What we learned at camp versatile journalist

By Liam Casey and Wendy Gillis

Producing slideshows and videos isn't exactly splicing DNA or understanding Lost. But we're not going to lie, it's labour intensive.

The take-home message from Camp Versatile Journalist 2010 is like the old Nike slogan: just do it. There's just no other way to learn how to edit video or put together a slideshow than by playing with the gadgets and software. So, we decided to follow the experts advice.

Camp VJ is all about learning the nuts and bolts of digital journalism, from shooting video to crunching numbers and posting them in a way the audience can easily digest.

Led by Robb Montgomery, the Chicago-based Johnny Appleseed of digital literacy, the three-day workshop at the Toronto Star was a huge success. More than 40 people came early and stayed late every day.

Below is our moving masterpiece, warts and all, about #CampVJ2010. For the record, we now know how to edit video, but we kept our bloopers in for educational purposes (we swear). Our biggest lesson: turn the microphone on, which is surprisingly easy to forget. Don't forget to press play when a video slides onto the screen.

Wendy Gillis and Liam Casey are Ryerson journalism students who will spend the summer reporting at the Toronto Star.