video assignment

Kate Video Assignment #1

Link to video in my journalism blog.

Video Assignment 1

Video 1

New FCP export settings

I have found an improved set of settings that you should use going forward. Also available online here

They are explained in a document called "best_FCP_settings.doc" in our class folder.

Look at the top video here for an example.

Notes after seeing Video project 1

After looking at and grading your first video assignments, I have some thoughts about how to make video assignment No. 2 and your Final Project video work better.

• Read the assignments. I continue to be amazed at how many people are missing things that are in the assignments.
• Lower thirds - Watch your backgrounds. If the default while lettering is getting lost on a light background in your video, then you should look at using a "background" for your text. Backgrounds are inside the lower third "controls" tab. Experiment with them, and seek help if you need it.
• Narrative: Remember, your next videos will be evaluated more rigorously for content and reporting than your first one was. Your video should tell a story - not necessarily like the classic broadcast-style one with a "stand-up." It can be more impressionistic than that (especially for the final project, where you'll have other supporting elements), but it still needs to clearly tell a story. Yo should use the stand-up style if your topic would benefit from it.
• Plan ahead, shoot more than you'll need and deal with problems early. Some of you had some major audio issues that you were scrambling to fix at the last minute, finding yourselves unable to come up with new video or another work-around. Some of you were having content issues of the same nature, where no work-arounds were possible because it was too late. If you have plenty of footage, it makes a plan B much more possible if you have problems approaching deadline.
• Get names and other lower-third info clear, and if possible, get contact info written down for each video subject in case you need to go back and get something else. That's some basic reporting.
• Wide shots should be used sparingly. Remember, your audience is watching on a pretty small screen.
• Don't suffer in silence. Many of you have still not turned in your assignments and at the same time have not been in touch with me to discuss any difficulties you are having. I am eager to help, but I have to know BEFORE the due date that there are problems.
  

Lynn's video assignment 1

VIDEO 1 Assignment

JC's Video Assignment 1

Berkman Video Assingment #1

Adrian's Video Project 1

Ironically I titled it adrianfinalwithsound. Its in the folder for your class.

VIdeo Assignment 1

Video assignment 2 - due-date change

Please note that Video assignment 2 is now due at the end of class May 7 so you may devote your full attention to our guest speaker on May 5, John Shehada, who will be talking about search engine optimization.

Video Assignment #1 - Rachel Young

Video 1 Project

Stephanie Brumsey

Final project templates

I have set up three final project templates. You may choose any of these, use them as they are or modify them carefully and within reason.

If you feel they don't meet your needs, you need to meet with me during one of the work sessions to discuss possible alternatives, which include setting up a brand new blog and working from a blog format.

• Template 1
• Template 2
• Template 3
  

The templates are available to grab in the class folder on the Journlism server in a folder called "final project templates"

Previous Assignments

web #2

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~ebolte/aprilhtml/aprilhtml.html

____________________ Photoshop #2

I got this picture off of the official Hillary Clinton Website

The article that this would go well with is:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjA5OTJmZDZhM2ViMGNmNjE2MTVlMzkyNTE3NTU5Njg=

I got this picture directly from the Politico campaign profile for John McCain

This would go well with this article: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usgop205584369feb20,0,770400.story

______________________________________


Photoshop #1





This Champion Sandplum Ridge Pot of Gold named Pogo from Azle Texas shows off after the show at the 132nd Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, NY WILLIAM PERLMAN/THE STAR-LEDGER

What I did: curve to lighten, Despeckle, and then I cropped it. After cropping I then sharpened it.

____________________________________________________

Miley Cyrus on stage performs during her concert at Prudential Center, Newark. 12/29/07 Mia Song/THE STAR-LEDGER

What I did: Despeckle, Noise, Sharpen

______________________________

Web Critique

http://erickabjrn320.blogspot.com/search/label/Web%20Critique <---- web critique here (I don't want to lengthen down the entire blog w/ it)

Photoshop Exercise 1!

Bobby Bandiera sings Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at the Count Basie Theatre. At the Count Basie Theatre a Review of "Hope Concert III, " benefit featuring Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, Gary U.S. Bonds, Bobby Bandiera, Mark Pender, Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, Tim McLoone & the Shirleys. Photo by ARISTIDE ECONOMOPOULOS/THE STAR-LEDGER

This photo is an all-encompassing photo that basically captures Bandiera in a seeming act of adulation to his audience. For this photo, I cropped it down to 220 px x 332 px. After cropping, I used curves for color adjustments and lastly, sharpen for a clearer image.

The 332 px x 220 px crop of this is purely selfish. I simply wanted to stare at his gorgeous electric guitar that probably cost a fortune. To get this, after cropping it down to desired size, I did auto color first to see how it would adjust it and I like how it did it. After doing that, I adjusted color and sharpened. Voila!

--------------------------------

Three Seasons Chamber Music organizers, Joel Suben, left, and Muriel Leyner, are posed at the Community Church of Hoboken where the concert is being held. Mia Song/THE STAR LEDGER

This photo I cropped to 135 x 101 px. Since the photo is so small, I wanted to keep it simple and limited my actions to a slight adjustment to the color with curves and sharpening it.

This photo is also super small but it has a different focus. I wanted to concentrate on the beautiful artwork inside the church, the stained glass windows and the two painting-that are partially cut off on both upper extreme corners. I first cropped the image to 280 px x 100 px. I pressed auto color first just to see how it would change the picture. I love how it brightened up my main focus, the glass windows. To reduce yellowness, I used curves again and sharpened it and there goes a beautiful masterpiece.

Repost of deadline HTML

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~Slogan/april14b/

HTML Deadline Assignment

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~RSYOUNG/april14/

Please note recommended Final Cut Pro settings

I have posted recommended Final Cut Pro export settings for best results on YouTube. Here's a link to the blog entry.

I have also added a link to these settings from the video assignments blog entry and the final project blog entry.

HTML news exercise 1

News about the beauty industry:

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~jegustavson/march26/

Web 2.0 definition

*Long story short: I'm re-posting this entry so that it will be listed under my name (in order to receive credit)

Definition: According to The New York Times: "Digital utopians have heralded the dawn of an era in which Web 2.0—distinguished by a new generation of participatory sites like Myspace.com and Youtube.com, which emphasize user-generated content, social networking and interactive sharing—ushers in the democratization of the world: more information, more perspectives, more opinions, more everything, and most of it without filters or fees. Yet as the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Andrew Keen points out in his provocation new book, 'The Cult of the Amateur,' Web 2.0 has a dark side as well."

Opinion: I agree with Keen's view that "because Web 2.0 celebrates the 'noble amateur' over the expert, and because many search engines and Web sites tout popularity rather than reliability…it's easy for misinformation and rumors to proliferate in cyberspace." Social interactivity and community policing are some positive aspects to this new era, but it's shameful how so many people are misinformed on a daily basis and are not even aware of it.

Source: Michiko Kakutani, "Books of The Times: The Cult of the Amateur," NYT, June 29, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/books/29book.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=%22Web+2.0%22&st

Soundslides repost

HTML Deadline assignment

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~lhsieh/april14/

HTML Deadline Assignment

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~Slogan/april14/

:(

HTML Deadline Assignment

April 14th, 2008 news, Late edition

Berkman's HTML post

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~aberkman/april14/

Amanda's HTML Exercise 2

TODAY'S HEADLiNES

HTML ASSIGNMENT JESSICA LAFOREST

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~jlaforest/april14/

HTML Deadline Assignment, 4/14/2008

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~KARANDERSON/april14/

HTML Deadline Assignment, April 14, 2008

HTML exercise

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~wlind/april14/

HTML Assignment 2

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~ecooper/april14/

HTML Assignment 2

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~ecooper/april14/

HTML exercise part 2

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~jegustavson/april14/

My HTML Project

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~SBrumsey/april14/

Here's My HTML Project

Adrian's HTML Exercise

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~acarrasq/april14/

Final Cut Pro tip: Export settings for YouTube uploading

Note: I have found the definitive settings and have posted a MS Word document called "best_FCP_settings" in the class folder on the Journalism drive


The settings explanation is also available online here

---

3/26/08

HTML Practice March 26

http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~karanderson/march26/

Sound Slides - Billy Lind

Final project topics

Reminder: Your topics MUST be approved by the end of class Wednesday. I will do my best to respond to emails between today and Wednesday, with priority to students who have already started a dialog with me about their topic via email April 9, as required.

Students who do not have their topics approved by end of class Wednesday may have to wait for approval until the following Wednesday, effectively erasing an entire week of potential work time.

I will not accept final projects from students who have not had topics approved.

HTML news exercise 2

This is a 90-minute exercise to be completed in class today.

Setup:

• Go to the class server inside the "html practice sites" folder and copy the folder "april14" to your mysbfiles public_html folders. Note the contents: an index.html file and an empty images folder.
  
• In a new browser tab/window, open your new april14 site at http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~yourNetID/april14/
  
• In Dreamweaver, open the index.html file
• To turn this project in, post a link to your page in the class blog. Don't forget to label it with your name.
  

Objective:

• You are the current homepage producer on a New York City *local* website, on a 90-minute deadline to set up tonight's homepage that someone has left blank.
• Fill in all the parts of the page using today's news, sports and feature stories, images and interactivity. Your links (with the exception of interactivity links - see below) should be real, going out to real stories on the Web. You are lucky that the entire Web can be considered under your website's ownership, so you can link to anything as if it were your site's own story.
• You should have at least one interactive element on each vertical layer of the page (total of at least 3). These should be links that go to your personal blog, to comment sections of new entries created for this purpose, where you will set up teaser questions for your audience to interact with.

Rules:

• You may add additional links where only one is shown, being careful not to completely destroy the overall balance and design of the page
• Where there are images, you should include images you grab (and credit) from the web. They should be sized properly in Photoshop, saved to the images folder in april14 and called with an absolute URL from index.html. Don't change the size of any image. Find the image size required by looking at the code in the image call.
  
• For the bottom layer of ther page, you must have at least one sports item and one lifestyles/entertainment item. The third slot is up to you - go with an additional item of those categories or find another category altogether. Make sure you alter the label bar to indicate your category
  
• Although you are linking to items not truly your own, all teasers, captions and headlines *should be * your own writing.
  

Tips:

• Remember - you are on deadline. Set yourself some internal deadlines so you keep moving through the page.
• Don't be intimidated by the code - use the split feature of Dreamweaver to find the page parts you are looking for.
  
• Don't get bogged down with doing fancy stuff to the images - find them, size them and get them up
• No polls - use your impulse to create polls and instead create nice interactivity teaser questions.
  
• Try to create some nice packages in the top sections especially - find multimedia out there to link to as extra links.
• Think local
• Try for a nice balance of items to appeal to a broad interest.
• Snappy headlines and teasers. You want people to click, so make your items interesting.
• Leave yourself some time to proofread
  

Exercises that need to be blogged

Here's a list of all the class exercises and where they need to be posted by the last day of class. Please make sure everything you posted to the class blog has your name as a label. If you have a posting in the blog that isn't labeled with your name, you may not receive credit.

1. Web 2.0 definition - class blog
2. Photoshop practice exercise 1 - 10 images in your blog
3. Layered Photoshop flag exercise - 2 images in class blog
4. Gunman-on-campus reporting exercise - each team's work in an indexed blog item in the class blog, with each team member's name as a label
5. Soundslides project - embedded in your blog and in the class blog
   
6. HTML news exercise 1 - "March 26" (or the date of your folder in mysbfiles) - Link to your mysbfiles page posted to the class blog - Note: This is under the syllabus category "HTML & design exercises"
7. HTML news exercise 2 - "April 14" - Link to your mysbfiles page posted to the class blog - Note: This is under the syllabus category "HTML & design exercises" (Due mid-class, 4/14)
   
8. Video assignments - post both to your blog; post Assignment No. 2 to the class blog as well.
9. Final project - Some elements will be in your blog; link to homepage in class blog
   

Mets Open: Story here

With Sidebar: American Idol Gives Back

HTML Link

https://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/public_html/march26/index.html

-Stephanie Brumsey

Reminder for students who missed class 3/31

Reminder: You must show me a written explanation from an instructor for your missing class to cover Ann Coulter covering the two hours of class time that you missed, or your absence is not excused. I need to see that by the last day of class.

Class calendar the rest of the way

Wed. 4/9 - Working class: Video assignments; topics for final project due via email by the end of class.

Mon. 4/14 - HTML assignment - one day news assignment working in Dreamweaver

Wed. 4/16 - Working class; Final project topics must be approved

Mon. 4/21 - No class - Passover

Wed. 4/23 - Working class; Video assignment No. 1 due, end of class

Mon. 4/28 - Instruction on final project templates; Working class for the balance

Wed. 4/30 - Working class - video assignment No. 2 and final projects

Mon. 5/5 - Tentative - Search engine optimization; working class for last hour

Wed. 5/7 - Working class; Video assignment No. 2 due, end of class (note this is a change from the original due date, May 5)

Mon. 5/12 - Last day of class - wrap-up; working class; All class blog exercises are due

Friday 5/16 - Final projects due

Two video assignments

Overview: You have two short video assignments to be completed in Final Cut Pro, each worth 10 percent of your final grade. The first assignment is to be 1:00-1:30 minutes. The second is to be 1:30-2:30 minutes. They should each be stand-alone clips. They are to include the following components:

• At least 2 uses of B-roll video
  
• At least two uses of "lower third"
• Some reporting on a campus issue

Turn-in method: The assignments should be posted on YouTube and embedded in blog entries on both your class blog and your personal blog.

Topic for assignment No. 1: With a maximum of 1:30, you shouldn't be too ambitious. Pick a campus issue close to home that you can have some fun with. This assignment is mostly for practicing the Final Cut Pro techniques we have discussed in class, and you will be evaluated mostly for technical accomplishment and your successful posting to the blogs.

Topic for assignment No. 2: With some more time to use, this can be a more involved topic, though still a campus issue close to home. This assignment will be evaluated for content and reporting as well as technical accomplishment.

Due dates: Assignment No. 1 is due end of class April 23. Assignment No. 2 is due end of class May 5. Late work will be penalized two letter grades. Revision as of April 23 - Assignment 2 is now due end of class May 7.

Important note: You should use the recommended Final Cut Pro export settings for YouTube that are now posted in this blog

FCP Practice - Embedding video

Note: These are works in progress - practice finding the right settings for FCP exports. I have NOT found an export setting that I'm happy with yet. More info to come.

Note: This next one could be it:

These settings come courtesy of the Star-Ledger photo desk and are detailed here



The one below is with "letterbox" checked in size settings






And here's a higher quality export - setting "Broadband - high.



Here's a version that used export using quicktime conversion to MPEG-4 - broadband-high, option selected to preserve aspect ratio with letterbox, but that doesn't appear to have worked at all



Here's a version with settings recommended by Adam Abramson, instructor of the other JRN320 section:



Here's a version with settings suggested by my co-worker:

Final Cut Pro Web resources

Here are a few online resources for help in Final Cut Pro -

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html - This site has some advanced tips for experienced editors

http://users.design.ucla.edu/~jbishop/FCP/FCPtutor.htm - Extensive tutorial - lots of focus on settings, but good info

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kC3-zn_JmwI , http://youtube.com/watch?v=QSmJDn5M6w4 - You tube 2-part training series - plus 39 more videos from YouTube user emeek77

HTML ASSIGNMENT

JESSICA SIMPSON RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL!

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

HTML Project

HTML Project
http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~lhsieh/march26/

HTML Project

HTML Project
http://mysbfiles.stonybrook.edu/~lhsieh/march26/