My Multimedia Final: 100 Years at the Durham Fire Department

In-Class Presentations

Ahh at last. The semester is wrapping up, finals are fast approaching, snow is soon to fall, and we'll all be home for the holidays with friends and family. I can smell that Christmas cooking! 

Everyone presented their final multimedia projects over the past two Mondays, and I was thoroughly impressed with the reporting, creativity, and tech-savviness of our class. Great job everybody!

1) Chantel McCabe: "Girl Scouts"

Chantel covered the decline and hopeful resurgence of the "Girl Scouts" organizations. The story arc was really easy to follow and she incorporated some high quality video clips, songs and pledges that added to the video. One thing that made the project jarring was abrupt transitions from text to photos and interviews.

2) Kelly Sennott: "Diversifying UNH"

Kelly covered the recent endeavors by university administration to diversify the UNH campus via study abroad programs, initiatives, and partnerships including the first Confucius Institute in northern New England. She had some great photographic stills, but one thing I would suggest is adding sub-captions to Wu Wang's interview segment when its hard to understand him.

3) "Fire Department turns 100"

My own multimedia project was the third presented. In light of its upcoming 100-year anniversary, I wanted to show how the fire department functions as unseen community servants and have in fact, saved lives even in this quiet town. I tried to show them in a "day in the life" structure. One thing I want to edit is leveling out the audio levels and incorporate more photos in the future.

 

4) Emma Floyd: "Unseen Sexual Violence"

Emma's presentation delved into the unacknowledged problem of sexual assault on campus. I was really impressed with her project as it used powerful audio from a sexual assault victim interviewee and photos. One thing I would have liked to see was more in her "reenactment segment" perhaps using video or ambient noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esw4fhoBySs
5) Brian Carroll: "GSWL"

For his project, Brian did a feature on the GSWL sport. GSWL is the acronym for Golden Stick Wiffleball League and has been growing in popularity. I thought the videos were great, really dynamic and entertaining although I was still with some questions about the sport itself. I can't believe how that ball moves!

6) Peter Luk: "Moving Off Campus"

Peter Luk covered his project on that college student rite of passage to moving off campus. His opening video was awesome, really established the energy of the story although something I might suggest is editing the video interview with the girl RA since it drags.

7) Kelsey O'Neil: "LGBTQQ Community at UNH"
Kelsey investigated the LGBTQQ community and environment here at the university, talking to students and faculty. I thought it was really well done with high energy and movement, but the parts where she inserted herself in the interviews was a bit jarring and disorienting with the rest of the presentation.

8) Hattie Perkins: "Non-Trad Student"
Hattie profiled a non-traditional student at UNH, a former Marine who served a tour in Afghanistan. The photos from his tour were really powerful and I would only like to have seen from more of his friends and/or family.

9) Brandon Lawrence: "UNH Skier"
Brandon profiled a handicapped UNH skier. Some of the video clips are neat and he has a great story. I might suggest incorporating some more profiling photos of him to avoid repetition.

 

10) Spencer Watkins: "Food Waste Management at UNH"

Spencer used his multimedia project to trace the food waste management process at UNH from the dining halls to the compost fields and the produce it generates. The sped-up video segments in the beginning were cool. The only thing I would change would be the repetition of some photograph stills and the consistency of music.

11) Erin Copeland: "America Loves Cupcakes"
Erin's cupcake multimedia project was really cute and well-though out. The intro montage of the cupcakes in sync with the music was cute and energetic and set a great tone for the rest of it. The only thing I would suggest is leveling out some of the interview audio.

12) Rachel Carpenter: "Legalizing Medical Marijuana"

Rachel delves into the underground world of legal medical marijuana, dispensaries, etc. I think it was very professional and well-reported. If I had to suggest something, I would love to see more of the dispensary itself.

13) Ariella Coombs: "Supporting Local Farms"

Ariella did her presentation on supporting local farms with a concentration on the NH Seacoast farm network. She did a great job of syncing audio thoughtfully with photos and using ambient noise. I might suggest doing this even more, with ambient noise of animals, plows, etc. throughout the piece.

14) Roy Hebert III: "Stress Management at UNH"

Roy covered his multimedia presentation on college students' stress management at the university. He talked to students and their various coping methods as well as yoga classes and other services provided by Health Services. There's one part in which the interview segment with the yoga instructor drags a little bit, but other than that it was well done.

Final Project

For our final projects in this multimedia class, we are expected to compile a five-minute journalistic presentation using audio, video, and still photography. Here are a few ideas I've mulled over thus far:

• 24-Hour Shift with the Fire Department

For our first assignment, I was invited to UNH's Fire department for dinner, a sit-down chat, and to ride-along for their yearly dorm fire drills. It was really exciting and since then, I've been in on-and-off correspondence with firefighter Peter Leavitt about doing it again, this time for the full 24-hour shift. 

• ROTC Students

 ROTC students are perhaps the most overlooked population in our collective student body. They come from all walks of life, all majors, all races and genders. They get up in the early hours of the morning for PT and attend special military classes in Zais Hall.

• Behind the scenes of UNH Hockey

Hockey is such a strong part of student life here on campus, but few of us get to see what goes on behind a UNH hockey game. Everyone plays a vital part: from the players to the zamboni-drivers. I think it would be interesting to see a hockey game from a behind-the-scenes perspective.

An Exercise in Effective Listening

In this hectic, schedule-driven life, sometimes it just takes a moment to stop and listen to be aware of our surroundings. In class last Monday, we tried this exercise by going out to various spots on campus to pick up on environmental noises that might ruin a recorded interview. We were instructed to stop, shut our eyes, and listen intently to our surroundings, recording everything we might hear. Spencer and I sat at a concrete bench in front of the MUB circle, a relatively quiet area, right? ...you would be surprised.

These are the sounds I heard:
- traffic passing on Main Street
- car, motorcycle engines revving
- chatter from passerby
- footsteps
-keys jangling
- the hum of ventilators outside the MUB
- birds chirping
- distant highways
- jet airliners flying overhead
- music
- police patrol officer directing traffic at the town intersection

The People that Make UNH Work: Phil the Bus Driver

Phil Rollins has been a bus driver with Wildcat Transit for 17 years. He makes his daily routes through Portsmouth, Dover, and Newmarket every morning. Newmarket is his favorite route and Friday is his favorite day of the week: its the only day he gets off early. He does not take sick days. He does not take vacations. He is picking up extra hours this year so he can go on a long-overdue vacation this summer to visit his sister and cousins in Wisconsin.

"I'm not the best, but the best don't mess with me."

My (In)Experience behind the camera lens

I think the advent of the tech-savvy have a lot to do with this multimedia boom. Something, I don’t claim to be. But I guess I wouldn't claim to be completely technologically incompetent either. here’s the breakdown on my journalistic materials and experience in multimedia:

GE A1455

Stats: This camera has a 14.1 Megapixel, 5x optical zoom. 18 MB internal memory. HD It uses 2 AA alkaline batteries.

Pros: This camera was a great choice while I was studying abroad. Its compact, lightweight and very user friendly. It has easy scenario settings for beginners and manual settings for more advanced users. It uses 2 disposable AA batteries and its much easier to swap out batteries while you're on the go versus frantically searching for a power source for a rechargeable battery.

Cons: I have to say, it eats batteries like candy though. A set of batteries will last a day or two at optimum use. It's also very sensitive to light. Bright light affects it negatively and distorts the image sometimes and sometimes the color is not always vivid even in sufficient light.


Olympus WS-400S

Stats: This handheld audio recorder records over 272 hours of high-quality sound.

Pros: One thing I love about this device is the "USB direct" feature. A USB drive slides right out of the bottom without any cables to fumble with or software to download. Very easy to use and stores a ton of audio.

Cons: This thing is extremely sound-sensitive. A good and bad thing in a recorder. The WS-400S picks up on things I hadn't even heard at the time: background noises, people talking across the room, echoes, etc. It should only be used in a silent (other than the interview) room, otherwise you're bound to pick up white noise.

These are my two primary means of capturing multimedia news. I have some recreational experience dabbling in InDesign, Photoshop, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Media Player, and Microsoft Office software. I took a high school class in photography and spent untold hours fumbling with wet, slippery film in a dark room. It was for my final project that I built my portfolio on macro shots. For some reason, I've always been fascinated in seeing (and photographing) the world through a macro-sized lens. I'm interested in photography that allows us to see the world in a different perspective, and the every day things in our lives from a new, refreshing view. I think that's important in still photography: to see things from a different perspective we would not otherwise have conceived.

What's the difference between a Canon and Video Barbie? It turns out not much.

Multimedia news has boomed in the past decade, even in the past five years. Youtube. Twitter. Facebook. Blogs. Live video feed. Digital cameras. The World Wide Web.

Sure, there are a lot of things circulating out there on the Internet that we wouldn’t exactly call newsworthy. Any idiot with a Facebook account and a digital camera on a weekend night can snap half a dozen pictures of her drunken friends at a frat party and call herself a “photographer” now. And it seems like nowadays anyone with a blog and an opinion can call themselves a “journalist.” But I guess I’m just skeptical. I don’t really care what some washed-up actress is tweeting on her Twitter account nowadays. And I start to question the direction of humanity when “Dramatic Chipmunk” gets 23,276,586 views on Youtube.

But the Internet has its time and place. And for the most part, the Internet and multimedia have undeniably redefined how people get the day’s biggest headlines.

Real multimedia is being a direct witness to history in the making. It’s witnessing gritty black and white images of Neil Armstrong softly land on the Moon’s white dusted landscape. It’s seeing the flooded streets of post-Katrina New Orleans. It’s seeing the Twin Towers crumble before your eyes. It’s hearing Obama deliver his inaugural address at the steps of the White House.

In our first multimedia class, we started exploring this idea. It’s scary to think how many times a day you are photographed, video-taped, and generally being recorded from surveillance cameras to someone’s iPhone. It’s not that I’m out there doing anything deviant and I’m not a superhero in disguise with a secret identity to preserve, but I’m not keen on stalkers having it easier. And I’m not a fan of having little to no privacy. It kind of makes me paranoid, or if not full-out paranoid, a little more on edge. It’s like Big Brother is watching you. 1984 stuff.

Sandy showed us some of the pieces of technology that can be used in multimedia: phones, cameras, Apple products and… a Barbie?

I think I’ve seen it all now. Its Video Girl Barbie doll and she records up to 30 minutes of AVI video through a camera lens discreetly disguised as a necklace. I thought five-year-olds texting on cellphones was obnoxious. Now, these same five-year-old girls can videotape you without you even knowing it?


Creepy? I think so.


But the Video Girl Barbie brings up a good point. Technology is an age-defining staple of our everyday lives now. Even little kids are getting in on it.

And that’s why, in the end, this technology is important. I’m looking forward to this class, even if I’m not the most tech-savvy journalism student on campus, but I’m hoping to expand my repertoire of journalistic skills and multimedia is going to be a big part of that process. Let’s just hope software doesn’t crash or a digital file is mysteriously lost. Because my computer likes to have meltdowns and that’s something I can’t have happen to me this semester. Technology can be fast and convenient sometimes. But it can definitely be a pain other times. We’ll see how I fare.

And for the difference between a $1800 Canon DSLR camera and a Video Girl Barbie? Check it out.