J 302F Final Project

Check out my website.
http://larissaliska.blogspot.com/

What can you do on your personal site?

Add a Twitter widget

• How? http://theedublogger.com/2012/09/24/how-to-add-a-twitter-widget/ 

Add a resume in PDF format professionally

• Example: http://elizabethblancas.blogspot.com/p/multimedia.html
• How? Scribd.com

 
Add a fancy, interactive resume using visualize.me

• Embedded example: http://www.jordanmhumphreys.com/Resume.html 
• Full page example: http://vizualize.me/jhumps?r=jhumps#.ULWgwGdJtMQ

Write a nice bio to introduce yourself

Finalize your portfolio by Monday, Dec. 3.

The Future of Affordable Student Housing

In the face of tuition increases and lean economic times, many students turn to affordable housing such as cooperatives when looking for a place to live. A proposed change to the MF-4 zone, which includes West Campus, could slow down and even hinder some affordable student housing from being built in the future.

Proposed by the Central Austin Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee, or CANPAC, the proposal would make group residential properties in the MF-4 housing zone conditional, which means they would be required to obtain permits from the Planning Commission on a case-by-case basis. 

"What they want to do is to make a decision that would basically make you have to get permits to build cooperatives or fraternity and sorority buildings," Cheyenne Dansby, Taos Cooperative Board Representative, said. "It's a really difficult thing to do because it takes years and lots of money, and co-ops don't have a lot of money anyway."

Current group housing properties, including existing cooperatives as well as Greek houses, would be exempt from the change, but if they wish to expand or remodel in the future they may be forced to obtain permits for their current property as well. It has been said that the existence of high-density student housing lowers property value in the area for single-family residences.

The decision, which is to be voted on by Austin City Council, has been pushed back several times for a multitude of reasons. The current vote is tentatively set for December, but co-op residents plan to request a delay until February in order to allow students to participate at a time when school is in session.

Representatives from CANPAC declined to comment on the decision.

Video Story Telling Project

Garrett Callahan
Michael Liang
Faria Akram

There was a problem between our camera and FinalCutPro. Our settings were fine when we shot, however FinalCutPro does not recognize some type of settings and also does not let the user know this. We edited our entire project in FinalCutPro without knowing that in the end it would cause multiple problems in playing. We asked both Angela and the lab assistant to help us, and they did so multiple times, however both came to the limits of their knowledge and this is the best we were able to get after working on the video for several hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnuv-VzSBek&feature=youtu.be

Sorority stereotypes news video

Since Greek life is so prominent on the UT campus, Anna Fata, Victoria Garcia and Ryan Haddox decided to investigate some sorority stereotypes.

First Time Voters

First Time Voters

Christy
Will
Darren

 This year’s election brought a whole group of new voters out to the polls. New voters express their opinions about their first time experience as voters and discuss their thoughts over how much impact they feel their vote made, especially in a predominantly red state like Texas. We find students’ real feelings on the voting process and the importance of getting the vote out!


First Time Voters

Jasmin, Tiffany, Minza Christmas Video

While some establishments choose to decorate for Christmas from mid November or early December, others decorate for the holiday at the end of October and early November. Whether they are aware of it or not, these decisions affect their customers in different ways.

 

Some may be turned off by the festive cups Starbucks offers at the beginning of November. Others find joy in the Christmas light displays at Mozart’s.

 

RTF Junior Alex Michaels feels that the holiday season has been tainted by consumerism. A frequent Starbucks studier, Michaels said the festive cups bother him because they are sold to customers so early. He said this promotes a sense of commerciality instead of true holiday spirit.

 

Aliya Ispahany, a dedicated Mozart’s patron, disagrees with Michaels. Ispahany said though the decorations are in fact set up early, it only adds to the Christmas spirit. She said the early set up encourages her to feel excited with holiday spirit, not consumerism.

 

Though members of the Austin community share conflicting views regarding the proper time to decorate for and celebrate Christmas, one thing remains certain: it is apparent from these interviews that holiday overload either enhances or hinders business.

 

Christine, Britny and Hector's video project

Hex Rally 2012: Texas vs. TCU

As the longstanding rivalry between The University of Texas and A&M ends, the University prepares for a new Thanksgiving football game against TCU. Before each Thanksgiving game, students participate in putting a hex on their opponents. Since 1941 UT has been hexing A&M, but this year the candles will be lit for a new team. Students, Texas Exes organizers and fans have differing opinions on the transition. Some are hopeful for the change in tradition while others lament the end of an era. As the rally slogan goes, "same hex, same spirit, new game."

By Cori Baker, Omar Longoria and Alex Vickery


Credits:

Photos by The Daily Texan:
Tamir Kalifa
Elisabeth Dillon
Puying Huang
Lawrence Peart
Paul Chouy
Julia Bunch

Larisa, Andy, and Vivian's Video Project on Student Soldiers

This student media project investigates the role that the military has had or currently has on University of Texas students. Interviews present two common situations: a veteran that has returned to school, and a student that is currently in the Army Reserves.

R.O.C.K.: A Different Kind of Therapy

By: Cheney Slocum, Celina Fontenot, and Alexis Chastain

R.O.C.K., otherwise known as the Ride On Center for Kids, is located in Georgetown, Texas. Established in 1998, the organization focuses on helping those that live with disabilities through unique types of therapy. These methods include hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. While the students gain physical benefits, such as strength and balance, their relationship with the horse provides emotional development and cognitive progress.

South Lamar Plaza renovation displaces local business

The Fear of Being a Minority

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J29uFZrnlFw&feature=youtu.be

Everyone Can Play

No one imagines the blind involved in America's past-time. Many are unaware that blind people around the world play baseball. They adjust the game to fit their strength, hearing, and are able to play in a way that many able people might find difficult.

Taking a news clip and making a rap song.

"Ain't Nobody Got Time for That"

Good Video Example

Why All the Interest in Pinterest? 

I like the way this video personalizes an explanation of a new online technology. Rather than relying solely on screen shots that demonstrate the logistics of how a website works and discussing the statistics of Pinterest use, it illustrates the impact and utility of the social media site through a specific Pinterest user who uses it as inspiration for jewelry design. I like the way the video starts with a close-up of the designer's hands working and intercuts the interview with action shots of her typing and scrolling from multiple angles. I thought the tight side shot of the designer's eye, where the glow of the screen on her face makes it obvious what she's looking at, was a particularly effective way to align the video with what the narrator was saying about the visual nature of Pinterest. Overall, I felt that the sequence and content of shots in the video was pretty dynamic for a piece on a website  -- which is visually static itself. The only thing that seems to present a notable opportunity for criticism, to me, is that the video occasionally lingers on the interviewed designer just a bit too long.

Pretty Good video example

Today Show Affair Story

I would label this a good quality story with some minor negative qualities.

The story idea is good. It is a good feature on a timely subject- focusing on the affair of General Petraeus. Choosing to interview an expert on affairs was a good idea for the reporter. Some of the video footage they used was not good quality; zooming in and panning on the couple was not aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.

Although they did not use a lot of their own video, the video they chose to include was great! I loved that they included the clip from SNL. It brought humor into an otherwise serious story.  Overall, I think the story was interesting, relatable, and newsworthy.

Video Example

http://abcnews.go.com/m/video?id=17755168

Video example

http://f2009.texasangle.com/6/ (Exposure therapy)

Project Idea

This post is a bit late, but here is the project idea for Hannah Jane, Andrew, and Ricky:

We plan to do an overview on the MF-4 zoning decision that will determine whether or not group housing will be furthermore banned in West Campus. This will mean that group residences (i.e. Greek houses, co-ops, and other types of group housing where residents share a kitchen) will no longer allowed to be built in West Campus from here on out. So far, the City Council vote on the decision has been delayed for months. The story has received some coverage in newspapers such as The Daily Texan, but a video project could really put in perspective how important this vote is for the day-to-day lives of students.

We would like to do a comprehensive look at why group housing is important at such a large university and get footage/interviews of residents and their feelings about the MF-4 vote, as well as get the input of those who would like to see group housing banned in order to get the whole story.

Barbara Jordan Media Awards

College Student Category for Disability Coverage
http://governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/awards/barbara_jordan_media_awards/

Video Example

I think this is a classic example of not only shoddy video work, but terrible reporting in general. First of all, the over-use of stock footage, sometimes only tangentially related to what is being talked about, only serves to distract the viewer from what is being said by the reporter. In addition, on the few occasions when Fox actually shoots their own footage, they try for dramatic angles or lighting that in most cases simply ends up looking ridiculous. Finally, there's the fact that a lot of the information given by the narrator is blatantly wrong or overly dramatic to the point where it's hard to take anything he says seriously.

Updated Belo Video Project - Alex, Cori, Omar

Above is the updated Belo Video Project

Tiffany Hinman, Jasmin Carina, and Minza Khan's video project idea

Our project is going to be about the most important matter/holiday that all of us should have started officially celebrating November 1...CHRISTMAS!!! Fear not, this is not just a project over our strange obsessions with Christmas cookies/sweaters/music/food/lights/decorations/etc (though rest assured, we are total Christmas crazies). We're actually going to be addressing questions such as "When is it socially acceptable to begin acknowledging Christmas?" and "Why do people and businesses begin celebrating Christmas at this time?" This story is significant because people constantly hear stories about some organization doing a Christmas toy drive or a big house that made the news because their light displays are visible from space, but no one ever takes the time to ask people if they are ready for this abundance of Christmas talk. This project will not have a bias; it will present perspectives from both the Christmas crazed and self-proclaimed Grinches. This is also why our story is unique: because it's not just another story on how great Christmas is. We're going to be excellent reporters and get to the bottom of each opinion thoroughly.

We're going to try to contact establishments that have already decorated or that will decorate before Thanksgiving, like Mozart's, Barton Creek Mall, and Zilker Park for comment. We're going to ask them why they chose to decorate early, and how it affects their customers. We're also going to contact places like the SAC to find out why they choose to wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate and if this decision is catered to the wishes and desires of their customers or if it's a matter of funding the means to pay for the decorations. In addition to establishments, we want to interview students on campus to get their opinions on establishments who decorate early or not, and why.

Furthermore, this is "newsy" because CHRISTMAS IS FAST APPROACHING! AHHHH! Get excited! It's also news worthy because this is an issue that everyone seems to complain about as soon as Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby starts setting up Christmas merch months in advance, but no one ever actually creates a story about it.




So yeah. We're pretty pumped about the story.

Until you get to see our Christmas video, here are a few wise quotes from Buddy the Elf to last you until December...

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."

"I love smiling, smiling is my favorite."

"SANTAAAAA! I KNOW HIM!"

"Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

Video Story Idea - Alex, Cori, Omar

Video Story Idea

Recently, A&M left the Big 12 Conference. For our project, we wanted to focus on changing traditions, from the longstanding Hex Rally against  A&M to a new rally against Texas Christian University. We will focus on the reactions of students and others to the new rally and the idea of creating a rivalry against TCU as opposed to the rivalry, over a century old, against the Aggies. A little bit of comparison to the old tradition would be involved, but the project will focus on the present and future of this new change here at UT. As an issue that isn't currently that well known, we would like to bring this to light and present something interesting and new to those involved and to our viewers. 

The text component involved would be a companion piece to the video, telling the same story and using the same interviews and quotes as the video, while being more than just a transcript. Sound bites that we do not use in the video for time constraints or other reasons could be developed into fuller story with more detail. This would enable viewers to get more information if interested.

Subjects/organizations to use:

1. Interviews with students; street interviews to gauge the opinion of random people on this issue; this would give a good impression of what the student body as a whole might think about this change

2. Members involved with Texas Exes (the initiators of the change and new plans for TCU rallies)

3. Interviews with those experienced with the A&M hex rally; i.e. Cheerleaders, members of spirit orgs, etc.

Bonus: find some Aggies, see what they think!

Darren, Will, Christy - Video Project Idea

 Idea

We will be interviewing first time voters at the Jester watch party for the election tomorrow night.  The focus of our story will be their opinions/feelings on their first time voting in a Presidential election.  We may ask questions such as:

"How much influence in American politics do you feel you have as a new voter?" 

"As a new voter, what particular issues in the candidates' platforms were most important to you?"

"What are your expectations for the election?"

At this time, we do not know for sure who we are going to interview, but our plan is to interview one Obama-supporter and one Romney-supporter.  We will provide names and political stances in the video.  

Text Idea

We will provide a piece of contextual writing to accompany our video online.  This text will include background information on the event we covered and the people we interviewed.  We will also explain why we felt this event was newsworthy for this project.

Stereotypes vs Reality of the Northeast- Story Idea

Our story idea stems off our Soundslides project in which we analyzed the stereotypes versus the reality of Texas. In this project we are focusing on what Texans think about the Northeast, which includes Massachusetts, New York, and other surrounding states. In this project we are basically doing the reverse of what we did before. This time Texans get to stereotype the Northeast instead of outsiders stereotyping Texans. This project will focus on analyzing how people outside the Northeast see the area and then how the area is in reality. While this is an overall look at all of the Northeast, there might be a little focus on Massachusetts due to the fact Garrett is from there and will be interviewing many of his friends from back home.

This video will work very well with the text component. While analyzing the stereotypes of the Northeast we can use the text to introduce different questions that are asked to the interviewees while also giving sub information to the background video and interviews.

Three potential subjects that we can interview:

1.) Garrett's friends from back home- these interviews will be used to see how they think people see the Northeast while also see what the area is actually like.
2.) Native Texans- these interviews will be used to see what Texans think the Northeast is like especially compared to how they grew up in Texas. Questions such as "What are your stereotypes of the Northeast?" will be used to find out the imagined look of the Northeast.
3.) Faria's friends that work in the Northeast- these interviews can be used to once again see how people from the area think people see the Northeast and what the reality actually is.
4.) People who have lived and experienced both areas (Texas and the Northeast)- these interviews can be used to see how people who have experienced both areas of the country think people see the Northeast and what the reality actually is. Also this is a good mix since they have heard all the stereotypes while also living them all.

 Project by:
Garrett
Michael
Faria

Story Idea

We are going to do our story on reality vs. stereotypes of sorority girls. Our story is going to consist of video that will be having B roll of sorority girls and the sorority house. We will be interviewing not only sorority girls of why they joined a sorority but also random students at UT and what they feel are stereotypes of sorority girls. The video works together with text because it is giving more detail of the feelings of the sorority girls and also elaborate more on how the students feel. Sorority life has had a controversy and has had a lot of stereotypes said and made among students and we are going behind the rumors to see what is reality.

We can interview sorority girls, non greek students

Vivan, Larisa and Andy: Video Project Idea Proposal

Our idea for a creative, relevant and do-able video project is centered around the story of student veterans and their experiences transitioning to college life. The video footage will consist of scenes from "Write a Note, Get a Float!", which is an week-long event occurring on West Mall (starting 11/5); it is an event where students write appreciative notes to American soldiers for their service, and receive root beer floats in return. We think there will be plenty of interesting video roll to capture at the event, considering the general lively activity of West Mall and the expected popularity of the cause.

We are looking to interview students writing notes at the event, and also actual student soldiers (or veterans) - most likely outside of the event on our own terms. Throughout the video, we would have a few seconds of the interviews playing (to show the faces of the interviewees and make it more personable) and then transition to b-roll, while the audio from the interviews continues to play and compliment the b-roll. The general theme would be an analysis of Student Veteran Services, and how comfortable student soldiers feel attending The University of Texas at Austin after experiencing service abroad. How smoothly can the transition from solider to student go?

Christine, Britny, and Hector's Project Proposal

The focus of this project is to expand the coverage and knowledge of the worldwide sport, Quidditch. It will cover the origins of the sport (how it materialized into a game played in real life, as opposed to just something in the pages of the Harry Potter series), the students at UT who choose to play, and what could possibly lay ahead for the sport, professionally (will it become something more recognized - as important as football and soccer?). Despite its interesting premise and back-story, Quidditch hasn't received too much coverage. With luck, this story will serve to inform people who don't know too much about it and peak their interest. We have no real target audience - the aim is to communicate with as many people as possible and get as many people interested in the sport as we can, without sounding like a promotional video.

Due to its being coverage of a sport, the project will be primarily centered around video, as opposed to text. We will use the text portion as a means of summary, brief and to the point, so that people will be interested enough to click play. The video will allow the viewers to see a live action example of what Quidditch actually is, and how unique the sport is (being, as mentioned before, a fantasy-based sport from a book has been incorporated into the world in which we live).

Three potential organizations/subjects we could interview are: 1) the University of Texas Quidditch team, 2) people at the Office of the Dean of Students, and 3) game spectators. We could interview team members to get first-hand accounts of what it's like to play the sport, people at the Office because that is where student organizations have to go to get certified, and game spectators to get outside point-of-views on Quidditch as a sport.

Kylie and Stacie Project Proposal

We would like to do a piece on Historic Preservation in Austin, focusing specifically on how historic landmarks are important to the culture in Austin as a city that serves as a State Capitol, cultural center, and center for tourism.  In a fast developing urban center, the historic preservationist societies are often at odds with city planning commissions and urban developers, and there are potential economic benefits from preservation or demolition.  We believe this is a unique story, because most historic buildings and sites and the issues facing historic neighborhoods torn between the past and the future usually fly under the radar, so to speak.  We would like to coordinate an interview with representatives from the Austin Historic Preservation Agency, Texas Historical Commission, etc. to learn about community impacts, legal issues, and the economic standing/future of historic buildings around Austin, and how it is decided whether the community benefits of preserving v. demolishing are greater.

Story idea

Because Larissa and I did our soundslides project on disability awareness, we were able to find out about a baseball game for the blind that was going on. We developed interest in this and decided to do our video project on beep baseball (baseball for the blind). We were interested in how exactly the game worked, and discovered that Austin has a beep baseball team that is actually quite known. They have gone to the World Series for the blind, and most recently got second to Taiwan. We plan to have our project centered around how the game works, the players, and family involvement. We thought this would be a good project because people who are not disabled or blind usually are not aware that games like this even exist.

We plan on interviewing the captain, parent, and a player.

Video Story Idea: Jessica, Paige, Helen

Our group is working on a story about the Alamo Drafthouse and the Highball closing for renovation. Both these businesses are owned by Tim League, who agreed to the renovation despite the fact that there was originally no desire to change the beloved and iconic theater. The developers who owned the plot of land claimed they would have developed the land whether League wanted in or not. Some of the businesses in the same center will close or move, but League decided to stay through the renovation.

The issue we want to reflect in our video story is gentrification and how it is affecting business, such as the Highball and Alamo Drafthouse.


We plan on speaking with students, active movie-goers, employees of the theater and owners of shops located around the theater to get different opinions about the renovation. 

Video Story Idea - Monday Lab

The topic would be on ROCK, the Ride On Center for Kids in Georgetown. The organization focuses on hippotherapy, a therapeutic technique that uses horse riding to help people with sensory and motor disabilities. ROCK primarily helps kids, although they also provide services for adults, such as returning veterans. We believe this story is unique because people don’t usually don’t focus on horse therapy. News on disabilities and ways that people treat them is prevalent, but this is a different approach to a common problem. We plan to use the text narrative as a way to provide background information to the story. The possible video sources would be volunteers, instructors, ROCK board members, and (if permittable) the kids in the classes. The video would then allow for a more intimate viewership.

Video Example

I liked the story of this video.  The video began by talking about Austin's Race for the Cure.  Then it included interviews with survivors and the co-chair of Race for a Cure.  Finally, the video ended by mentioning how the Susan G. Komen for the cure event helps out cancer patients and the community.  The video had many good angles, good visuals, and great audio.  I liked that the interviews used a good rule of thirds, and that they used the 'two eyes' one ear rule.  I liked how there was audio at the beginning and end before and after the reporter's voice over.  Also, there was good background noise throughout the entire package.

The reporter had three panned clips in the package, but only one of them bothered me because the angle was crooked.  It was around the 1:00 mark.  Also, I wish the videographer would have given the interviewees more headroom in their shots.

Overall it was a great video that was engaging and kept my attention every time.

Thou shalt not

... do this in Journalism:

http://tumblr.tastefullyoffensive.com/post/34984952414/the-sun#.UJcKHRyJkec

To buy or not to buy: Resources for video editing

Price of Final Cut Pro
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/apple-releases-final-cut-pro-x-for-just-300-mac-app-store-exclusive/

Final Cut or iMovie Pro?
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/23/final-cut-pro-x-or-really-imovie-pro/

Free video editing tools
http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/editingsoftware/a/freevidedit.htm

Online editing services
http://desktopvideo.about.com/od/editingsoftware/tp/onlineediting.htm