2015 Video Photography Judges
David Bradford
After graduating from Kent State University in 1997, Bradford has worked at six stations in five cities making stops in Steubenville, Chattanooga, Dayton, and Cincinnati before settling in Cleveland at WOIO 19/43 then finally at WJW Fox-8 where he currently works for the past 10 years. Over his 18 years of videographer/editor experience, he has accumulated numerous state and national awards including multiple Emmies. He has spoken at many seminars about the techniques of shooting and editing and how to think outside the box and make the ordinary original.
He currently lives in Norton, Ohio, with his wife April and two kids Ariel ,13, and Matthew 11.
[/column] [column size=”1/3″]Carmaine Means
Carmaine Means is a television news photojournalist at CBS News in Chicago. She received her B.A. from Columbia College in television production and directing before leaving to pursue a career in broadcast news. Her post collegiate career started in Rockford, Ill., at WTVO, ABC 17 in August 2002. From that point, she moved on to work at WVTV, WB 18 in Milwaukee, in May of 2003. By December 2003, she accepted a position at the Tribune owned, CLTV/WGN 9, a 24-hour news
[/column] [column size=”1/3″]Alan Ward
Al Ward founded the broadcast video production company, Award Productions, Inc., in 1990, based just outside Boston. He started his television career shooting footage for TV networks including CNN, PBS, & CBS. His company has steadily grown to now serve more than 500 corporate clients, government agencies, and TV Networks worldwide.
Highlights of his career include filming the fast-paced world of presidential campaigns, following the first test patients living outside a hospital with an artificial heart, shadowing the Dalai Lama’s visits to the US, and exclusively filming the test flights of the world’s first flying car.
In addition to overseeing all business operations daily, current creative roles include filming, producing and directing various video projects for hundreds of clients including: FOX Television, CNN, PBS, NBC, Discovery Networks, IBM, Gillette, Microsoft, Touchstone Pictures, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Harvard Business School.
[/column] [/row]2015 Video Editing Judges
Patty Gaffney
Patty is a creative storyteller and journalist who has worked at several media companies including CNN and Reuters. Her production experience includes everything from shooting and producing pieces for the web to traveling the country as a field sound technician. While at CNN, she was the Washington D.C. photojournalist supervisor, and has several awards from her years as a craft video Producer/Editor. She has an MBA in Media Management, and is currently the Technical Production Manager for MSNBC’s The Cycle and All In with Chris Hayes.
Patty has been known to sing a song or two at karaoke, and loves getting lost exploring new cities. She lives in a NYC closet with her boyfriend, her cat Maddie, and two Boston terriers Connor and Murphy.
[/column] [column size=”1/3″]Matt Mrozinski
Matt Mrozinski is currently the chief photojournalist at WTHR-TV in Indianapolis. He was rewarded with his first job as chief after a highly successful run at KING TV in Seattle. Matt is a nine-time Emmy award winning photojournalist with two wins in his craft (photography) on the east and west coast. He has entered the contest five times with over 22 nominations. Mrozinski was named a top six finalist three straight years for photojournalism’s highest individual honor, the NPPA Ernie Crisp Photographer of the Year. Mrozinski was runner-up for the award in 2010. Also in 2010, Matt was named the best photojournalist in the nation by his peers as b-roll.net’s Photographer of the Year. In the last five years of his career, Matt has been a member of four NPPA Station of the Year awards and helped KING to runner-up 2014. He recently won back-to-back National Headliner awards for feature. In 2013, Matt won the coveted SPJ Sigma Delta Chi award with NBC News Correspondent, Joe Fryer, and was the NPPA West Coast Photographer of the Year 2013.
Mrozinski’s accomplishments are not only behind the lens – he is the architect of the popular “Storytellers” website and community. Nearly 6,500 journalists and students frequent the site for advice and critique and “Storytellers” is used in university classrooms across the nation. It has become one of the premier resources for professional development and education. “I just wanted to start the conversation”, said Mrozinski, “It was dumb luck”. In 2012, Matt and two of his colleagues used its success to inspire the Northwest Video News Workshop (NWVW). He is a returning faculty member for the NPPA News Video Workshop in Norman, OK, and has been a speaker at KNPA, Seattle University, Ignite Your Passion Workshop in St. Paul, Minn., and CUNY in New York, NY. “I’ll do everything I can to help shape the future of journalism”, Mrozinski adds.
Mrozinski demonstrates a very strong belief in team storytelling, “shooting for the viewer”, ethics, telling the lead “story”, and having a great attitude. Matt is a proud Pittsburgh, Pa., native.
[/column] [column size=”1/3″]Dan Robbins
Thirty-one years ago, Dan Robbins started shooting local television news while finishing his degree at Southern Illinois University. It has been my good fortune to work with and learn from some of the best storytellers in the business. During my nine years at WAVE-TV in Louisville, Ky., I was named Photographer of the Year by the Kentucky News Photographer’s Association, won my first Emmy and was a three time second place finisher in the NPPA regional competition. That was followed by four years in Charlotte, N.C., with WCNC-TV. I finally won the NPPA regional Photographer of the Year award and a handful of Emmy awards along with being recognized by the local RTNDA as Photographer of the Year.
Next up was three amazing years in Denver at KUSA-TV where I was lucky enough to part of the NPPA Station of the Year. I followed my family back to the Carolinas and WCNC where I’ve been Chief Photographer for the past ten years. I managed a few more Emmy’s and another second place finish in the NPPA regional competition but my focus now is working with younger journalists, trying to help them understand how cool it is to tell great stories. Just like I’ve been trying to do for the last thirty years.
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