Well after two hard days of work, my first original piece is now done!
With the help of my classmates Anna and Andrea, we were able to shoot, edit, and pull this thing together. Tomorrow is d-day in front of the class so we shall see how it is received.
My story was on the Special Olympics of London. It was a bit of a cheater topic for me, but one I felt very compelled to do. Why a cheater? Well I am a coach with the London Special Olympics "B" soccer team. But this is a story that is not told enough, so any chance I can to promote this amazing group of athletes I take.
I chose to cover how the athletes are training for the Ontario Summer Games. After discussing this with Cliff Lonsdale, one of our profs for the TV section, he said I need more focus. So I chose to focus it in on a special athlete and his specific preparations.
Gary Gray, 59, has been involved with the Special Olympics for over 25 years and 10 with the soccer team. He is part of the "C" team that is going to Windsor to represent the Forest City. He is contemplating retirement at the end of the outdoor season, but I have sneaking feeling that he'll be back for the indoor year.
Shooting went well, but we battled a setting sun and intrigued athletes who were all more than willing to make their on-camera debut. All went great and after a couple hours we walked out with about 25 minutes of footage, that needed to be trimmed down to around 90 seconds.
I did the shot listing and laid down the voice to pictures this afternoon. I began to cut, paste, edit, and re-edit, and in the end, I had just over 90 seconds of story!
I definitely realized how difficult it is to shoot sports stories with one camera among other things.
That brings our TV rotation to a close, and ON TO RADIO! At this point in time, I'm not all that thrilled about radio, but open mind and open heart.
I'll post again about the feed back I get tomorrow
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
MJ
Well, as an aspiring journalist I'm feeling like I should comment on the recent death of Michael Jackson.
It's been a little over week since the "King of Pop" died at his home in California. While the circumstances are still cloudy, one thing is not - the media frenzy that has erupted over his life, death, rumours, and subsequent funeral.
While I was never a fan of MJ's, I can appreciate the strides he provided, and boundaries he broke for music around the world. He was undoubtedly a musical talent that is on par with Elvis, The Beatles, and talents of my generation (Gen X) Nirvana.
Perhaps its the former police officer in me, but I have always been amazed with how society seems to forget the misgivings of people as soon as they take their last breath. While the celebratory nature of a funeral is just that - a celebration of their life - however, in my opinion the rose-coloured glasses should only be worn by the family and friends.
The media has a duty to report on everything, to seek the truth, and to present this person as they were: A musical phenom, eccentric, odd duck, and drug addict among other things. The fact that his "tribute" was being shown on no less than five TV stations and ALL major news channels is understandable, but the complete bias that was shown is not.
It reminds me of when I was a police officer. The murder of a Toronto teen, Jordan Manners, at his school shocked the GTA and sent officials and media alike into a frenzy about school safety. What was not reported and is known probably only to the police community is a completely different story. One where he is painted in a competely different and dark light. But that will never be reported on, however.
The send off MJ received rivals that of Princess Diana, somebody who actually deserved the kind of worldwide publicity that they received.
Now that the funeral is done, I hope we can all put this one to rest, and let MJ do the same. Alas, that will not occur. There will be intense coverage as the fight for his children, estate, and cause of death is unwrapped every day there is a new development.
The journalistic community needs to take a step back in situations like this and really examine what they are reporting on, and in the end they too need to take off their rose-coloured glasses
It's been a little over week since the "King of Pop" died at his home in California. While the circumstances are still cloudy, one thing is not - the media frenzy that has erupted over his life, death, rumours, and subsequent funeral.
While I was never a fan of MJ's, I can appreciate the strides he provided, and boundaries he broke for music around the world. He was undoubtedly a musical talent that is on par with Elvis, The Beatles, and talents of my generation (Gen X) Nirvana.
Perhaps its the former police officer in me, but I have always been amazed with how society seems to forget the misgivings of people as soon as they take their last breath. While the celebratory nature of a funeral is just that - a celebration of their life - however, in my opinion the rose-coloured glasses should only be worn by the family and friends.
The media has a duty to report on everything, to seek the truth, and to present this person as they were: A musical phenom, eccentric, odd duck, and drug addict among other things. The fact that his "tribute" was being shown on no less than five TV stations and ALL major news channels is understandable, but the complete bias that was shown is not.
It reminds me of when I was a police officer. The murder of a Toronto teen, Jordan Manners, at his school shocked the GTA and sent officials and media alike into a frenzy about school safety. What was not reported and is known probably only to the police community is a completely different story. One where he is painted in a competely different and dark light. But that will never be reported on, however.
The send off MJ received rivals that of Princess Diana, somebody who actually deserved the kind of worldwide publicity that they received.
Now that the funeral is done, I hope we can all put this one to rest, and let MJ do the same. Alas, that will not occur. There will be intense coverage as the fight for his children, estate, and cause of death is unwrapped every day there is a new development.
The journalistic community needs to take a step back in situations like this and really examine what they are reporting on, and in the end they too need to take off their rose-coloured glasses
Friday, July 3, 2009
Editing editing editing...
Well TV is now in full force. After the first couple days of getting to know the camera and equipment and then testing those skills, we have been tasked with a new challenge, writing for pictures. This is essentially when you for example shoot a soccer game. You want to tell the story of that game, so back at the editing suite you put it all together and THEN you write a script for your story.
It becomes painfully obvious that you have written a script first and THEN put pictures to the words. Don't ask me how, but it is just kind of obvious.
Our last few assignments have been trying to write for pictures and to make that script follow the story of the pictures without going into too much detail explaining them. Why is this? Well because the pictures are supposed to tell the story and if you become overly descriptive, well move down the hall and park yourself in one of the radio booths.
We have also been assigned our large story where we are to come up with a newsy idea and then make a 60-90 second story.
That's all for now.
It becomes painfully obvious that you have written a script first and THEN put pictures to the words. Don't ask me how, but it is just kind of obvious.
Our last few assignments have been trying to write for pictures and to make that script follow the story of the pictures without going into too much detail explaining them. Why is this? Well because the pictures are supposed to tell the story and if you become overly descriptive, well move down the hall and park yourself in one of the radio booths.
We have also been assigned our large story where we are to come up with a newsy idea and then make a 60-90 second story.
That's all for now.
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