A semester of video April 30, 2008

So, my class has spent the whole semester learning about telling stories through video. I’ve definitely gained more confidence in my video skills this semester, but I do have room to improve. I want to make my shooting and editing skills more polished, and I’d really like to explore more of the video editing programs out there. The two videos I made this semester are decent for first attempts, but there is a lot of potential for improvement.

I have enjoyed our class’ exploration of longer films to help us gain perspective about storytelling in shorter formats, which is what I will do the most as a journalist. As much as I loathed doing it the first time, I now see how making a log of shots before capturing the video from the tape is beneficial. The same goes for writing a script. It can be tedious, but it does make the rest of the editing process easier. And, I think the more I edit video, the better I will become at identifying the best shots and writing a script that really facilitates the storytelling process.

I also appreciate the intro we had to making Flash projects. It was quite fun, and I see a lot of ways I can use this knowledge in the future.

All in all, I really value the skills and concepts I’ve learned this semester and I anticipate many opportunities to hone these skills in the future.

Lending a Helping Hand April 30, 2008

(Note: The above image is just a screen shot of our video. Click here to view it!)

For our final project, my classmate Shifen and I decided to make a video about healthcare in the Gainesville area. While I knew before starting this project that there were big problems with the healthcare system in our country, I had never spent much time with people who lacked access to good healthcare - or at least not people who shared this information about themselves with me.

Shifen and I got in touch with the director of a local free clinic (called Helping Hands clinic) that serves people in need of care. He invited us to come and see how things were run. We met Terry, a man who volunteers at and receives care at the clinic. His story seemed interesting, and he agreed to be interviewed on camera next time we came. Terry was sick the next two weeks, so the time we had planned to spend talking with him we spent watching how the clinic worked and talking with other patients and volunteers.

It was good to learn about the challenges faced by people without healthcare access. Ultimately, Terry’s story still turned out to be the best, so we focused on it most. But, I appreciated the chance to learn more about the issue.

Assessing a Flash presentation March 12, 2008

I have to say, I’m not that impressed with MSNBC’s Presidential Candidates and Issues Matrix. The matrix is a grid representing each of the past and present candidates in the 2008 presidential race, and where they all stand on five big issues. There is a lot of information in this package, and the creators did a good job of keeping it fairly contained. I like how info boxes about each of the candidates and about the issues appear when the mouse lingers near a candidate or issue. Like this:

But, I think there is too much information the users don’t really need and not enough that they do. Example: all the candidates, even those who are no longer in the race, are still included (along with their descriptions and all their positions on the issues). Example: look at all the blank spaces in that screen shot above! Do we really care about those former candidates and their positions anymore? I’d say not. Their mug shots and info boxes make the page too cluttered with old news.

Conversely, the “All User’s Ratings” page is lacking and, to me, a bit boring. Here, users can click on a week and see how other users have rated each candidate on each issue. A color scale represents the degree of support each candidate has received from users on each issue. But, the color scale is too limited. It consists of dark reds and greens. Because some of the colors are so dark, it’s just too difficult to tell where most of the squares fall on the color scale. As you may be able to see below, the rating colors do not stand out enough from the black squares on the rest of the page.

When I’m on this page I also want to know how many people have voted on each portion of the issues matrix. For instance, is Hillary Clinton’s user rating on energy based on one person’s vote, or the votes of several hundred people? There’s no way to know on this Web site.

I don’t think this is a Web site people will want to visit more than once and, given the fact that there’s a time element dependent on visitors each week (the voting), that is a problem. The only things that seem to change are candidates’ photos (they get grayed out when the candidates are no longer in the race) and the hard-to-understand color rankings. To me, it just doesn’t seem that interesting.

Newspaper videos February 13, 2008

I found these videos on the Video Journal page of the Spokesman Review’s Web site. It seems like a good source of news videos. I like viewing and critiquing these because, though the nice, fun, human interest stories are great to make and view, a lot of newspapers are also requiring reporters to shoot these more hard news focused videos.

The video called ‘Milk truck crash on Interstate 90‘ is pretty long for the ’story’ it tells, (a tanker carrying milk on a snowy road slid off the roadway and ended up on its side). People will definitely want to see the crashed tanker and it’s great that the action of getting the tanker upright was caught on film, but really, there is just too much footage of the truck on its side. It’s too repetitive.

Also, the narrator’s voice is far too monotone and he gives too much detail - he loses the viewer. The last thing is that all the footage is of the truck and the road - the reporter should have interviewed SOMEONE: a cop, a witness, the trucker. I must complement the videographer on his very steady hand and clean shots, but those seem to be the only positive aspects of this video. The video gives a chronology of sorts, but doesn’t really tell a story.

Another Spokesman Review video, ‘Helping Others,’ tells a nice story about a teen shoveling snow for people who need a hand. There are some really great shots in this video; I like the ones shot from the ground, which show the subject as he comes into the picture with a shovel or snowblower. The close up on the spinning blades of the snowblower is wonderful. There also is a lot more dialog in this video than in the last. The talking ‘conversation clips’ combined with the outside action make for an interesting mixture of shots.

Lastly, the quality of the audio in this piece is really nice - and the contrast of the bright blue sky and the crisp fresh snow gives it a very clean feel. I’m not sure if this piece really tells a story - though I think it comes close.

A great Web site for video novices January 22, 2008

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything here, but I’m back for another semester of multi-media training! This semester is all about video, a topic that, I will admit, makes me a bit nervous. My past attempts to make good, non-home-movie style videos have not been as successful as I would like.

But, my confidence is bolstered by my accomplishments last semester with photo, audio, editing and Soundslides - overall, I did better than I anticipated.

So - back to video - I LOVE this series of Web sites called ‘Make Internet TV’ (Thanks to my professor, Mindy McAdams for directing us to it). The simple tips are practical and easy for people who want to learn, but don’t have all the money or technical know-how to use lots of extraneous equipment - (use a broom to make a boom mic - use a skateboard to get a good panning shot - my kind of advice!)

And the simplicity of the illustrations makes it all seem so - not scary. As far as instructional Web sites go, I give this one five stars! I have a feeling I’ll be visiting this site many times this semester.

Looking back on a semester of multimedia training December 12, 2007

I have learned so much this semester in Journalist’s Toolkit 1: how to record and edit quality audio in an ethical manner; how to take decent, journalistically ethical photographs; how to write a professional-quality blog and get it out there for others to read; how to make soundslides and FusionCharts and web pages.

There’s more to all of these skills than I thought before taking this class. I now appreciate the immense potential of audio, photos, Web packages, databases, soundslides projects and blogs for journalism uses and, while I think I’ll always be a writer at heart, I look forward to telling stories using these new skills. I also find myself evaluating media in ways I didn’t before taking this class. I watch a ‘reality’ TV show, see a photo, or listen to a recording and wonder if the images and sounds I’m taking in are true representations of the situations, people and places they portray, or if some things were staged to gain a desired effect.

While I appreciate all these skills and the knowledge that comes along with them, one of the things I’m most grateful for is the increase in my knowledge about how to use my computer for useful things, beyond just writing papers and news articles. I am more confident about my computer and multimedia journalism skills than I was at the beginning of this course, and that in itself is a wonderful gain.

As I already knew, and have learned even more this semester, computer assisted reporting and multimedia presentation are where journalism IS today and where it will continue to go. I know that I have much to learn about all this, but I also know I have a good base understanding of how to do some very crucial things. And, I’ll add, they’re things that I know many of my reporter friends who work at papers where I’ve worked in the past few years don’t know how to do. I hope this will give me an edge when I graduate in a few semesters and head back into the work world.

Hunger in North Florida - A Story Package December 12, 2007

This story package describes the problem of Hunger in North Florida. Through a chart and a soundslides presentation, you’ll learn what percentage of the population in several North Florida counties are deemed at risk of having a lack of food, what percentage receive food stamps, about three organizations in Gainesville, Fla. that fight hunger, and about the challenges these organizations face.

Filling in the Gaps: A Soundslides presentation November 28, 2007

Hunger in America is a big problem, even here in Alachua County. My latest Soundslides project, called “Filling in the Gaps” is about the struggle to keep hungry people fed. It contains photos from Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, St. Francis House and Gainesville Community Ministries, all in Gainesville. These agencies sometimes struggle to get the food they need to provide for the people who depend on them. The people who receive the food really appreciate it, as you’ll see in the part of the story about Willie Stewart, a very nice man who was able to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year thanks to Gainesville Community Ministry. I hope you enjoy the show!

Making data fun - or at least user-friendly November 24, 2007

Last week my multimedia journalism class discussed data handling, charts, infographics, etc., and how they can revamp the way newspapers cover topics. One of our primary readings was a blog post titled “A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change,” by Adrian Holovaty. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical at first. Would big chunks of data really be all that interesting to people? Would they adequately inform and educate people newspaper readers and Web site viewers?

Well, I think the answer to these questions is really…no. Lots of data alone, even in nifty chart forms, won’t do the job, even if you can manipulate it and search it backwards and forwards. But, the beauty of the idea really comes in combination with stories, photo packages or blogs that will grab someone’s interest on a certain topic and make them want to know more. If these banks of data are updated regularly, people will probably start to come to them without being attracted to a new story or photo package first.

I like the idea because it lets people use the data the ways that work best for them. I think this will get people interested in information they might otherwise bypass and hopefully get people a little more engaged in their own communities and in the world at large. One of the cool things about putting data into these malleable forms is that people can have just as much interaction with info that relates to their local community as with data that relates to some far away place. Two examples that we studied in class demonstrate that idea pretty well. The first is an interactive database/map of crime in Chicago (developed, I believe, by the previously mentioned Adrian). The second is an interactive map about Islam in Europe, from MSNBC.

I really like the structure of each of these projects. I’ll admit, my initial response when someone tries to interest me in a big bunch of data is - NO THANKS. But the graphics and cool stuff you can do with the data masks the potential boringness of the information, making it something fun for people to play with. I have to admit, that’s what news writers like myself struggle with sometimes - how can I make this info - which actually is relevant to people’s lives (like the crime data) or maybe it’s just interesting info about the world at large (like the MSNBC map) attractive to people? I think Adrian is right - this user-friendly, manipulation-minded approach to big chunks of information has to be a growing part of newspapers’ approach to news.

Problems with audio equipment November 14, 2007

I was quite happy today when, after nearly two hours at the local food bank working on my Soundslides 3 project about hunger in America, I had several interviews, some nat sot (natural sound on tap), and lots of photos done. It was a good start to the project, I thought, until I got into my car and listened to my audio. Thankfully, my main interview was there, but some secondary ones I did with guys who unload the truck at the food bank were not. Neither was my nat sot. Curse the audio gods!

It was lunch time, I was hungry, and I didn’t want to just do the interviews again only to end up with the same result, so I left, determined to find out the reason for my missing audio before I returned.

What could have happened? There were two audio files full of silence. I know I didn’t fail to push record because the recorder created the files…for some reason, there just wasn’t any sound. My only thought is that perhaps I just held the mic too far away? But I wasn’t standing THAT far away from the interviewees or the sound…I didn’t think I’d end up with nothing.

Anyone have any thoughts/tips? I’m frustrated and feeling a little stupid.