One Final Evaluation - What did I think of J198?

Well, to put it simply - I LOVED it! I really did. I think this was an amazing class, and I would go so far as to say that it should be a requirement for journalism students. What we learned in this class is undoubtedly the way of the future, and is an incredibly important skill to learn before we go out into the job world. I'm so glad that this was offered before I graduated, because I would have really been jealous if I hadn't been given the opportunity to take it.

I also think that Professor Littau is a great professor. He's is extremely knowledgable and passionate about the subject, and that really gets the class interested in working on the material. He did a great job explaining how to use all of the programs, such as Windows Movie Maker and Prism File Converter, which are really complicated to use. He was also happy to help us out whenever we had a problem, which was often. Overall, I would give him a great review.

I also enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the classroom, and how we were given the opportunity to go out on our own and really learn through trial and error. I did not mind going to class, which I cannot always say for every class I've taken.

Overall, I think this was a great class! I would recommend it to anyone, and am extremely glad that I took it. I plan on maintaining my Twitter account, and maybe even starting a personal blog of my own. Who knows? It's exciting to think about what I can do with the material I learned here!

An Evaluation of the J198 Course Materials

I definitely think that the camera we used was a good choice. It was small, portable, easy to whip out and had a strong battery life and took good shots. It was also very easy to use, which was important for this kind of class. The tripod was good also, and though we attempted to use the lapel mic my group was not too fond of it, because it proved to be a bit annoying.

As for the books, I don't think they were very necessary. We learned a ton of things in class, and also got a lot of real-world experience, all of which made the books a little unnecessary and kind of a wasted expense. It's not that the books themselves were bad, but rather that I felt that they were there for no reason.

I think the handouts were MUCH more beneficial than the books. They really spelled out, in an idiot-proof kind of way, exactly what we needed to do and served as a great guide to look back to later on. The one time we didn't have a handout, which was for the podcasts, disaster struck! We kept forgetting what to do. The handouts really kept everyone on track, and were a huge help.

I think that's all of the course materials! Overall, I thought they were great and really helped to create great pieces of work.

A J198 Evaluation of Myself

I signed up for this class because it sounded cool. Honestly, that was my main reason for it. I had taken Media and Society last semester, and enjoyed it, and was interested in taking another class with Professor Littau. I went into the class knowing absolutely nothing about multimedia. I had never been on Twitter, I had never written a blog post, never made a YouTube video, etc. etc. I was open to learning all about new media, especially because I thought it would help me out in the job market.

I think I would give myself a very good evaluation of how I progressed over the course of the class. I was very open to learning new things, and I became extremely proficient with all different types of multimedia. Sure, I got frustrated at times - who doesn't? - but overall I think I was able to produce some great content, and really explore how to write a story. I invite anyone to follow me on Twitter at @alrol, or log onto YouTube and look through my videos! I think I grew a lot over the course of the class, and became much wiser about the best ways to communicate a message through the different methods of multimedia reporting.

The Final Outcome

Well, our Web site is complete. J198 is finished, and our coverage of homelessness in the Lehigh Valley is officially over. Here's a link to our final Web site: http://www.lehighvalleyhomeless.net/

Our final presentation went extremely well. Everybody in the audience seemed to really take to our information, and we were especially praised on our video content and podcasts.

I loved our project topic. I think that homelessness is a problem that students at Lehigh constantly are unaware of or ignore, even though the homeless shelter is literally down the street from our campus. I admit to being completely ignorant about the problem as well. I love when you actually care about what you are working on, and that's exactly what happened with this project. I didn't mind going for an interview or to get footage, but rather looked forward to it.

I have to give credit to my fellow group members, Steph Albano and Alyssa Salem. I think we did some great teamwork and really put together a comprehensive, thorough and eye-opening project. I'm very proud of the work I did in this class, and am so glad that I signed up for it. Please comment with any questions you may have!

Our AWESOME documentary

Click the video to watch our documentary about the New Bethany Ministries. Trust me - it's AWESOME.

As you can see from my various blogposts, my group has been spending a lot of time at the New Bethany Ministries to try and gather information for our project. We captured a lot of images on camera, and have been working with Flickr to develop those into a slideshow that we can embed into our blogposts. Here's our first slideshow!

Podcasts - Definitely not my Favorite Tool

We learned in class how to make a podcast today. Professor Littau showed us an example that took him about two minutes to complete, and then we went off on our own. Steph, Alyssa and I recorded a five minute video about our experiences with reporting on homelessness in the Lehigh Valley, and then went to the computer to transfer it into a podcast. We used podbean.com to convert it.

That's when disaster struck.

Turns out, our video uploaded as a WMA file - which is a file that Podbean does not support. After about 10 tries and a ton of frustration, Professor Littau found the website youconvertit.com, which will transfer your link into the correct file. Well, we converted it to an MP3, uploaded it, and ta da! It worked.

But not so fast.

We then went to our blogs to try and embed the podcast into a blogpost. Well, once we did that, it did not play. Nor did it play during our second or third tries. After a little more trial and error, we finally found the correct embed code, and finally managed to get it into our blogs.

So, here it is. Listen to it! It took a lot of work to get this here.

Powered by Podbean.com

New Bethany Ministries: Trip Two

This morning Steph and I went back to New Bethany Ministries, but this time to explore the soup kitchen on the bottom floor. We met with Brandy Garofolo, the Director of the Hospitality Center, and met and interviewed all of the staff around the center. We then went into the main dining room, and began to talk to some of the homeless who come to the shelter to eat. One thing we learned is that not everyone who comes to the shelter is actually homeless - some have homes, but can't afford to prepare a meal every day. We spoke to one man in such a situation, who called himself an artist. He had a whole portfolio of artwork, and sat with markers and colored pencils around him. We also spoke to a man who called himself "retarded," and said that he had been kicked out of his house in Easton. Another man told us he was not homeless, but had just gotten in a fight with his daughter, and was just staying there for a few days.

I found this trip to be an eye-opening experience, and very inspiring. All of the people at the shelter were friendly and nice, and I didn't feel uncomfortable being there at all. The workers were more than happy to talk to us, while the homeless were a bit more hesitant. I think it is probably difficult for a lot of them to share their story, since many are extremely traumatic. However, they seemed so greatful for any of the food they were given, and the opportunity to just sit with each other, eat and relax. While we were there I noticed one man that I see all the time in CVS - it's heartbreaking to think that that man I see all the time is homeless, and that I had no idea.

I'm looking forward to going to back to the shelter, and maybe volunteering when all of this is over. The people are so appreciative of any of the things we do for them, and it makes you want to help. This project is definitely helping me learn to be thankful for what I have, and see what is going on out in the world.

Initial Trips to the Homeless Shelter

On Saturday my group members and myself took our first trip to New Bethany Ministries in order to capture some images on film for our first news video. Before we went, I didn't really about what I was going to see. I knew that we were going to a homeless shelter, but I didn't really think about the actual people who would be living in this shelter, and the fact that they had no place to go.

As soon as we stepped inside, the first thing we saw was about 10 strollers propped up against the wall. As we took that in, we then saw three children, no older than 10 years old, running around and looking at us curiously. My first reaction was, "Oh wow. There's actually young children who are being raised in a homeless shelter."

We then met with the director of the shelter, who invited us into her office and spoke to us for about 25 minutes about the work she does there. She told us all about the people who come (you must have children to be admitted), the programs they offer them (a home for six months, parental counseling and drug rehab), and the success stories that happened to people after they left the shelter.

After talking to her, she brought us around on a tour of the shelter. When we went into the common room, I saw something really shocking. A woman was sitting there watching TV with her child. She was white, clean and young, and looked as if she could have been any other person in America. She could easily have lived in my neighborhood and I would have never looked at her twice. I always pictured the homeless as dirty and hopped up on drugs, but she easily broke the stereotyope. This really shook me up, because it showed that homelessness could happen to ANYONE. The director explained to us that people at the shelter were not necessarily just "bums" - they could have lost their homes in a fire, lost their jobs, or suffer from mental illness. It was a big eye-opening experience, and really taught me a lot.

Sex Offenders: Closer than you think

As part of the Google Mapping learning experience, our class researched the addresses of sex offenders around the Lehigh Valley. We used the PA Megan's Law Webite to research sex offenders in the 18015, 18017, 18018 and 18020 zip codes. Scary reality check: they are EVERYWHERE! Seriously. Down the block from where we live, all around the stores and restaurants that we go to. It's terrifying. But, thanks to Google Maps, at least we now know where they are! Check out this map of how scarily close these sex offenders are in our area.


View Megan's Law: Registered offenders in Bethlehem, PA in a larger map

Scary, right?

Movie Theaters in the Lehigh Valley: A Map

Feel like going to the movies, but don't know where to go? Are you sick of your local movie theater and just want a change of pace? Do you feel like exploring all of the movie theaters that the Lehigh Valley has to offer?

Well, you're in luck! Here is a specialized Google Map of all of the movie theaters within the Lehigh Valley.


View Lehigh Valley Movie Theaters in a larger map

Enjoy! Let me know how you liked the movie!

Our First News Video: The Highs and Lows

Today in class we went over the four news videos that different groups had created before spring break. Painstakingly, the first video we went over was my groups, which featured a great big close-up of myself as the starting image. For those who haven't seen it yet, watch it!



Luckily, our reviews were not too brutal. One helpful tactic for myself personally was to slow down as I was speaking, because at times it can be difficult to understand. However, the content of what I was saying got positive reviews, which I was proud of.

Other criticisms for our video were related to sound. At some times it could be difficult to hear the people we were interviewing, while other interviews were loud and clear. We also had a tendency for cutting off what people were saying, which I think could be fixed by editing a bit more carefully.

Another problem was the introduction, which was shot indoors. Professor Littau told us that since the video was about the snow, which is a topic that consists entirely of being outdoors, we should have shot the introduction outdoors as well. I completely agree with this suggestion, and think it would have greatly helped the video.

All in all, not a terrible review!

I'm looking forward to filming for next weeks news video, which is also about our final project. Our final project is focusing on the homeless crisis in Bethlehem, and we are going to be going to homeless shelters to try and find some quotes. But, you'll hear more about that later!

Snow Video, Attempt #2

After a morning of filming, editing and producing, our snow video made it to youtube (as you can see from my last post). However, a few hours later my group members and I recieved an e-mail from Professor Littau, telling us that we had gone about the project completely the wrong way. This was supposed to be more of a news story that we would see on TV, not like a traditional web video like what we had been doing in the past.

After a few moments of discouragement, I decided to jump at the chance. I watch NBC Nightly News every night, and Brian Williams is my celebrity crush. I always watch reporters such as Ann Currey and wonder what it would be like to be on camera like them. So, when we needed a person to do the voiceovers and introduction and sign-off, I jumped at the chance.

And it was fun! True, it's horrible to see yourself on screen (you never look worse), and my voice sounds like Minnie Mouse, but I had a good time doing it! I think it brought a whole new element to the way our video's are done. I had a really good time doing the assignment. I think I can definitely see my group's skills improving, and our videos have been getting better.

Some criticisms with the video: we cut off two of our interviewee's while they were talking. They ramble! And it's hard to get a clean ending without completely going over the time limit (which we already did by 20 seconds). There's also indecent sound quality, with some people sounding a lot louder than others. I don't know if there is a way to fix that on MovieMaker or not, but I would like to find out.

So, here's the video. Check it out and see for yourself. I'd love to know what you think!

News Video, Snow Style

As you read on my last post, our news video about the homeless didn't quite work out. On the day we were supposed to film it, a blizzard occured and all of our cars were completely snowed it. Well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Our news video about the homeless quickly turned into a video about the blizzard that affected the student body.

We captured some great footage of students talking about how they were affected by the snowstorm, and ended up with footage of one guy having a ton to say, one girl who was practically mute, and one girl from Florida who said the snow was "intimidating," to say the least. We compiled them in a video, overlayed some pictures of the snow, created some title bars and credits, and voia la! We were done.

The video's a bit choppy, and I may come in on Wednesday just to practice making another one, but the end result is really not bad. Here it is!

Why Snow Ruins Everything

My group had a very solid plan for making our News Video today. We were going to film a short clip about the same idea our final project - the homeless people in Bethlehem, and how some of them are just ordinary people who suffered from the failed economy and lost their homes. Today we were going to go over to the homeless shelter on the North Side, and interview people who worked at the shelter.

Enter the "Snowurricane" that hit the Tri State area last night. Now our cars are stuck, the roads are a nightmare, and that homeless shelter might as well be on Mars for all of a chance we have on getting there. So, when in a crisis situation, write about what you know. So, our news story is now going to be about the snow! Yes, you've seen it before, but it's a big story and it's what is on everyones minds. Editing will occur on Monday...

And the Video Quality Lab has Finally Arrived!

My apologies to all who were anxiously waiting for our video quality lab video to come on youtube - we suffered some technical difficulties, including Windows Movie Maker flat-out refusing to take our clips, for no apparent reason.

The lab was an interesting one. We filmed at all different locations around campus in order to experiment with lighting and sound. I'd say our worst clip took place at Ulrich Student Center - too much backround noise. The best would probably be the deck at Drown Hall. We had an interesting background, an appropriate level of background noise, and an interviewee with a lot to say. Don't miss Steph's hilarious clip of her interview with the Asa Packer statue on the memorial walkway - we didn't find out about that until it was posted on youtube! I was away for the weekend so I wasn't able to help much with the editing, but I did talk Steph down from a nervous breakdown with Movie Maker, and she found Professor Littau who helped her to make the clip work!

So, here it is - hope it was worth the wait!

How to capture the perfect camera angle (and learn all you can about the Bethlehem Blizzard)

We started working on our new project in class today, in which all of our groups are assigned to go around interviewing students in various locations of the Lehigh campus about their feelings on a certain news issue. The assignment seems to be less concerned with what the students have to say, and more concerned about the technique we use to film it, most likely because our lessons this week are all about technique.

I think learning about technique is really important at this point in time, because most of the camera work I've been doing so far has definitely not been stellar. Filming is a lot harder then I thought it would be! It's hard to keep a steady hand, and you have to factor in all sorts of different concepts, such as the rule of three's and how to film away from sunlight and windows.

After class let out, my fellow group members Steph Albano and Alyssa Salem and I went out to start our interviews around the Lehigh campus. We decided to interview people all about the blizzard that happened last Wednesday, and about how poorly Lehigh notified the students about it. We finished the interviews that took place on the Drown terrace, in Grace Hall, a classroom, a small office with no windows, and the UC. We still have to complete the front walkway of Coppee Hall (it was deserted when we went today), the Admissions walkway, and the choice of our own.

So far, I think our camera work has turned out very well. We were very careful to try and film in angles where the sunlight did not affect us, and also worked hard to not have our interviewee's perfectly centered. A lot of people also had really interesting things to say, since the blizzard was something that really affected everyone.

This will definitely be harder to edit then the others, since there is a lot more camera work involved and a lot of different people who are on camera. We made sure to get down everyones names, and had them spell them out for us, so that we would be prepared when it became time to edit.

We'll continue filming/editing over the weekend - look back for more blogs all about it, and for our finished video! In the meantime, follow me on twitter at @alrol.

Google Buzz? Why not Twitter?

So when I logged onto my gmail on this lovely snow day, the first thing to pop up was an add for Google Buzz - do I want to check it out? Never one to say no, especially since I'm all about multimedia these days, I clicked yes, let's check it out.

And after about 5 minutes of exploration, I still don't understand why I would use this over Twitter? If I'm posting what I'm doing, why wouldn't I just post it on Twitter? Or, for that matter, wouldn't I just post a Facebook status update? After all, everyone I know is on Facebook, but not everyone I know is on gmail.

I want to know the ins and outs of this new form of social media, so I hope we discuss this in class! (hint, hint). For now, it's a snow day - meet ya for sledding on Rauch hill!

New concepts, old concepts, and putting it all together

Talk about a disaster of a morning.

For the past two days, I've been looking for my videocamera EVERYWHERE. I thought for sure that I had lost it, and was dreading the 250+ dollars it would cost me to replace it. After finally conceding to the concept that it was gone, I went to Professor Littau to admit to my failure.

It was as I was on my way into the building that I remembered exactly where that videocamera was. I had lent it to someone else in class last week! Crisis averted. However, I still needed two clips to use during class - a class that was starting in 15 minutes. We had to interview someone about their work, and then film them doing it. I ran up to my sorority to film Chef, our chef, only to arrive to find that he had left for the day. With five minutes to spare, I interviewed a friend of mine who is the Assistant Lifestyle Editor of The Brown and White, and got the footage. I was five minutes late to class, but what can you do.

Luckily, Steph Albano, a member of my group, had checked out her own camera and had gotten some great footage of her chef, Lisa, from her sorority. I used that footage, which was much better then my own, and sat down to work.

And, the video turned out great! I love the audio effects we used, giving a voice-over to our film. It looks so professional. Here's how the video turned out:





I think it's pretty good for my skill level at this time! I can't wait to learn some new skills.

Blogs, Blogs, and More Blogs

Today's class was a crash course in blogging: the good, the bad and the ugly. At this point in time, I'd say that the majority of our class falls in between the bad and ugly categories, definitely not excluding myself.

I don't know about the rest of the class, but this is the first time I've ever had a blog. I never kept a journal as a kid, I never had a livejournal or a xanga (wow, flashback - anyone remember those websites?!), and I'm simply not used to documenting my thoughts on a day to day basis. However, after exploring the blogworld with Professor Littau today and learning about the different techniques, I can see how this becomes a highly addictive past time.

First of all, I learned how to hyperlink something - isn't that awesome? I also learned about embedding pictures and video, which I'm sure will come quite in handy as I start to blog more and more.

The 100/100,000 rule definitely makes a lot of sense to me. It's much more important to develop a following with a few people then to have a bunch of people who've clicked on your site only once or twice. It's also definitely very important to have a voice, which I've found in my reporting as well. I'm not the super-serious type, as you can probably tell from my last few posts, but I also am not the type to rally off a dozen jokes per minute. If I had to guess, I'd say that my voice is breezy and casual, and I try to be as direct as possible. As the postings continue, I suppose I'll grow a "specific voice," but for now that seems to be the way I'm heading.

In the meantime, I just added my five "Bethlehem PA" Twitter friends, and am anxious to start learning the ins and outs of Twitter ! Hopefully next class we'll start with that. As of now, I'm still just following friends of mine and my favorite celebrities (although I'm still upset Miley Cyrus deleted her account). Follow me !

See ya on the web....
Allie

Video Outcomes

In case anyone was wondering, here are the videos that I created during last class! My topic was the economy and job market, and I made three videos: one full length, one edited, and one with transitions.

First, the full length video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ynXod6s3c

Next, the edited video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2ot0wPbJYs

And finally, the edited video with transitions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaivpmngus8

Enjoy!

Creating Short Movies

Today, we went out in groups and interviewed people about current issues (the economy, State of the Union, Elie Weizel's commencement speech, etc). I chose to ask people about the economy. My partner, Becca, and I went to the Upper UC to find people to interview. We came across a table of three seniors, which was perfect as I was asking about the job search, and Becca was asking about the commencement speech. The three agreed to interview with us, and so we began. The interview was slightly awkward, as the three didn't have much to say and I was pretty uncomfortable being on camera. After our interview ended, we thanked them and returned to Coppee to do some editing.

Our assignment had three components: first, to import the video and add title banners and credits. Second, we had to cut ourselves out of the video and put in a transition of a black background and white writing, asking the questions in writing. Finally, we had to add a fade transition in between our introduction slide and the first interview.

This was difficult to do, and it took me until the last minute of class to complete it. However, I'm proud of myself for being able to do so. My video is definitely choppy and I'm sure that there is much I can do to improve it, but for a first attempt I think I did a pretty good job. I was able to follow all of the instructions, and get the videos up on youtube. I think that my skills can only improve from here, and it was a pretty good start. Although, I still hate looking at myself on camera.

Day 1: Intro to Making a Video

Today we started to learn how to film, upload and edit a video. After about an hour and a half, I learned that I do not have a natural talent for this.

Learning to film is surprisingly easy. In a nutshell, all you have to do is press the red button, focus on what you want to film, and when you're done, re-press the red button. After that, you have a video! However, this is not the hard part. What I had trouble with in class today was what comes after the video - uploading the video, learning how to use the software, learning how to edit, etc.

I don't have a lot of experience with movie software. I made a music video for a class my senior year of high school, and last semester I was one of three who created a video for my Media and Society project. That is the extent of my knowledge and experience. Learning how to upload and converge the video requires a lot of memorization about the different buttons to press, but after a lot of repitition and practice I know that I will get the hang of it. However, what I had a really hard time with today was the editing. Getting the video to start and end at the exact time I want (it shoud be cut at 7:05, NOT 7:07), is so hard! It takes a lot of time, and a lot of testing before you get it to the exact place. There's also so many parts of editing that I know nothing about - transitions, combining videos, splitting cells - that I hope we spend time in class going over. I want to have excellent video skills and knowledge by the time this semester is over, so the more practice the better.

That being said, I love the environment of the classroom. It doesn't feel so much like a professor lecturing students, but rather a community environment where we are all working and learning things together. It's rare to find a class that you look forward to going to rather than dread, but I have a feeling that this is going to be one of them. In the meantime, hopefully my skills will improve with time. After all, this was only day one.