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It’s interesting listening to the next generation of passionate journalists. One of my students left for Mississippi a month or so back…very frustrated and concerned about what kind of jobs would be waiting for her when she graduates.
Plus I spent a weekend right after that in the company of Amanda Emily, new media geek from Spokane, WA. She is the transition generation…those who are living through the chaos of what journalism used to be and what it is morphing into (whatever the heck that is…).
Both Amanda and – oh heck, may as well name her – Catie Lau took to heart every lesson on ethics and law and doing the right thing they ever encountered. They both want a world where there is black and white, and they are riding white horses. They want the audience to believe the message.
And there’s a third member of this squadron of throw-backs. A intern/assignment desk assistant from a former station who wanted more than anything in the world to be a reporter and tell the truth and get the story out. She wanted a white horse too, but sadly is not in the business…she lost out because she was (a) too outspoken and (b) believe it not – too beautiful. (Looks can be an asset up to a point and then they are a distraction.)
Amanda and Catie…keep your heads high and never ever give up. So long as you still believe in what is best about journalism, I will continue to read and watch and listen to the news. I too need something to believe in…
It has been an eternity since I did much with the old blogroll and I found a couple of sites thanks to teachj.
First is Digidave – Journalism is a Process, Not a Product. Some cool videos and more.
And AR&D – Reinventing Local Media has some great tips on standups and making them more relevant to a mutlimedia audience.
Nothing like late night web surfing to open up one’s eyes.
This is the posting formerly known as “Impressing or getting it done…
A friend dropped by a while back to borrow some gear and bemoaned the fact they couldn’t afford the gear wanted/needed to do video productions.
So I showed off my Canon HV10…and got the immediate response, “but THAT won’t impress anyone.”
Hmmmm…
So now impressing the client/public is important? I’ve heard that before from still photogs, some of whom think that bigger is better (so, apparently, is black, so forget silver) so that folks KNOW they are pros.
I’ve gone through the whole “lost my impressive thing” business years ago…when I downsized out of news into teaching and went from a Panasonic DVCPro to a Canon ZR10.
So…stand by until I return with a way to ‘press your gear up…
…and here’s a way to dress up your gear. My reason – to make it more versatile. For those of you with self-esteem issues, these add-ons will bulk up your little “nothing” camera so that it will be sure to impress.
Let’s start with the basic camera – a little old Canon HV20 (and this, by the way, can work with any of the small prosumer/consumer models).
First, you need a bracket to attach all of your add-ons.
Practically speaking, here are ways to improve both your visuals and audio.
Small portable light – I’m using a Readylite 20. My dream is a Litepanel and it’s on my Christmas wish list.
Audio add-on so you can use pro XLR audio. A Beachtek, which allows me to use my Electrovoice 635 and Lectrosonics wireless.
Lens extenders for both telephoto and wide angle.
Scary….almost a Frankenstein of video production. But in bulking up or “pimping,” I’ve both improved my ability to get visuals and I’d say increased the BS (oops impress the client) factor by at least 7 out of ten.
But at a cost. Got the tele lens as part of an old VHS kit…dumped the camera, but kept the lens. Wide angle cost around $100. Beachek another $100 used. Bracket was $15. Light probably $40. The XLR cables/mike I already had. But lets add on another $300 for the tele lens, cables, mike (and that’s conservative). Another $550.
Is it worth it? If you want to impress, you can get it all for a lot less or just add that on to the cost of a bigger camera. Something…bigger…longer…
But it’s definitely worth it as far as extending your ability to be creative.
Well, Amanda Emily has done it again…the techno-geek queen has a calculator that will give you times for the golden and blue hours in your area or any area you are traveling to.
The “Gold” is that time of day – dawn and dusk – when the sun is low and casts a golden light. “Blue” is the period right before dawn/after dusk when the sun is just below the horizon.
Those times are often the best times to shoot scenics or portraits. Knowing your timeframe for shoots can be a timesaver.
This seemingly simple site allows you to enter your location and the month you plan to shoot and then generates the dates for that month along with start/end times for gold and blue.
Now if she could only tie in a weather prediction so we’d know if it would rain or not…
It’s that time of year again – time for the Research PowerPoint assignment. Each year I tweak it a bit, but the idea is to have kids connect to how their today technology came into being.
Try this: challenge your kids to think for five minutes about spending a weekend – a day – without using any technology. If you think you can get away with it, make the challenge real and see if they want to try it.
Now take them back 10-40,000 years…to a simpler time. A time when man was just learning to stand erect and communicated with grunts. Whoa! Early language. Look at those cave walls – early art. Early audio visual communication!
As I explain the topics, I try to connect them to today’s descendants.
1. Cave art to Egyptian Hieroglyphs
2. Johannes Gutenberg & the printing press (remember, very few people could read until reading material become common)
3. Camera Obscura to pinhole camera/Photography – from seeing the image to making the image permanent
4. Guglielmo Marconi and the telegraph – had to drag cables hundreds and thousands of miles to send a signal consisting of noise
5. Samuel B. Morse and the wireless telegraph – the equivalent of today’s cell phones; freedom to send a morse code signal without any wires
6. William R. Hearst and early newspapers – how news went from the Town Crier to print
7. Thomas Edison and movies – moving images were so startling that people would pay to watch a short of a woman riding a bicycle/how have our filmmaking expectations changed since then
8. Alexander G. Bell and the telephone – everyone say thank you Mr. Bell for my mobile device
9. Frank Conrad and KDKA vs. KCBS – as proof that history is constantly being rewritten, this past year the title bearer for first radio station with regularly scheduled programming may have shifted from Frank Conrad (in all the history books as first) to KCBS in San Francisco…which went on the air in20042009.
10. Philo Farnsworth and TV – legend has it he came up with the concept that made television possible as a 14 year old watching the sun run over a field of newly dug-up potatoes on his family farm.
11. Edward R. Murrow and broadcast news – he helped shape the news we see today
12. Recording media (from film to videotape to digital) – if ya can’t save the information, there would be no re-runs.
13. Computers and the Internet – a revolution that is still ongoing
14. eBay and craigslist – have contributed to the demise of newspapers
15. Social media – we used to talk with each other/what happened?
16. Journalism and Ethics – howjournalismethics gives credibility to the news media
17. First Amendment and the Media – what freedoms do you as a student have and what freedoms do the media have under the First Amendment
The kiddos (in teams of three) choose topics from the above list, have three weeks to research and create a 14 slide PowerPoint (including title slide and works cited slide) with four images and either music throughout or appropriate sound FX (think Morse code). Oh – and extra credit for an inserted video that contributes to student understanding of the topic.
Of course I review the entire assignment in class and then over the three week period review each segment of the assignment and check on their progress.
Now for the beautiful part – when I hand this out, I tell the students I have a choice of either doing five days of lecture on history or making them do all the work. I always choose the latter.
After they hand in the completed PPTs, I check them over and for five or six days students lecture the class on the history of communications. Everyone takes notes – even me. I then assemble what I call “The Mother of All PowerPoints” using their presentations (and adding anything I feel they missed), which is followed two days later by the “Mother of All Tests.” My standard is, if you take notes, you can use them. If you don’t, you get to hang and dry.
Ah…life is sweet.
Addendum: Regarding content of the presentations; students must include information on the person or company’s origins and how they grew (or grew up), what they did that was a contribution to mass communication and why the contribution was important. If an invention – who invented it, when was it invented, how does the invention work and why is it important to mass com.
Addendum 9/2/09
For your teachers out there: the mini deadlines are to choose a topic, list the roles of each student on the team (researcher, PowerPoint creator, presenter or some other combination), list the print/internet resources (names of books, magazines, URLs of web sites), and finally list the graphics/art/photographs (URLS if downloaded), music (title/artist), sound FX, and videos (self-created/URL if downloaded).
Kathy Newell and I head to the woods to decompress whenever possible.
This weekend we have an added featured guest – geek queen and media history buff Amanda Emily is joining us – wow. I absolutely love her blog, her online mouth, and obvious deep love of true journalism…but she has the ability to understand HOW stuff works. Me, I just use it.
Newell picked up her at the airport last night and we’ll meet at the 8,000 foot level for the first time. Look for postings from all three of us over the next few days.
In the beginning I had ten Canon Elura 100s to run my broadcast program at Ronald E. McNair High School. Two were heisted over the past few years. Of the eight remaining, two have tape carriage problems and three (not the same ones of course) had the threads stripped in the tripod holes. The latter is fixable…just drill out and insert a slightly larger bushing with the correct diameter threads for the tripod (thanks to Larry Nance for his suggestions and a couple of samples).
Now…I have to make a rather quick decision about whether to fix the cameras with carriage problems or purchase new. Now these cameras can still be used for still photos (I do have a couple of assignments that require stills only)…so what to do?
The cost of a Canon fixit via mail runs around $160 including shipping. Been there done that and they do a good basic job. Pretty quickly too – in time for school in a few weeks.
Now for the hard part (oh I dread this) – checking out what is on the market. Used to be simple.
But there’s more out there and many more formats. Mini DV, flash cards, hard drives, DVD. Personally I reject the hard drive and DVD camcorders. The latter is a gimmick – the only real use I would have for them is shooting sports when I need to do a quick turnaround and get copies out for other teams. Camcorders that record to hard drive would cause issues in determining who shot what – I will have two periods of about 36 students each this coming term (July-December and then a second batch of 72 in the spring). Tapes and flash cards allow the media to be labeled with student names and removed from the camera.
So here goes. My dream camera would have the following:
Removable media
Manual iris/aperature, focus, white balance
Mike input (and I think this will be the issue this time out)
Decent zoom (15x or more)
Headset out to monitor sound
Variable shutter speed
Top loaded (if tape)
I’m not concerned about the CCD/CMOS size…they’ve gotten better over the past few years. I am very concerned about the non-tape cameras being compatible with my antiquated eMacs.
So now on to my favorite photo site in the whole universe – B&H Photo Video to check the specs.
So here goes…first choose “Camcorders,” then “Standard Def,” cause I don’t think our eMacs can handle high def. I’m checking out both Mini DV and Flash formats. “Standard” camcorders (we can’t afford even Prosumer). I’m not choosing an optical zoom…want to see pricing first. LCD size is not an issue. And I’m not choosing a price range…want to see what you get for the bottom/top ends.
My choices are two Aipteks ($59 and $89), eleven Canons ranging from around $219 to $599, six DXGs from $79 to $89, six JVCs from $179 to $269, ten Panasonics from $149 to $359, nine Samsungs from $149 to $299, four Sanyos from $174 to $219, and eight Sonys from $229 to $329. Fifty two possible candidates.
Now to choose which features I have to have. Manual controls and mike input/headset out. Let’s see what makes the cut this time.
1:07pm
All Sonys eliminated. The flash card versions have virtually no manual control and no mike input. The mini dv version has the manual control, but no mike input.
1:09pm
All Sanyos off the list – minimal anything I need.
1:18pm
Samsungs eliminated
This is getting frustrating…I’ve made note of some models that almost have what I want in both mini dv and flash card…but no mike inputs so far.
1:24pm
Panasonics and JVCs eliminated. Interesting to note that many of the flash camcorders have few if any manual controls.
1:25pm
Not even going to consider the DXGs…all they have are 4x digital zooms.
1:26pm
Success – of sorts. The Canon ZR930 has a mike input, but no still ability. Its says no headset input, but I’ve found in the past that the AV port takes a headset (no guarantees). Manual focus and exposure…not white balance. Cost is around $199.00.
1:30pm
More success, but at a price. The Canon FS22 flash camcorder has it all for $599. Let’s see – one of these or three of the 930s?
1:33pm
The Canon ZR960 has nearly everything – lacking still capability – $244.
The ZR950 does stills, but has no mike input – $219.
1:38pm
A few more – FS21 has what I want at $499, as does the FS200 for $319, and the FS11 for $349.
Kind of glad to see Canon still makes cameras with options…and I’m hoping the chargers and batteries can cross over. I try to keep everything the same brand because if I lose something or something goes down, chargers and batteries and remotes (etc) can be substituted.
On to the final brand.
1:41pm
That was quick – Aiptek eliminated due to digital only zooms.
(CORRECTION JULY 12) There are several models with 3x and 5x zooms. I was only looking at standard def models. See first comment below.
Now the internal debate: what do I really need to teach properly? Do I need cheap cameras so as many students as possible can be shooting/editing? In other words just a point and shoot? Do I want more – manual controls so students can learn a bit of what the professionals do? Mike inputs?
A lesson learned during the workshop I taught at San Joaquin Delta College this summer was that using professional editing software made the difference. Students saw the power and possibilities. They didn’t have Final Cut Pro at home and would never have even guessed at what they could do without the three day exposure this workshop gave them.
It’s time to sit back and consider these things…I have my meeting with my principal tomorrow and want to be clear in my head what I am teaching and what I expect students to learn so I can make the argument for the gear that will do the job.
The header above is from the mountain madness trip I just returned from. That blonde head and cocked ear belong to VJ Kathleen Newell. Her subject – John Voss, proprietor of the Caples Lake Resort. Kathy helps John with his blog, among others.
She’s a mountain girl and enthusiastic do-gooder and environmentalist. We are twinned opposites in many ways. I’m old, dumpy, married (very happily) and a teacher. She is younger, energetic and always looking for new mountains to climb – both literally and figuratively. We’re both survivors of 28 years each in the world of media madness. And neither of us knows how to live without a camera in hand and a laptop stashed nearby.
That trip we were on involved the “mom-mobile,” a 2003 dusty old Dodge Grand Caravan with all the rear seats taken out to hold more gear than we can to admit to. The personal bags were the least of it – I think we each took less than enough to fit into a grocery bag.
But the tech stuff – two three chip cameras (a Sony and a JVC GY-DV300), three (I think) low enders for grab shots, a Olympus Evolt 300 for stills. Two laptops, a million cables, four tripods, one monopod, reflectors…and more. And that’s traveling light. Didn’t bring the light kits or mikes (beyond a stick and her wireless). Oh – and one ice chest and enough food to last a few days. And fishing gear (hers). Camp chairs. One air mattress (I refuse to sleep on the ground any more) Sleeping bags.
Back to the van – common stuff in the back (camping stuff, bags, etc).
The van is nifty cause she could slide her passenger door open and have easy access to her goodies and I had my stuff on the driver’s side. Very fast and no confusion.
So we were organized and had fun. Part of this trip is an escape from the daily drudge. We both miss news and travel and meeting people. Me – I’m stuck in Lodi. Kathy – she is looking for new adventures, other roads to travel. But our roads occasionally diverge and we travel a short distance together. As all friends do…
Got some incoming hits from a new site this morning and when I checked my email, it was revealed. A site called Learn-gasm, part of this site, made up a list of what are supposed to be the 100 best sites for journalism students to keep up with trends and learn. Somehow I made (the very end) of the list. Wow.
If you’re interested take a gander here. There are some old friends and some interesting sites I plan to look into.
Gonna be offline for a few days. Buddy Newell and I head for the hills early tomorrow to catch some fresh air, fresh views, and some yummy (over the campfire) home-made cooking!
This posting comes to you courtesy of a confused mind. A combination of blog-hopping, too much time gardening in the sun, and physically and mentally wrapping up a contest my students entered.
So Mindy McAdams had a great blog and link to a Christian Science Monitor article by Robert G. Picard (any relation to THE Picard I wonder). That stewed around in my sizzling brain as I hemmed and hoed in the garden mulling over why my clan of volunteer videots had so much difficulty with climax and resolution in writing their script for the 48 Hour Film Project.
Stories. Storytelling. What does the audience really want – do you give them what you think they want? Do you re-hash the same old/same old? That was a big part of my students’ dilema as they brainstormed and came up with plot after plot for a movie script. The deadline was for real – 48 hours to write a script, shoot and edit a movie and hand it over before the ticking clock cut them off.
The headline over Picard’s article pissed me off at first: “Why journalists deserve low pay.” Like a momma pitbull, I protect my craft. But before I could attack and sink my teeth in, his argument reached my logic center. Dammit.
Wages are compensation for value creation. And journalists simply aren’t creating much value these days.
Summarized: In the past there were not a lot of content providers. Only one or two newspapers and three or four TV and radio stations per market. So what was produced had value – the audience wanted it; craved it. The providers could get their asking price from both audience and advertiser.
This scarcity raised the economic value of content. That additional value is gone today because a far wider range of sources of news and information exist.
Not only are there more providers…there isn’t much enterprise to make up for the glut of information, so there is a lot of duplication. Tune into any TV news program, newspaper (virtual or on paperstock), radio station, website – however you get your daily fix – and it’s just one big story chasing its own tail. I love Picard’s assessment – basically that journalists today are experts at sifting through and finding information – but not at creating new, original content that will satisfy their specific audience.
…the real measure of journalistic value is value created by serving readers.
He sums it up in three words: ADAPT OR DIE.
Read the entire article – concisely written and worth both the read and the time spent mulling and then returning for a second read. Picard is pointing us in the right direction – and it isn’t looking backwards, but honestly talking with the audience, getting to know them, and keeping up this conversation as we cover OUR community.
So what does this have to do with my movie-making moguls? Lots. After hours of plotting, they began to realize they were just re-hashing every bad (or good) movie they had ever seen. They realized they had to break away from the trite, the predictable and not be plot plagiarists, but take a risk and be original.
The result is a simple short story that has all of the elements of plot (forgive the English teacher for reiterating: exposition, conflict/rising action, climax, resolution/falling action) AND is delightfully original and unexpected. I’ll post a link to my VJ Classroom after Tuesday night when we see the screening of the movie in San Francisco.
Oh – and yeah, bloggers (my guilty hand is in the air) are often the worst when it comes to original content. Too often we take other’s ideas and (as in this posting) review and present to our own audience. Although I do like to think (1) spreading information is not a bad thing and (2) most of my postings are my own demented creations.
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