Love the Blog! Be the Blog!

I wanted to offer these cartoons as a plea for Mr. Wolenski to keep on blogging after graduation.

More Fake News More Often

If you like The Onion and The Onion Radio News, then check out The Onion News Network. Fake TV news online!!! What better way to celebrate April Fools' Day than with a blog post about The Onion News Network.
In The Know: Our Troops In Iraq

NC TV Station Profiles a Member of the Paparazzi

WORTH A LOOK! Listen to how he lets the nat sound and the talk outside the interivew TELL THE STORY and move it forward.

WTAE Welcomes Westminster BC Students

Capstone students traveled with students in the Producing/Directing class (BC 308) to Pittsburgh this week for a tour at WTAE-TV. Westminster grad and Channel 4 assignment editor Sarah Bowers came to work early to oversee our group of 14 as we shuffled through the newsroom, studios and master control. She even arranged some time with news director Bob Longo who sat down in the studio to talk with us.

I want to extend my appreciation to both of them and to everyone else at Channel 4 we visited and met. Look for more on our conversation with WTAE's top news guru in the days ahead.

Newspapers Now Winning Television Awards

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) has posted its list of “Best Television Photojournalism 2007” awards and this year they include categories for one-man bands (NPPA calls it solo video journalists- the SVJ) and video produced by the web. This is another signal of convergence and new media as the “Television” awards were once the domain of camera and editing teams from television.

Now newspapers are winning in the “Web” category with video stories on the web—as is the case for The Washington Post with an award for “48 Hour Web Editing.” More evidence old media’s world is changing. This would also signal an opportunity to rename the awards. Perhaps it's time to change "television" in the award title to "video."

The NPPA 2007 Best TV Photojournalism Awards posted on the Poynter Institute’s web site also includes student awards. One category recognizes work done in a seven day deadline period called "weekly assignment." Perhaps we should look at this as an assignment in our classes engaging video production? You can check out all the winners online. Poynter even include the judge’s comments. I am annoyed by the “Neighborhood America” spot that runs before you can see the stories. That’s one way to underwrite the cost of posting the winners and reaching chief photographers and news directors.

The Onion- Mocking News Across Media

You have The Daily Show and Weekend Update has always been there on SNL.

But The Onion has mocked news in print then on radio (The Onion Radio News with Doyle Redland). Now The Onion is going VIDEO.

Mini-movie Flashback

It's spring break and quiet on campus. I've decided to repost one of the BC 251/Video Production Mini-movies from last semester--
Here's Shayna Marti's NIGHTMARE ON CAMPUS.
It includes some nice sequencing of shots. Good use of reaction shots and cutaways for using typical home video gear.
-----------------

Day in Reverse is a group effort. I think it works well as a student created work that demonstrates an effective/creative use of a sequence of shots to tell a story. Wipes and dissolves are to be used at appropriate times in editing-- they will never replace good sequencing and storytelling.



Here's Nicky P.'s Mini-movie: My Family's Thanksgiving

www.titanradio.net

Produced by Woosub Lee (BC 251/Video Production/Fall 2006).

The Departed: Oscar Winner & It Translates to Video

There have certainly been other films directed by Martin Scorsese deserving the Best Director and the Best Picture Awards, but this year it finally happened. The Departed winning BEST PICTURE has convinced me to look closely at the clips online and I've added the movie to my Netflix queue. The clips I've watched seem to have that intimacy with closeups and storytelling that I'm convinced is key to translating a film to home video where most voting Academy members view nominated pictures. I'll blog more once I see it later this week. But here are some other clips showcasing the film. It even appears to translate well for online viewing.

The Emmy Test: Putting My Thesis About The Power of TV as an Intimate Medium To the Test

I did not see a single marquee this past year featuring the title of any of the films nominated for Best Picture. Add to my ignorance the fact I have now use Netflix instead of my local video store. When I browse my Netflix account online I gravitate to the HOT current releases-- but I bypassed The Departed. I ordered Man of the Year instead. It's not that Man of the Year is Oscar-worthy...it just sounds more fun to watch when you're tired of shoveling snow. That said, I'll put money on Little Miss Sunshine or The Queen as the winner. I sense both translate better to DVD and home viewing over the others.



As for The Queen, it may translate to home viewing best, since it's based heavily around the death of Princess Diana-- a live news event that played out on television. My thesis for picking the Best Picture is based around what translates well for the home viewer. It's tied to stories dependent on close-ups and relationships. Stories built around grand, sweeping wideshots such as epics don't shift to television sets well-- perhaps HDTV will help with that. Think about this-- most of the voting members of the Academy don't go to the theater to screen films-- and since they get freebie DVDs from the studios to screen in the privacy of their own homes (and most probably watch in their bedrooms or kitchens now), the quieter, interpersonal stories dependent on close-ups win in this day and age. These are the movies that are visually ready for television-- and become more memorable. Don't agree? Consider which movie was more important and clearly a BETTER film: Saving Private Ryan or Shakespeare in Love? Shakespeare in Love received the Best Picture Oscar.



Let's consider last year. I predicted the win for Crash over Brokeback Mountain.



While Brokeback was really Romeo and Juliet with a gay twist, it was embedded in the grand, sweeping vistas of Ang Lee's vision of a theatrical film release targeting the big screen viewers. Crash is perfect for television viewing. The movie was even shot and edited like a television drama. The director's career spanned heavily across the television landcape and included associations with a number of popular shows from sitcoms and L.A. Law. It also helped that Crash was set in L.A. and with nearly every voting member in the Academy living in the Los Angeles area, it had the hometown crowd. Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima look like movies made for the "big screen" from the trailers. So I'll bet on The Queen or Little Miss Sunshine as the stories as well as the visual storytelling techniques are cloesly connected to the intimacy that connects with viewers at home via the television screen.

ENG Lured Me Away From My Hollywood Dreams

I don’t recall having great aspirations when I was a kid—other than I didn’t want to be a coal miner like my dad. BTW, he’s finally retiring from this year with more than 40 years behind him in hard labor.


In high school I developed an interest in applying to film school to become a director or producer. I’m such a geek—George Lucas was my god at the time. I wanted to become the next Lucas or Spielberg. I saw Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark too many times in the theater (those were the days before video and DVD releases). I remember buying one ticket and sticking around for all the shows that afternoon. Then I saw Alien and developed a fondness for suspense and horror. Imagine what The Shining with Jack Nicholson did to my young mind...

Unfortunately, there are no film schools in West Virginia. My family was supportive in my choice to go to college, but Mom and Dad insisted I stay close to home. Perhaps a fine American Baptist school, despite being a United Methodist. So I landed at Alderson-Broaddus College in the Speech Communications program focused on broadcasting. After a class in journalism and working at WQAB in radio news I landed a full-time job at WELK in nearby Elkins doing the news. I immediately made the jump as a one-man band journalist at WBOY-TV. My path wandered Down East to WITN in North Carolina. Later it took me to KSBH in Kansas City then to the University of Kansas and KUJH & KJHK. I found myself at WPXI in Pittsburgh and then this crazy road brought me here to Titan Radio and WCN. Some how my journey skewed toward news and I’ve been a broadcast journalist since I started this back in 1985.