Video Project 1

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-774378

“A hobby is an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation” according to one dictionary. Another dictionary describes it as an activity someone does in their leisure time for pleasure.

A hobby can be virtually anything: playing video games, sports, cards, cycling, collecting items or even reading (yes, some people may like to read). Most people find hobbies in their younger years and end up sticking with them throughout their lifetime.

The most common hobbies today are playing sports. When children are young, either: their mother, their father or older figure gets them into sports because it is a great way to make friends at a young age.

Sports are great hobbies because they reflect your personality, when playing active sports you exhibit: dedication, passion and teamwork.

Although sports are great, they aren’t for everyone. One of the more popular hobbies on the Lyndon State campus is playing video games. Many of the students (mostly male) like to play video games with fellow students. Not only does it help create friends, but it also fills a competitive need that most college men seem to have.

A hobby isn’t something that you have to do all the time or something that everyone else does. It is simply something that you enjoy and do it because you love it.

Yesterday, (Tuesday, April 10), there were a couple students on campus demonstrating a “new” hobby of theirs…slacklining.

Slacklining is an activity where a 1” wide nylon rope is tied to two anchor points (trees in this instance) and you use the said rope as a balancing exercise. You can essentially do whatever you want when slacklining: jump on it, do flips, use it like a balance beam or even do yoga on it.

The versatility of the activity is what makes it so addicting and fun, but there’s no doubt it takes some practicing and getting used to to.

Another common hobby that LSC students have on campus is trading card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic: The Gathering. Without getting into too much detail, these games have thousands of different cards in which you make your own deck (usually 40-60 cards) and you use these cards in an effort to get your opponents “lifepoints” down to zero.

These games can actually be very complex because there is so much strategy behind the cards, and each card has its own different effect.

Interview with Lyndon State Janitor

Our group's idea for the video project is to interview different people's hobbies and shoot them doing their hobbies as well.
Dan will do the shooting. Alex and John will do the interview part and script and I will edit the video.
It will include about three people with them doing their hobbies.

Slideshow Project 2

  Being a News7 reporter is certainly no easy task.  Right when you begin your shift down in the newsroom, there are expectations of you.  No matter what, the first thing any News7 reporter needs to accomplish is finding a story. This can either be done by the reporter himself, or by searching through “INews” to see if the producer has a story ready for the reporter.

           Once the story is found, it is up to the reporter and his partner, the photographer, to go out on the story, and of course making any appropriate calls.  The location of the story has to be done within the “squiggle”, which is an outlined area the covers much of northern/eastern Vermont and a small portion of New Hampshire.   The reporter’s main job out on in the field is to interview and ask questions to supplement the video of the story. 

            Back in the newsroom, the footage captured out in the field will then be revised in the “editing bay”.  The reporter needs to find the best quotes and “sound bites” to use for the finished version of the piece.

            In the course “Local News Gathering” (prerequisite), you are asked to create a Finder Binder. This binder holds an enormous amount of information that can help you spruce up your stories. Finder Binder material ranges from the definitions of newsroom lingo to profile sketches of politicians to everyday tips of being a reporter. 

            In the newsroom/editing bay, the station personnel use words that aren’t everyday jargon but are common while at work. Not only are some of these words bizarre, there are also about three other synonyms per definition.

            For example, an OTS is an over-the-shoulder graphic. Also called a: box, topic box or OSG.  Then you have a Vo/Sot, which is a more common term in the edit bay. It is simply an easy way to say “voiceover-to-sound on tape.” Which is further defined as the anchor reading a script as the video is transitioned to the television, and then the interviewee’s voice and picture is shown.

            Evan Coughlin is an alumnus of Lyndon State College and the Electronic Journalism Arts program. He had a lot of great things to say about News7 but he also said you need to make sure you are ready, time management is key and you need to have your priorities straight.

            Coughlin later went on to say that the transition from the classroom to the newsroom is difficult and scary, however, you learn quickly. He also stated that the three hardest things about News7 are: meeting deadlines, finding story ideas and getting interviews. (He did not ever mention technical difficulties).

            The media might not be for everyone, but everyone can appreciate what it has to offer. There is an exhilarating feeling when you barely meet a deadline then you see your story on the news. 


Credits
Photos-Daniel Weiner
Soundslides Editing- Jianchuan Zheng
Text: Alex Farnworth & John Kazar

Audio Slideshow Project 2 Synopsis

       For our second audio slideshow project, we will be conducting an interview and taking many pictures of Phil Alexander, essentially making it “A Day in the Life of a News 7 Reporter.”

        We will be specifically taking pictures of what he does throughout the day down at News7, so people can get a general idea of what he does, or accomplishes in a complete shift. Some examples of photos might be him going out on a story, or him editing/shooting his footage.

        We plan on using an iphone camera for the photos (the quality is adequate) and for the voice we will be interviewing him, but not including our voices in the slideshow, so it will just be Phil talking the whole time, but feeding off of our questions.

        This will be an interesting project because not everyone fully understands what people go through down at News7, and this will give them a pretty good idea. Our intended audience is college students, but particularly underclassmen in the EJA major who are not down at News7 yet.

Audio Editor: Daniel Weiner
Interview/Synopsis/Story: Alex Farnworth and John Kazar
Photos and Photo Editing: Jianchun Zheng

Idea for Slideshow 2

Our second project of slideshow is President Steve Gold's one day life.

Critique on CBS Internet Output

1. CBS Atlanta (TV Show)

Posts on the website are updated very fast. I stayed on the page for about half an hour and three new posts came up.
Also, because the number of people who "like" it is pretty big——17,823 when I was there, there are a lot of people who commented on each post and "like" each post.

A lot of posts are single sentence with a link of the whole news and a thumbnail as well. It's pretty concise and attractive to web readers.

Because it's Facebook page, the settings are pretty the same to other Facebook pages——with different categories on the left side of the page, photos, videos, twitter, events...very neat.


2 CBSAtlanta.com

Like a lot of other News stations' website, it has a horizontal tabs which include different categories. The first one usually is "Home", and then news, videos, photos, weather, under which are many sub-tabs that can take readers to more detailed category. I think it's very useful and convenient. That's why so many news websites use it.

This website consists of mainly three columns, mixed with photos, videos and links of headlines. At the bottom, the more detailed categories can bring people to different programs. Again, it's a very useful tool section.

One suggestion for the website, on the top right, it can have a sign-up section to ask readers to join CBS and follow it, so that the website can have more follow-up influence. Also, if it adds some slideshow instead of some still pictures, it would be better and more attractive.

Audio Slideshow Project 1

Lyndon State College freshman Dylan Chase is an avid sports fan and loves to play as much as he loves to talk about it.

Chase was a self-taught basketball player and has come extremely far from where he started. This New Hampshire native only started playing basketball so he could fit in with his friends.

Moving on to high school ball, Dylan said he was always the second best player on his team. The former New Hampshire All-State player said his favorite part about basketball is playing defense and that is what he works on the most.

Considering he went to a small high school (only 22 in graduating class). Lisbon Regional won the championship in his senior season despite being knocked out in the first round of the tournament in recent years.

After going through the competitive stage in high school, Dylan wanted to take a more lackadaisical approach and try out intramurals at Lyndon. The reason for playing he said was just to stay in shape and have fun.

Although it is only intramurals, Dylan said he still likes to bring his competitive edge. He is a very passionate and grateful athlete, he mentioned that he loves intramurals and doesn’t take it for granted because other schools might not offer them to students.

Keep in mind, we aren’t talking about high school, or college varsity basketball, we are taking about intramurals. Although Chase is grateful to have intramurals, he still feels there could be improvements made.

The referees are the focal point of what Dylan is talking about when he says improvements could be made. No one is solely to blame; it is because of both the referees not making the calls and the players not being respectful.

Dylan is a classy athlete; he plays hard, gives it everything he’s got and he does not argue with the officiating.

We asked Dylan who he felt he represented as a player, he jokingly said Dwight Howard. After spectating a game, I suggested he plays like Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls. He chuckled and said in a humbled voice “I like Luol, he’s a great player.”

Only a freshman, but Dylan is one of the most skilled basketball players in the intramural league. He said he is going to stick to intramurals and has no intent on playing for the varsity team.

Like most players, he is in it for the sheer fun of playing.