Unexpected 'Eurikas'~

"Any work of art that can be understood is the product of journalism." - Tristan Tzara


Through out my life I have been thinking about journalists more of attention seekers than anything else. I just saw them as the "annoying fly" that is just pestering throughout the day.  It is amazing how wrong I was. Maybe I was just bias because of all the "craptacular" performance of journalists in Mexico. Sometimes it was just too painful to just sit and read the newspaper.

It was amazing to notice that now a days journalism is not just about "getting the juicy story" out there. Its more about informing the citizens what is out there and what is currently happening around the city/country. It is just amazing how journalists impact the society with just simple words. The way they communicate is more of an art than just a performance. 

When ever I read the news, I feel like the journalist is, more than anything, trying to speak to me face to face. The words just.... get me to a level of understanding. Just the meaning and ways of communication  make a symphony of words through every readers mind. This past few months I have learned that writing is not a dead art, but another method of communication. I have learned that even visual communication has a major impact on the society. Photos and videos play a major role in journalism, it just makes it more.... exciting and fun to work with! 

I think sometimes we should just pause instead of judging because in the end we will just enjoy what we 'hate'! 

Loyally yours,

The Wandering Terrier

Undestanding the world of Journalists~

So today I sat down and read as much journalistic posts there were in this site. At first the site was a bit confusing to my understanding, yet it didn't impact me as one of those boring Journalistic sites *coughs* BBC News*coughs* Anyways *clears her throat* I loved the way the journalists here speak to you as if you were part of the action, part of the story and keep you in there until the end. In some cases within the story, you just simply... get lost between each word.

So I presumed back into the my goal, trying to gather around as much information I knew back in my journalism classes and try and understand the methods of communication they use. Above all the interesting stories within the site, I chose "How They Did It: Symbolia". One of the reasons I chose this story, was because it was guided to the intent of art and expression of communication through illustrations and comics. "Symbolia is a tablet magazine of illustrated journalism that pairs incendiary reporting with thoughtful illustration and comics. Our goal is to provide an immersive, engaging experience for a new generation of newshounds."

Within the first glance at the story, the "layout" and "format" they applied it just gave me the impact of interest. The esoteric methods they used just impacted the aesthetics of the site! Giving the 'welcoming' intro for any viewer and reader. Another artistic design that I liked, was that they presented the art directors and and featured cast from the site as "special" drawings of them. In this case, in an artistic side, it does give the sense of connection with the reader, making it informal and informative.

Obviously the site is link oriented giving out the references from each part of the site to give the people the direct path of information. There are specific links which will take you to specific spots on the main site, related to the topic they are talking about. Therefore, they take in the topics that a normal reader, like you and me, need to know before giving the big leap into a new site. Its like going to war without weapons or knowing how to use them! Proper recon prevents ambushes!

As always,
Loyally yours!

The Wandering Terrier *barks*

Interviewing and Distributing~

Hello everyone!
I'm sorry for the lateness on my side, sadly things have been hectic on my behalf to the point of me stressing out in every end. Finals are slowly peeking out from the corner and my Honors classes just simply seem to get... stressful! Yes, Honors should be that way but now its taking me even more time to analyze data! Gosh! I think by the end of the quarter I might be laying down staring at the ceiling for hours! Yes, there will not be enough data for me to encode after all the dramatic days that had been passing through!!

I know, the life of a student has to be this way. Except! If time is available for everything, things would be a bliss. Sometimes I freak out to much that my own body cant even handle! Its even more stressful when I remind myself that being an international student counts even more! Not that the school is following your ever step through the day... i think. *peek over my shoulder* I know they have better things to do! *nervous laughter*

Anyways! Back to the Interview from this week! So I had some extravagant moments this Saturday that kept my muscles aching through the rest of that day and the morning of today! So as a team, we went to help this student from the EVCC to mow her lawn. Yes, as you hear it... read it... see it? Anyways! This lady/student, didn't had the chance to maw the lawn for 2 years! Can you believe it? Two freaking years! Yes, as you expect it, the lawn was huge! It was as tall as me and I'm 4'8! It was a whole day of mowing the backyard, which was a quarter acre! We gathered people to help us out with the exhausting day of work.

Anyways, here is her interview!

Final ideas~

For my final video I will ask the masses the question that has been driving me for years, what is CGI? Posing the question to the people, if you can understand the people and what they want from their movies and games. The art form of computer generated imagery will evolve and grow. Any game I make, every movie I animate will be the best that I can do.

Another thought to cross my mind is the project that I am working on for my small group communications class, we are going to assist a member of our community in cleaning their home. The lady that we are helping is a student at EVCC, works full time and is a mother of two. It would be a very interesting documentary of people working together to solve a common problem. Her lawns hasn't been mowed for almost 3 years and she needed some physical aid. WE are going to do an interview with the student and hear her story, also, there will be small clips of the progress of the front yard.

Loyaly yours,
The Wandering Terrier

Storyboarding~

A multimedia story is some combination of video, text, still photos, audio, graphics and interactivity. Instead of thinking first part, second part, and so on, it helps to avoid the linear planning. You have to define the parameters of a story within available resources and time, organize and focus a story, and figure out what medium to use for each part of the story. A rough storyboard doesn't have to be high art; it’s just a simple sketch. This helps you identify the resources you'll need to complete the story.

Storyboarding its mostly based on interaction between the camera guy and the shooting scene, this does help to organize and establish the primary ideas. This procedure helps to get the interface of the scripts and scenes, to easily get a rough idea. Therefore, storyboards not only help organize step by step, it also helps to make sure that everything its going as planned instead of just having it flying around without organization.

Modern Media Musings~

So, recently I’ve been having issues with my beloved BBC, recently I just don’t feel part of that world anymore. I do have this love for immediate news yet how the editors and journalists work their words just... gets me. Lately, reading recent news from them has become a bit obnoxious to the point I just have to stop and breathe. Maybe now I understand why people continue to tell me that they are sort of… biased and somewhat emotionless in some aspects. Yet, I still want to believe that the BBC has that power that got me from the beginning.

This week I was looking for a multimedia story that actually made some journalistic sense and was not history oriented. Last video that essentially caught my love for art and color theory based, yet now, the British seem to be boring. So I went and searched for good stories out there. Some said to look out for the NY times, some the Seattle Times, and others just simply told me CNN has great reviews. Yet, living to close to Seattle, I decided to go and check the Seattle Times.

The stories there caught my heart, they contain a fragrance of amazing culture and they do speak to the people. They are opinion-based news and yet they try to have the one on one interaction. Therefore, I found good videos that just simply communicated effectively to the people. “A Ride on the Seattle Center Monorail” contained the cultural and touristic path. They show the amazing views of the city and the emotions of people reacting to them. Just wonderful.

Loyally yours,
The Wandering Terrier~

Effective use of slide shows~

During the holidays we all want to portrait this colorful positive and cheerful side of us. WE are guided though the seasons, showing that inner child of us at the moment we are decorating the Christmas tree. Who doesn't love the aroma of recently baked cookies coming out from the oven?Well I can raise my hand on that one, I certainly do love it!

The BBC did a very interesting history of the colors used in Christmas, the traditional red, green and white. The red and green dating back the farthest to the ancient pagans. The red and white a bit more modern, and fully blamed on coca-cola's image of Santa drinking their product. but even those pop culture images 'harken' back to the red and green with the background being green more often than not. Although they still emphasize each other in the color wheel, they still have this convenient media factor.Today the traditional colors of Christmas are beeing blinded and drowned out by the many colored lights that we decorate our homes with.

In this 4 minute video, the BBC is portraying the past history of those natural and most delightful colors chosen for this holiday. From the 14th-15th century to the mid 90's were the pop culture simply used it in a mercantilism strategy. This video just gives the exact and precise story line, beginning from a simple detailed sparkling light to a deep concept of "why's" of this colors. The fluency of the video does actually give you this sense of traveling through the years, effectively capturing the attention of the viewer.

Loyally yours,
The Wandering Terrier~

(Original video:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16189761 )