For our final project in Journalism and the Web we had to come up with a story that could have three parts that make up one story. We had to have video, an audio slideshow, and a written story and we had to put it altogether in a flash file. For our story we chose to cover the North Texas Food Bank and what they are doing as well as the North Texas community to help fight hunger in North Texas.

The first thing we did  was the audio slideshow which covered an event at the North Texas Dragway that was set up in order for fans and racers to donate canned food items to the North Texas Food Bank so they could give the food out to families and provide them with meals for the holidays. The next thing we did was a video at the North Texas Food Bank interviewing someone who works there about what they have to do at the food bank once they receive the donations and how they go about getting the food out to the families. The last video was a couple interviews with the families who received the food and how the North Texas Food Bank and the food they received from them impacted their lives and their holidays.

The whole project was much more time consuming than I first thought it would be; however, it was a very fun project to cover. It helped me learn a lot about the food bank and how much people care about their community by how much they donated at the race track event. I think the project was very successful and turned out very well. I am excited to say I had a part in creating this story and I hope everyone enjoys it and realizes how little some people have and that you should never take advantage of the things you have no matter how little you think they may be.

Here is a link to the final story:

http://www.lisaparisot.com/Foodbank/foodbank.html

dipity / photochick77

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This week in my Journalism 4720 class we were assigned to watch the interactive video presentation put together by the New York Times and give our thoughts on the video and how we think it was done. The content of the video was pretty good; however, the way the presentation was pieced together was by far the best thing about it. It definitely sucked you in and held your attention throughout the entire presentation. I believe this was edited and put together using Final Cut Pro and I also think they used Flash to do it as well. The presenation was pretty much a narrative story over the 2008 election going all the way back to when it first started being talked about and campaigned over last year. It covered everything involving the elections all the way up until the election day on November 4, 2008. The presentation was extremely good and easy to understand and follow. This looks to be a very hard presentation to put together and yet the Times did it extremely well. They used great photos, interviews with the voters, pieces of video, natural sound, bits and pieces of audio from the candidated themselves, and it was narrated by one of the reporter from the Times who helped put it together. I thought the use of graphics was extremely cool and efective for drawing in viewers. It also helped make it easier to be understood by the viewers. The first part where they layed it out with a map was really neat. I wish I knew how to do that and I hope I will someday be able to learn it because I would definitely use it in my own videos and presentations. The graphics also helped move the story along and I think the good photos made a big difference and helped it to be even better. Overall I think this story was great and I definitely recommend it to everyone to watch it and see what they think about it. Here is the link to the video:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2008-election-overview/

Over the past two weeks our assignment was to go out and shoot a short video with a interview in it that could tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. For my video I chose to interview a race car driver named Chris White. My video is about what he does to prepare his car and himself for the race. The video was not to hard to shoot, the interview was the hardest part because you cant control what they say and sometimes they dont give you the information you want and that you can use. The hardest part was the editing process. It was difficult to do just because I had never done it before and wasnt sure what I was doing, but now that I know how to do everything Im sure my next video will be much better. However here is the video I made for anyone who wants to see it:

This past week our assignment was to go out and take pictures of anything political. At first I thought this might be hard but then when I went out and actually looked around I realized there were political things all around whether they be signs, bumper stickers, shirts, cups, etc. So I took a few pictures of some things I saw around campus. And I may have more to come later but for now here are the couple that I have.

This week our assignment was to critique two different websites and post the critiques on our blogs. We also had to choose a story and defend why it is a good use of multimedia on the web. For my critiques I did the Halifax Explosion website and the Churchill Speech Interactive website. Below are my critiques of these websites.

The Halifax Explosion

There are many different types of graphics used in this website. The photographs help demonstrate what the website it all about and it gives visual aids to go along with the text. They help the viewer see things about the story that just mere words cannot convey. It uses a chart, which is an information graphic, to show the recipe for a giant bomb. It also uses a timeline chart to show the events leading up to the explosion and the explosion itself. I think the slideshow the website is also a great use of graphics and really helps to keep the viewer interested and it also helps them understand the material the website presents. This site also uses a produced graphic, which is the map that shows where the city of Halifax is located. I think this is a great thing to have; it helps the viewers get a better idea and place the location in their minds. The site also has good use of audio. It has an audio clip of an interview between Mackey and CBC radio, and also one with Creighton and CBC radio. I think audio always helps to give people a better understanding of what is going on. This website also uses some video, such as the quick time videos over the Mont Blanc, Imo, and the silent aftermath film. I think the site does a good job convey their message effectively with the graphics and slideshows that they use; however, video clips do help viewers feel more like they are there and they can relate to it better. There is also a good use of rich content in this site. In order to play some of the clips on the site they use Flash Player, which provides interactivity. Another good use of interactivity on this site is that they allow you to contact them and send them your Halifax stories to be published on the site. Overall I think this is a great site and it effectively uses all multimedia aspects very well. It’s a great website and would be a great example for anyone to follow who wants to make their own website.

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

Churchill Speech Interactive

This website is not as impressive to me as the Halifax website, but it is still a pretty good one. It doesn’t use as many graphics as the Halifax website, but it does have some graphics and the graphics they do have are good ones. It has many photos to help keep your attention and help convey the message and go along with the text and the audio. The site; however, does not have any produced or information graphics that I could find, and I think those might have helped make the site more viewer friendly. The website does have a great audio slideshow. I think the slideshow was a great affect, very informative, and definitely keeps the viewers interested and not wanting to leave. The slideshow also has text to go along with it so if you don’t hear something that is said you can read it, which I think is a very good idea. The site doesn’t have any video that I could find, but I think the audio slideshow was good enough that there aren’t any video clips needed. This website, like the Halifax one, also uses Flash Player so it has a good use of interactivity. It also has a contact us section where you can write them comments and suggestions and they will reply back to you if you want them to. This is a good use of interactivity because it gets the viewers involved and lets them state their wants and opinions. Overall I think this is a pretty good website. I do like the Halifax one better, but that’s just because I am a more visual person and the Halifax website is more visual friendly. This website could be better with a few more photos and maybe a couple video clips, but I do like it overall.

http://www.churchillspeeches.com/index.htm

For the multimedia story to defend I chose a story about a donkey who went to court as to testify as a witness that he was a peaceful animal.

The donkeys name is buddy and he went to court April 18, 2007. Buddy was brought to a Dallas court room to prove his civil nature after a neighbor complained to the court that he was a nuisance. I think this video is a great use a multimedia on the web because it is definitely a story that people would want to see and it also has some emotion in it. It shows how much emotion this guy had about proving to the court and everyone else that his donkey was a perfectly civil animal and the lengths that he went to in order to prove it. It of course is a story that people who want to see because who would actually believe a donkey was allowed in court as a witness if there wasn’t evidence and footage to prove that this actually happened. For these two reasons alone I think this is an excellent use of multimedia on the web.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=136788&catId=342

Last week my class had our first audio gathering assignment. The assignment was to go out and interview a friend over either a talent, a hobby, or their personal history. After we got the interview we had to edit the audio and make it sound as best as possible. I chose my best friend Kristi Mannon and I interviewed her over her personal history. Im in the final stages of the editing process right now and as soon as I complete the editing I will attach the audio link to this post for everyone to be able to see it.

Interview with Kristi Mannon

This week we were told to go out and do an interview and take pictures for a sound slide assignment. The assignment was to do an interview over some aspect of student life and then take pictures that go along with the interview and then combine the pictures with the interview in order to make the sound slide show. This was not extremely hard but I did find it a little difficult to come up with an idea for the slide show and it was also kind of difficult to come up with a lot of photos to go along with the audio. I finally decided on doing an interview with an incoming freshman and how he felt about their new college life and experiences. As soon as I edit the audio and combine it with the photos I will attach it to this blog so that everyone can see it.

Williams transition from high school into college

This semester at UNT I am taking a class called Journalism and the Web. This is my first day of classes for the semester and I am designing this blog for my Journalism and the Web class. The times on here are messed up though, it is really 5:38 pm on August 25, 2008. This blog is all about my work in the class and the things that I learn in this course. I am taking this course to help better my knowledge in all forms of media that I possibly can. I want to learn as much about every field as possible so I will know everything I need to know when I go out into the world and begin shooting for a living. In this course I hope to further my knowledge in photography and learn how to use photography and the web effectively. I also hope to learn how to shoot videos effectively and add sound to the videos that I shoot. I am really looking forward to taking this class and learning as much as possible. I think this will be a really interesting, fun, and beneficial class to my career.