oh yes, this presentation shall be epic

I did calculate a Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index to compare the outcomes, but with so few species and the basic way I tabulated the data the results were the same as a simple tally, and I really don't feel like explaining the finer points of Biodiversity to the Comm 491 class...

Photo Gallery

Here it is. Brewing Beer with the Best:

brew masters from Michael Carney on Vimeo.

Nature Montage

I wanted to get my Nature Montage done as early as I could so I could hope for at least some sort of fall color (I was still about 2-3 weeks late).

This first video is the assignment: clips of nature with ambient audio only.

This second video is the same montage but with the music that I used to edit it. IMO, much better.

What do you think?

WWW isn't Public Domain or Fair Game

I found this forum post on Reddit.com today. Pretty appalling from someone with "30 years" of experience. I hope they get the crap sued out of them (way more than a $130 donation).

What's the Zoom on that camera and why to buy professional grade

When I was in New Zealand, I had the opportunity to take a helicopter ride over the famous Milford Sound and surrounding mountains. Of course I jumped on this as quick as I can. As I got into the helicopter, I got my camera (D300 with Grip and 17-70 sigma lens) out and the lady next to me, in a polite way, said "That is a huge camera. How much does it zoom?" I looked at her, a bit confused by her question, but I quickly did the math in my head and replied "Well its a 17-70mm lens so something like 3-4x I guess." She made a slight scoff sound and mentioned that her kodak point and shoot had a 12x zoom and she couldn't understand why anyone would need such a big camera.

I thought I'd share that anecdote with you before this next one.

Towards the beginning of the semester I was shooting the Roger Smith/Frederick Douglass piece for The Exponent. After one of the interviews, I packed up my equipment and slung my camera backpack over my shoulder. I forgot to zip the side door. My almost brand-new nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR, $1600, lens went shooting out of the bag and landed on the carpet-covered concrete six feet away and four feet down. The filter ring got dented and the manual focus ring is a bit stiff (but smooth, and the AF still works).

Now for this anecdote:

A gentleman in Oregon was walking a newly rebuilt road when he decided to take a picture. He set up the camera, turned around and when he turned back, his camera had fallen 50+ feet and landed on a rock. He retrieved his camera. The lens isn't fully functioning, but everything else works fine. You can see the after-math and read the full story here on Peta Pixel.

So why am I blogging this? When that lady in New Zealand said she didn't know why anyone would need such a large and elaborate camera and then I read the story on PP, I just felt the need to explain. Its not all about appearances. Spending money on properly built, high quality equipment not only will help produce high quality product, but will pay for itself when the shit hits the fan (and this is a great example of a photo gallery!).

Keep that in mind if/when you buy a new camera. Spending extra money now will save you on repair/replacement costs and a quality product will stay a quality product for a lifetime.

Oh, and here's a video including part of that helicopter ride.

South Island Road Trip from Michael Carney on Vimeo.

Future of Newspapers/Magazines

I know this video has been out for a while, but I haven't posted it to this blog yet (and yes, it is very relevant to new media!)

Living Magazine Cover & Spread - Outside Magazine from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

VJ Piece 2 - Straight News

An interview with Nobel Laureate Ei-ichi Negishi:

Podcast

Here is Group One's Podcast:

Nature Montage Inspiration

With our nature montage projects due in a few weeks, I thought I'd post some inspiration. Tom Lowe is an absolute master of his craft and the best part is that he is willing to share how he works.

Timescapes: "Death is the Road to Awe" from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

The Dude Abides

I saw this article from Flowtown on Digg today. Comparing best practices for social media to The Big Lebowski? I'm there.

Story Telling with Photos

http://purdueexponent.org/?module=slideshows&slid=64

http://mediastorm.com/publication/the-marlboro-marine

http://www.life.com/image/ugc1012452/in-carousel/14361

This one image tells so many different things...

Chilean Miners

I thought this would be an appropriate video for today's assignment as the miners are now finally being brought to the surface.

Can Design Save the Newspaper?

I overheard a conversation today between the managing editor and the graphics editor. It went something like this:

ME: What can we do to have a different layout

GE: Well lets use a cutout of a photo to help shape the page and be the main element

ME: Okay, so how are we going to do this

(both are now looking at a few rough sketches)

GE: I've got all these great ideas, but the composer's don't always know what I'm trying to do

ME: Not to put more work on you, but then why don't you just design the front page?

I remembered after hearing this conversation that the photo editor had mentioned a TED talk regarding this exact same topic - newspaper design.

I went to TED.com and searched for the video and low-and-behold there it was, all six minutes and eight seconds of it. [EDIT: It appears the embed code isn't working, so here is a link]

Now isn't that totally badass?!

I know personally, the thing that prevents me from picking up a regular paper in the morning (Exponent excluded) is that its just boring to read. These, on the other hand, are vibrant, living pieces of art that help to display the news.

Can page design save the industry? It did for one publisher in Eastern Europe. Could it work here in the good ol' land of opportunity? Maybe for someone brave enough to try it. Will it work for The Exponent? Probably not.

For one, layouts like these require immense amounts of planning and very skilled designers. While I'm sure our designers could develop something like this, doing it every day between classes probably isn't feasible. Secondly, lets face it, most of our news is niche and, if you aren't a student/faculty of Purdue, you aren't going to care much.

Where I do see something like this fitting in, however, is special issues. Entertainment guides, Tailgate Guides, Welcome Back, Semester in Review, etc.

Could it help The Exponent? Lets just say I don't think it would hurt to try something new every now and then.

8 Minutes Late

But its here, sort of. I wasn't able to get player interviews after practice last week because the light dropped off too fast. But soon, soon...

Another two-video post

Here is a recent Ad spot from RipCurl:

Now here is the Creatives' and Directors' thoughts on the production:

I know where my first million dollars is going :D

Pre production saves time AND money

First, watch this video:

The Satin Dollz in "Whatever Lola Wants" from Dan Blank on Vimeo.

Now Watch this video:

The Making of "Whatever Lola Wants" from Dan Blank on Vimeo.

A couple things to watch. 1) The upper left corner is a pre production animation of what the director wanted the video to look like. 2) The bottom left corner is what was actually shot. 3) The right half is the finished product.

While a few of the scenes are easy to tell they were green screened, several of them look seemless. I've tried Green Screening before and frankly I sucked it up. However it was a valuable learning experience and I fully recognize where I went wrong.

The lesson here is to plan everything, literally everything, out so that you don't waste time (and thus money) on the set.

Oh and by the way, the final budget for this music video was around $2,000 - that's pretty darn cheap.

This is why technology rocks

Panasonic rocks my world

Check out this video of the new, not quite yet released, Panasonic AG-AF100 Micro 4/3 Video Camera (not DSLR!)

Panasonic AG-AF100 / AF101 from UrbanFox.TV on Vimeo.

Good News Everyone!

Good News Everyone! We're out of the recession! Don't believe me? Check out what Harvard Economics Prof Jeffrey Frankel has to say about it.

Shirley Sherrod and the Shame of the Scoop

Social media, the internet, even cable TV and radio have all been technological advances used to bring us news faster than ever before. Until recently, though, there was still a delay. Stories would be developed, written and then published on a cycle (generally daily, with a deadline). With the advent of these faster means of communication this cycle has been broken down into a rough guideline.

This has great benefits, and great failures. News can be tweeted, tumbld, and blogged by anyone anywhere (Mumbai and Iran are two great examples I can think of off the top of my head).

Because of the speed of the news, many sources seem to be ignoring the ethical code of journalism in favor of being the first to break the story. Such is the case with Shirley Sherrod.

Shirley Sherrod was the director of rural development in Georgia for the USDA, that is she was director until a conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, posted a video clip where Sherrod was telling the NAACP about a time when she didn't want to help a white farmer based on his color (Sherrod is black, by the way).

As soon as Breitbart had posted this video, it was picked up by Fox to be aired on TV. However, what is even more amazing is that before the video was aired, Sherrod was fired.

The best part of the whole ordeal? The video of Sherrod was (almost definitely libelously) edited to make her appear racist. The rest of the video clip shows her discussing how she didn't act on this thought and instead helped to save the white farmer's land from foreclosure and how they've formed a very tight friendship ever since.

After the full video was exposed, the USDA offered Sherrod her job back and she declined.

So what's the moral here?

Journalism in America was founded on a system of ethics. The People should be able to trust their news sources to be actually fair and balanced. The lack of research done by news organizations (who still reported on Sherrod's supposed racism all day after the video broke) is absolutely astounding. Did anybody bother to look at the rest of the tape? Did anybody bother to find a source other than a blogger with an agenda? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA TODAY!? Please, next time you find a lead for a story, do your job. And in case you aren't sure what to do, here is a link to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Twitter Saves the Day!

Here is a great article I found on Reddit.com. A Japanese journalist, Kosuke Tsuneoka, was captured by insurgents in Afghanistan. When one of his captors got a new phone, he asked Tsuneoka to show him the internet. While helping his captors, Tsuneoka sent two tweets that led to his release.

Journalism in the UK and US

Maura posted an interesting question about journalism in the UK. I've been following the semi-recent debacle regarding photographers in the UK and Police response under Sections 43 and 44 of the Terrorism Act (2000). Basically these codes allow police to harass photographers under suspicion of terrorism. Recently, Section 44 was repealed because of the negative attention (and obvious legal issues) it has raised. However even with the repeal of section 44, people have still been stopped and questioned under Section 43. But I digress; I'll come back to photography in a bit.

Now back to Maura's original questions about the hijacking of the royal family's mobile phones. This is an obvious violation of privacy and any standard wire-tapping laws. The investigation isn't about the legality of the hijacking, as it was most certainly not legal, however it is about the police decision on when to stop the investigation of Andy Coulson's role in the matter.

The News of the World did something that was, from a journalism standpoint, completely unethical. Illegally monitoring conversations in order to create a story is possibly one of the worst things a journalist can do.

With all things digital, nothing can ever be erased. A memory card can be formatted over and over again and yet free software can be used to recover the "deleted" files. Always be careful with digital media 'cause once its out there, there's no take-backs.

As for the relationship between reporters and police here in the United States, that seems to be a case-by-case basis. I have experienced, personally, both sides of the spectrum when it comes to dealing with police. When covering news stories (primarily breaking news such as bomb threats, medical emergencies, and the recent string of pedestrian accidents) There has been little to no animosity between myself, other reporters and the police.

However, I have been personally harassed by a Purdue Police officer while taking photos on campus for my photography class.

I also follow a blog about the First Amendment and photographer's rights called Photography is Not a Crime. While I don't necessarily agree with Carlos Miller's aggressive methods of professing his rights as a US citizen, I do agree with the message he is delivering: Photographers are not Terrorists and everybody has the right to photograph and videotape in public.

I have been following Carlos's blog because he has been, over the last several years, aggregating information about police misconduct with photographers and videographers. Many times this involves camera operators for news stations and newspapers being arrested for "Disorderly conduct," when its clear the only thing they are actually being arrested for is (as Carlos puts it), "Contempt of cop."

Recently, several mainstream news sources have suddenly caught on to this not-so-new story of police officers not really understanding the law. One of the more famous ones right now involves video shot by Anthony Graber. Graber was arrested and now faces 16 years in prison for wiretapping charges, all for filming a police officer pulling him over. What makes these charges even more ridiculous is that the cop was in plainclothes, in an unmarked car, and as soon as he stopped, pulled his gun from its holster to confront Graber.

Graber filmed the incident and then put the video on Youtube. This prompted the police to raid his house and confiscate cameras and computer equipment while he spent 26 hours in jail before being charged.

Graber captured all of this while wearing a GoPro Hero HD camcorder on his helmet. A camera sitting on someone's head is definitely not hidden. While Maryland is a two-party consent state, it was obvious that a camera was present at the time of the incident.

While Graber is charged for wiretapping (which I'm pretty positive will be at least lessened if not completely dropped) There are many other people who have been helped by having their incidents recorded. A recent, and horrifying, example took place outside a Los Angeles Forever 21 store. Unfortunately the video has been removed from youtube due to a copyright infringement however it is viewable at LiveLeaks.com. Its obvious to tell that the man in the white shirt is trying to communicate that he and his friend are deaf and cannot speak or hear well. The man in the choke-hold is obviously trying to communicate that he cannot breathe.

Now if that isn't enough reason to carry some sort of camera with you every where you go, I don't know what is.

Here is a brief list of some mainstream articles about photography and police and photographer's rights:

USAToday.com

Time.com

NYT.com

WashingtonPost.com

ABCNews.com

NPR.com

PopularMechanics.com

Congressman Anthony Weiner Plays it Straight

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) pretty much sums up my feelings about most elected officials. Once government becomes a career, officials stop giving a shit about their constituents and start making sure they keep their coffers full (sorry for the cliché) their bank accounts full.

Two Vids: One for Kicks, the Other for Lernin' Gud.

Kicks:


Just a quick video from today's interview with some football players. Same setups as before, but this time I used my Tascam DR-07 recorder and the Audio Technica Hand-held mic for audio instead of the shotgun mic (way too much wind noise).

Fer Lernin' Gud:

This video was not done entirely by me. Most of the work was done by Jeremy. He started on as a videographer this summer and is sticking with us (thanks!).

What I wanted to point out here was the difference in audio. The audio from the callout itself (when John Cox is talking) is recorded with the on-camera microphone. These microphones are put in merely as after-thoughts so the average joe-shmo can shoot a complete video straight out of the box. They are low-quality and pick up about every sound imaginable (but not in a good way).

The voice over, however, was recorded using the Tascam DR-07 audio recorder directly (it has a pair of stereo microphones). I think you can hear the difference for yourself.

Lesson learned: Always record audio separately, or at least plug a nice mic into the camera.

To Be or Not To Be (a Journalist) and Thoughts on Social Media

Who is a Journalist?

Dan Gillmor is a writer and educator at Arizona Sate University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Recently, Dan wrote an article for Salon.com on "Who's a journalist? Does that matter?"

I agree completely that with tools like facebook, twitter, digg, reddit and a host of other outlets for laymen to communicate, we all are creating media, and lots of it.

I also agree that not all of this is journalism. Not even Dan calls himself a journalist most of the time feeling that

"Calling myself a journalist, which I did from time to time, tended to make me feel like I was pretending to a higher role than the craft, however vital and honorable it may be, merited."

While trying to define who is a journalist in class, the example of Jamal Albarghouti was brought up. For those of you who don't know this gentleman by name, he is the only person to have captured video during the Virginia Tech shootings. Jamal used his Nokia cell phone to capture not only footage of a S.W.A.T. Team entering a building, but also 26 shots fired by the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho.

Many fine points for both side of the argument were brought up during the discussion. Jamal acted with the Media in mind, wanting to show people what happened, instead of running away, he started rolling video and even moved forward toward the danger. On the other hand, Jamal is an engineering graduate student, while he did take the video he gave it away (not a professional choice), and he provided absolutely zero context for anyone watching the video.

When you watched the video the first time, did you know what it was? I sure didn't. My position is that Jamal, and many other people in positions similar to his, are not journalists. They don't practice journalism as a vocation, they don't provide context, they don't even know what is going on half the time. While their actions are valued and are important, Journalists are the ones who take this information and turn it into something of substance for the audience.

Thoughts on Social Media

Who doesn't enjoy a good tweet about someone's poop?

"Holy Crap! ...I need more fiber in my diet.

7:32 PM Aug 24th via txt"

Or maybe about the sexual encounters of a newly-wed couple as a prank from the best man?

"They’re on the job! #26 - Action commenced at 22.04GMT. Weight: 156KG.5:04 PM Feb 18th via Power Twitter

They’re off the job! #25 – Action concluded at 22.15GMT. Duration: 8m.10 s. Frenzy Index: 10 (http://song.ly/2j6j3). Judge’s Comment: "OOF!"5:16 PM Feb 17th via Power Twitter"

I love twitter. I think it is a fun way to keep up with people you know or people in similar lines of work to you, or just follow someone who likes to party.

Twitter also provides an opportunity for people to quickly provide information to each other. Did you read that Dan Gillmor article I linked above? Do you recall the traffic information tweets during that snowstorm? Yeah, that's pretty much why twitter rocks.

On the other hand, we have Facebook. Fuck you, Facebook.

and I'll leave you with that for now. I'll finish it when I get back from class.

and by back from class I really mean at 2:26am the next day because, well, that's just how I roll.

Back to Facebook. When I first got accepted to Purdue, one of the first things I did was head over to Facebook (shown to me by my older brother) and start an account. It was a fun tool that I used to keep in touch with high school friends, and people I met at Purdue. Then came bumper stickers, then gifts. Then farmville. And mafia wars. And now god knows what because they've changed their layout so many God damned times I don't even know what I'm looking at.

And in the meantime Mark Zuckerberg and his team of cronies have decided to change the privacy settings to, oh wait, that's right. There are no privacy settings.

What was that Facebook? A public outcry for control over our own content and respecting copyright and privacy? Oh, I guess you could just send out a quick press release and put a few confusing-as-hell-and-impossible-to-get-to settings back up. But don't worry, Zuckerberg is still impossible to friend and I'm sure his data isn't getting mined at all...

Yet I still use you facebook. Why? Because of your 500 million users. Not because I like the system, but because it is the easiest way for me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world.

Granted, when Diaspora is released to the public, I'm opening an account there, but I'll leave my FB account open so others can still contact me if all else fails.

/rant.

Mass on the Grass

Last night was St. Thomas Aquinas's annual Mass on the Grass service on Memorial Mall.




The setup was similar to the coaches' interview except for the lenses and stabilization.

Instead of using the 35mm f/1.8 I opted for the Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 for the wide angle shots and the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRI for the telephoto shots.

I also used a Manfrotto Tripod and 701HDV fluid head for support instead of just a monopod.

I still used the Sennheiser MKE 400 mini shotgun mic for audio, but I dropped the recorded audio as it conflicted too much (even at -35db) with the voice over.

Speaking of Voice Overs, the VO for this piece was recorded using a Tascam DR-07 audio recorder and an Audio Technica hand-held microphone.

I still forgot to include the location in the lower third identifier (face-palm). But at least it was mentioned in the VO. After all, if I get it perfect the first time, there's no room for improvement, right?

Notes: Coach's Interview 8-25

Notes is a segment where I will break down a multimedia piece I complete and describe what I like and don't like about it. I'll talk about how it's made and why somethings happened (or didn't happen).

First Up: Coach's interview on Wednesday:



Aspects of New Media:
Video - hopefully you've gathered there is video footage involved with this piece ;)
Audio - Audio is one of the most important aspects of video, yet can stand on its own too.
Graphics - While not the main aspect here, it adds information and gives a more professional touch

Now for the detailed breakdown.

Video:

This video was shot with my Nikon D300s and a 35mm f/1.8 lens. I used a monopod to help stabilize the video, but I can't wait until I get a shoulder mount!

Overall it looks okay. I had some exposure differences from one interviewee to another, especially with coach Hope. I fixed it a bit with some color correction in post, but going from direct sunlight to shade is going to cause problems no matter what. I also had a slight focus problem when talking to coach Clark (0:50).

Audio:

The audio was capture with my Sennheiser MKE-400 shotgun mic mounted directly to the camera and plugged into the audio input.

I opted not to use a less sensitive mic like a hand-held or lavaliere microphone simply for the ease of use. I didn't want to spend the time syncing the audio in post so I traded audio quality for speed. A great example of using a strongly directional microphone like the Sennheiser is audible at 1:15.

You can also hear the wind moving across the microphone and some handling noise throughout the piece. I used the foamie that came with the microphone, I really need to get a dead-cat wind screen.

Graphics:

I added a few things at the suggestion of Maura. I made all of the graphics in Photoshop and saved them as .TIFF files with transparency layers.

Firstly I added a date-stamp in the upper right. This was pretty simple, and while anyone can look at the upload date, its quicker to just see it in the video to see if its current.

Secondly I added a "bug" to the lower right. This is a simple graphic used as a watermark.

Finally I re-vamped the super so it looks cleaner. Overall doing all of the graphics took about 20 minutes and I think it was worth it. They provide some basic information while giving the whole piece a more professional look.

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to bed!

New Media Includes...

Today in class we discussed some aspects of what new media includes. I think this is a beautiful example of three of those: Audio, Video, Graphics. Plus its just really cool to watch (and informative).

Michael's Media Manifestation

This blog has been launched for a number of reasons. First among them (and really, it wouldn't have started without this) is it is required. As part of a communications course (New Media in Journalism and Convergent Technology) we are required to keep a blog to not only detail our progress on our final presentation, but to also "hand-in" assignments.

Secondly, I named this blog "Michael's Media Manifestation" because of what I am hoping to get out of it. In our present time, journalism and media are evolving about as fast as nano-bots in an oil pool. I am trying to define and manifest what journalism and new media really are to me.

Well That's it for now. But check back soon, I'll be updating frequently. I'll also be updating my normal blog with a new recipe and photo soon.