Washington Post Video

From last to first: The rise of the Washington Nationals

The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga, Chico Harlan, Adam Kilgore, James Wagner and columnist Thomas Boswell recall the journey of the Washington Nationals since the team moved from Montreal to winning its first division title in 79 years, and all the good and bad moments in between.  

The Washington Nationals have had an incredible season, capped by winning the National League East pennant on Monday night. But for a video that covered the history of team, I wanted to show how much making the playoffs is pretty remarkable for the Nats, that had over 100 losses only three seasons ago.  

I interviewed current and former Nationals beat writers for The Post, as well as columnist Thomas Boswell about the defining moments in the team’s history. I gathered photos and newspaper pages from the Post’s archive, looking for images and headlines that captured the team’s defining moments through the years.  We worked with Major League Baseball to gather footage of the team’s highlights (and lowlights) throughout their 8 seasons, and I can’t say enough about how helpful they were in quickly filling our requests.

The Nationals pennant means a lot to Washingtonians, especially those who were here when the Senators left for Minnesota, or grew up without a team altogether. As a fan of a different NL East team (which, for journalism’s sake, shall remain nameless), I know how much baseball can mean to a city, and I hope the Nationals first playoff appearance can make D.C. a baseball city again.

Jayne Orenstein/The Washington Post

You can watch more Nationals video here, or go to washingtonpost.com/video for more visual journalism, and don’t forget to follow the whole team on twitter via @postvideo.

Peeps are kind of a big deal this time of year at the Post newsroom.

That’s right, this year finalists for the ever-popular Peeps Diorama contest were finally announced. The winner, Occupeep DC, is above, and you can see all five finalists here.

I was assigned to shoot the video of the winning dioramas, and two of our video producers, Jayne Orenstein and Kristen Boghosian (who, by the way, are often the voices behind the @postvideo twitter handle) took care of editing the footage into something beautiful. Its always interesting to see how another editor handles your work. My edit probably would have been entirely different! 

I spent about four hours in our video studio filming the different dioramas, and then chose the best clips to hand off to Kristen and Jayne to work from. The nice thing about working in the studio is that I could reshoot each scene as often as I needed… the bad thing was that then I had to edit through all of those takes! But in the end, with a little help from some fancy camera supports I was able to add in some movement to the static details in the dioramas.

All of the finalists put together great scenes using the popular marshmallow peeps, but my favorite remains the winner—Occupeep DC. Maybe its because I spent so much time covering the occupation in Macpherson square myself.

-AJ Chavar

For our Cherry Blossom guide this year I wanted to do something a little different, after all, its been a century now that we’ve had them in DC.

So I teamed up with awesome Washington Post information designer and illustrator Patterson Clark to create an illustrated, animated guide to the science behind the blossoms. 

So often we create infographics via After Effects or Photoshop or Illustrator, I felt the urge to work with Clark to make something tangible. Plus, now we have some sweet art hanging around our cubicles!

Also of note, the beautiful artwork drawn through the video is actually Patterson Clarks’s first attempt at using soft pastels (he normally works digitally, with a Wacom pad and stylus, directly into Photoshop). Of course, he didn’t tell me this until we were done, and if he hadn’t I would have assumed he’d been sketching with pastels for years. Hope you enjoy!

-AJ Chavar

Joe Paterno: ‘We’ve got a problem, I think’ (2:19)

The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins discusses her exclusive interview with Penn State legend Joe Paterno, in which the former head football coach spoke at length about the child sexual abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. (Jan. 14) (Sally Jenkins and Alexandra Garcia/Photo: John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Video | Story | Reaction | Photos | Graphic

Iowa’s economy on voters’ minds

With an unemployment rate hovering around six percent, Iowa’s economy has fared better than most states’, but the economy is still the issue that most concerns voters in the Hawkeye State. While the farming industry is booming, the manufacturing industry there has faced significant challenges as Iowa heads into the caucuses on Jan. 3. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

Whitney Shefte is in Iowa right now to cover the first caucuses. She’ll have coverage coming from New Hampshire as well. Meanwhile, get some insight into what matters to Iowans in Whitney’s video above.

Be sure not to miss the rest of the 2012 election and caucus coverage on washingtonpost.com/politics. And follow @postvideo or go washingtonpost.com/video for the latest video updates.

Laughs for Islam

Armed with humor and a desire to engage in dialogue about Islam, a troupe of four Muslim comedians performed in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Billed as ‘The Muslims are Coming!’ comedy tour, they also set up a “Name that Religion” game in Birmingham, Ala. and an “Ask a Muslim” booth in Lawrenceville, Ga. What they found was often surprising.

Ben de la Cruz and Alexandra Garcia recently finished an odyssey of a video everyone here at the office was eagerly anticipating. Laughs for Islam is a funny, sincere look at some aspects of being an American Muslim. I emailed Ben and Alexandra some questions, and you can read the transcript below. I also highly recommend checking out the additional content on our website.

Where did the idea for this project come from?

We were assigned  to the Post series about  how Americans view the American Muslim community ten years after 9-11. The editors specifically wanted to find out whether American Muslims were viewed with suspicion and why. We both started calling contacts. One of our first calls was to Dean Obeidallah who Ben had met and produced a video story about in 2003. He told us about a plan to perform in the South with other comedians and set up Ask a Muslim booths as a way to engage in dialogue with everyday Americans about Islam. This dialogue seemed like a perfect way to uncover the issues on the minds of ordinary Americans. It was an an idea we had already started to explore with our first contribution to the series, “Under Suspicion: Voices about Muslims in America.”

How long were you on the road, and how long did editing take?

We traveled with the comedians from Columbus, Ga. to Lawrenceville, Ga., Birmingham, Ala., and Murfreesboro, Tenn. All together, we filmed for six days. Editing was done in fits and starts over several months, in between other projects and daily news coverage. 

What are some of the challenges working on a video of this scope?

Managing two terabytes of footage was one of the biggest challenges. We used two 5D Mark II  cameras to film four full comedy shows as well as all of our interviews. Before we went on our trip, we bought extra hard drives in case of hard drive failure, which is not uncommon. When we returned to edit, we had to purchase more drives when two of our drives failed. 

On the road we also contended with the logistics of filming while the comedians were shooting their own documentary. And for a few days, NBC and CNN joined the party. Trying to capture natural action with a gaggle of cameras around was a delicate dance. Luckily we developed a good working relationship with the film and news crews. 

Is it difficult to work in tandem on a project like this?

We think it is far better to work in tandem on a project that requires filming live performances onstage or in street actions like “Name That Religion” and “Ask a Muslim.”  We had the option of  editing between tight and wide shots in the interviews, and between the comedians and the people on the street. 

Because filming a tour is in many ways a road movie, it was important to film the journey from place to place. One person can’t safely do this alone.  While Alex drove (which she loves doing), Ben shot video out the window. Compared to the size of the film crew and the other network TV news crews, we were a small operation. 

Through many collaborations over the years, we’ve come to trust each other’s work. We feel comfortable handing the edit back and forth, knowing that the changes that would come back to us would make the piece better. 

View the full project on washingtonpost.com

—AJ Chavar/The Washington Post

Washington wakes up to Winter Solstice

Night turns to day as the sun rises over Washington on the shortest day of the calendar year - the winter solstice. (Dec. 22) (Evelio Contreras / The Washington Post)

When Dave Beard, the Post’s sitewide engagement editor, told me about a project he was working on about the Winter’s Solstice I was eager to see what I could contribute. The Post sent out its photographers to capture what it was like to see the shortest day of the calendar year and we also gathered photos from readers and viewers. 

I talked to one of my editors, Jonathan Forysthe about a good place to shoot the sunrise. He suggested Gravelly Point on the George Washington Parkway. It’s got a great view of the National Mall and the Capitol across the Potomac. The park is also next to Reagan National Airport.

I showed up before dawn to set up a Canon 60D and a Canon 5D Mark II focusing on the Washington Monument and the Potomac River to produce two separate time lapses.

One of the cool things about sunrise shots is the sky turns to light before the sun actually shows up. So, in essence, you are shooting for two moments. I knew the sun would rise to my right and to my left I saw the Washington Monument and chose that to show the sky turn from black to light.

In between, I used another camera to shoot a lot of detail shots like autumn leaves and the reflection of the monument in the rippling water while I was filming the sky change to show the mood of the place.

Every few minutes or so, I noticed a plane would take off from Reagan. There were also birds flying in the sky. I wanted to show how flight could be seen as a transition point for folks like the winter solstice can be for the seasons. It became my “character” in this short visual piece.

Before I left the parkway, I noticed a pair of fisherman on one of the riverbanks set up fishing poles. I thought this was a nice way to end the piece to highlight the calm feeling I had shooting the Winter’s Solstice.

For me, shooting the sunrise felt like a smooth, simple transition, like the solstice, one that would have happened without little notice if you didn’t wake up to see it. I like moments like that, one where the light patterns – and the mood – had shifted.

—Evelio Contreras /The Washington Post