This is my final edited interview. I was having trouble with Youtube trying to upload it. However, I finally got it to work.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tom Snyder
Hey sorry my post is a couple hours late. I thought it was due with the sound clip tomorrow. Anyways on to my thoughts on Mr. Snyder. I thought that he was an awesome guest to have come into the class and speak. He was fascinating, and his stories about him making Dr. Katz were awesome. One thing that I found really interesting about him was he was one of the creators of squigglevision. That form of animation is used in one of my favorite movies to watch, Waking Life. They use a very similar style to Tom, with the lines moving to give the picture the appearance that it has much more movement then it actually does. I honestly believe that sort of animation is amazing. However the biggest thing that I took from Tom coming to the class is when he talked about not having to use the best tools to make something good. He spoke extensively about how he had used Movie Maker to create stuff that he did professionally. This really drove me to realize that like he said, it doesn't matter which interface you are using to create the projects, its only about the project that you create. I was certainly inspired. And after watching Tom's presentation in class, I searched one of my favorite TV shows, SOUTH PARK, and found the episode where Dr. Katz makes a special appearance. Definitely a funny clip to check out. If you are interested, the episode is called "Summer Sucks" in season two of South Park.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
10/15/2008
So I have having a dilemma with my project about the Town of Durham. I kind of realized after my interview with Sandy this week that there is no real good ending to the relationship between the town of Durham and the University. So I have been thinking about possibly switching my topic this week, but I haven't been able to find anything good.
However, in the interest of still trying to complete the assignment for this week, I went to the Sarah Palin speech at Dover High school today and did some interviews and recorded some things with numerous people there. I also took a few shots with my cell phone, the only camera I currently have that is working. I put the best one on my blog already, directly below this post. I met a bunch of interesting people there. One lady, her husband was a Geology teacher at the university for more than 30 years and died on September 11th. He was on the second plane that crashed into the Twin Towers. She was certainly inspirational and interesting to talk to. I also spoke to another lady who was holding a Veteran's Mama for Obama sign outside of the speech (the lady in the picture below). This was the first time she had ever done anything like this, as she felt it was her civic duty to make sure McCain and Palin did not end up in the White House. I also spoke with a t-shirt vendor from St. Louis, MO., a man who felt 9/11 was an inside job, and plenty of other protesters along the way. Each had their own views on why they were there and why they felt it was important. I even voice recorded the entire Sarah Palin speech, which lasted about half an hour. I am hoping that these interviews on the presidential elections could possibly provide a new sort of story or angle for me to follow.
Lastly I wanted to discuss the technological aspects of being a journalist. I have always worked in the direction that almost any of these programs you can figure out for yourself. It actually kind of makes me enjoy the profession more. The more frequently that you work with each program, the better the multimedia projects I feel I could produce. I just think that the class has struggled with a lot of this technology because it is the first time we are using it. It is good to get our feet wet in it, but to be truly proficient, we need more experience.
However, in the interest of still trying to complete the assignment for this week, I went to the Sarah Palin speech at Dover High school today and did some interviews and recorded some things with numerous people there. I also took a few shots with my cell phone, the only camera I currently have that is working. I put the best one on my blog already, directly below this post. I met a bunch of interesting people there. One lady, her husband was a Geology teacher at the university for more than 30 years and died on September 11th. He was on the second plane that crashed into the Twin Towers. She was certainly inspirational and interesting to talk to. I also spoke to another lady who was holding a Veteran's Mama for Obama sign outside of the speech (the lady in the picture below). This was the first time she had ever done anything like this, as she felt it was her civic duty to make sure McCain and Palin did not end up in the White House. I also spoke with a t-shirt vendor from St. Louis, MO., a man who felt 9/11 was an inside job, and plenty of other protesters along the way. Each had their own views on why they were there and why they felt it was important. I even voice recorded the entire Sarah Palin speech, which lasted about half an hour. I am hoping that these interviews on the presidential elections could possibly provide a new sort of story or angle for me to follow.
Lastly I wanted to discuss the technological aspects of being a journalist. I have always worked in the direction that almost any of these programs you can figure out for yourself. It actually kind of makes me enjoy the profession more. The more frequently that you work with each program, the better the multimedia projects I feel I could produce. I just think that the class has struggled with a lot of this technology because it is the first time we are using it. It is good to get our feet wet in it, but to be truly proficient, we need more experience.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
This week
So for this week for our multimedia blogs, we had to find a process to turn into an audio slide show. I had a little trouble at the beginning trying to decide what in fact I wanted to do for this week. I kept thinking that maybe I could do a day where I cooked food and the whole process that happened during it, or I could a trip to Holloway Commons, where I could show a person hungry before they start, them collecting food, them starting to eat their food, and then finally their empty tray and them replacing it when it was done. However, I then decided that I thought the best process for me to do would be the television stand that we are making for my apartment. We are building something to put our 50" television on top of (basically an entertainment center) and something that we can keep all of our various game platforms and the Comcast box under.
A couple of things made this shooting interesting. First of all, our kitten was all over the place. The expression "curiosity killed the cat" was made for our kitten Geraldine. If anything of any sort is happening and she is not involved, she will come up and immediately see what is going on. She was walking right next to the circular saw when Casey was trying to cut wood, nearly licking the drill, and rolling around in the saw dust as we made the box. It was actually quite funny
I encountered a few problems when doing this. First off, it is very hard to take pictures of something like this. In order to see what my roommates where doing in many of the shots, I felt like I had to be really close to both of them to even get any sort of decent shot. It is very hard to get a shot of my roommate Casey and be able at the same time to see that he is screwing into the wood. The small parts made the shots quite difficult.
I also had a problem when we ran out of screws to continue making the entertainment center. We got the inner box entirely set up, however, we were limited to strictly that. It is hard to keep two pieces of wood together when you run out of screws.
Another problem I encountered was again computer problems. Picasa seems to be very black and white on my computer. Some days I don't have a problem at all uploading pictures onto the website for display on my blog, and other days no matter what I try, I can't seems to get it to work. However, although a few hours late, I finally was able to get the pictures up and in time for use in class tomorrow.
Also, I just wanted to extend a thank you to Don Himsel for coming to our class and talking about various aspects of multimedia. I really liked some of the tips he gave for coming up with better multimedia projects, such as how audio should always be your foundation with video and to always wear headphones when recording that audio. I really thought he gave a great presentation. So thanks a lot Don.
A couple of things made this shooting interesting. First of all, our kitten was all over the place. The expression "curiosity killed the cat" was made for our kitten Geraldine. If anything of any sort is happening and she is not involved, she will come up and immediately see what is going on. She was walking right next to the circular saw when Casey was trying to cut wood, nearly licking the drill, and rolling around in the saw dust as we made the box. It was actually quite funny
I encountered a few problems when doing this. First off, it is very hard to take pictures of something like this. In order to see what my roommates where doing in many of the shots, I felt like I had to be really close to both of them to even get any sort of decent shot. It is very hard to get a shot of my roommate Casey and be able at the same time to see that he is screwing into the wood. The small parts made the shots quite difficult.
I also had a problem when we ran out of screws to continue making the entertainment center. We got the inner box entirely set up, however, we were limited to strictly that. It is hard to keep two pieces of wood together when you run out of screws.
Another problem I encountered was again computer problems. Picasa seems to be very black and white on my computer. Some days I don't have a problem at all uploading pictures onto the website for display on my blog, and other days no matter what I try, I can't seems to get it to work. However, although a few hours late, I finally was able to get the pictures up and in time for use in class tomorrow.
Also, I just wanted to extend a thank you to Don Himsel for coming to our class and talking about various aspects of multimedia. I really liked some of the tips he gave for coming up with better multimedia projects, such as how audio should always be your foundation with video and to always wear headphones when recording that audio. I really thought he gave a great presentation. So thanks a lot Don.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Shooting video is always something that I love to do. I spent the last two years of high school and the first year of college with the video camera constantly strapped to my hand. So the thought of us having to go out and shoot a video was certainly something that peaked my interest. However, no matter how much I enjoyed it, the hardest part was the actually shooting the short viral video.
The first problem that I encountered in my “trip around Durham” was an self-depressing realization the digital video camera I have had since high school is no longer in any sense of a working order. Everything filmed is left with a streak of exaggerated colors and lines that certainly don’t belong in my digital world. So I was left with filming entirely on a camera that only takes up to 30 seconds of video in a painfully deflating quality.
The next problem I encountered was how to tell a story about the town of Durham. A topic the size of Durham needed to be better represented that a few select interviews. However, I lacked the necessary tools to truly depict a decent film of Durham that people would actually want to watch. So due to this little camera and no tripod, my focus quickly became a more mocumentary approach at illuminating the town at it’s (not so) finest. This approach gave me the opportunity to add much more humor to the short film, which (I hope) allows the viewers to focus less on the horrendous video quality. To compensate, I did much of the shooting from the window of a driving car, giving the audience the feeling of “being along for the ride,” and allowing the person to get a better feel of getting the full tour from a sarcastic college student.
The last (and biggest) problem that I encountered was having to use Windows Movie Maker to edit my film. I grew up on Adobe Premiere, so having to use to Movie Maker severely limited my creative ability. My computer has trouble running Firefox, so a huge movie editing program like Premiere was doomed. So many of the effects I would usually use were lost to do an initial running on a downgraded program. However, I did the best with what I could, and I guess I am happy with what I got.
Lastly, I wanted to address Fred Field’s visit to the classroom on last Wednesday’s class. I really enjoyed him taking the time out to come in and talk to us about his work in photography. His pictures were incredible, and his sense of humor certainly kept me entertained. I think the thing that I learned most from Fred was when he talked about being shy when he first started. I often get anxiety doing a lot of the work from journalism, but some of the stuff he said made me realize that it is never half as bad as it seems. He actually kind of inspired me. Thanks Fred.
The first problem that I encountered in my “trip around Durham” was an self-depressing realization the digital video camera I have had since high school is no longer in any sense of a working order. Everything filmed is left with a streak of exaggerated colors and lines that certainly don’t belong in my digital world. So I was left with filming entirely on a camera that only takes up to 30 seconds of video in a painfully deflating quality.
The next problem I encountered was how to tell a story about the town of Durham. A topic the size of Durham needed to be better represented that a few select interviews. However, I lacked the necessary tools to truly depict a decent film of Durham that people would actually want to watch. So due to this little camera and no tripod, my focus quickly became a more mocumentary approach at illuminating the town at it’s (not so) finest. This approach gave me the opportunity to add much more humor to the short film, which (I hope) allows the viewers to focus less on the horrendous video quality. To compensate, I did much of the shooting from the window of a driving car, giving the audience the feeling of “being along for the ride,” and allowing the person to get a better feel of getting the full tour from a sarcastic college student.
The last (and biggest) problem that I encountered was having to use Windows Movie Maker to edit my film. I grew up on Adobe Premiere, so having to use to Movie Maker severely limited my creative ability. My computer has trouble running Firefox, so a huge movie editing program like Premiere was doomed. So many of the effects I would usually use were lost to do an initial running on a downgraded program. However, I did the best with what I could, and I guess I am happy with what I got.
Lastly, I wanted to address Fred Field’s visit to the classroom on last Wednesday’s class. I really enjoyed him taking the time out to come in and talk to us about his work in photography. His pictures were incredible, and his sense of humor certainly kept me entertained. I think the thing that I learned most from Fred was when he talked about being shy when he first started. I often get anxiety doing a lot of the work from journalism, but some of the stuff he said made me realize that it is never half as bad as it seems. He actually kind of inspired me. Thanks Fred.
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