Video?

Yes, video. Only weeks after learning how to turn on a camera, I was excited to get started with using video for our stories. I wanted to use the video to capture somebody walking and talking for a story just because I figured that would be a cool shot, so I did a story on a senior who is both in his first year of being an RA and last semester of school. He is taking 22 credits in an effort to graduate early, plus he has the new experience and responsibilities of being in charge of a hall.

I thought that the video went generally well. I used a camera that was given to us in class since my Vado HD is on the fritz. Unfortunately the camera ran out of memory during a very usable part, so if we expand on this assignment in the coming weeks I would certainly like to go back and talk to him again.

I thought the video part was very useful for the story. I wanted to capture his bond with his residents and the pace of his busy day, and I feel the video helped achieve that. As he was talking a resident came in and asked him for tape, plus there were two residents hanging out in his room throughout the whole process. After we walked through the halls and he demonstrated the process of rounds while talking about his past experiences with resident assistants. It was pretty cool stuff. Now about editing it...

Reaction to One in Eight Million

I have decided to write about the piece in which the woman adopts the animals. I think that the way the story is presented in the beginning does a great job of mirroring just how simple a story it initially is. They are building up this woman’s desire to have a dog, which is nothing out of the ordinary, so I felt that the black and white stills kept the story from trying to be something that it clearly wasn’t. As the story progresses and you come to find that this woman has been generous enough to adopt as many dogs as she has, the black and white stills are a good backdrop and are tremendous in contrast with all that she has done. There are ultimately some major pros and cons to the overall layout of the story, but as a whole I thought that it was well-done.

If I had to choose my favorite part of the story, it would have to be when she was discussing her selfless nature and how she can’t just look at a disadvantaged animal and walk away. She says something about always wanting to grab for the bird with the broken wings, and just as she says it, a picture of a feather on the ground is shown. For some reason I thought that it was interesting that they elected to represent the wing itself rather than the bird. If the pictures had shown the disadvantages of all of the other animals, it undoubtedly would have been a much stronger piece. This brings me to the biggest problem I had with the story.

The story of Tilly, the dog that only had one eye and was struggling to do basic things like crossing the street, could have been handled much better in my opinion. Here is this woman, talking about a poor dog zig-zagging all over the street and nearly getting killed due to an inability to see, and all they are showing are regular-looking, side-profile views of this dog. Where is the zoomed-in picture of this dog’s face? This dog is in a rare situation that we most likely haven’t seen before, so put the camera to use! I feel that in order for these stories to be effective, the reader/viewer should be able to almost follow along without the narration. The pictures are tremendous in other areas of the story, but this was a heart-wrenching part that really could have been moving if it had the accompanying pictures.

Professor Marsters mentioned on his blog that the pictures are left in their rawest of states, in black and white and without anything really done to them. I think that the openness and honestly of the pieces almost requires the pictures to be the same, which they definitely are.

Getting my snap on

I had never taken pictures before this assignment. In fact, the extent of my photography prowess is being on "America's Funniest Home Videos" for holding the camera facing towards me on back-to-back-to-back intended pictures of Mickey Mouse at Disney World. I did some more thinking this time around though and I really think I got some cool stuff.

Assignment #2

For my second project I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was lucky enough to cover the Red Sox and Angels last week. I know that these things aren't supposed to be geared towards sports, but I figured that it might be fine since I took more of the "why do the Angels seem most off their game when playing in Fenway?" angle. I thought it was interesting to take one idea and see how three people felt about it. Obviously, nobody was more upset than manager Mike Scioscia following a game in which he was certainly jipped on two ninth-inning calls, but as the piece goes on you can tell that he calmed down a bit. For example, he seemed furious when somebody asked him if he watched replays, but minutes later he was saying that his team can't go blaming umpires for anything. Torii Hunter's candor was also amazing in that he is usually very nice and calm (John Powers of the Globe and I had even discussed prior the interview that being a sportswriter would be the easiest job in the world if all of the players were as genuine and accommodating as Hunter). The one part I hated about it was that I had to narrate it with a cold and probably sounded ridiculous, but all in all I enjoyed it.