M. Hoops multimedia coverages

Those of you who have been following here for a while know me as the sports journalist/editor who tries to be at the center of every discussion and the forefront of every news story. Well, that stuff is still a part of me, but I've taken on a much different role in the DP this year as the Online Managing Editor, whereby I run our website, theDP.com, and manage our multimedia content. Well as a newly born multimedia junkie and a former (but in many ways still current) sports writer, I am placing a lot of emphasis on multimedia for our sports coverage. As such, this weekend's first home basketball games since I became Online Managing Editor presented my best opportunity to practice and showcase what I plan on doing with sports multimedia in the next year. So after the jump you'll find all the things we did with multimedia this weekend, and I insist on having a lively and constructive discussion about my work and what you all think are the best ways we can use multimedia to enhance our sports coverage moving forward.

First, on the night after each game, we put together some quick (and easy) photo slideshows with all of our photographers best images from the games. I would love to embed the slideshows here on The Buzz, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. So here are links to our Cornell slideshow and our Columbia slideshow. Our talented sports photo editor Pete Lodato took some amazing photos of the Cornell game using a special flash system that's available in The Palestra but we previously were unaware of. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I'm sure Pete will be happy to discuss it in the comments (he's like a giddy little kid when he talks about photography). If you notice many of the photos have a flash in the background, which comes from multiple angles and provides perfect lighting for the photos. That's what I'm talking about here.

If you have any thoughts on the way we've set up our slideshows please let me know in the comments. Keep in mind there is only so much we can do based on our budget, technology and time constraints, but I will do whatever I can to improve what we're doing.

And now to the exciting stuff...VIDEO!! I'm making a huge push to revive our video program, especially in sports, and that started this weekend as well. I was on the court for both games shooting video, which was only my second (and third) times ever trying to shoot video. You can find my handiwork embedded below. Forgive me for my slightly shaky camerawork, especially during the press conferences (when I should've used a tripod but couldn't find the one the DP has). Nevertheless, I'm sure you avid Penn sports fans will enjoy what we've put together. And again, let me know your thoughts in the comments.

One last thing: I can't figure out how to embed the videos from theDP.com, but I've embedded the videos from our YouTube page for your convenience.

Cornell game highlights

Cornell post-game press conference

Columbia press conference (I got footage from the game too, but had no time to finish editing everything since I'm still learning and taking my time doing all this stuff).

Panhel at the Palestra (Penn's eight sororities had a tug-of-war fundraiser at halftime of the Columbia game and the DP covered it so I put together this footage as well. After all my job isn't just sports anymore).

And as always, outside of this discussion of multimedia, I'm always up for a heated chat about some real sports stuff.