Press Project | Project Progress

Ok. So I have been slacking with my blogging for this class. Here's where I stand right now.

The show was last friday night, and I feel I got a lot of great material. I have pretty much the whole show on video, so I have an endless supply of clips to toss in the slideshow. The guys in the band were psyched I was doing this so I got some good audio of them talking about both the history of the band and the reunion show.

The only problem I encountered was the lighting in the venue. There were red lights all over the walls and the lights coming off the stage made it hard to get good shots without light distortion. However, I did meet this really cool dude who was a photographer covering the show, and he's gonna help me out a little because he had a much more professional camera with proper flash and all that.

Overall, it was a great experience, and this is the kind of stuff I want to get into so I can't wait to put it all together. I plan on getting most of that done over break.

Also, props to DJ for letting me borrow his audio recorder since the Media lab was out.

Word.

Kind of Slept on this Post, Story of My Life

OK, heres the rundown for my final project:

Last year I did a story on a reunion show for a local, UNH bred, Hip-Hop group called the Press Project. That show wasn't a complete reunion, as only one of the three core MC's was at the show. Since going separate ways a few years ago, this local success story sort of faded out of the spotlight and their potential has been somewhat forgotten (or at least, their buzz seemed to fade out in their pursuit of different ventures).

Since the disbandment, the three MC's have gone on three different career routes, respectively. One has continued to pursue his solo music career in Boston. The second moved to LA to focus on the industry side of music, creating a website with resources for up-and-coming artists, writing articles for local publications, and has since started working for the Lyricist Lounge. The third took an altogether different route, entering a career as a teacher.

This reunion show serves as the first time all three have shared the stage in a few years. The angle I want to take with this story is a sort of "where they are now" story, and what the reunion means for the the group. Focusing on their previous success, why they split, and what this show could mean for the future of the group.

By interviewing the group and covering the actual show, I want to capture the essence of the group, the strength in their talent, and the local support they draw. The fact they were a product of UNH, and went on to open for big name acts like The Roots, Slick Rick, and play at Bonnaroo serves as a strong local interest, and a relevance as a real success story- the questions raised in this would be why did they leave this success behind, and could this reunion bring that fire back (or not?).

As with most of the investigative stories I've done in the past, I will probably find some greater angle or story through my reporting, but this is the starting point.

Word.

The Ninth Floor

The story I chose was a piece called “The Ninth Floor,” by Jessica Dimmock. It paired very gripping and (literally) sobering photos with audio commentary from the subjects studied in the story. Like most of the stories on Mediastorm, I found this one to be quite moving, and it captured what Dimmock was trying to convey perfectly

The story followed a group of drug addicts who lived in a rundown apartment in, of all places, Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. With images of needles and tortured souls, I found it tough to swallow at points, but that’s what appealed to me the most (if that makes sense).

The images of these people shooting up were so real in the sense that I could feel the pain being translated through the photos. Scars and swollen vains, somber faces, and darkness surrounding these people really captured what an environment they were living in.

In the opening sequence, Dimmock uses photos of highlighting this destruction of mind, body, and the actual apartment, and transitions into a picture of one man licking the needle of his syringe. Coupled with the music she used, this really grabbed me and I realized although the drugs were tearing these people apart, they were still chasing the temporary satisfaction they were getting like it was all they had to live for.

I like how Dimmock uses pictures of arms and hands, focusing on the veins and needles being used, and then transitions into a face of one of the addicts, with their eyes focused away from the camera, looking scared or confused. The audio testimonies in the background of what they were actually feeling really brought it full circle.

One specific photo that really moved me was at 2:48 where Jessie is sitting in a dimly lit room, gazing up at the ceiling- her eyes wide and almost detached from whatever was going on in her head. The lighting was perfect, illuminating half of her face, the ash tray overflowing, the clutter on the nightstand, and the 40 oz to her left The other half over her face- complete darkness. This really helped me feel how lonely her world was.

Drawing both the darkness of addiction, and the hope from recovery with the couple who went on methadone and started a family.

The sequence of these two getting in a fight, with Dionn bleeding from the mouth, only to me kissing Natasha in the next picture, said more about their destructive, yet perfect relationship- as perfect as either of them could attain in their situation.

Dionn’s testimony of how people are inherently good and only learn bad while pictures of their child were shown brought a real sense of humanity in a terrible situation.

To put it simply, the story felt all too real.

It would be really hard for me to tell all that I felt from this piece in 500 words, but in summation I feel Dimmock’s style was very on point for the topic she was covering. I really noticed the importance of lighting, focus, and selection of photographs, and I hope to apply this type of imagery in future projects.

http://www.mediastorm.org/0021.htm

Before and After

Here are the "Before" photos DJ Bean and I took from last week...



Here are the "After" pictures...



Cheers,

Mike

Slide show

I think it took me longer to find the embedded code on Picasa than it did to take the pictures for my slide show, but oh well. I decided to take pictures of intramural sports, particularly broomball. Broomball is one of the most popular intramurals, and draws a great number of students to participate. I feel like this organization is very important to the school because it is a great way for students to get involved and really take advatnge of what the school has to offer students...well, besides an education of course.

Not to mention..my team did win the Men's Broomball Championship and we were 2nd place in the Co-Rec Championship sophomore year...no big deal.

Second Audio Project

Tonight we finished our second assignment using audio. This time we encountered a few more obstacles with levels and background noise, but besides that I feel we had some good content in our interviews.

Some of the emotions of the people interviewed were captured pretty well, especially when the two students were talking about waiting in line for Akon tickets.

I feel like I am getting a better feel for audio production and where to fit the right content in. I still need to work on some recording issues in regards to capturing background noise which distorts the voice of whoever is being interviewed. I feel this piece shined that the most and helped me learn how to make a better recording next time.

Also, music was incorporated this time instead of ambient noise which allowed more of a freedom to play with fading in and out of the clip.

Here is the clip of the project:

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Working With Audio

The one thing I learned the most about working with audio is how difficult it really is to fill 2 minutes with quality material. Just having a conversation I think lasts three minutes may actually only include 30 seconds or so of usable dialog. Using a B-roll with ambient sound helped fill in some gaps, but for the most part- choosing the right audio to use involved a great deal of cut and paste and careful editing.

Luckily, our subject was very excited to help us out, and provided some great words for us to record. Just answering simple questions like “What’s your favorite part about your job?” brought about some great stories and excellent content for our project. Editing the audio was very interesting as well. Choosing what content goes where, removing dead space, and clipping unnecessary pauses proved to be a real challenge. The development of style and aesthetic is key in multimedia.

Overall, this was a great learning experience, and has made me eager to do more with audio, and also strengthen my desire to work with video.

Cheers,

Mike

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