Trying to Figure It Out! Erasmus Would Praise the Folly of It All!

Besides this blog I am doing another one.

I thought I had this blogging thing figured out. Between the two blogs, however, I find that I am woefully lacking in blogging experience – not the writting, mind you, but the mechanics of blogging. You know, how to press the right buttons for the bells and whistles I’d like to see on my blog.

I have about worn out the keys on my keyboard inputting and deleting stuff. And when I think I’ve got it figured out I find that I’m really somewhere between Mars and the furthest end of the universe scratching my head wondering just what in the @#%@# have I done!

Well, at least I think I’ve got the literate thing down. But I must admit that even though I feel literate I still feel really stupid when I can’t seem to figure out the mechanics of blog design! Keep trying, I guess. Just have to keep trying until I understand the technical ins and outs of blogging design and presentation.

Well, if Erasmus was still around, I think somewhere in his book In Praise of Folly I would find something he’d have written about my pitiful efforts at this blogging thing! What an interesting read that would be!

Guess I’d Better Try Again!

I didn’t exactly tell the truth in my last entry. I suppose I did break the silence. Actually, I sort of broke the surface and slipped back under.

A lot has been going on with me for the past year. I have been traveling a lot with my spouse. She has quit her teaching job to join me in a research project that I hope to turn into a saleable book by this time next year. It’s a great subject and a very complex story filled with drama. Well it be a best seller? I think so. Hope so. If  it’s not, I’ll be back in the job market.

Oh, yeah! There’s a documentary to go with the book. Or I should say it the other way around. There is a documentary and I am writing a book to sell with the documentary. Yep! It’s with PBS. I’m doing a bit of narration and providing some historical information. I do have some apprehension about the documentary. But, its my first one, so why am I not surprised.

That’s it for tonight. Time to hang my spurs and hit the sack.

Breaking the Silence

My silence since my last post has not been deliberate. Nor has it been because I’ve had writer’s block or amnesia or any other mentally challenging decrepitude. No, the silence has simply been because I am in my last year of college and trying to manage the demanding load required to graduate. It is a time issue…time for studies, not much else.

This will change after December 13th! That morning I receive my diploma for completing a BA in History and a minor in Journalism. That afternoon I celibrate with family, friends and relatives, who, by-the-way, are as excited as I am about me completing a four year discipline in higher education. They’ll be coming in from all over Texas to celebrate this momentous occasion with me and my wonderful spouse, who pushed me to do this.

The rest of December will be devoted to planning for what I will do in the year 2009. Though I am toying with some ideas as to the course I will take, I have not as yet formalized a plan of action. Until this happens, there is not much I can reveal about my next steps. I guess, stay tune if you are interested and you will find out as soon as I do.

In the mean time consider this an official break in the long silence and stay tune. There is more conflabulation on my agenda. You may find some of it interesting, even enlightening. Then again, heck! Who knows!

A few parting observations

Covering the Bearfoot march for the Denton homeless on April 12th was a job for more than just one multimedia journalist.

Could one journalist have covered the event? Probably, but there would only have been video or there would have been picture stills, not both. Obviously, two journalists would have done a good job of covering the event. However, three seems to have been the right number. That was the number on our team as we covered the march – Justin, Phil, and me.

The march was no major news event. It was local and this was the second year the march had been conducted in Denton. The purpose of the march was to bring attention to the fact that Denton had a homeless population that needed help. And one way these people could be helped was with a little food, some clothing, shoes, and some love and encouragement from their more fortunate fellowman. But it was a news event, none-the-less, and one a team of neophyte multimedia journalists like us could cut our proverbial teeth on, i.e., apply what we’d been taught in class.

Probably the most important thing we learned from the event is the importance of communicating with one another in order to cover the preparations leading to public presentation.

There’s a lot goes on during these stages and they’re such that there’s typically one person in the team available to do a bit of video taping or to shoot some stills and gather independent audio when others in the team are unable to. This stuff is important to get as you can pick up images and information that broadens the viewer’s understanding of the event’s importance, in this case, within the local Denton area.

Our team was able to do this quite well as we’d discussed the need for this prior to engaging in the reporting process. This allowed us to produce sufficient video, stills, and audio we could edit down into a good visual story.

The day of the main event we met early. Checked our gear to make sure everything was in good working order. Then we went out to see if there was anything going on leading up to the march. And there was. We managed to catch a group of students busily sweeping glass and small pebbles from the street to protect the barefoot marchers as they made their journey up to the courthouse square.

Phil manned the video camera. Justin and I carried Nikon digital cameras with an assortment of lenses in order to capture still shots of the event. Beside the audio from the video camera, I was able to capture some audio using a digital recorder. The object was to get as many images and as much audio as possible to use when we edited the materials down to a couple of slide shows and a three minute video. It’s really interesting how much we were able to gather and how much we edited out in order to pull the story together so that it made sense, was entertaining, and all within a two to three minute time frame.

Once the shoot was over, the three of us met to review the materials and to discuss what materials to use and what materials to edit out. We also talked about copy and how it should be written and each of us took some responsibility for producing copy to compliment the two slide shows and the streaming video/slide presentation.

Covering the main event took about four hours. It was blustery and a bit cool. On the square up around the courthouse, we kept looking and communicating among ourselves about who to capture for a wrap-up interview. Once this was decided, I made the arrangements with the interviewee while Phil and Justin located a good place to set up the video and audio.

We did not leave to chance the questions or the manner in which they would be asked of the interviewee as we wanted to gather quality, provocative narrative to wrap up our coverage of the event. So, we talked about it among ourselves and this helped tremendously in formulating and structuring the questions we asked the interviewee. As a result, we had some rather large segments of video and audio we could edit from the interview to enhance the story we were reporting.

One of the things I did was to shoot Justin and Phil at work while we were following the march up to the courthouse square. I got some good shots showing two multimedia journalists at work recording raw material of an event in process. One early shot shows them at work adjusting the camera’s white balance prior to shooting. And there are a number of shots showing them in action and interacting with the crowd of marchers.

More cameras, more eyes and ears on the ground produces lots of interesting images and audio. Of course, to do this, you need a team working together. By yourself, it’s a lot of work. With a team it’s still a lot of work, but it does free you up a bit to focus here and there for that one little thing that might add spice or a critical detail that makes the story more interesting.

And it’s always fun to work together. Besides watching each other work and sharing a joke or a tidbit of information here and there, there is a joy one experiences when in the heat of covering a story you and your fellow teammates began to instinctively fill in the gaps each may overlook while recording the event. Our team was able to do this quite effectively and it made for a good time while we were doing some serious work.

Click on the following link for a look at April 12th Barefoot march of the Denton, Texas, homeless.

http://www.justintennison.com/Site/flash.html

The Last Hoorah!

The eaglet’s last hoorah in Lisa Parisot’s multimedia journalism class happened Monday, April 28^th.

Our projects came due. We young multimedia journalism eaglets flocked to the multimedia room with a bit of trepidation to present our videos and audio slideshows and to watch those produced by our fellow eaglets.

I entered the room ten minutes before deadline. Eaglets were scattered about banging last minute corrections into their Apples.

I said my usual “hellos,” but this time all I got back was a quick nod of the head or a flip of the wrist. I think Don Mooney was the only one who gave a quick “howdy” though he didn’t turn his head. It was kind of strange; kind of like the back of his head saying howdy back to me, such was his concentration.

The whole room was like that. Focus, concentration – everybody staring hard into their computer screens and banging away on their keyboards trying to put the finishing touches to their projects before they turned them into Lisa at exactly 9:30.

Then at 9:30 a.m. on the dot, Lisa says, “Times up! Get your projects to me. Who wants to go first?”

Then the show begins. Each eaglet makes their presentation. Each suffers through a flurry of critiques. The criticism from the other eaglets is sufferable.The anticipated critique from the big mama eagle keeps us on edge, then, she speaks. And when she speaks it’s because one of us has violated a fundamental principle in shooting video of an event.

She asks us questions. Point this or that out. Some of us take it ok. Others argue back. Some go through the gambit of excuses, which she categorically rejects. All-in-all, it’s a tough hoorah, but a hoorah never-the-less.

Suddenly it’s all over. From what we’ve seen it’s obvious there is talent in the room. You could see the genius in each presentation; even through the fundamentals were violated here and there at times. But you would expect that of eaglets.

And though the eaglets applauded each other, the mother eagle, they knew, would view the presentations with an experienced eye in a room by herself, free of distractions. And the eaglets would have to wait to hear her evaluations come Monday again. Aaahh…waiting is so dastardly hard at times like this! Name an eaglet who disagrees!

So, come this Monday we’ll all flock to the nest once more to get our evaluations. Then, perhaps, some will take flight, eagles at last, on wobbly wings into the great unknown skies of multimedia journalism while others pursue their own agendas and varied dreams. With fundamentals on the wing, we all go flapping and flapping, growing stronger as we flap, some toward their destinies, others toward their goals. But we all take flight.

And when we do, there’s one loud hoorah yet, but this one is not from us. It’s from the mother who’s left in the nest.

Death of a Blogger

Authur Miller would have written the play if he were alive today.

There’s no question about that. The question, however, would be not whether Authur Miller would write the play, but whether he could live through the writing of it.

You see, all writers are bloggers; have been since people began writing. The difference is the medium. Instead of writing on cave walls in prehistoric times, papyrus, parchment, and finally paper, men and women today write on a computer screen and post their writings on virtual pages somewhere out in the digital nether world of the internet for others to read.

Just as writers are bloggers, so bloggers are writers. And the same malady that once plagued writers now plagues bloggers – lack of exercise. Cardiovascular exercise in particular.

Matt Richtel’s article points out that several celebrated bloggers have recently died from heart attacks. Another managed to recover. Regardless, that’s too many myocardial infarctions in such a short time in the same industry.

Granted, that’s something to seriously ponder. But what bothers me more is that, despite the detail in Richtel’s article regarding the malady, he does not address the dilemma with a probable solution. Instead he eulogizes the love of blogging, just as Victor Hugo once eulogized writing when writers were paid by the word and their word was ex cathedra. So they slaved over every word, phrase, and page until they grew fat, went insane, or dropped dead from, you got it, heart attack.

It does not take a Mayo clinician to figure things like this out. The solution might just be in walking or some aerobic exercise for just twenty minutes every other day. Something to get your heart rate up enough to keep your arteries cleared and your heart muscle strong.

The main thing is to get away from the computer for a few minutes. I know, I know, it’s hard to do. But if you want to continue writing beyond age fifty or sixty that’s something a blogger just has to do.

There’s money in blogging, obviously. There’s also, as Richtel points out, a lot of stress and addiction to the trade. Any writer understands this and most writers understand the need for exercising the old body, keeping it healthy, eating the right foods. But, writers if they really are writers can become total lovers of their trade and forget to do those things that promote a longer, productive life.

It’s true, some writers beat the odds. But why take the chance? Get some exercise. Don’t play out Authur Miller’s story line for Death of a Salesman. Think of all the blogging you can do if you do the things that provide for a healthier lifestyle.

There is money to be made in the blogging business, but not for those who put themselves on the fast track to burnout. Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant apparently bit the dust early because of it. Bloggers can learn from this. They need not become the fodder of a storyline for a playwright like Authur Miller.

Get some exercise! Blogging doesn’t have to be the death of you.

See Richtel’s article. Click on the link:

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

Critiquing Floridian One – Is Bee Time Prime Time?

I am interested in bees. I used to keep them. They are interesting little creatures. Most people don’t know it but once you’ve been stung a time or two you tend to develop immunity to bee sting. In other words, for most people, the sting doesn’t hurt any more though it can be a bit painful getting there.

So the story appeals to me. It’s because I like bees. I’ve raised them and I know the little things about how they swarm, why they swarm, and how to catch them and provide them with their own little protected place where they can produce honey. And, needless-to-say, I like to eat the stuff they produce. Most people do even if they don’t like bees.

But the story, though interesting, is not really that emotional. It’s just informative. Of course, you do feel for the families who live in the streets because their homes have been foreclosed on. Even as interested as I am in bee keeping and the fact that these foreclosed homes in Florida provide a place for swarming bees to live, the clip struggles to hold my interest for the duration of its run.

The video runs exactly 4 minutes and twenty-five seconds – a little long for a focus piece on bees. I would have liked to see more about the displaced families due to foreclosure and a little less of the bees.

Very little action; but, the storyline transitioned smoothly. I also liked the quality of video and the sequence of scene presentation. But I did not like that there was so little action. Like I say, the video held my attention because of my experience with bee keeping. But if I were not a bee keeper, I probably would have left the video for something a little more emotional with a little more action that lasted about a minute less.

This is what I think the majority of people would do, especially the younger generation who have been raised on hyperactive video games and glitzy, unrealistic, surrealistic MTV cuts.

So, do I think the video works? Not really. It’s a good documentary; it’s not all that entertaining or emotionally intriguing. It’s just a video about a guy that catches bees in a neighborhood with high foreclosure rates.

Oh, yes! There is a religious and humanitarian element to it which one must appreciate simply because the nun-looking person makes honey to give away and wax candles to use in prayer service. I suppose I should care about that, and I do to some degree, but not enough to watch three minutes of bee catching to get to that part of the video.

All-in-all, I rate the storyline about 3 on a scale from one to ten, even though technically it is well orchestrated with quality images in a pleasing mix of edited video and stills. Perhaps I should give the producer and technical staff an 8 on the same scale.

Go see it. You may agree, maybe not.

The Beekeeper’s Lament
American Album

Click to watch the video

Porter Halyburton on Service, Duty, Leadership, and Ethics

It is difficult to relate to a man like Porter Halyburton whose experiences overshadow your own.

He is a man who carries himself well. He chooses his words well. He is obviously an educated man who thinks deeply. From that perspective he immediately commands your attention. You listen closely as he speaks. You expect to hear something profound, a bit of wisdom that will stimulate your own thoughts and provide you with a nugget of truth on which you may build.

And, indeed, he does deliver. But you don’t expect how he says he learned what he shares about service, duty, leadership, and ethics. There is a sense that prison doesn’t seem like a place where one learns these things. But seven years in a North Viet Nam prison infamously called the “Heartbreak Hotel” quite obviously presented Halyburton with living examples of those who served and led with unwavering devotion to duty and ethics under the most despicable and humiliating conditions.

For instance, he told about a black Air Force officer, Fred Cherry, who was moved in with him after he prayed for companionship. Cherry’s courage and patriotism inspired Halyburton who viewed Cherry as an “excellent role model” to follow. And there was an officer named Percy who at the risk of torture and death performed a remarkable feat of feeding two other men who were being deliberately starved to death in solitary confinement.

It was courageous acts by men like these that helped Halyburton and others entering the North Viet Nam prison system to realize that the one freedom his captors could not take from them was “choosing your attitude.” Their lives were determined by this realization and so they made choices that, in spite of their captivity, gave them some control of their lives through the choices they made.

Choosing your attitude is one freedom people cannot take from you. This means that when others try to rob your joy, you can choose to remain joyous. If they try debasing and humiliation, you can think of yourself as being wonderfully and beautifully made. You can choose to think on good and pleasant things, to remain positive when circumstances are bad. This sustains a healthy self-image and forward-thinking attitude – the stuff of life and of success in any “trial by fire” circumstance!

“To give up this choice,” said Halyburton, “means that somebody else has control of your life, but if you choose your attitude you will not become a victim. You can survive with honor. And that is the ultimate goal. That was ours as prisoners in Heartbreak Hotel.”

Halyburton then made a rather profound statement, “The most important lesson I learned from the seven years I spent in Heartbreak Hotel is that choice lies in the essence of leadership.”

Carrying Political Promises

Adept as our politicians are at spouting off political promises, especially when seeking election or re-election, Robert Cornish, a local business man, is just as adept at carrying them off. He said he figured it out one day over a couple of bottles of beer.

He said his unique way of conveying this message to the public gets him five or six calls a day from amused and sometimes curious drivers, some who end up buying his services.

“Doing what I do,” said Cornish, “you’ve got to have fun with it. What better way to advertise my business while poking fun at all these promises we get from our politicians. It makes everybody laugh, even some of the politicians I know.”

In three cryptic words, ruddy faced and grinning opossum-like, Robert Cornish tells you unabashedly what he does, “I haul shit.” How he started and some of the famous people he’s met along the way while hauling their shit makes for a good Texas-tall tale. Only in his case, it’s for real.

Click on the following link and see for yourself. You’ll get a big kick from it! Cornish is a hoot!

http://lisaparisot.com/RHHudsonSS2/

 

Critique of Fox’s “Pioneer”

Fox does a good job of setting the mood of his story in the first 5 or 6 frames. His sequence, however, starts a little differently than what we talked about in class. Fox starts with two tight frames, then a medium, then a tight, then a wide frame before focusing on Valerie S. It is effective as it does seem to set the mood while drawing you into the story. It also gives you a sense of the place where the story is unfolding.

No zooming, no panning, and it is obvious that he is using a tripod as the frames are steady, free of vibration. He is apparently shooting frames, pausing, then moving to the next scene before executing the next frame. He does a good job of this as the transition from frame to frame flows very smoothly.

The sound changes up a bit throughout the story, however. Though somewhat distracting, it is not distracting to the point that it interferes with Valerie’s story.

I did not like to see the microphone attached to Valerie. These are out-of-door shots, so I presume Fox uses a Bluetooth microphone setup. In doors he apparently uses the mic on the camera as I could not see signs of a mic on Valerie. If it was there it was well hidden. For the outside shots it seems to me that he could have done a better job of hiding that mic. It distracts.

Fox tells a good visual story. He has a good beginning and transitions smoothly to the end. He very effectively depicts a mood of hope with Valerie and her friend sitting on the steps where a home used to sit. Their closing comments about the future of the community developing once they see someone has settled back in there since Katrina conveys a feeling that things will get better. For an ending, it’s pretty good – positive vibes, I like that!

On a scale of 10 (best) I give it an 8 for organization and content.

Click on the following link to view the video clip:

http://cdn.washingtonpost.com/podcast/071107-11v.m4v