Wrapping Up BC 601

Students are now reflecting/reviewing senior projects. Their final two blog entries this semester will focus on addressing what they accomplished with senior projects and selecting an outside resource for feedback.

They're identifying outside professionals they will connect with over the winter break to assess the projects. Some will likely go back to the Westminster alum they featured in their alumni project. Others will go beyond the WC family.

When the return for BC 602 at the end of February we'll step back and see what can be done to enhance what they have done and focus the transition to the next step after graduation.

Mike Wolenski had some interesting comments about capstone presentations for the spring including the idea of allow students to chose alternatives to the lecture showcases that we now use. I think it would help the course if the class deconstructs the current model for presentations and rebuild it. We can make it better.

The Best of the BC 251 Mini-movie Showcase

THE BC 251 MINI-MOVIE SHOWCASE WINNERS

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We gathered on Monday for the BC 251 Mini-movie Showcase and the audience voted. The fan favorite of the showcase was Woosub Lee's RACIST FART. Lee also had a hand in producing the runner up mini-movie, A DAY IN REVERSE. Lee co-produced/co-directed that project with Alex Hines, Nicole Piszczor and Christina Roseto.




Our guest judge, Jimm Needle ('03 Broadcast Comm alum/BC 251 success story) was kind enough to take the day off from his busy schedule. He's a digital media producer and director and traveled back to New Wilmington. He offer his expert opinion on the mini-movies. Jimm selected TOOTHBRUSH by Megan Alexander, Tom Benoit, Amanda Conway and Shayna Marti as the best group mini-movie. He gave the judge award for individual project to NIGHTMARE ON CAMPUS by Shayna Marti.




You can see all the mini-movies submitted for this showcase at the MINI-MOVIE SHOWCASE WEBLOG.

Student Mini-movie Showcase

BC 251 students will present their mini-movie projects to an audience next week. You're invited!

2005 Lunchtime Mini-movie Showcase
Monday, December 4 @ 11:45
Mueller Theater/Lecture Hall
McKelvey Campus Center
Westminster College

Students will premiere 16 one-minute mini-movie projects and four group projects. The goal is to transfer the skills, experiences and professional practices learned from shooting and editing sports, news and commercials back to the domain of the home user. I want students to shift back to consumer products such as video cell phones, digital cameras and typical video editing software found on most PCs. I want them to apply the video production techniques and approaches learned in BC 251 to the digital technology now available to everyone.
This one is from Tom Benoit made with his pocket DV cam entitled "Procrastination at Work."


Here's a sample of one of the early submissions. It's "The Last Chip" from Katie Hilliard.

Capstone Presentations (Fall '07 Edition)

Chris Zinkham, Kirstan Gides & Steve Bring complete their degrees in December. Each of them offered their senior presentations to an audience in the McKelvey Theater on Wednesday night.

Things I learned from these presentations:

• Steve Brink has family connections to journalism, writing and media. He revealed he has relatives who served as writers and editors for national publications, including his grandfather at Newsweek.
• Chris Zinkham realized making the client happy is the top priority in commercial production. He proudly showcased his CCCS commercial he produced for BC 410.
  
• Kirstan Gides revealed her own, personal checklist for students studying communications closely resembles Dr. Barner's "Checklist for Success in Broadcasting."

What's left for this bunch?

• Each student will now shadow a working professional connected to their career goals.
• These three will also put together a time capsule for the Spring BC 602 class to bury in the quad in May.

Successes, Misteps, Assessment & Course Adjustments

Five Mistakes
Seniors Make in Capstone

1. Taking on too much for a senior project.
2. Taking on too little for a senior project.
3. Waiting until the last minute to work on a senior project.
4. Discovering you didn’t save enough of your work: air checks, television news packages, writing samples, scripts, storyboards, etc.
5. Failing to set up your outside review of work well in advance. This is where you gather important feedback needed to tweak their portfolio materials.

I’ve tried to address #5 in the syllabus. Students will identify, solicit and secure off-campus feedback during the winter break. When they return for the second part of Capstone they can begin integrating that feedback into their portfolios. Will it work? I’m crossing my fingers.

BC 311 Student Lands a Celebrity Interview

Titan Radio's Danielle Adams has done something no other Westminster BC student has been able to do in the past six years-- land an interview with Amber Brkich. Below is the web story and links to Danielle's coup. Great hustle, Danielle!

Reality Television Turns Into a Career & Marraige for Amber
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Featured on Titan Radio's BEHIND THE MIC
She's a millionaire and reality television star who's turned what many called 15 minutes of fame into both a career and a marriage. Beaver County native Amber Brkich graduated from Westminster College in 2000 with a public relations degree and then was cast on Survivor on CBS. Now she's going by her married name, Amber Mariano. She's one half of of the Amber and Rob Mariano team born out of Amber's second reality TV appearance on Survivor: All Stars. After they became a couple they went on to star in a season of another reality show, The Amazing Race.

Amber and Rob went on turn their wedding into a CBS reality special. She's a published author who continues to work on reality projects with her husband working in Los Angeles. Now she goes "Behind the Mic" with Titan Radio's Danielle Adams talking about her journey into reality TV and how she keeps it going as a full-time enterprise.

December Capstone Presentations

You're Invited!!!
Time is running out for three BC students preparing for Capstone Presentations this month. Steve Brink, Kirstan Gides & Chris Zinkham will present on November 15, 2006. The capstone showcase begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater located in Westminster's McKelvey Campus Center.

See how these students graduating this December showcase their experience, achievements and bodies of work in broadcast communications.

Congratulations, Justin Egley!

A cat and a young girl have helped a Westminster grad gain national recognition by winning a broadcasting award for best television public service announcement (PSA). Justin Egley produced a 30 second PSA for the Lawrence County Humane Society last spring for his commericlal production class. That spot featured a young girl entertaining a cat at a tea party and he called the spot "Adopt Your New Best Friend." Now the College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) named Egley's spot as the best in the nation. The CBI announced its award winners at its 2006 CBI Student Production Awards in St. Louis.

Egley currently works as a videographer for WKBN TV in Youngstown, Ohio. Before that he shot and edited video for the New Castle News and its award-winning web site, Crunch, which is dedicated to Lawrence County high school football.

Egley majored in arts technology at Westminster College but discovered broadcast communications and made it his minor. His PSA now runs on the Westminster Cable Network promoting pet adoption in Lawrence County.

PAC Media Day

Titan Radio covered the PAC Media for basketball season by sending the entire BC 311 (Broadcast Journalism I) class to the Mellon Arena.


Armed with digital audio recorders, digital cameras and a state of the art digital video cam, the crew interviewed coaches and players for stories that began running that night.



Jill Carle's report on Westminster's emerging new rivalry in women's basketball with Chatham College was particularly interesting.

TJ Renninger and DJ Yokley also teamed up to file a report online with video. Check it out.

The PAC even linked to Titan Radio's coverage.

The success of the outing means this will probably become a fixture field trip for the class.

Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion

Wow...this is big! Does this mean they'll change the name to GOO TUBE?

Search giant’s purchase of video sharing service biggest in its history!

"This is the next step in the evolution of the Internet," Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said during a conference call Monday.

This confirms my urgency to encourage students to post and use Google Video or You Tube. It's fast, easy & free. Why not post projects, mini-movies, etc. What better way to share and showcase your work?

We're using Google Video to post stories and vlogs from the news & sports departments. This is clearly the shape of things to come.

YouTube says it serves about 100 million videos daily and has drawn scrutiny from major media companies for copyrighted material appearing on its pages without their consent.

Where Will You Stand?

Why should you watch "Battlestar Galactica"?

"Battlestar Galactica" is one of the most politically relevant and necessarily bleak series on television today." Rob Owens, Pittsburgh PG.

If you want thought-provoking, rich, well-written drama here it is...where viewers get frustrated with LOST, Battlestar Galactica gives you answers but rachets up the tension and forces us to look into a mirror about contemporary political issues. Each episode pushes the story forward and in two short seasons has created a deep mythology that is light years beyond the science fiction long associated with the geek stereotype. It's not the soft, gooey BG of the 70s & 80s. This is gritty and grown up television at it's best. So many television critics agree on this and it truly is worth watching.

Now I am beginning sound like I'm repeating myself from a post a wrote a year ago. Oh well.