2020 Visual Storytelling (Smaller Newsroom) Winner

“Becoming the Conductor”

About the Entry

Robert Kinlaw, director of multimedia for EducationNC, interviewed Anthony Jackson, North Carolina’s 2020 superintendent of the year, to feature him in a video profile created from a Zoom recording. Because of the pandemic, filming would be challenging beyond that, so Kinlaw decided to create simple hand-drawn illustrations inspired by photos from Jackson and others. The entire four-and-a-half-minute video took around 175 hours to complete.

Comments from the Judges

“Visually appealing way to pivot from a video/zoom interview for a profile. Can tell that a lot of work went into the animating of the profile, presenting a vivid portrayal of Dr. Jackson.”

“So nice seeing the backstory of someone who received statewide recognition. Sometimes we report the award and forget that there is a person behind that award. I particularly like how you found one aspect of his life to use as the angle and went after that.”