On a different note, the semester is about over and I am definitely looking forward to the break to recharge and recuperate from this semester. It has definitely been a long one but a very educational one. I learned a lot about multi-media this semester, I especially enjoyed learning how to shoot video. I really enjoy the medium and plan on pursuing it further.  At first it was hard to adjust to put I think I have the basic idea of it and now I just need more practice. I also learned the basics of flash which I plan to use and eventually put up my own site. 

Here is the link to my group’s project. Enjoy!

Children of the Lord

So we’re quickly approaching the tail end of political season and with early voting already haven begun, things get crazy.  Die-hard, ardent Obama and McCain supporters like to show their enthusiasm, political signs spring up all over the place, people wait patiently to exercise their right to vote, and coffee cups not only retain people’s drink of choice but proudly display which president candidate you support.  So in the spirit of the season my multi-media storytelling professor, Lisa, assigned a political activity shooting assignment.  We were to turn in 5 photos that depicted any type of political activity such as campaign signs, voting, local elections, and so on.  The following are my three favorite.

I have to admit I struggled a bit with the assignment because I didn’t want to get pictures of just signs.  I didn’t know what was going on or where to look until a friend mentioned to me the coffee cups, although I think Lisa might have mentioned it in class too.  The early voting I would not have known about if not for my friend Juan.  I’m satisfied with the images I turned up with but I’d like to do better.  It was an interesting and challenging assignment for me.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/oct/01/tibet

http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/index.html

           In my opinion this website and the use of multimedia is very basic but very efficient.  The layout is simple, concise, and easy to navigate.  There are plenty of tabs and links that lead you to other interactive media and to the text that provide background information about the city, what happened, the immediate repercussions, how the city coped and recovered, and links to information about anniversaries and disaster management under the tab titled Connections. The tabs to all of this information is located on the left and easily categorized for quick access.  Under each tab are other sub-categories for easier access.  The text is very simple and just like reading a textbook but in my opinion was long and drawn out, I think they should have included some visuals in the mix to give you a break from reading, they did however use charts and stats.

            The pictures were however found in another webpage that is easily accessible under the link titled images in the left hand corner along with some video.  They also included some other interactive media created with flash that engaged the reader and allowed them to scan through an image and maneuver through a map that pinpointed where things took place.  I like the fact that everything is accessible from each page because it keeps the same layout but it almost seems cluttered and the only thing that seems to flow seamlessly from one thing to the next are the links that deal with what happens and the effects, but the photo and video you have to scan the webpage to find where they are.

            I think overall the website works well and is effective.  I couldn’t see how good the video was because Safari couldn’t play the plug in and I wasn’t given an option of installing any software that would allow me to.

http://www.churchillspeeches.com/

                 This site was a lot more complex and interactive and a bit confusing at first.  This one is not so straightforward but uses a lot more media than the other.  The speech is synchronized with text so you can read along.  As the speech progresses there are icons that scroll across the images, some are of picture and some are of notes on the speech.  When you click on one of the icons a little screen pops that has a little more background information.

            I think they make good use of photos because they have small previews of the images as the icons that catch the reader’s interest and then show you the full image with the background information.  I think it’s smart that they also color code the information and have a little key at the bottom right hand corner so you know what it deals with.  This site is a lot more media involved and is a lot more interactive with the reader because it actually engages you and gives you information in a chronological order

            Another smart thing is that they have a tab that allows you jump around to main points in Churchill’s speech and the icons that scroll by are synchronized to a certain extent with the context of his speech.  I think it’s great that you can hear Churchill’s voice instead of just reading his speech because you get a sense of his oration and it has greater impact on the reader.  Although they did not have any videos I think the site works well because it is set up as some kind of hybrid audio slideshow.  In my opinion they site is better than the Halifax website although it a little more confusing at first.

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/sports/index.html?nvid=284895&shu=1

                   I think this video shows good use of multimedia and captures both emotion and action in this video.  They have clips of fans excited to see John Force coming back to the Texas Motor Speedway a year after his crash.  The story even has clips of his crew and himself talking about his coming back to the speedway.  In Texas car racing is a big deal and he is a legend to some fans and they were sad to see his accident but they’re excited to see him back.  There is a lot of good audio in this story because you hear the mechanics working in the background making banging noises and you hear the cars revving.  I think they did a good job of combining media in this story and are effective in shooting a video story.  They even combine some photos of the drag race towards the end of the video and combine another type of media. This video type is a deadline video package as discussed by Angela Grant.

www.lisaparisot.com/JazzBand

Kicked Out of School

I’m moderately satisfied with my first attempt because I’ve never actually worked through this medium but I hope that by the end of the semester I will be better. It’s a bit rough but I’m still learning. Leave feedback if you’d like.

So, today I began another semester at UNT and I’m pretty excited about getting back into the groove of things.  I’ve been ready for the semester to start up again and feel like a college student again and not just an average working man with the same process day in and day out.  I’m really looking forward to my classes this semester because they are all interesting upper level courses that actually interest me instead of mandatory basics. I hope to grow a lot this semester and learn as much as possible in my classes, especially since this will, or should be my final year.  At this point in my college career I cannot afford to waste any time or blow off my classes, so I have to really buckle down and gain as much knowledge as I can.  I hope that by the end of the school year I will be a well-rounded multi-media journalist and have landed a job in my field of study.  I hope that I will have an above average knowledge of how to work a video camcorder and be able to set up my own website so I can begin to network with other photographers and journalists and advance myself in the world of journalism.  Let’s hope this semester is good to me and I survive because it will be a tough one.