A quickie shoot, lasting lessons!

It came time to handle the camera, so I made a trip to the lab last Sunday afternoon to shoot 3 to 4 minutes. Lisa had told us she would review in the class this Monday the two to three minutes of video we shot. I shot some really bad stuff. Nothing very creative, just shot to get used to the camera.

But I still learned some valuable lessons, especially after Lisa played back to us what we shot Monday morning. Here’s what I learned:

1. Foremost, before proceeding with a project check Lisa’s blog for tips and advice. Saves saying “huh” and looking dumb in class when she’s instructing.
2. Panning and zooming are mega distractions like Lisa said. It’s obvious to me now why it’s discouraged.
3. Shaky video? Use a tripod. Yes the video I turned out was very shaky. Next time the camera will be sitting on top a tripod regardless of how it looks or how inconvenient it is to take the tripod with me.
4. Shoot black before and after a clip.
5. Do a white balance before videoing.

My video was not earth shattering videography. But I did get experience. And I do have something, albeit very rudimentary, to use while learning the editing process. Nothing is wasted and if I screw it up, which I probably will, nothing is really lost.

You know, there are some things that work out all right most every time. As crude as my videography is, still this appears to be one of those times.

Now, let’s see, which way do I go from here?

Rene’s Tasty Salsa

Rene Ortega sustained an on-job injury that eventually cost him his job.

Ortega remembered the old Mexican recipes for salsa his mother used to make. He resurrected his mother’s mild recipe and made a few jars of salsa to sell to friends and neighbors. It would bring in a little money, he reasoned, while he was off work.

The salsa turned out to be a hit and his friends and neighbors asked for more. So, he made more.

By the time his employer told him he no longer had a job, Ortega had a customer base of 4500 people, not only in his neighborhood, but throughout the city, Texas, US, and even some remote areas of the world.

He called his salsa, Rene’s Mild Tasty Salsa. Now Frito Lay is considering it for mass marketing throughout the United States.

“I am not rich from it yet,” says Ortega. “But, at least, it does provide a little much needed income to support my family.”

http://lisaparisot.com/hudson_to_web

Feeling my age

Well, today, I feel my 61 years!

Monday I felt brand new, like a 19 year-old college freshman taking on a behemoth 4-year higher educational program with the vim and vigor and innocent optimism of a David against Goliath.

Boy! The giant did its number on me, though, and am I ever so glad it’s Friday! Well, Friday morning at least! In the survival mode now, I’m staring down noon before I can make the coveted weekend R&R!

Being a history major and a journalism minor sort of guy I’ve learned one valuable lesson – whereas Dr. Lamb, and Profs. Getschow and Parisot, plus a host of other journalism advocates think the association is great, on the flip side of things the history gnomes seem to project a rather cooler demeanor toward the idea.

Journalism in history? Neigh, humbug! It’s too, what-do-they say, irreverent, academically unrefined, and stuffed with ruggedly independent free-spirits! Yes! That’s a redundancy of profound proportions!

And it’s true! But, hey! It’s fun and interesting! Something going on all the time! It takes a free-spirited buckaroo to mount the untamed mustangs of current events or history in the making. Monday morning, “arm-chair quarterbacking” (delineating history as some historians lovingly call it) has its place no doubt! But, not in the present tense, that’s for sure!

On the other hand, “arm-chairing” journalism sounds mighty good when you feel beat up and a tad old like I do today. That’s when the appeal for less action and more sedentary cerebral historical analysis from an “arm-chair” perspective becomes most tempting for us more seasoned gents. In other words, a weekend chilling out with one’s nose poked in a book about some enigmatic war back in the distant and dark ages of whenever as oppose to chasing that elusive Goliath of a marauding mustang news story.

Chilling ain’t all that bad, really! Especially if you use the time to prepare your play book for the next play-action encounter with reality in the rodeo of life.

Journalism and history, history and journalism – it makes no difference the order, I reckon. We need them both! Especially this guy, when the aches and pains of age become a bit too real to be ignored comfortably. Scrutinizing history from atop the corral fence moves the action to the brain and gives the old body a bit of a reprieve.

But, hey! The weekend’s upon us. A few days of rest does wonders for my perspective! Come Monday morning this old buckaroo will be ready to mount Goliath again for another bucking round!

“In Cold Blood” – Capote’s Legacy to Literary Journalism

I had just turned 13 years old in November of 1959 when the Clutter family was brutally murdered in their farm house outside Garden City, Kansas. Growing up in South Texas ranching country where a boy and his dog could spend days hunting and exploring the woods and creeks without ever seeing another soul had not prepared me for the news about the murder of this family.

I still remember the headlines in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. In the little town of Falfurrias, people talked about it everywhere. My friends talked about it at school. We were unaccustomed to hearing about this type of senseless brutality. In the idyllic haze of the 1950s you just didn’t hear or read about things like this.

But then as suddenly as the story appeared, it was forgotten until in January 1966 the story reappeared in the form of a book by Truman Capote. The book, In Cold Blood, was a bold step for Capote into an emerging genre called literary journalism. I was now nineteen and a freshman studying nuclear physics at Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.

I didn’t buy the book. I didn’t read it even though it was widely talked about and many of my college friends had picked up a copy to read. Even in 1975 when Esquire Magazine published some excerpts from Capote’s book I didn’t read it. I do remember fanning through the pages of the magazine at a now defunct book store in downtown Fort Worth. But I still didn’t read it.

But I was curious about the story. It is interesting how some things stick in your mind and just don’t go away. The Clutter family murder was that way. And you would have thought that since Capote was a family relative I would have read his book. But I didn’t. And there were several reasons for this, the greatest, I suppose, was because Capote’s life-style was something the Persons-Hudson family found extremely distasteful and embarrassing. There may have been other reasons, but they paled in comparison, though they did serve to reinforce my conditioned apathy for the Clutter story once my cousin became involved in it.

And now, this! A whole web site devoted to the legacy of In Cold Blood which ran 3 days in the Lawrence Journal-World beginning Sunday, April 3, 2005. I didn’t even know about it until now. Until this assignment by Lisa! Here I am – I am supposed to write a critique of the site and instead I am totally engrossed, opening and reading each article. It’s now 48 years since the murders and 41 years since the first issue of In Cold Blood and I find that people are still fascinated with the murders and with Capote’s book. I just wonder what my staunchly Southern Baptist elders would think of Capote now!

The web page is wonderfully organized with story after story of the community and the people whose lives were affected and changed by the event. It goes deep. It covers everything you might want to know about the victims, the murderers, the community, the people, and Capote himself. The site includes a detailed timeline, maps, clips of the real Journal-World stories on the Clutter murders, and a video documentary.

After viewing this site, I must read Capote’s book even if my family patriarchs and matriarchs turn over in their graves. You may want to take a look at it too. This story spawned in Capote a genre we today call literary journalism. Though he wasn’t the first, he was among the pioneers to explore this new form of journalistic storytelling.

Go here to view page:

http://www.ljworld.com/specials/incoldblood/

Eureeeeeeekaaaaaaa!

To borrow a phrase from Archimedes on discovering a method for determining the purity of gold! I’ve made some revelations in the art of blogging. They worked and I understand them! And it didn’t even take me stepping into a tub full of water to make the discoveries!

However, I must give some credit where credit is due. One, to me for humbling myself to sit under the tutelage of a young feller whose age I eclipse at least three times! And, two, thanks Andrew for being so patient. I know it must have been excruciating to work this old feller through the various steps of setting up widgets, blogrolls, video clips, and stuff like that. Thank you, thank you! I will repay you for your help and long suffering.

But just look at what’s been accomplished! Scroll down and you will see my first video clip, a few more links to the right, and a flickr widget. In fact, Andrew lead me through the process of setting up a flickr account and downloading some of my personal photos. Now, to get them over to my blog. That’s my next project which I hope to complete tonight.

Lisa, you would have been very pleased with the initiatives of everyone here today. We all gathered in little groups here and there to help get our blogs put together, talked digital camera techniques and technology, and spent a little time around the Big Dog – video camera we all hope to be shooting soon. All-in all-it was a very productive morning!

I don’t feel so dumb now! So, onward to the next project where I’m sure I’ll feel dumb before I get it figured out.

video 1 test

Dumb and Dumber!

Boy! This blogging is a curious thing! How is it that these young people can take to the technical side of blogging like a “duck to water” and I feel like I’m struggling with a “tar baby?”

I get stuck here and I get stuck there. Last night was real messy. After three hours of clicking like a “mad hatter” all over the blogging space, I finally gave up and went to bed. Now I understand why Br’er Rabbit preferred the Briar Patch to the Tar Baby! Problem is I can’t seem to find a Briar Patch to jump into!

This flue crud that’s been going around has knocked Lisa out for today. I’m going in early today anyway. Maybe one of those young blogging geniuses can help this old fellow get a handle on this blogging thing so I can get my blog in order. One thing in my favor, thank goodness – I support the idea that one never gets too old to learn something new. By golly, today I’m getting shut of that Tar Baby for the Briar Patch! Then, I can aim for clear pastures.

Oh! Yes, I have made some progress. At least I know how to do a post and fill it with words! And I managed somehow to do a Flickr Photo widget, too. I was totally amazed that it showed up on my page when I clicked the mouse!

I guess I’m at that “General MacArthur” stage right now. Wasn’t it he who in WWII abdicated US control of the Philippines with the promise, “I shall return?” My Marine Corp buddies changed that saying up a bit to “By the grace of God and a handful of Marines, I shall return.” And that, I believe, is exactly what happened.

If it worked for the General, surely it will work for me. I certainly prefer that to feeling “dumb and dumber!” So, here goes….I SHALL RETURN!

Oops! Where’s my pipe?

Let the Games Begin!

An oft quoted cliche’ filled with exuberant anticipation attributed to whom I haven’t the slightest clue. But it seems appropriate in view of the patient clarifications I received from my blogging instructor today. With a little help from her I was able to correct the damage I did to my blog late last night.

After viewing several video clips, we were divided into groups headed up by the most knowledgeable persons, so I spent a little time with Kyle who demonstrated how Photoshop works. I am pretty proficient in Photoshop, but I just wanted to see if I could pick up any tips from somebody else who uses the program. It turns out I did.

Lisa Parisot, our instructor, showed us some film footage she shot early on in her career before there was such a thing as digital video equipment. She wanted us to see what makes a multimedia story and how to put one together. A couple of pointers stood out, for instance if shooting for the web keep movement at a minimum. Don’t zoom! “It’s an unnatural movement,” says Lisa. As for as the makeup of a multimedia story, Lisa says it must have three things – 1) emotion, 2) movement or action, and 3) something unusual to capture the viewer and peak his/her curiosity.

One thing very apparent to me – my blog is pretty elementary compared to those designed by the other students in my class. I was quite impressed with the creativity and insights expressed by several of my fellow bloggers. One way to get better is to spend a little time examining their sites, not to mention asking them lots of questions. Looks like I have lots of work to do! Thank goodness I’m among some very creative classmates! And best of all, they don’t mind me picking their brains.

So that’s why the title. Exuberant anticipation compels me to charge into the fray of blogging! Being among creatives sets my adrenalin to pumping. I’m going to learn something from these guys and gals. Heck, today I already have! But there’s more, lots more and it looks like a bit of hard work and lots of fun. So, let the games begin, or in the passionate words of Sherlock Holmes to his faithful sidekick when a mystery becomes apparent, “Come Watson, come! The game is afoot!”

Demystifying Blogging

I am new to this activity. Everything about blogging is mystifying to me. Over the next few weeks I hope to demystify blogging. Become real familiar with it so I can have some fun, show off some of my creativity, and hobnob with other bloggers who wish to help this neophyte become better at doing this sort of thing.  That’s about it. So here I am. Your input is invited.