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?

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.