Covering Under-Reported Sports

Team 9

Longhorn Survival Guide

Team 1's website:


http://2010.texasangle.com/1/

Team 4

Here's the link to our final project, The Future of the Past: Preserving Historic Austin.

http://2010.texasangle.com/4

team 5

Here is the link to our final project, Weird and Wacky Sports of Austin.

http://2010.texasangle.com/5/

National Geographic's Capture of the Festival of Lights

Diwali: Festival of Lights



"In India, one of the most significant festivals is Diwali, or the Festival of Lights. It's a five-day celebration that includes good food, fireworks, colored sand, and special candles and lamps."

Chupacabra

This is a pretty simple video, but I think did an all-right job with the video and audio. They do a pan shot and some establishing shots of the animal and scientists before they zoom in on the animal. This happens as they reveal more to the story (the part about the scabies). As they wind up the story, they show pictures of the chupacabra on the poster and then a sign that illustrates their point about the answer of what the chupacabra. This is a pretty basic video, but they include the basic fundamentals of video.

The screen shots, on the other hand could be improved. They don't use very photo/image quality. They don't really use any creative shots that play with dimension and most of the shots are centered on the frame. The still images leave a lot to be desired.

VBS video on Aokigahara Forest in Japan

As a magazine, I find Vice to be too overbearingly "hip." I feel like it tries too hard to be gritty and in-your-face. However, the news content is pretty remarkable. Vice has a knack for finding stories you really wouldn't find in any other news forum, and for tackling subjects that are obscure but fascinating. Vice's online "channel" is home to mini-documentaries and interviews on topics and with people you've never heard of before, but are mesmerized with by the time you're done watching.

The following video is on Aokigahara Forest in Japan, the site of a startling number of suicides. It's an incredibly unconventional topic for a news-feature video, but it's humanizing and gives you a glimpse of a part of the world you might never otherwise have seen. It's a really tragic story, and it brings into stark light a subject that is usually ignored or not discussed.

The website wasn't allowing me to embed the video, so here's the link: http://www.vbs.tv/watch/vbs-news/aokigahara-suicide-forest-v3--2

BBQ Politics: Darn good BBQ.. and video too!

A 200-pound mess of a video

So this is an example of a bad video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/09/30/sotvo.ia.huge.melons.kttc

First of all, there's no clear point to the video.
Yes it's a HUGE watermelon and that's cool, but why should we care? Does he plan to eat it with a hundred people, enter it at the county fair or hurl it at something? Is he trying to break a world record? There's no context in the video.
Then there's the technical aspects of the video. What of that awkward white noise while there's a closeup of the fruit? Also, there's sudden breaks in dialogue and therefore sound, all throughout the video. The quality itself of the video is also not good, the camera shakes too much. I thought the absence of noise was just on my computer but turns out, it's part of the video.
But the end is by far the worst characteristic of the video. It ends, just like that, in mid-sentence á la Sopranos series finale, which is very unprofessional.

After looking at the accompanying article, it's clear that this story was better fit for print and pictures rather than a video.

Video

I looked for awhile, but I can't find the original source for this video. I stumbled across it on Youtube. The story told in the video is remarkable, but if the man was standing in a crowded street and interviewed I don't think it would have been nearly as touching. The different camera angles and portion of video where he plays his trumpet really highlight the video. Also, the director uses the rule of thirds throughout the clip.

Logo Blog

The blog Brand New is a great place to check out logo redesigns.

News Video: New York Times

New York Times News Video called "Taming the City of God"

-I really enjoyed this video because it had a great number and variety of interviews. I especially liked the interview with the man who's brother was killed by the police. It was really great reporting that they found him and then showed how he has come full circle to trust the modern day police.

-The story is well told giving the viewer background and history of former police violence in Rio De Janeiro. Then it gets into the full story, provides interviews to support it (along with matching broll) and leaves the viewer thinking with a question at the end of the story.

-I also think the broll is excellent! There is a wide variety of shots that capture the element of the story and supports what the interviewees are saying.

The Power of Design: Do you like Gap's new logo?

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/companies/gap_logo/

Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, defended the logo on The Huffington Post Thursday, writing in a blog post that the move brings Gap into the modern age.

"We want our customers to take notice of Gap and see what it stands for today," she said. "We chose this design as it's more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward."

News Page- GMAD

GMAD

I picked GoodMusicAllDay because I visit it every day for new music. The layout is clean and simple with a menu bar at the top that is easy to navigate. Also, once you scroll down you see the music which you can skip around on with the music player.

I like the website because it has free songs for download and a ton of mix tapes that come out every week.

News Page--NME

http://www.nme.com

This is the website of the NME (New Musical Express), a very popular British music magazine. They are known as a source for online music news and are very reputable.

It's one of my favorite websites, but because of the content more than the layout. Look at how many links, pictures and videos are on the main page. There's a lot of information, but an overwhelming amount of it.

Overall, I like the font choices and layout structure of the page, it just needs to have way less content on the homepage. It makes it cluttered and hard to find information.

News Page- AOL

www.aol.com

Although this is pretty old school, I still tend to use this newspage to get random news facts. I check other websites on a daily basis like the NYT to get the majority of news, but since I still use AOL mail, I always tend to scroll down this newspage and read what's going on.

I like it because it's very simple. It has a tab for top news, business news, entertainment news and sports news. The website as a whole looks very appealing and organized to me. There's also an area at the bottom right that lets you choose which city you would like to hear local news from.

News Page - The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/

I really enjoy The New York Times' web page because the layout, in my mind, is similar to that of a traditional newspaper. There's the headline banner with the date as well as the included advertising. One doesn't have to scroll to the left or right when they open they page, however, one does have to scroll down quite a ways. The tool bar is rather large, but I think the use of bold and grey type makes it more easy to follow visually. The page is also broken up into sections, so that once one becomes accustomed to the page, they can instantly scroll to their favorite "section." Additionally, there are a lot of pictures included, but they don't overwhelm the page.

I think my favorite part about the page is that one can read the headline and the initial sentence which sums up the story for you. In an age where time is of the essence, it helps those who are on the go get a lot of news in a shorter period of time.

The New York Times also has an email version of their web page which I take advantage of as well.

News Page- The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

The Washington Post online has its news content aligned to left of the page. Advertisements are closely placed to the news content on the right. There is blank, white space next the advertisements taking up the rest of the area remaining on the right of the page.

The entire placement is poorly done. I think the news content should be in the center of the page while the advertisements are placed on either side. The Dallas Morning News is a good example of a better design.

News Page BBC News

www.bbc.co.uk/news

This is a good source for world news. I think there are a lot of positive aspects to this site.

Positive:

• I like the red and blue color scheme, and that the page is still very clear.
• The menu is at the top of the page, and you can browse by country or type of news.
• I think there is a good balance of graphics and text; the layout is easy to look at.
• It doesn't have a lot of movement, which I like because it's not too distracting.
• Most of all, this site is very easy to use.

There is one thing I don't like about this site.

Negative:

• The gray type is a little weird; it's kind of hard to read. Black would be better.

News Page - San Diego Union-Tribune

http://www.signonsandiego.com/

Overall, the home page of the San Diego Union-Tribune is not designed well, although it does possess some good qualities. For someone who is arriving at the page from a link, it's hard to know exactly what the page is. I think the biggest mistake on the page is that the actual title of the news organization is one of the smallest pieces of text. The title should be instantly noticeable, especially since the URL is signonsandiego instead of sandiegouniontribune, or something like that. It would be more recognizable to do it this way.

I think that the drop-down boxes for navigation are pretty bad too. The links to inside pages are tiny, difficult to read, and also white against dark blue, which is not ideal.

One of the things that I liked about the page is that there were several interesting, large pictures which made it less boring. However, I would have preferred that the links to top headlines and most popular, etc. were on the right instead of the left, giving more attention to the stories that are on the main page.

When you first navigate to the page, what you see in the browser is not particularly interesting, so I would have probably put one of the interesting pictures "above the fold" instead of a bunch of text and headlines.

Audio slideshow: The Lost Village of Imber

BBC News: The Lost Village of Imber

"The village of Imber on Salisbury Plain was abandoned nearly 70 years ago when the residents were forced to leave their homes in 1943."

Rex Sawyer, an author who wrote a book about the former British township, is interviewed about Imber, its history and the recent project to restore its church.

Most of the narration is done by Sawyer, lending credence to the story. The pictures, taken by BBC photographer David White, add mood and context to the spoken words. Additionally, the audio is crisp and clear and the sounds of war in the background contribute an ominous ambiance to the entire proceedings. The additional music sounds like traditional Anglo fare, which adds to the piece's historic bent. The other interviews are interspersed professionally and offer seamless transition in the long show.

The juxtaposition of tales of American soldiers in Imber with the images of young British soldiers in the pictures completes a ghastly motif of war. The entire thing, while sadly depressing, offers a glimmer of hope in its closing moments about the church's restoration, which brings the township of Imber full circle by the end of the rather long slideshow.

Audio Slideshow: The last Pullman Porter

Audio slide show: Pullman porter and family patriarch - latimes.com

This is an audio slideshow dedicated to the life of 100-year-old Lee Wesley Gibson, the oldest surviving Pullman porter. Pullman porters were train attendants that were hired after the end of the Civil War. As the slideshow's description says, Gibson was one of thousands of African American men whose lives were transformed for working for the Union Pacific Railroad.

What I love about this slideshow:

- In 2 minutes and 52 seconds, the show tells the story of Lee Wesley Gibson by giving us the essence of the man, even though we don't know many of the details. In that relatively short period of time, we learn that Gibson is a really hard worker (he looks really good for a hundred, huh?) and a dedicated family man. We learn that his life probably was fairly average of Pullman porters, yet Mel Melcon (the guy behind the slideshow) is able to eloquently show the beauty and complexity of this man's seemingly average life.
- Instead of Melcon narrating this guy's story, he lets him tell it himself. After watching this, you know that there would be no better way to tell this story.
- The pictures: The minor details Melcon utilizes make this a striking collection of shots. One of the first shots is of the living room in Gibson's house-- you can tell by the way his living room looks both bare and used that he is an older man who lives alone. The teddy bear sitting on a coach in a tidy, if not somewhat threadbare, living room seems indicative of this. The close-up shot reveals the spirit of Gibson in his eyes-- old, wise, and content.

Still Photo: Julian Casablancas

This is a photo of Julian Casablancas performing with his band, The Strokes, at the Isle of

Wight Festival in Newport, Isle of Wight. This photo was posted on Zimbio (an interactive online magazine) as part of a photo gallery from the festival. The photograph was taken by Simone Joyner of Getty Images Europe.

• The photographer does a good job of utilizing depth of field to make the photo more dramatic. Everything is completely faded away in the background, so the subject is much more prominent.
• The photographer also balanced aperture and shutter speed very well. Enough light was let into the lens to get the correct exposure, but the shutter speed was fast enough to avoid blur.
• The lighting in this photograph is also very good. The photographer uses top light (that ray of light beaming down), but because that light is very difficult to work with, you can also tell that there is another lighting source illuminating the subject from the side and therefore eliminating shadows that would have gotten in the way.

Photo Source: Zimbio

Still Photo: Garrett Gilbert

-This photo was taken by Becca Rushworth of College Pressbox, a weekly show about Texas athletics on Texas Student Television.
-This is new quarterback Garrett Gilbert, calling an audible before the snap in a play against Rice in the season opener at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
-Stadium lighting ensures good lighting conditions.
-Having the Rice player a little unfocused and the audience completely out of focus, and Gilbert crisply focused, emphasizes him.
-Perfectly caught him in the action of yelling out the play; there's a look of intensity in his face and he's angled perfectly.

Still photo from Time

• Although the picture shows a reflection of the man in the water, the focus is on the rose.
• The lighting and exposure are both good.
• The red color of the rose sticks out a lot since everything else is kind of a dull color.

Pictures of the week

picture from the statesman photo of the day

• The image has too much detail. The woman in the middle seems to be the main character but, she is too distant from the viewer
• It is not clear what the purpose of the picture is or what is happening
• The image could have been cropped so that there would have a focus point

To view the rest of the slide show from the statesman photos of the day click here

Still Photo from New York Times Magazine

-The lighting in this photo is good for being an "indoor" photo. The sunlight is coming in and there's no overhead lighting.
-The focus is on the action and intensity of the two girls learning in an Afghanistan girls' school.
-It's not too busy although there are a lot of people in the background of the photo. The angle is right.
-The yellow color in background adds to the photo since both of the girls are wearing black.

Click here to read the story on the Mirwais Mena School for Girls in the outskirts of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Photo post

This picture from New York's Fashion Week is a lovely, crisp photo.

The lighting for runway shows is perfect for photography.

The girl in the front is the only one completely in focus, so although she commands most of the attention you can still see that action is clearly going on behind her.

The diagonal line is very attractive and easy to follow.

You can read the entire story at NPR.

Audio Clips for Practice

Here is a great site with free sound effects and music to use with Audacity.

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

Still Photo Post

This is a picture of the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.
- picture is focused on him
- This looks like it was taken in the middle of the afternoon so the shadow is a slight problem
- There is nothing in the picture to distract you from him.

Still Photo from The New York Times

The New York Times - Still Photo

*It is the third image in the slide show*
This is an amazing photograph that immediately grabbed my attention. The colors in the photo are extremely crisp and vivid. The vantage point that the photographer chose draws you into the photo, particularly to the eyes of the young boy in the middle. There is no wasted space or extraneous detail to distract from what the photographer is trying to communicate. Overall, this is a powerful image that has a lot to say.

Still Photograph

NPPA Monthly News Clip Contest

This is a compelling photo because:

-It uses the frame EXTREMELY well. There's no dead space, but it's not too cluttered. 

-The exposure is good and the colors really pop.

-The alignment of the kids' legs with the drain is very graphic and pulls you in.

-Kids are ALWAYS good subjects

How to Understand the Economy

This American Life is by far my favorite podcast. It presents human interest stories in a fascinating and exciting way, and if I could be Ira Glass (the host), I would be in heaven. Every now and then they collaborate with writers from another podcast called Planet Money and National Public Radio and, in this podcast, they explain how the economic crisis began. Normally my brain inevitably shuts down when I hear phrases like "stock market" and "cash flow," but this podcast made me "get it" and kept my interest the whole time. This podcast helped me understand the economy more than any other medium at the time when it was first released in May 2008. I highly recommend listening to any other episode--they're all pretty good.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/355/the-giant-pool-of-money

An interesting NYT story on Twitter

http://bit.ly/9PvR10
Shared by Isabella

Photoshop exercise

Examples 1-2

Example 3

What is the difference between 1080i and 1080p?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_1080p_and_1080i_HDTV_sets

Photoshop tutorials

There are numerous free software tutorials online. Here is one:
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/dodge-burn/

This is a well-known tutorial site: http://www.lynda.com

Mac tips for PC users

Here is a friendly summary of some nice tips:
http://www.morgandayphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Helpful_Mac_Tips_Shortcuts_for_PC_users_.pdf

A full list of Mac keyboard shortcuts:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

Q: Is HuffingtonPost.com credible?

A: Here is an analytical piece in The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/06/huffington-post-us-newspaper-industry

Mac VS. PC: Windows 7 Vs. Snow Leopard