Riding Unlimited

For our final project, fellow class mates Carter Rose, Whitney Buster, Holly Dutton and I chose to create a multimedia piece on Riding Unlimited: an equestrian therapy center in Ponder, Tx. The entire project took about a month from start to finish.

Overall I am very pleased with the results of our project. We all put a lot of time and hard work into the project. It  is very nice to see something that includes all of the skills we have learned throughout the semester.

I think we all did a great job of working together, which made the countless hours we spent on this project pass by a little bit quicker. On a personal note, I did find that this project has been the most challenging for me so far. Not only in the subject matter, but also the overall skills needed to complete it. But like I said, its very rewarding to finally see a finished product.

Here is a link to the final project.

http://www.lisaparisot.com/Group%20Seven/RIDING%20Unlimited%20Group%207%20-%20FINAL.html

New York Times Campaign Overview

I have always admired the quality and quantity of multimedia projects that the New York Times presents on their website, and this piece is a great example of their work. This piece is simple, but very well made, and presents a great, compressed overview of the past 2 years on the political campaign for the 2008 presidency.

You can see the presentation HERE.

The overall layout of the projects was great. It is very simply, and clearly divided by markers at the bottom of the video letting the viewer know the sections that will be presented. The video seems to have been made with maybe a flash presentation, and does not have what I would consider very complicated editing or graphics. A soundslides could have almost had the same effect, minus the few video clips. It appears that a similar product could have been made with simple Final Cut editing steps. It seems like it would be very time consuming to edit it down to these precise photos and video, but after that step, the editing did not seem very difficult.

I enjoyed that it was presented through a lot  of single images, versus relying heavily on video. The use of still images made it possible to compress time, and not make the entire presentation too long. I also enjoyed the great mix of natural sound and the narration. I tend to not like pieces that have narrations, but this was very well done. It made it feel like a short documentary, unlike most short newspaper website  videos that rely entirely on natural sounds and interviews.

Overall this is a great peace that presents a very well compressed sequence of this very long campaign season.

Eating for Charity

An class assignment from a couple of weeks ago called for us to shoot a video individually, do all the editing, and ultimately tell a story through this video. I chose to cover the Alpha Phi’s Pancake Phist, which is a charity event in which an all you can eat pancake dinner is served for 5 dollars, with the proceeds going to the Alpha Phi Foundation which donates to cardiac care and research. I am not completely satisfied with the video for several reasons. The audio quality is not great, the overall lighting was not great, and the sequences in the video are not that strong. Im still having trouble adjusting to shooting video, mainly because it requires a lot of planning, and you really cant count on catching one decisive moment.

Election 2008

For last weeks class assignment, we were asked to gather several politically based photos. The obvious idea that came to mind would be taking pictures of political campaign signs sitting in peoples front lawns, and I definitely foundd those. After a couple of those, I thought that I really wanted to incorporate people into the photos and not simply have inanimate objects, so I kept searching. I cam across the first photo when driving around town, and the second photo was taken during the first day of early voting.

Priscilla Washington, her husband Tyrone Washington and her daughter Tenia Curry, 1, sit on the porch in front of their house located on Lakey St. in Denton, Tx Sunday October 18, 2008. Priscilla and Tyrone said the both plan to vote for Obama.

Daniel Duarte holds his son JuanDaniel, 2, on his shoulders while he and his wife, Grace ,wait in line inorder to cast their vote during the first day of early voting at the John A. Carroll Building in Denton, Tx.

 

Tony Ramos Soundslide

Last week, we were required to produce a  soundslide centered around the topic of “student life”. I choose to to do a story on Tony Ramos, a masters vocal performance student, based on his last masters vocal recital. The photos were taken over a span of 3 days, two before the recital, and the actual day of the recital. Considering that this was my first attempts at using Soundslides, I am very pleased with the final result.

Click HERE to see the final product.

Multimedia Site Critique

This week I visited two multimedia based sites: Churchill’s Speeches and The Halifax Explosion . Both sites have a high volume of interactive material, and deliver their information in a nontraditional format.

Churchill’s Speeches http://www.churchillspeeches.com/                                                                                              

This site is centered around an audio recording of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech delivered in 1946. The fact that the entire site is centered around an audio clip is one of the main examples of the different approach taken to deliver the inforamation. The audio clip is accompanied by text that follows along with the speech, which comes in handy when some of the words are not crystal clear. A series of shorter articles, photos and an overall vast amount of information are presented in a flowing graphic which appears a-top the audio clip. While I did think the flowing graphic was a good idea, I found it a little hard to understand. A series of colors are used to divide the topics, which makes the graphic look good, but did not to much to clarify the information for me. The viewer must also remember to click on all of the appropriate links in order to access all of the information, which can be a little distracting since the information scrolls along with the aduio. I did appreaciate that it was presented in a completely different format compared to the usual all text formats. While it did contain some audio, and photos, there was no video, and I think the photos would have made more of an impact if they were presented automatically, and  had not required the viewer to click on them. While I found the lay out a bit confusing, I must admit that it encourages a high level of viewer interactivity. The viewer can completely control what they view, and hear, and the site also allows feedback, which also adds to the overall interactivity of the site.

The Halifax Explosion

http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/index.html

This site had a higher level of newer multimedia examples like video, photos, and interviews, but was presented in a more tradition format, with a lot of text. The site did a very good job of chronicling the events of the Halifax explosion, from the beginning, all the way to the point of rebuilding the town. Most of the information was presented in a traditional text format, which I found a bit boring, but easier to understand. I did appreciate the fact that the site catered to a more visual experience, with video options and photos beginning every chapter. I felt that the site did not rely heavily on graphics, which made the lay out a little stale to me. The interactivity of this site is just as high as the Churchill site. The viewer can choose what to view, hear, and read. The interviews and video also added an element that brings the overall site more up to date. This site also encourages feedback, which is a prime example of letting the viewer be involved.

An article by Angela Grant from newsvideographer.com, she stated that a good video can can be based on three basic elements: movement, emotion or something odd that a viewer wants to see for themselves. I think this (http://www.dallasnews.com/video/index.html?nvid=227449) video by Dallas Morning news reporter Jake Batsell is a great example of the video she was referring too. This video tells the story of homeless people who are given the opportunity to live in apartments after completing a program at the Samaritan Inn. The video is based on a lot of emotion, and I think is also something unusual that people would want to see. The video allows the viewer to see who these people are first hand, and see them move, and theyre reaction to their new homes. An article simply would not have been able to deliver the same effect as being able to see it first hand.

Jimmie McGee Interview

As the first assignment for our multimedia class, we were required to conduct a short interview and edit the results to form a cohessive story. I chose to interview Jimmie McGee, a hurricane Gustav evacuee who arrived at the North Texas Colisuem after two days of looking for shelter. I spent a few minutes talking with Mr. McGee after he stepped off the bus. Here is the final result.

New Orleans resident Jimmie McGee evacuated his home after the possible threat of Hurricane Gustav. McGee siad he had just finished recovering from the damage of Hurricane Katrina.

I found his story to be quite interesting. I found the interview process to be much more enjoyable then the actual editing process, which turned out to be more tedious then complex. 

So it begins

Even though I have been practicing photography for nearly 4 years, I haven’t really dabbled in the new world of multimedia. After having countless students, professors and photography professional tell me that I need to be equipped with multimedia skills, I am glad to be part of this class.

I hope to walk away with more then enough knowledge to not only create photo projects for the web, but also gain the experience of shooting video, which seems to be extremely crucial in today’s news business.