What I learned.

The past few weeks I have been reflecting on what exactly I learned during my time as as student here and more specifically, what I learned from my major. I have decided that what we are doing is really as simple as delivering a message. The message can have artistic flair or be more practical but the intent is the same. We are conveying information to people.

This is the approach I want to take in my professional life. I am a deliverer of messages and information. Because of my education and experience I am capable of doing this in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and effective. I could work in a few different capacities but I see myself as a video journalist or reporter.

I don't know what opportunities I will have through my career but I do know that I will have to continually improve myself and my craft if I hope to be successful. There is something to be said for finding yourself in the right place at the right time but that is still no substitute for a work ethic. As I grow my reel will continue to be a snapshot of my progression as an artist and storyteller. But I will always keep the philosophy that I am a delivery man.

Media Reel

Media Reel from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

MIXUP

Cool Things on the Web

The Civil Wars Video
This is the music video to a song that I really like. But much more than I enjoy the song I enjoy the way that the video was shot. The two singers do an excellent job of 'acting' out the song and the lighting is sublime. The subject matter of the song is pretty depressing if you listen to it many times (something I am prone to do if I really like a song) so I have to take it in small doses. But I really do love this piece.

Call Of Duty Gameplay Video
This is the video of a guy playing a game of Call Of Duty on line against other people in a free for all match. He manages to get 30 kills to win the game without getting killed himself at all. This is a pretty impressive feat but to other people that don't play video games this would probably be pretty uninteresting. I guess I picked to to post because this is something I like to do some some of my friends so it is very interesting to me to watch other people's strategies.

Digital Storytelling Project

Link

Digital Story Project

Digital Story Review 2

Link
This was a great piece. I think the ones that stand out to me as 'good' are the ones where you can tell people really want to tell their story. And it almost seems like an emotional release when they do. The story of this man turning his life around from almost certain death is to say the least, powerful.

Digital Story Review

Link
This was a particularly interesting reflection of the revisionist history that plagues the generation of southerners that lived before me. I am not sure why these people glorify what was clearly a broken and oppressive society that is now, in the unbiased eyes of those who were not immersed in it, utterly obsolete.
Whatever it is that makes people remember and obsess over a 'simpler time' I am glad that my generation (for the most part) does not have it. Nostalgia is fun, but at the end of the day it will get you nowhere.
As far as presentation goes, I have not seen much in my first series of viewings that really struck me as something I would want to incorporate into my own work.

Wolf vs. Falcon

This American Life Response

For my two audio pieces I listened to two separate episodes of chicago public radio's This American Life. Which I have listened to before and I usually really enjoy. I am going to focus my analysis on one story from each episode I found particularly interesting.
The first one I listened to was the one of the most current episodes called 'Contents Unknown.'
Contents Unknown was in general about different cases of unknown. The story that really caught my attention was the one about a man that woke up in an Indian train station with no memory of who he was and where he was at.
It was very sad to hear him dealing with the complete loss of not only his memory, but his identity. I was unusually emotionally affected by this type of first person journalism, and it is something that I want to strive to reproduce.
The second episode that I listened to was called 'Bait and Switch' from back in November. 'Bait and Switch' focused on cases where people set a trap and were duped. The stories take perspective of either the trapper or the trappee. The story that really caught my attention was the one where a young couple was worried about an abandoned car next to their house so they called the police. They were blown off and nothing was done about the car. They began to worry as time passed though, because not only was it abandoned, it was left with the window down and the key in the ignition.
After a little while longer of the car just sitting there in that vulnerable state, the couple went to examine the car for information about the owner. Not long after some police officers showed up and arrested the couple for breaking into the car.
After an arduous, and confusing legal process the couple found out that the car was called a bait car, set by the police to trap would be criminals. Now this kind of irresponsibility by their local government and police force is inexcusable. I believe that one of the key functions of the press is to expose behavior like this.

Media Diet - FINAL DAY

Sunday I got up and had work until about four.

10:00 Facebook/Email check
4:30 AFC Championship game on CBS
7:00 NFC Championship game on FOX
10:15 Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2
12:00 Facebook/Email check


I don't know if I would have watched all of the football games on my own, but I was at my fiance's apartment and she wanted to watch them so we did.
Overall this was a very interesting experement because when I would casually watch a television show, I might not think about it very much. Going back and writing down when and what I watched forced me to consider what was driving my decisions.
I have to say that I am still not really sure how the process of getting my attention works. I tend to take in media that I am familiar with. I say that because all of my news came from one source (al.com) and I only watched a few television shows/movies that I had never seen before.
Overall I think the driving force is just some kind of gratification. Call of Duty is a social, challenging activity I can do from my own bedroom so I enjoy it. The Office is a TV show I have followed for years and I am truly entertained by it.

Media Diet - DAY FIVE

10:40 Facebook/Email check
11:01 Music on Itunes
11:20 Alabama Mens Basketball on CBS
1:00 Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2
3:40 Facebook/Email check
5:00 Rivals.com
5:25: Al.com
7:00 Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2
9:00 Facebook/Email Check

Media Diet - DAY FOUR

9:00 Facebook/Email Check
11:45 Facebook/Email Check
12:00 Worked on CMF script
2:30 Finished CMF script and emailed it to team
3:00-7:00 Worked at Radio Station
9:00 The Soup
10:30 The Tonight Show w/ Conan O'Brian

It would be a little unprofessional to talk really specifically about my job on this blog, but I am involved in production so I count my job, along with this blog and my CMF script as media OUTPUT. I'm not sure if the balance is equal considering the exposure that my media output gets.
This was also Conan O'Brian's last tonight show..I have to say the guy came across extremely classy considering the situation.

Media Diet - DAY THREE

I am just about completely over my cold or whatever that was so I am moving a little faster. Thursday was very much a standard media day for me. I had a few FB/email checks along with the Television shows that I actually make a point to watch new every week.

9:00 Facebook and Email Check
11:15 Crimson White Newspaper
3:30 Facebook and Email Check
4:30 AL.com
6:00 Burn Notice (not normally something I watch but thought I would give it a try)
7:00 Community
7:30 Parks and Recreation
8:00 The Office (unfortunately, a flashback episode...this series is going downhill)

That was pretty much it for yesterday because my crew came over and we nailed down our plan for campus movie fest. All I will say is that it's a comedy and if we shoot it well, it should be pretty successful in the competition.
Moving into the weekend my media diet will change because I have some work that will show up on my output.

Media Diet - DAY TWO

9:00 Facebook and Email Check
10:30 Facebook and Email and Blogger
10:45 AL.com
SICKNESS ALL DAY
5:10 Media in The Digital Age (Read to me by my wonderful Fiance Krista because my headache was so intense)
7:15 Connan O'Brian Opening Monologue from the night before on NBC.com (after starting to feel better)
8:30 Community on NBC.com
10:30 Shrooms This is an Indy horror flick streamed through netflix

Media Diet - DAY ONE

So we have an assignment to keep track of all of our media intake over the next few days. The easiest way for me to do that is to keep track by day and enter the results in a daily blog post.

A few notes before I start:

1) I always check email and facebook at the same time and I do it probably 4-5 times a day.
2) Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 is a video game that I play with my friends online and it will be popping up quite a bit. Here is an informational link.
3) I have some horrible sinus headache that will not go away for some reason so the next day or so will hopefully not have much media intake.

Here is my log starting at about this time yesterday:

10:30 - You tube on projection screen in front of me in class
11:01 - Crimson White Newspaper during lunch
3:33 - Facebook and Email check
3:44 - Blogging: Jill Walker Rettburg
4:41 - Media in the Digital Age - Pavlik
7:00 - Alabama Men's Basketball game on ESPN
9:00 - Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on PS3
11:00 - Facebook and Email Check

The taste of Music

I was driving from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa last night so I had a good hour to ponder my taste in Music. I have been in a bit of an Indy stage the past year or so and I found myself slipping into the mindset that if a song is released by a major record label or reaches the top 40, then it has to be uninspired and meaningless.
I am not sure if that is true.
It did get me thinking though, how am I supposed to quantify whether a song is 'good' or 'bad'?

Take a fictional token pop star, we will call her Brittany Timberlake.
Brittany is an attractive 19 year old with a decent singing voice. Someone writes some lyrics that have been focus grouped and approved, then they purchase a track from some warehouse vendor.
Brittany comes into the studio and sings what they put in front of her. After some intensive editing and maybe a little synth mixed in for originality, we have the new track that is sweeping the nations clubs and top 40 radio stations. From top to bottom it was an efficient, profitable process.

Is there anything about this process that is artistic or valuable?

My theory is that all these pop songs, starting around Elvis and moving forward are pieces of a whole music history, and we will be remembered as a people for music that we embraced.

Self Portrait

A good solid 30 seconds of improvisational acoustic magic.

...And then there was Funsack!

I have typed this blog into existence after a little while spent trying to come up with an original name.

This web-log has been created for one of my classes here at the University of Alabama but I look forward to documenting this, my final semester here as a student.

I hope this blog is a little like Christmas for anyone who reads it. I being a jovial Santa and each reader being the recipient of a gift from the fantastic sack filled with fun.

In honor of the first post I will list a few of my favorite links for those who are interested

• Satirical Online Newspaper
  
• Entertainment News
  
• Flash Games to play if you are bored