We’ve already discussed how short-form featured videos are changing the landscape of journalism by incorporating virality, but that does not mean that the longform feature video is slowly becoming left in the dust. In fact, many documentary companies are producing shareable, longer form feature videos that are pushing the boundaries of storytelling in the digital era.

One of these companies is Thrash Lab, a California-based documentary team that releases all of its work for free on Youtube. Backed by Twitter god and Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher, Thrash Lab has produced bi-coastal features focusing on people in all kinds of creative fields — but excels in producing clever, slice-of-life views into popular subcultures.

Check out this feature on specialty coffeemakers:

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Ever hot on the heels of politicians, straightening the fact from the fiction, the Washington Post has decided to take their methods to real-time reporting with their new system, Truth Teller. Funded by a prototype grant from the Knight News Challenge, Truth Teller is a mobile and desktop app that will be able to record, transcribe and show disputed facts and statistics in real time for everyone. Although still in its nascent stages, the end result would be an app that simultaneously transcribes speeches obtained via video (or, ideally, a live feed), recognizes citations of data or popular keywords, and matches them with fact-checked information from the WaPo staff. It’s not only the cutting edge of fact-checking journalism — it has the capacity to change the way people consume their political media. Read more

These days, carrying around a full video rig is the last thing a journalist wants to do when in the middle of important breaking news. Thankfully, the smartphone is rapidly becoming the go-to option for capturing news as it happens, and the rise of HD quality video in such a small package means that more important and newsworthy moments are being captured and shared throughout the world.

The only caveat is, for better for worse, shooting video on a small, light smartphone has a steep learning curve. To get a compelling, color-balanced shot that isn’t shaky or blurry is a mammoth task — an unknowledgeable shooter can easily end up with muddy, diffuse content that isn’t share-worthy.

Luckily, there are some easy and effective tips to get a great shot. Read more

PBS Arts Off Book put out this interesting, short video this week with some thoughts from a few leading minds in the digital journalism sphere (including Mark Luckie, the 10,000 Words founder and current manager of journalism and news at Twitter). The subject is all about how Twitter has impacted journalism and journalists’ role in using the service to source news and be a source of news. I wanted to pass it on because some of the points the speakers (Luckie, Jeff Jarvis, Craig Kanalley and Chris Anderson) brought up were important to think over, including the role of journalists as the filter for Tweets/breaking news and also the importance of realizing a lot of sources and people aren’t on Twitter or Facebook. Anyway, it’s only about 5 minutes long. Watch it.

Conde´ Nast recently hosted MediabistroTV at its Times Square offices. Lucky magazine style editor and network television morning show contributor Lori Bergamotto walked the crew through Lucky’s offices revealing the hidden corners where nail polish and make up are put through their paces, colors and fabric samples are checked by the art department, shoes and handbags await their close-ups and racks of outfits hang around waiting for their models.

Take a look at all the small parts that make up a big fashion magazine like Lucky.

Next Thursday MediabistroTV premieres, “My First Big Break: Ken Burns.” You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.