Back on Track

Ahh, the sweet comforts of power, finally. That ice storm really did a number on my yard; trees down, huge branches down everywhere, a thick sheet of ice at the end of the driveway, and no power for two days. But, alas, we're back in action, just in time to reflect on the course.
I was really impressed by everyone in class' projects. I particularly liked Jennesa's story out on the boat, and Erica's fun and clever story at the Waysmeet. I guess I was pretty happy with my own too. I ended up cutting a lot of the b-roll audio I had originally had in there because I found that the sounds of machines running over someone talking is really more of a nuisance than a colorful compliment. I stripped it down to only the actual spoken audio, and the audio from the video clips that I used, but I think it worked pretty well that way.
As far as the story itself, I think I could have provided the viewers with a little more of a back story and a little more technical information about the company and about the bat-making process. I chose to leave out several technical details because I wanted the story to be more personal than objective, but I found that many of the others in the class wanted to know a little more by the end. I guess that's the life of a journalist though; you spend about 10% of your life doing a story and the other 90% revising and fixing it. At least that's the way it seems to go for me.
But reflecting on the class, overall, I would say it was a great experience. I really liked the structure of the class and atmosphere we had every week. I always thought of it as somewhat of a think tank or public gathering where like-minded people would congregate to share ideas and stories and offer help to one another. It was really helpful having the class structured that way, as we were all able to talk to each other on a regular basis and give each other ideas, or show each other little tricks or shortcuts. This type of class, because of the way it works, really benefits by having an open structure like that, so that's props to Sandy. Rather than having the type of class where there's no talking, a mindless homework routine, and emphasis on tests and quizzes, we get to come in, eat popcorn, drink cider, and watch movies. It's great. Don't change anything about the class.

Entering a New World

So after reading the two articles Sandy mentioned, I found myself both surprised and troubled. The article about the Christian Science Monitor was not terribly shocking to me, despite its connotations. In todays world, you'd have to be foolish not to think that print is quickly becoming replaced with internet articles. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that hundreds of small papers either vanish or go digital within the next year or so. It's sad, but it seems to make sense.
The article talked about the money that newspapers make off advertising and individual paper sales, and it's clear that that money just doesn't exist on the internet. Yes, there are still advertisements, but they only generate a fraction of the money that hard copy newspapers do. This is a problem for hardcore newspaper writers.
The article that did surprise me was the one about Q.U. To me, college has always stood for freedom and independance. People come to college not only to get an education, but to "find themselves". The recent incident at Q.U. seems to me like an example of the total opposite philosophy. It seems very troublesome that an instution such as a college would be so restricting to the first amendment. If colleges are tightening their reins, who's next? Where will minds be free to think and explore and create?
In summary, I am worried about the future of journalism. I've been studying journalism since high school, and it would be a damn shame to find out that there are only half as many jobs available for me when I graduate than there were before I entered college. I do like all this multimedia stuff, but when a journalist thinks "job", they think newsroom, not a laptop at home. Not that there's anything wrong with working from a laptop at home, I'm sure it's much easier and less stressful, but that's not exactly the enviornment journalists, this journalist anyway, want.

Tom, Audio, Technology...

So Tom's visit was pretty fun. He opened with like, a 40 minute intro, but once he was beyond that, he was actually quite helpful. This has been the first guest, I think, that has actually showed us how to use a specific program. He showed us how to load files into Windows Movie Maker, edit them, and put them together to create an audio slideshow. Since this is the format we'll be using for our projects, I found this demonstration particularly useful.
Tom's resume speaks for itself, so I found him to be a good person to talk to, and to listen to. He had one very useful piece of advice for us, something I hadn't heard before, but something that seems to make a lot of sense. He said "Almost anyone will help you once." What a good quote. He said this while he was explaining the strategy he used to make himself successful. He would get one person's name and/or number, then use that person to get another name/number, and continued until he had a huge list. Pretty good idea, and simple too. He also stressed the importance of not missing meetings, as he did one important time in his career.
But as far as the technical stuff, I really think I'm getting the hang of it all. After Tom's brief lesson on Movie Maker, I found myself just taking off and getting right to work. These are the kinds of presentations I've been hoping for in this class. I think by now I've learned how to use all the equipment and software that I'll need for my project, which is very helpful at this stage.

On Technology...

So lately I, too, have been thinking about all this technology and multimedia stuff, so it's funny that the assigment pertains to this. I've been noticing that in this class, we haven't really focused on finding and writing stories, but instead we've spent a lot of time learning about the new outlets of journalism and how to use them. This is a new experience for me, because in my last journalism class (intro newswriting), all we did was work on stories on a weekly basis. I've found myself actually liking what we're doing a lot better.
The more I think about it, the more I feel that electronics truly are the way of the future. My kids, for example, may never even read a newspaper. No one knows yet, but I personally believe that the internet and television will very shortly be the only sources people use for news, if they don't already. If this is the case, then it's lucky I'm in a class right now that is designed to prepare me for that world. I'm not even afraid of it, I'm actually a little excited about it. I've really taken a liking to all things multimedia, and I can totally see why they teach this in colleges now. All the technical stuff, like learning how to use different types of software and hardware, can be a pain, but it's a learning process, like anything else. I think it could only be helpful for us to learn the things that we're learning now.
SO, about my project. I'm on the brink of panic, actually. My original plan of doing a story about the new law in Portsmouth which bans a person from all bars if they get banned from one, seems to be going nowhere. At the time I heard it, it seemed great, it was a hot breaking story. But then I had to remember what class I was in. There really weren't many outlets that would make for a good multimedia story. Then I started thinking about the assignment again, and I came to realize that I may not have had the right idea the whole time. In fact, I still really don't know exactly what these projects are supposed to be, or what they are supposed to do. I thought we were supposed to find some kind of long-running story, something to work on all semester. But then I thought, isn't the most important part of jouranlism timliness? Maybe somebody could shed some light on this for me?

Short Little Narrative

So for this assignment, I decided I'd head down to the Irving gas station and compile a little segment about filling up. It's something that everybody (well, every driver) does on a regular basis, it pertains to current events (gas prices, "going green", hybrids...), and it's a good source for ambient sound. Cars starting their engines, doors opening and closing, horns, truck motors idling, motorcycles exploding to a start, and just passing conversations are all nice little pieces of sound to describe something as simple as filling up your gas tank. The photos are here.
As for Don's visit, I thought it was pretty good. He showed us that photos and sound, but not video, can be extremely powerful in telling a story. The slideshow he showed us in class about the water birth was indeed quite powerful. Don said that if the same story were told on video, it would not have been as effective, which I can understand. He also taught us the importance of audio to any story. People tend to be turned off or turned on by audio, so it's important to always make sure that you have good audio. Five minutes of crap is still crap, right? Furthermore, Don stressed the importance of always having headphones on when recording sound, and when possible, have an external microphone as well. Although we do not have our own microphones, we can use techniques Don taught us in class to enhance our recording experiences without them.

A Sad Confession...

Alright, so I had a much harder time with this than I had anticipated. I was going to do a little story about off-campus living. I found a friend at the library that lives off-campus this year so I filmed him for about 45 seconds. I asked him his name, what year he was, all that business, and we talked about living off-campus. My friend then invited me back to his house to do the story, but before we got there, he said that he really had too much work to get done, and went back to the library. I did get the video at the library, however, the entire thing came out sideways, as I held the camera vertically, forgetting that Sandy said never to do that when shooting video with these cameras. So that clip is junk. The next 2 clips I had, although properly oriented, make little sense without that introductory clip. Finally, on top of it all, every clip I have, regardless of whether or not it's good, comes out terribly on the computer. The video pauses for 5 or 6 seconds at a time while the audio keeps on rolling. It's just a catastrophe, really.

Although I did like the guest speaker last week, he seemed a bit unprepared. He even said something like "Luck favors the prepared", little ironic, no? But I guess what I'm trying to say is, it would be great if any of the guest speakers would talk a little bit about the technical aspects of what we're doing. For instance, if Fred Field had taken one of the cameras from class and showed us how to shoot a decent video, then upload it and edit it, it would have been perfect. The instructional video in class about still photography was indeed helpful, I would like to see one just like it only about video, or maybe just someone to show me the ropes. Check out the new slideshow though, it will at least give you an idea of off-campus life.

Looking Back

OK, so I've officially completed my first real multimedia assignment, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. I was a little intimidated at first because I've never owned a camera, and I've never fancied myself much of a photographer, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. All the human subjects I worked with were great, all strangers, all completely cooperative. My favorite one, the one of the guy reading on that wall by T-hall, was completely candid, I never asked him if I could take the picture, either before or after, and I think that might be why I liked it so much. It was just real. The main problem I encountered was, you guessed it, lighting. I found some shots that would have been amazing had I had more, or less, light. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and I'd like to keep doing things like this. And I'm also still happy with the first photo I took of Jennesa. I noticed that no one else in the class did anything that extreme with editing, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Sandy reccomended that we download Picasa, so I did that, then just had fun with all the stuff you could do with it. Cool class.

New story idea

Alright, so my whole pumpkin idea really doesn't look like it's going to pan out. Several others are doing similar, but better stories, so I decided to just find something completely different. So today I'm listening to the bear and i heard a great breaking news story. Apparently there is a new law that says if you get banned from any one of the fourteen bars in Portsmouth, then you are banned from all of them, for a period of up to a year. This law went into effect Friday, September 19 when two people refused to leave a bar and called the owner "vulgar names", according to Sgt. Corey MacDonald. These violations are known as "trespass notifications", which even if not signed, like in the case already at hand, are binding. The names of the two people and the bar have not been disclosed.
I think this is a great new story opportunity. This is a big step for the Live Free or Die state, especially since Portsmouth is locally renowned as a college town, and thus, a drinking town. I could talk to the officer and see if he would cooperate with me and give me some names or locations. I think this should be a good one.

First Impressions Last the Longest

So here's my first photo. I thought this was the best one, out of only about 4, that I took. I liked it as it naturally was, but I downloaded picasa and I ended up having a ton of fun with it. I realize that this picture is pretty bright, which on a white backdrop looks pretty harsh, but the backdrop of my blog is dark so I think it should look alright.

I saturated the color in this photo so that the image of Jennesa would be seen clearly through the glow effect I put on it. The natural lighting in front of Ham Smith was brilliant at the time of the photo, so I really had a lot to work with. I really like this photo actually, I'm proud of it. I know the top of the arc over the doorway is cut off, that was my fault when taking the photo, didn't notice it until I looked at it on the computer. But I think it came out alright despite that. Doesn't this just look like a movie poster, or the cover of a book or something?

Autumn is just around the corner, and what says fall more than a beaming Jack 'O Lantern on the porch? Well according to Bill Toll of Emery Farm in Durham, mildew does.
Toll recently told the Concord Monitor that the heavy rain and cool temperatures of the summer have taken a toll on his pumpkin patches. Mold and mildew are common for pumpkin patches, but Toll said this year was especially harsh.
This could take a toll on the local festivities as Halloween lurks beyond the horizon. As children we carve scary faces into the skin of the pumpkin and bake and eat the seeds. As we get older we begin to smash and blow the state's official fruit up with fireworks, but I still love the seeds.
This seems like a great opportunity for a multimedia story. In an already stumbling economy, a blow to a pumpkin harvest would likely significantly increase the price. Around a college campus, that could be a problem for Bill Toll. My goal will be to get out and see what people are still doing with pumpkins, despite the raise in price. There will be people who have gotten them for free from their dorms or around campus, but I should still be able to get many pictures of painted and carved pumpkins. Also, Halloween inspires costumes, and alcohol (which tends to go hand-in-hand with Halloween around here) inspires really great costumes, so there could be potential for some great video and/or audio there as well. I'm sure I should not be short of material in this town. I hope that people will be interested in checking it out.

First is the Worst, Second is the Best

So here I am coming out with Blog #2. I've looked over some of the multimedia sites on the blog and I must say that I'm a bit taken back. Mediastorm was really incredible. This site uses photos, videos, slideshows, and audio to help tell stories. I watched a bit of "The Ninth Floor" and "The Marlboro Marine" and I was captivated. The articles are interesting, but the photos really bring the articles to life. Seeing that marine's face covered in dirt and sweat, or the junkie, decrepit and bloody, does more justice than any paragraph could. You've always heard "a picture's worth a thousand words", but I think a picture's worth a million words.
After seeing how professionals work with different facets of the media, I am excited to be embarking on that same journey. I hope to soon be able to be a better reporter by being able to utilize tools such as cameras, video cameras, audio recorders, and the internet. But as for now, I think I'll stick to my blogging.

First time, long time

So despite numerous years of making fun of "bloggers", that is exactly what I've become. Needless to say, this is my first blog, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess I'm supposed to talk about myself, so I might as well talk about my e-self.
Facebook member since the summer of 2006 (even that I hoped never to be a part of-but...), never a Myspace member, never had a live or dead journal, never had a photostream, photobucket, or flickr account. I know how all of these things work, I've just never had my own account. I've also never subscribed or paid much attention to any particular blog, but I am aware that they exist, and I know what they are supposed to do. Never really had a need or a want for a blog until now, which explains why this is my first real experience with one.
So i guess overall, I'd say I'm pretty decent on a computer. I know there are some real hardcore computer experts out there, so I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I don't type with two fingers either. I've used iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, I know how it all works, just never been an expert at any of them. This will be my first experience of regularly posting anything (even pictures on facebook!) online, and I look forward to it, as I do most new things in my life.