whatever and write a little explanation next to it. A sentence of explanation. Not a thesis. Where a story or an alternative storytelling form might go, shape some columns and jot down the story’s angle. Walk us through the six clicks in a Web component.

Our recent reply to questions about tracing:
No tracing, please. Whatever you do to brainstorm is up to you, but please draw your original pages onto plain white paper (not tracing paper!). You will be judged on your ideas, not a perfect drawing of shapes.

Why discourage tracing?
When you are brainstorming in the newsroom, you will often be called upon to imagine what a page could look like and what types of elements it could include. There is no time to go back to your computer in these cases. You have the attention of the group (editor, photo editors, graphics, etc) for a few minutes. Sketching is the answer in these situations. We are asking you to do an expanded version of this type of sketch.

Q: Should the focus of the storyboard be news-based or can it be a project site that focuses on slightly more opinionated content?

A: The storyboard should be considered as a primarily news section (for a news organization). You might choose to do man-on-the street interviews or other forms for including opinionated comment from people in the community.

If you choose to design part of it as an op-ed or letters to the editor (or any other type of long-form reaction from readers or prominent thinkers), it’s probably best to label that section as such.

The goal of the storyboard “news section” should be to fully explore the issue in a newsy way (different aspects of the draft, impact on the community, etc).

HARTFORD, CT — After many sleepless nights, finger-biting trips to the mail room and relentless marketing tactics, Kristin Lenz received the first Intern application Monday at The Hartford Courant. Careful not to tear the contents, she opened the envelope, spread the entry across the graphics department light table and pondered. She thought to herself, “This is going to be soooo cool!”

OK, enough of this third-person stuff. It is absolutely intriguing to see how the creative mind and the informative mind work together. I guess they are probably one in the same. But no matter, I was fascinated with entry No. 1 and it’s only entry No. 1.

Like a good drug, or shoes, I need more. The Globe needs more, The Times expects more, The Pilot wants more and The Courant craves more. Speaking of more, we owe you one more paper. Promise, it’s coming. Good things take time.

Lick, stick and send, interns. You’ve only got 11 days … 11 DAYS … to get those bad babies cleaned up, tucked into a USPS approved mailing parcel and on their way to Connecticut.

Connecticut is lovely this time of year. And 12 months from now you could be on your way here, too …

Hello interns … time is tick, tick, ticking away. There are a few questions that have come across the desk this week that I’ll share with you in case the same questions are floating around in your heads:

Q: Is the use of colored pencils, markers, etc, OK to use on our storyboards?
Yes, it’s fine. But remember, no computer-generated pieces at this time. Pure creative thoughts scribbled down neatly. A little red here, blue there, that’s fine. Again, doodles.

Q: What about dummy photo boxes, should we draw the photo?
(Insert shrieks by photographers across the nation that we’re drawing a photo before it’s even been shot.) OK, maybe if you were in the studio. No, you do not need to draw the photo. Of course, there will be an idea as to what the content of that photo might be, but there is no need to sketch that out. If you feel obliged, just jot down the idea of the content in the photo box somewhere.

Hope everyone is gearing up to get stuff sent, that finals are going well and that summer break is right around the corner. Ah, summer break … now those were the days.

Sorry, but only US citizens are eligible for The intern.