Seth Gitner is multimedia editor for roanoke.com.

APRIL 16 BEGAN as a typical Monday morning. It was deadline day for a multimedia project I was finishing up on childhood obesity. I had my entire week scheduled out already.

Right as I got in and was setting up my laptop, I saw a group of editors talking about a shooting at Virginia Tech. A spot news hound, dating from my former life as a still photojournalist, I didn’t think twice. I packed up my belongings and made for my car. I just knew that I had to get to my car as quickly as possible. Not having much information beyond the voices I heard in the newsroom, I hit the road with a trunk full of video gear.

Speeding out of the parking lot I switched on my XM radio to CNN. They were transmitting a live broadcast of local television station WDBJ, which was describing the scene at Virginia Tech.

I was driving excessively fast down Interstate 81 — trying to reduce the 45 minutes it takes from our Roanoke office to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. I knew I had to get there quickly.

The information from CNN was getting worse minute by minute. My heart was racing as my adrenaline was pumping.

About halfway there, I had that sinking feeling — you know, that you get when you are speeding on the highway and you look in your rearview mirror, only to see revolving red and blue lights.

Well, that happened. I proceeded to pull over, but then realized that the state police officer was not pulling over — he was passing me. I could have sworn he was driving in excess of 100 mph only because I know how fast I was going. I must have had at least eight Virginia State Police officers and several ambulances pass me that morning.

Once at the Tech campus, I pulled up to a road block where I flashed my press credentials — only to have the officer tell me he didn’t care who I was or what I was doing but that I needed to leave for my own safety’s sake. I took the rifle in his hand to mean that he was very serious. I got back in my car and headed to the other side of campus.

On my arrival into downtown Blacksburg, what I know usually to be a busy street was a cold ghost town with a blistering wind running through the street. The Virginia Tech speaker system could be heard in the distance sounding periodic announcements to students to stay in their buildings.

I headed toward Norris Hall, where I saw Roanoke Times photojournalist Matt Gentry. I stayed with Matt a bit and shot some footage of police officers with assault rifles blocking the street. I then started to get a real handle on just how much law enforcement was on scene — I saw a transit bus full of officers armed to the hilt with weaponry.

I started talking with the officers, who said that there was going to be a press conference at the Inn at Virginia Tech at noon. I went over to the hotel, where I saw only the three local television stations setting up.

As a former still photojournalist, this was my first time shooting video at a press conference. I followed the lead of a WDBJ-TV photojournalist, who gave me some tips on what to do. In this ever-changing multimedia world, befriending local television photojournalists is the best thing a multimedia journalist can do. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel — we need to take advice from our TV brethren and apply it to what we do at newspapers.

All I remember from that press conference was “the gasp.” Thinking about it still gives me chills — the gasp of the reporters in the room when the person at the podium mentioned the amount of deaths. I knew then that it was going to be a day that would change my journalism career forever and give me long-lasting memories of a week that would be like no other.

It was the longest news week I have ever had. I pretty much lived out of my car. The first night I stayed at Tech until past midnight, only to drive home 45 minutes and then to return bright and early the next day.

I could not have done it without roanoke.com multimedia producer Hunter Wilson, who edited my tape from the first few days back at the office. I was experiencing some computer problems with my laptop that week, making editing from the field an arduous task. I would shoot in the field and Hunter would edit my footage. Hunter’s expertise in editing really made the process work.

The first press conference had four members of the press — you could sit anywhere you wanted. The second press conference was standing room only. And by the next morning, the press conference was so packed there were Virginia State Police officers guarding the doors and keeping press out of the room for safety’s sake. Photographers and reporters were sitting on the floor in the aisles. The press coverage was something like I have never seen before.

My job that week — the only person to shoot video and do multimedia full time for The Roanoke Times — was very hard to undertake. Prior to this, I had been pushing my editor to allow me to be a one-man band as a multimedia journalist. Finally, I had the opportunity. But, I have to admit, in this situation being a one-man band was hard. With the national media descending on Blacksburg, Katie Couric and CNN’s John Roberts and their teams taking over hotels and covering every latest breaking news item from the scene, I just did not know what to do.

I asked my editor, John Jackson, for help. John, already overworked and tired from a very late night of Web server crashes, found Evelio Contreras, a neighborhood sports writer, to help me out.

Evelio was the perfect “producer” to assist me, having had some television internships. Evelio was able to help me get some subjects to interview and figure out ways to tell the story beyond what we knew CNN was doing. I became the cameraman as Evelio looked for people to interview. It was teamwork like I had never done before. Now I understand the role of teams in television.

There was no way that our video could compete with the hundreds of members of the national media that were on scene. So, we came up with the idea that since we were the local newspaper we should cover the shootings in video from a community angle. The first video story we did was on how the Tech student newspaper, the Collegiate Times, was handling the shootings both from the point of view of being students and being journalists.

Other videos we did were on a local man who was allowing people to paint with their hands on a banner as a tribute to those lost, an audio gallery on the handwritten tributes to the victims, an audio slide show on the press that was camped out at the Inn, video on local teenagers walking around town offering free hugs, and several other videos from press conferences and student gatherings.

What I learned from this event is that newspapers with limited video resources can’t compete with live television video on breaking news — not right now, at least.

Newspapers need to do their video coverage on the stories that are not being covered by the national media. Local newspapers have something going for them that is far greater than what national media has: the ability to do community journalism. The multimedia coverage that we did has more of a shelf life and deeper meaning to our readers and viewers than the latest breaking news. Newspapers need to do what they do best and realize that the community is what matters most.

I ended up spending the entire week in Blacksburg. I was one of the first journalists to arrive to the aftermath of the event and spent the entire week doing whatever I could to tell the story. By Friday, the newspaper had an impromptu gathering at a local bar – editors and reporters alike were there. My wife showed up. I talked a bit with my co-workers, but most of all I talked with my wife. I had not talked to her all week. That week we came and went without talking. I was glad to be there with her.

Each time I return to Virginia Tech to cover an event at the college I remember back to the week of April 16, a week I will never forget.

The obesity package ended up running weeks later, and we continue to cover the Virginia Tech shootings using multimedia storytelling through roanoke.com. *