First off, I’d really like to say that having been given the opportunity to report a story over a series of weeks has been as much a first-rate experience as it has been a luxury.

I have no doubt that all of our stories required a great deal of time, care, immersion and effort. And I truly feel that that’s been the case for the one on which I’ve been working–the rise of Pentecostalism within LA’s Central American community.

[Here's blog post concerning the subject I wrote early on into the project.]

This way, I could gradually (and repeatedly) step into Evangelical conventions and various Pentecostal services and missions and Catholic Masses and baptisms in order to better acquaint myself with the subject and my sources.

Knowing, also, I should report the story for as many media as possible has been exciting–a blessing and a challenge.

My final page will include an audiovisual slide show with photos I took in those churches and parks and street corners and conventions and meetings accompanied by my voice over and recordings I took of those praying and proselytizing.

There will be a long, interactive magazine-style piece that should contain sound bites within a few of its sections (why stop at describing sound when you can share it with the reader, dubbing him or her an auditor in the process?). In addition to a text-based sidebar and possibly a time line (from dipity.com), I have put an interviewee’s voice over to a still shot of the subject while posting a visible translation (Spanish to English) beneath it.

I had some experience with some of the technology I used and am using. USC’s core required the students to shoot/write/edit packages and to write for print and online as well as to learn code if possible. So neither multimedia reporting nor blogging and working with AVID were firsts for us.

But I had never used AVID to make a slide show before, and I have never used it to have a voiced over interview with the translated text accompanying it.

This story was difficult partially because it is, of course, always important to be respectful to sources–but particularly important when dealing with those of a different mindset or background. I am neither a Pentecostal nor a Catholic. So while maintaining an open mind was not so much of a problem, making sure I always came off as considerate while absorbing new information and trying to write about it in the most accurate way possible was hard.

And while I am fluent in Spanish, reporting an entire story in Spanish, and listening to interviews in Spanish while transcribing them in English was sometimes an arduous process–especially if I wanted to use any of the sound for radio or voice overs or sound-related spots in the story package.

Also, it’s one thing to report the same story in many different media over time, but to try to do so at once is both physically and mentally exhausting. I would go out with my digital tape recorder in my left pocket, my camera in my left hand, a notebook under my arm, a pen behind my ear and a radio kid slung from my right shoulder, the mic held by my right hand. Sure, that’s cool. And I was glad to have the shots and sots and thoughts and recordings.

But I wonder: at which point does a lot become too much?

When does the technology become more of a hindrance than an aid?

The aim should always be to tell a good story. A full story. A story with depth and character and truth. I never lost sight of that. But it’s one thing to know that consciously, and it’s completely another to have to put it into action.

I worry sometimes that where I could have gotten great photos or perfect nat sound or that sparkling quote that I didn’t catch because I wasn’t writing, and my recorder ran out of space, and my kit ran out of batteries, I did not because the simple fact is that I was carrying too much stuff.

The race to tell a story in a way innovative should never deflect from the ability to tell it in the best way possible.

That said, even when I was tired or more of my photos came out soft than I would have liked and my notes read illegibly, I always relished the thought of the story transcending  just one paltform. Description could enrich the sound of voices and singing and music and speaking in tongues. Photos could take someone who was not there with me. And videos captured on a digital camera could make those scenes come alive in a delicate counterpoint to those captured by text and depiction.

I’m very grateful for the experience and the space and technology given us to unwrap these multitextured stories. Like anything, really, then, balance is key.

So another go would tell me when taking the kit was more important than the camera, or when the notebook should govern all activity (and not even the digital recorder…as transcription can coopt your life, forcing you to question whether having those quoted details is worth it–as it sometimes is and at others is not) or when “what the heck, why not take ‘em all, and give it my all” was most in order.