I can not remember a time when I was more annoyed than I am right now. Editing has sucked the life right out of me. Taking the videos was fun. I love the idea of sequencing, and combining or splitting shots. After taking the videos, I soon realized why editing is such an important step. When you go out and shoot, everything comes out really choppy. In order to get the best quality, I noticed that my videos had to be short. The longer the video, the worse the quality and the harder it is to work with. However, the beauty of editing is that your viewer never has to know that your videos were ever choppy. By the time you publish it, your video is this solid, smooth story that simply rolls across the screen. Or at least that is how it is supposed to be.
Not for me. Not tonight. I have been trying to fiddle with my computer for about 5 hours. At this point in my life, if moviemaker never existed, in my opinion the world would be a much happier, less violent place. For some reason, the videos I took do not function properly once they are placed into the storyboard. It is as though the video can not keep up with the sound, and it looks more like a slideshow of still photos than it does a video. It aggrevates me. It aggrevates me because it works right above the story board when you double click on it in the collection screen, but not on the storyboard (where it actually matters). In a state of complete frustration, I took my camera and went to three different mac computers to see if it would work in Imovie. Nope. The computers would not even allow me to upload the material. So, I tried it again on a PC cluster computer in the libarary, but they do not have the proper editing tools. Therefore, I decided to simply upload it the way it stands on my computer. I have about an hour of video cut down to three minutes, and it would be pretty good if it actually worked, but it does not. And, to top it all off, it has been uploading to youtube for about 30 minutes and the upload is at zero percent. If you ask me, it is way less stressful to get an article done by deadline than it is a multimedia presentation. I mean, technology can really knock you down (emotionally and sometimes even physically.... trust me).
As for Fred Fields presentation, I really enjoyed it. It was nice to see all of his pictures and to hear from a professional how to approach people. There is something reassuring to know that even sometimes professionals can get nervous on the job. I feel as though I got some really great examples, heard a few really great stories and learned a lot about what makes a good photo. I also liked how he tried to get the class involved and to see what things we were interested in. Overall, it was a solid experience.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
photography
I really enjoyed walking around with my camera and taking pictures this week. Whenever I am walking down the street, I notice certain things about the places I am walking that are especially beautiful. When I had my camera with me, I simply tried to capture those moments. I didn't look for anything in particular. However, whenver something jumped out at me for any particular reason, I tried to capture it.
As for my camera technique, I really just tried to use the camera to capture whatever my eyes were focused on. When I write, I try to take my reader on a journey with me and describe things in a way that makes that possible. When I was taking pictures this week, I tried to capture whatever the subject was the same way my eyes saw it. That way, once again, I can take the people I share the pictures with to that exact location, as though they were right there beside me, seeing the things that I saw exactly the way I saw them.
Like the written word, photography is a beautiful form of expression. I really enjoy it.
As for my camera technique, I really just tried to use the camera to capture whatever my eyes were focused on. When I write, I try to take my reader on a journey with me and describe things in a way that makes that possible. When I was taking pictures this week, I tried to capture whatever the subject was the same way my eyes saw it. That way, once again, I can take the people I share the pictures with to that exact location, as though they were right there beside me, seeing the things that I saw exactly the way I saw them.
Like the written word, photography is a beautiful form of expression. I really enjoy it.
Monday, September 15, 2008
The affect of increasing food prices on Durham food pantries.
Who: The Durham Cornucopia Food Pantry and the St. Thomas Moore Church Food Pantry.
What: With the recent increase in food prices along with the increase of home foreclosures, it would be interesting to see how local food pantries have been affected. Are there more people in need of help? Has it become hard for the food pantries to supply a sufficient amount of food to the people who need it?
When and Where: The Durham Cornucopia Food Pantry is open on Wednesdays from 4-530pm and Fridays from 12-5pm. The St. Thomas Moore Church Food Pantry is open on Thursdays from 4-6pm.
Why/How: This story is timely because food prices increased immensely this past July. Dairy increased 2.3 percent in July, while milk alone increased 4.3 percent. Beef, pork, chicken, eggs, fresh vegetables, fruits and grains also increased substantially. Not only that, but home foreclosures are also very high. With all these increases it will be interesting to see how the local food pantries which are dedicated to helping the Durham Community have been affected.
I believe that this story is not only very timely, but also it is a story with great multimedia potential. I can get still photos and videos of the food pantries working and serving dinners. I can get voice interviews with not only the volunteers of the food pantry, but also from the families that are in need of the food pantries assistance. It will be interesting to potentially talk to people who have recently begun to depend on the food pantry because of the increases in food prices or because of home foreclosures. This could also lead to potential individual stories. I feel like this is a topic that many people will be interested in due to the fact that both food prices and home foreclosures affect the entire community and have been affecting the entire country. It is also something that many people do not associate with small towns like Durham. However, it is important to remember that there are people everywhere in need of help.
What: With the recent increase in food prices along with the increase of home foreclosures, it would be interesting to see how local food pantries have been affected. Are there more people in need of help? Has it become hard for the food pantries to supply a sufficient amount of food to the people who need it?
When and Where: The Durham Cornucopia Food Pantry is open on Wednesdays from 4-530pm and Fridays from 12-5pm. The St. Thomas Moore Church Food Pantry is open on Thursdays from 4-6pm.
Why/How: This story is timely because food prices increased immensely this past July. Dairy increased 2.3 percent in July, while milk alone increased 4.3 percent. Beef, pork, chicken, eggs, fresh vegetables, fruits and grains also increased substantially. Not only that, but home foreclosures are also very high. With all these increases it will be interesting to see how the local food pantries which are dedicated to helping the Durham Community have been affected.
I believe that this story is not only very timely, but also it is a story with great multimedia potential. I can get still photos and videos of the food pantries working and serving dinners. I can get voice interviews with not only the volunteers of the food pantry, but also from the families that are in need of the food pantries assistance. It will be interesting to potentially talk to people who have recently begun to depend on the food pantry because of the increases in food prices or because of home foreclosures. This could also lead to potential individual stories. I feel like this is a topic that many people will be interested in due to the fact that both food prices and home foreclosures affect the entire community and have been affecting the entire country. It is also something that many people do not associate with small towns like Durham. However, it is important to remember that there are people everywhere in need of help.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
the future of print journalism
There is something beautiful about the written word. The idea of painting a picture in the mind of a reader using nothing but squiggly letters inscribed on a piece of paper amazes me. I love how a good writer can make words dance across a page. I love how a good writer can make sentences leap with joy or cry with sorrow.
When it comes to journalism, I feel as though there is an art to being able to bring a reader into a story through text. To me, it is an art to be able to recreate scenes, images and situations through words alone. However, journalism is not about the art of writing. If I were to consider journalism to be the art of anything, it would be the art of telling a story. Journalism is about getting the news out to the world. It is about connecting the world and bringing the people the information that we all deserve. We all have a story and good journalism gets our stories heard. Today, I can see how doing so through multimedia may be more beneficial than simply using the written word. Actually being able to hear the emotion in a person's voice through an audio clip is a very powerful thing. It is almost as though they become more than words on a page. It is almost as though they become real. Seeing a picture that shows the pain, sorrow or joy on someone's face can really connect a viewer/reader with the person in the picture. Using text, video, audio and pictures together can really bring the reader into the story. However, as a writer there is something that amazes me when those emotions are created through words alone. When a reader can see the sorrow in someone's face or hear the joy in someone's voice without actually hearing or seeing the person, the writer has just accomplished the same thing that all those audio clips and photos accomplished.
Nonetheless, whether you are a print journalist or a multimedia journalist, you still have to go out and get the facts; you still have to ask the right people the right questions; you still have to find the best angle that will connect your story with the majority of your readers; and you still have to present all the material effectively.
Good multimedia is a very beautiful art of story telling as well. For example, the mediastorm website. It tells compelling and moving stories through video, pictures, sound clips and text. I really love how it gets the reader involved. In the story, Rape of a Nation, there is a link to the Human Rights Watch website that informs readers what they can do to help people in need. The Concord Monitor multimedia story, Remember Me, is a story that brought tears to my eyes. Actually, I accumulated enough tears that they began rolling down my cheeks. Okay, to be completely honest I was crying like a two-year old girl who was just told that Santa Claus is not real. The journalists were able to really connect me with the subjects. The interviews are amazing. The way the audio, video and pictures are put together is beautiful. It is obvious that multimedia journalism can do things that print journalism can not. However, writing is just something that I find especially beautiful. I have been touched, inspired, informed and entertained from reading words on paper. I have read books that have changed my life. I have also read print journalism stories that have had an amazing effect on me.
However, while I love the art of language and writing especially, both print journalism and multimedia journalism allow the reporter to create a story. If there is one thing that pictures, videos, audio clips and print all have in common, it is that they are all forms of expression. Some of us may be better at expressing ourselves or our story through text, while others of us may be able to do so better through other forms of expression. As long as you say what you need to say, and the people of the world get the true information that they deserve, it is all alright with me.
When it comes to journalism, I feel as though there is an art to being able to bring a reader into a story through text. To me, it is an art to be able to recreate scenes, images and situations through words alone. However, journalism is not about the art of writing. If I were to consider journalism to be the art of anything, it would be the art of telling a story. Journalism is about getting the news out to the world. It is about connecting the world and bringing the people the information that we all deserve. We all have a story and good journalism gets our stories heard. Today, I can see how doing so through multimedia may be more beneficial than simply using the written word. Actually being able to hear the emotion in a person's voice through an audio clip is a very powerful thing. It is almost as though they become more than words on a page. It is almost as though they become real. Seeing a picture that shows the pain, sorrow or joy on someone's face can really connect a viewer/reader with the person in the picture. Using text, video, audio and pictures together can really bring the reader into the story. However, as a writer there is something that amazes me when those emotions are created through words alone. When a reader can see the sorrow in someone's face or hear the joy in someone's voice without actually hearing or seeing the person, the writer has just accomplished the same thing that all those audio clips and photos accomplished.
Nonetheless, whether you are a print journalist or a multimedia journalist, you still have to go out and get the facts; you still have to ask the right people the right questions; you still have to find the best angle that will connect your story with the majority of your readers; and you still have to present all the material effectively.
Good multimedia is a very beautiful art of story telling as well. For example, the mediastorm website. It tells compelling and moving stories through video, pictures, sound clips and text. I really love how it gets the reader involved. In the story, Rape of a Nation, there is a link to the Human Rights Watch website that informs readers what they can do to help people in need. The Concord Monitor multimedia story, Remember Me, is a story that brought tears to my eyes. Actually, I accumulated enough tears that they began rolling down my cheeks. Okay, to be completely honest I was crying like a two-year old girl who was just told that Santa Claus is not real. The journalists were able to really connect me with the subjects. The interviews are amazing. The way the audio, video and pictures are put together is beautiful. It is obvious that multimedia journalism can do things that print journalism can not. However, writing is just something that I find especially beautiful. I have been touched, inspired, informed and entertained from reading words on paper. I have read books that have changed my life. I have also read print journalism stories that have had an amazing effect on me.
However, while I love the art of language and writing especially, both print journalism and multimedia journalism allow the reporter to create a story. If there is one thing that pictures, videos, audio clips and print all have in common, it is that they are all forms of expression. Some of us may be better at expressing ourselves or our story through text, while others of us may be able to do so better through other forms of expression. As long as you say what you need to say, and the people of the world get the true information that they deserve, it is all alright with me.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
so....ya, this should be interesting.
My first blog.... what to write about? Well, I guess I will start by saying that the multimedia class that I am sitting in right now should be a great one. It's too bad that I just bought my first digital camera about two weeks ago, and have never really compiled any type of multimedia video in my life. Well, there was that one time during my freshman year of high school when I created a music video to that song "bust a move". The artist??? Not too sure. However, the lyrics go something like, "if you want it, you got it. If you want it, baby you got it. JUST BUST A MOVE!" Man, that sure is a great song. The video actually came out pretty sweet too. It consisted of a couple friends "busting a move" around various areas of my home-town. I had a vision.... watch out world because there's more. That was a joke. Anyways, continuing on with my multimedia experiences. I have a PC computer and despise macs because there is no such thing as being able to right-click. Like seriously macs..... stop being so stubborn. There is good reason for the right-click. I probably use my computer 5 hours a day (of course that is during the school year when I have homework and papers). During the summer, I was on it probably 1 hour a day, at most. I like to frolic around, usually outside doing something random. It's kind of my thing. However, I obviously use the computer for the internet, which gives me the wonderful ability to recieve glorious information on various topics. How do I bake chocolate chip cookies? How long does it take to get to California from New Hampshire? Could I really live in an igloo? There is no way that a town named Scaggsville actually exsists?!?! Basically what I am trying to say is that, the internet can supply me with the answers to all those questions and many more. Thank you internet. On a more serious note, I would say I am pretty competent with my computer skills. I wouldn't consider myself an expert, but I do know how to do a lot more than just turn it on.... so thats good. Oh... my new digital camera. Its pretty sweet. It's a Sanyo. It has video!!! I haven't tried the video part yet, but I'm sure looking forward to that experience. I've never designed my own website. This is my first ever blog. I don't know what hypertext really is so I obviously have never created it. I love YouTube, but don't have an account, and I have never uploaded a video. I recently got asked if I "tweet" (about 20 minutes ago), and I had no idea what I was being asked. Honestly, it sounded pretty disgusting. I have used photoshop! Surprised? Me too. Negative on the soundslides, moviemaker, iphoto, InDesign and all that jazz....... And....That's about it!! Talk to you later!
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