Rockin’ For Robbie
The Gustavus Adolphus chapter of the Sigma Sigma Sigma national sorority hosted it’s first annual Rockin’ for Robbie event. The event consisted of a Battle of the Bands competition and half of the proceeds went to Tri-Sigma’s national philanthropy, the Robbie Page Memorial, and the other half went to the Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul.
Seven bands competed at this event:
• Down to Funk
• ¡Flash Bandango!
• Foreman
• Moe Merkin and the Electric Pussy
• No Thanks to You
• Polis
• Summer Says Hello
The winner was ¡Flash Bandango!, who received recording time at Two Fish Studios in Mankato for getting first place. Gustavus Tri-Sigma Treasurer Betsy Scherer said the scores were pretty even across the board when it came to the judges choice, so determining the winner came down to the audience’s vote.
The group is happy with the turnout for the event, which Scherer estimates to be about 150 people throughout the night. They raised around $2,500 total from the event, so each charity will receive over $1,000.
The Robbie Page Memorial, or RPM, supports children in play therapy in hospitals. RPM was started in memory of Robbie Page. He was the son of a former Tri-Sigma national president that developed polio. It began as a fund to help cure polio, but after the treatment was found, it switched to play therapy.
Add a comment December 7, 2010
My Visual CV
I have created my personal Visual CV. Check it out and let me know if there are any questions!
Add a comment December 3, 2010
PR Week Video Critique
I watched the PR Week Video for New York Fashion Week. Right at the beginning of the video, the cameraman is panning the crowd and all I see is shaky video that’s moving way too fast. After that, there are some still shots inserted which I think was a good choice. It’s showing brands, and video would be over the top. When it goes back to video, it’s very shakey once again. Also, everytime the cameraman pans, it’s way too fast and everything I see is basically a big blur. When the “behind the scenes” label came up, it’s hard to notice but you can see that the cameraman just flipped the camera around. He/she should have stopped recording because that looks very unprofessional.
Once they went to the runway, the put on a new piece of music but it only played for a few short seconds before it was abruptively cut off. The interview went pretty well for the most part, but it might have been nice to find a quieter spot. At the end, they cut off the guy speaking and flip to a different clip! You can’t just cut someone off in the middle of their sentence! For the second interview, it’s very hard to hear the man speaking because of all the background noise. I mean if that’s all you got on video, it can work but it’s not ideal. It’s also much farther away this time and the room is poorly lit so you can barely even see the man. I personally would not have used the second interview at all.
Overall, this was a horrible video and painful to watch. The first thing I would have done differently is try to bring a tiny tripod with for shooting. If that was not possible, I would make due and make a tripod out of my body to keep the shaking to an absolute minimum. Secondly, I would not have panned the crowd twice as they did. I only would have done it with a movable tripod, because otherwise it was too shakey and virtually pointless. The next thing I would have done was to find better spots for the interviews, especially the second interview. I understand that there probably aren’t a ton of areas that are pretty quiet, but you need to find the best suited place or the interviews are worthless. It might have been beneficial to do a quick test question and watch/listen to it before the real interview to make sure the location isn’t too loud for the camera. Lastly, I would have edited MUCH better. Why bother sticking in a second song when it only plays for like less than five seconds? If it’s necessary to do that, find a better cut than just abruptively stopping it. Fade out anyone? The first interview also needs to be edited better. It’s incredibly rude towards the interviewee that his words were cut off mid sentence. If an interviewer published a video where they did that to me, I would not be a happy camper.
I’m not sure what they were thinking when they created, edited and posted this video. I think the biggest fault lies on the editor however. It was a long video also, which means it should have been better. If I hadn’t needed to watch it for class, I would’ve turned it off in the first 20 seconds. Nice try, PR Week. Nice try.
Add a comment November 9, 2010
Places I’ve worked
This is a Google Map of places I’ve worked, both in Mankato and in Blue Earth, MN.
1 comment October 18, 2010
Language of the Image
I recently completed the Language of the Image course on the Poynter website. I learned that it’s very important to convey messages through your photographs. There are some subtle (and some not so subtle) factors that makes a picture truly speak to the audience. I also learned ways to make my pictures convey the story I want to tell. I think I would need more training on this though, as some of the elements of a picture were lost on me. I feel like the strongest is emotion. You can’t mistake emotion in a picture, so I feel that is the easiest way to tell a story. I tried to find some examples of what I learned, mostly seeking emotional pictures. The Star Tribune has page set aside for photo galleries. The most recent album I found that was powerful at story telling was portraying the Lakeland deaths. When I think of powerful storytelling photographs, I often think of the 9/11 tragedy. One in particular I found was of a plane with the World Trade Center right after it was struck. 
Most people already know what happened that day, but if they didn’t, it would be pretty easy to figure out from this photo. In the next photograph, it’s pretty clear what is happening. It was taken when the Baltimore Ravens won the Superbowl and the team is overjoyed. 
It’s difficult to learn how to shoot good photographs, especially because it is usually an “in the moment, get it while you can” type of photo. Hopefully, the Poynter courses have helped with my understanding of taking a good photograph.
Add a comment October 18, 2010
Drowning in Social Media
I watched three videos; The Machine is Us/ing Us, EPIC 2015 and Social Media Revolution. Social Media Revolution was by far the most entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking video. It’s unbelievable how many social networking site there are out there and how quickly they caught on. I began on Myspace, which I thought was the greatest thing in the world. Now I’ve moved past that to Facebook. I thought that was all I needed and I would only need it for entertainment. Now I’m starting to realize that these social networking sites are much more than entertainment. As I embark on the world of Twitter and blogging, I’m struggling to keep up with this revolution. If we don’t conquer these now, it seems as though there is little hope for us. There will just be more social networking sites becoming available, with more unique and incredible features. The new sites will build upon the old until we are drowning in social media and unable to revive ourselves. That being said, I think it’s a good thing.
I never realized how important social media was to our careers and publicizing ourselves. We each have to fight to stay prevelent, and social media is how we will do it. After watching Social Media Revolution, I feel like there is so many sites I have yet to conquer. But in my own best interest, I better get started! I am going to make it my own goal to enlist in as many social networking sites as I can within this next year and try to get myself out there. It can only help me in my goal of becoming successful. If I can successfully utilize social networking, there’s practically nothing I cannot do in the future. Social media is not only the present, but the future. We better learn to swim in it now before we drown.
Add a comment October 12, 2010
HTML Coding Exercise
About HTMLThere is a lot more you can learn about HTML. And the best place to turn for complete information on any topic related to Web design is, of course, the Web. The following sites offer helpful tutorials so you can learn more about HTML. |
| HTML Tutorials |
Add a comment October 7, 2010
The Mankato Free Press
I observed The Mankato Free Press and how well it uses multimedia technology on the website. I was slightly disappointed with The Free Press’ layout. There are plenty of links to find stories throughout the website, especially on the home page, but not many videos, photos are audio clips. When I clicked on the Multimedia tab, I noticed that there was not one new post. The newest post was a video from the beginning of July, over two months ago. It should have multiple videos and pictures updated since that date.
I clicked around a few stories from the home page and was only able to find a few stories that actually had one photo. Toward the bottom of the home page, there was a box that had a number of videos. However, they were all videos from the Associated Press, not directly taken from a Free Press writer.
However, I noticed that the encorporated the newspaper’s Facebook page and sports writer’s blog. I was impressed that it used these different networking sites to catch more readers attention. I enjoyed the non-linearity that The Free Press displays on it’s website because it is much easier for a reader to see only what he or she is interested in. It is very easy to navigate the website to find what you are looking for.
5 comments September 20, 2010
My Skill Set as an Upcoming Journalist
I believe that I am very strong-skilled in the traditional world of journalism. I pay close attention to detail and make sure my work is as perfect as possible in the time allowed before the deadline. Since I was a little kid, I created fake newspapers and wrote my own news using simply a pen and paper and no other forms of technology. It may be difficult for me to adapt my way of writing to a more technological aspect. That said, growing up in the world of technology, I am a very quick learner when it comes to new software and programs. I have been a part of social networking sites for years now, so I know exactly how those work. I have been required to post blogs in the past for different classes so I have slight knowledge when it comes to that. As for the different types of media posting, such as video and audio, I have had quite a bit of experience creating and editing. A media outlet I do not have experience using is microblogs like Twitter. Although I haven’t yet taken an interest in it, I can see how it could be helpful to use and don’t think it would be too difficult for me to adapt. I also have not had experience in SEO or RSS feeds. But, once again, I think I can pick up on it fairly quickly.
The skill set I believe will be the most important is the traditional writing skills. Even if I were to master all of the technological media outlets, it means nothing unless I know how to write a good story or sentence to compliment the other features. Because of that, I am very comfortable I knowing that is my strongest skill set.
Add a comment September 14, 2010
