Jess's Weblog

Final Project

jessphoto — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:42:47 +0000

For the final project of the class we were assigned to create a multi-media story. The story would include a video, photo sound-slide, and a written story.

My group did our project on the North Texas Food Bank. This idea came from a drag race that was held to help support the food bank and have people bring their cans. From this event we decided we should to to the actual North Texas Food Bank and see what happens once they got the cans. To bring the story home, we went to a distribution site where the families actually came to pick up the food.

I think every piece of the project was essential, but the most impacting was seeing the families receive the food. We went on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving so the families were receiving food to make a Thanksgiving meal. The families were all so grateful and you could just see in their faces that this simple act of giving made such a huge difference.

Putting the project together took lots of editing, but when it was finally finished, I am proud how our project turned out. I would love for our project to raise awareness for the North Texas Food Bank and show people how easy it can be to make a huge difference in someone’s life.

Here is a link to our project…

http://www.lisaparisot.com/Foodbank/foodbank.html

Election 2008

jessphoto — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:28:08 +0000

The New York Times put together and amazing interactive piece over the 2008 Elections. The content was great, but the way in which they presented the material definitely kept my attention. I’m guessing the piece was made in final cut. They laid the audio first and then put in the pictures and inserted video where they wanted it. The only thing I wish I knew how to do was the beginning of the video where the screen zooms into the different faces across the map of the US. I really liked how that was done and thought it was a great way to show everyone’s different opinions from across the country. Here’s the link:http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/11/nyt.html

Counter Collective Art Group

jessphoto — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:08:57 +0000

For this assignment we were told to shoot and edit a two minute video that includes two interviews. It was not until I was in church on Sunday that an idea came to my mind. The campus paster was talking about an art group that had been started by a college student that meets on mondays once a month. The group stood out to be because the student who created it did so that people who share the common interest of art and music can come together and use those gifts to glorify God. She wanted to plug into the community without having to work with children because she did not feel gifted to work with children. I got lucky because it happened to be the week that the group meets, so I was able to check out equipment and shoot the event. It was fun for me to shoot this because I felt like I wasn’t there just as a bystander, but instead I was using my gift of shooting while listening to the music being played and watching the art being created. I posted the video to youtube and here is the link to watch it:

Vote 2008

jessphoto — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:55:11 +0000

Our assignment this week was to take political photos. Today is the first day to early vote so while I was out taking pictures, I got to experience voting for the first time! I went around 2pm and for it being late in the afternoon, there seemed to still be a long line of people. There were two lines: those who wanted to vote electronically and those who wanted paper voting. I don’t understand what the difference is except for most of the elderly voters chose paper voting. After I voted, I realized how extremely easy it is to have my voice heard. Below are three of the pictures I took for the assignment.

A Freshman’s Experience

jessphoto — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:23:07 +0000

For our first assignment with soundslides, we were told to shoot 20 pictures with 1:30 min of audio of something to do with student life. Being such a large topic, I decided one of the most quirky aspects of student life is a freshman’s transition from high school to college. This is also a story that I myself experience only two years ago, so it is something I knew I could relate to.

Lindsay Page is the freshman who I chose to interview. She is a sister of one of my friends that I met through the Baptist Student Ministries on campus when I was a freshman, so I thought it would be really neat to meet the younger sister and see how she is adjusting.

After shooting the pictures of Lindsay all over campus, I told her I was simply giving her an opportunity to see what it would be like to have paparazzi for a day! I had a fun time getting to know her and working on this project. For my first try at a slideshow, it’s not the greatest thing ever made, but it’s also not the worst!

Go Here to view the slideshow!

Multimedia Critique

jessphoto — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:56:52 +0000

The Halifax Explosion website provided a great balance between written and visual tools in bringing history to life. The website seemed to have everything for each type of viewer. For those who still are completely satisfied with simply text, there is plenty of text that tells the entire story. But for those who enjoy the visual aspects, the website provides both pictures and video. My favorite visual on the website were the video tours of the cityscape and the harbor. Those videos made me feel like I was actually in that place. As a photographer, I definitely appreciated all of the use of pictures and the captions that served to tell the pictures. For my learning style, that is how I learn the best. I also really enjoyed the interviews with some of the survivors to bring it to life.

In comparison to the Church Hill Speeches website, I feel like it had much more variety of interaction and use of media. The Church Hill uses graphics in a much more compelling way, but it is mostly just text and audio. Still interactive, but not the same as having all the kinds of media. For being a site just to host a bunch of speeches, I think they have done a great job making it interactive and interesting instead of just having a bunch of links to audio clips. The site does use pictures combined with text as you listen to audio, so there is a good amount of interactivity in the site. I just think the Halifax Explosion website did a better job incorporating variety.

http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/index.html

http://www.churchillspeeches.com/index.htm

After reviewing the article by Angela Grant I found this video on the New York Time’s website about Hurricane Ike. I think this video can go under two categories: emotion and action. Because it is a hurricane that is something people want to see- a picture can show the ruins, but a video captures the intensity of the moment. It can fall under the emotional category because it destroyed many people’s homes and businesses which creates sad emotions for those people’s loss. The video also included some of the resident’s reactions to the hurricane and that creates emotion because you are hearing from them what it was like to go through such a tragedy.

http://video.on.nytimes.com/fr_story=b76c82105697a6bb9843a54d54d680e7d05288c2

First Assignment

jessphoto — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:53:30 +0000

For our first assignment we were told to interview a friend about a hobby or talent. I chose to interview Jake Skodak, a team member at Chick-Fil-A, because I thought his story would be humorous and unique. He is the only team member who has a job description on his name tag and his description is “Lobby Master,” of course that’s a good story! So click Here to learn more about what he does and his experience in a quick service environment.

A New Semester

jessphoto — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:30:19 +0000

Writing in this blog brings me back to the days of Xanga. Since those days, I never thought I would ever blog again. But apparently blogging is the thing to do for us multimedia people of today. So here I am, blogging.

This semester I am taking Jour 4720- Multimedia Storytelling. In this class, we will learn how to shoot and edit video, create audio slideshows and generate material for the web. I have very little experience in this field of media, so I am excited for the course. By the end of the semester, I hope to be a much more rounded in all aspects of multimedia and be able to be used in more areas then just still photography.