CANNOT POST MY MOVIE, AH!

Sooo, my movie will not upload to either YouTube or Google Movie...I've tried compressing it and it didn't help. I have it in .mov format, so it should work...YouTube says if all else fails to change it to MPEG4 format, but I'm worried that if I try that it may ruin the movie...any ideas? anyone else having troubles??

Despite troubles...still pushing on.

Well, it always seems when I have an idea in my head it just doesn't come out on video how I envisioned it. My project isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I worked with the equipment I had, and with the animals that were available. I went to the Center for Wildlife in York, ME and focused on the permanent residents finding a home at the Center. The animals were a bit trickier to film that I had thought...either they wouldn't move, or they would move behind a branch or tree. I had the best luck with the ducks since they are incredibly friendly and really love people. I had taken 20 minutes of great speaking footage from the development director...but of course, came back to load it into imovie and found that imovie only allows 9 minute clips. I would have liked to segment the 20 minutes down so I could import them into imovie, but I need to have Quicktime Pro, which of course, I don't. Thanks goodness, I brought my audio recorder with me and used that footage and put it in the background of the video and pictures. I was really hoping to at least have some shots of the development director, but I worked with what I have. The video is so long, and I've been trying to cut it down, but it doesn't seem to be working.

It should be posted tonight or tomorrow afternoon:)

Questioning.

After watching the multimedia argument on Wednesday I find myself still questioning...

Part of me thinks that multimedia posted to the website of a newspaper should be extremely relevant and professional. The equipment should be more than just a point & shoot (considering we have been working with them, and frankly, they take pretty crappy video). The multimedia should be something a reporter is proud of and enhances a story that can be better with different parts, such as a slideshow, or a video. Yet, there is this other part of me that thinks, "why not throw everything up on the web?" If you have the technology and the resources, chances are, someone will watch your video. But, will this take away some of the credibility and professionalism of a newspaper? Will a video of a dog catching a frisbee in a park, for instance, really do anything for your paper?

I want to say that it seems more acceptable for a small newspaper to load anything onto a website, while the NY Times may need to evaluate their material a bit more closely, yet, what does this say about small papers? Having interned at a smaller paper, I don't want to see nonsense displayed across the website just because someone knows how to use a point and shoot camera.

So, where does that leave us? There needs to be a balance. There needs to be relevance in multimedia, accuracy, and a sense that the person knows what their doing. If that means eliminating point and shoot cameras from an office, than so be it. It's not just about the equipment though, but about the person using it. Don't expect that just because a point and shoot camera is easy to use that we'll have the next Stephen Speilberg on our hands.

BIG trouble with video.

So, I had thought video would be easy, and of course, I can't even load the videos on my computer. So, it seems I will not have a movie posted to my blog today. My movies loaded into my computer as MPEG files, and for some reason imovie won't take that format, but I can't seem to even start to convert the MPEG files into anything else. The problem is similar to one I had with audio, but even my Switch program won't allow me to convert the files. I've pretty hit a wall for now...

Dancing Through Life.

I need a new camera

I bought my camera last year before I studied abroad in Europe. I quickly realized that buying a Sony vs. a Canon was a bad choice. I had the Canon in my hand but opted for the slightly cheaper one, the Sony, and have never been more disappointed in my life. I can't shoot at night, the dial continuously moves on its own...causing pictures to become movies spontaneously, all my images are usually blurred so there's no point in me even trying action shots, and the delay is unbelievable. Needless to say, this piece o' crap camera really made this part of the project hard. I shot stills of Megan during her aerial dance class, but just couldn't get the shots I wanted. Having taken a year of photography, I have always loved it, but my camera makes it a real chore. I ended up having to make Megan pose on the trapeze rather than get her mid-air, and while I'm hoping for some pictures of her tapping, I know it's going to be nearly impossible with all the movement. Lesson learned: don't buy Sony.

Audio Project

Losing words

Wednesday night's discussion really got me to thinking. We're now submerged in a world of internet media, which, when I look at it, anyone can become a part of. Singers and bands are now found on You Tube and My Space, journalists are made through blogs, and photographers can develop from Flickr. It's almost as if people don't have to try anymore, but appear to get lucky. As Helen said, anyone with an opposable thumb could have taken that video of the flood under the bridge...which makes me question being a journalist. Are the reporters of the world, who enjoy print journalism going to lose out to savvy multimedia journalists? We know the world of print is slowing down while multimedia speeds up, but could print ever completely leave?

For me, I became a journalism major for print, but also on a whim. I have been questioning whether choosing this major was even a good decision, which is obviously another story for another time, but...I went in wanting to write. I like photography, but I don't want to do it. I don't want to make movies. I don't want to edit sound. I like that I get a chance to experiment with these tools in this class because it's a way to break the mold for me, but for those of us striving to work in the print industry, did we make the right choice? Are we going to be surpassed by those who are stronger in multimedia components?

When I surf on the internet at the Boston Globe or even Seacoast online, I don't look at the sound slides & I definitely don't look at movies. To me, that is a waste of time. Personally, I don't even like to fully read articles (yeah, another reason why I question my desire to be in this field), but I like to get news fast. I like to skim articles and see what is happening locally or globally. I don't need all the other wish-wash of videos and sound to fill me in, words can stand alone. In class, the point was raised that these multimedia components are indeed a side for the words, but what if they become the norm? What if videos and sound slides take the place of words?

I use the internet to look for jobs, and to look for schools. I don't really use it for anything else other than doing work. I use IM to stay in touch, and I only use Facebook to keep in touch, otherwise, I wouldn't keep it. I think it's unnecessarily addictive and a waste of time, yet I'm on it all the time. I refuse to use My Space and refuse to go on You Tube unless a friend forces me. I had never heard of Twitter or half the things talked about in class on Wednesday. As of lately, I've been trying to cut back on internet usage. I don't like the idea of basing my life around it, I need to keep my time limited. What happened to picking up a landline and calling a friend and chatting while sitting on your couch? We now use cell phones while driving or at lunch with a friend to chat (and rudely so). What happened to talking in person vs. instant messages. The internet does the work for us. Our words become lost in the giant sea of the net. Will our words in print become lost in the same ways?

Oh my...

I have to say, going into this audio project I had ideas already planned and expected it would be effortless, as of now, I've already spent hours upon hours on it and still am finding it difficult to come up with a final mix. I had previously recorded too long of an interview...thank goodness it was transcribed (which also took hours), but it allowed me to pick out the quotes I knew would fit in. It's neat to see everything come together, but the difficulties I have encountered have really been throwing me off.

1) My computer did not want to make the recording into an mp3 whatsoever. After an hour of trying to figure it out I called Olympus and they told me to download a program for my Mac, called Switch. I should have been able to convert my recording into an mp3, but NO...obviously it couldn't be that easy! I then had to download another converting program, and finally it worked, got the recording into i-tunes and began finding my golden eggs.

2) Finding the golden eggs was relatively easy since everything was transcribed, but trying to get rid of awkward pauses and linking different sentences together is a lot more tedious than I realized. I also can be a bit of a perfectionist, so that didn't help either.

3) I found I had to open 3 different audacity windows because I was taking so many individual recordings they had become too miniscule on the screen to even work with. I actually found it's helpful through in the long run.

4) Now, I edited some songs to throw in, and am utterly confused as how I want them to fit in.

All in all, I like this project a lot, but didn't expect it to take over my life, hah. I'm not going to post the sound bytes just yet, because I want to spend my time working on the project, since I assume me trying to follow directions and post it onto here will take up too much time, when I'd rather be getting close to finishing it. Hopefully within the next few days I'll have it up and running on this blog.

Clanking pots & running water may ruin an interview.

I happened to record my interview before our speaker came in last week...so of course I missed the memo on recording environmental sounds on an individual basis. I have to say though, although I knew I shouldn't say "yes" or laugh outloud while my subject was speaking, it seemed nearly impossible to do. I tried to sit still & smile, but sometimes I had to laugh, and sometimes I had to interrupt. I think I got some good sound (hopefully), but also had trouble with the environmental noise. I recorded my subject's voice in her apartment, and during the interview her roommate decided to cook pasta. I lost some good clips to the sound of running water and clanking pots, but didn't feel it was my place to tell her to stop making a racket while I was intruding in their apartment to record an interview. I can remember holding my breath everytime the roommate made noise, hoping my subject wouldn't happen to say anything I wanted to use. I plan to re-interview her, after seeing where this project is going, because with her eccentric and comedic ways I think I could get even better sound bytes to enhance with photos of her dancing and doing acrobatics. She's quite the dancer/singer/actress, and being able to record her singing over photos of her acting seems key. I guess I'll have to see where this project takes me...

The Beginning

At first glimpse English 721 seemed to be like any other journalism course. I was excited to be able to dabble in photography and web content, but could only guess how much time would be spent on either journalistic aspect. I came to be pleasantly surprised this past week at what this class would actually entail. Not only am I going outside of my comfort zone of writing hard news articles, but I have now been given the opportunity to work in the ever-growing field of online journalism and multimedia aspects. I'm beyond excited to expand my horizons and add some past hobbies, such as photography, into the mixture. I'm looking forward to an atypical journalism class, and am thinking in the long run it may end up being my most beneficial. I hope to take away the skills necessary for an ever-changing work environment. As the internet becomes more popular and the printed copies of papers slowly become replaced I will be ready for the revolution. I hope to take away new skills and to expand and work with old skills I may posses. I'm really ready to absorb all the information thrown at me not only from Howard, but from all the guest appearances. I am especially looking forward to hearing what Rich & Deb have to say, because after working with them this summer, I find that they seemed to also have amazing advice for myself as a budding journalist.

A piece of online journalism I came across last semester during a newswriting critique has always stayed with me. From the Boston Globe, Choices of the Heart is a 3-piece story revolving around parental struggle & how three different families overcame obstacles to make the best life for their children. Videos supplement the three feature stories. Globe reporter, Patricia Wen really dives wholeheartedly into all the stories and obviously put a lot of time and energy into her interviews.