Reflection 3/24/11 - Day Missed

Why wasn't I in class today?

Because I felt like the above picture. Take note that the picture is not actually of me, but of one of my musical idols when she was sick. Thought I'd work in some "pop" culture there.

I did follow along on Facebook, though. I found that we had Judge Doctor Chris Court, and I heard that J Smooth was really creative in his defense. I can't believe I missed it!

I'm also intrigued by the fact that Charlie Sheen is still coming up in class (and I'm really glad I missed any discussion about Rebecca Black's "Friday," because I'm so sick of that song, and we discussed it at length on my radio show last Monday, but, really, that was enough). I'm not entirely sure what the context was in this case, but I don't like the idea of rewarding celebrities for their endless stupidity with exactly what they want - attention. Charlie Sheen needs help, sure, and so he should get help. He should get help in private and actually try to fix himself up. What he's doing is fishing for attention; I think better PR would be for him to disappear now and reappear later after a decent amount of therapy. I'm not sure if this contributed at all to discussion, but that's just what I'm thinking about it right now!

As for the Family, we've contacted a few of our places and have yet to hear back. Fingers crossed!

St. Patrick's Day Storyboarding!

I meant to put this together earlier, but here's a picture representation of my St. Patrick's Day, rated PG!

We got gelato for class last Thursday!

This is french vanilla with Oreos. I'd never had gelato before, and it made me sad as an Italian to be able to say that, but no more! Thanks Doc Chris!

Then we filmed our reflections/dissed all of the no-shows.

Then, later on, we celebrated. I found these glasses.

I'm posting these unattractive photos just for you, Doc Chris.

It was a fun night! But never let me wear a tie again... it's something to play with and I get far too fixated on it.

Midterm Exam

1. What are the three parts of the production process? Pre-production, production, and post-production are the three parts of the production process.
2. What are the two new parts of the production class that we use in this class that can be found in marketing class under 2 of the 4 P's? Product, price, placement, and promotion are the 4 P's. The two that we use in class are placement and promotion. This is how things that we produce are going to get out into the world. An example of placement is putting your video on Youtube for people to see (because the best video in the world is nothing if nobody sees it!). Then, we use social media to promote our videos to other people via spreading the URL and promoting our video and ourselves.
3. What is the most important part of the production process and why? The most important part of the production process is pre-production. This is when your team gets everything together and gets organized so that the production and post-production processes move smoothly. Without pre-production, the rest of the production process couldn't happen.
4. What is the best part of your experience in this class and why? I'm sort of a [baby] tech-junkie, so I really enjoyed the class when we went over how to use Final Cut Pro. It's like using ProTools, only it deals a lot more with visual aesthetics. I had been waiting to use Final Cut Pro all semester, and it was really satisfying to actually start with it. Now I really want to start fooling around with it. Although I know that pre-production is most important, I feel like production and post-production are the most fun!
5. Explain how you like working in groups in this class, and how has your team grown. Evaluate your team. I usually like to work solo, but working in a group has really worked for me in this class. Everyone in my group is reliable and brings a different talent to the table, and we all have fun ideas. It's interesting to get together every week and exchange ideas and see what's going on in everybody's head. But, while we don't have all of the same ideas, our aims are all the same. We want to produce a reputable video and distribute it to the public via placement and promotion. We're currently coming up with shooting ideas and we all have a good vision for our show, our PSA, and our promotional spot. The Family's on the right track.
6. How have you grown in this course thus? Has it helped you critically think and have you applied what you have learned in other courses? Explain. What do you expect to learn in the second part of this course? I have learned a lot about pre-production so far. I think pre-production deals a lot with critical thinking and application, because it deals so much with other people and their motivations, so I would definitely say that I've begun critically thinking even more than usual. Naturally, I have applied these principles in my other courses, because I'm taking 3 CM courses right now - Radio, Video, and Sight, Sound, Motion. The current events/staying connected with the world/current events sort of thing applies in all types of Communication. I expect to learn a lot more about direct production and post-production later on in this class. I think we're going to start a lot more shooting and editing.
7. Evaluate Doc Chris. Is he doing an effective job coaching you and preparing you for the production and post-production process? Do you like the fact that social media is being used instead of textbooks? Explain why. I think, for what we've done so far, we have been prepared well by Doc Chris. I think this comes a lot from Doc Chris' copious real world experience. The only thing I wish we had a little more of was the technological side, which I hope will come later on in the course. That's the only thing that I feel like I'm going to be just a little confused about, unless we learn by doing, which I'm totally fine with too. I like using social media instead of textbooks, though. I don't have the longest attention span in the world, so learning the way we do is preferred for me. It's very hard for me to sit in front of a book for a long period of time, no matter how interesting the topic!

Reflection 3/3/11: Interviewing

Interviewing

First rule of interviewing: Check your ego and agenda out at the door.
Second rule of interviewing: Don't be confrontational.
Third rule of interviewing: Do your research!
Fourth rule of interviewing: Be gracious.
Fifth rule of interviewing: Finish. Always give the person an out.

Want a good example of a good interviewer? Watch Frost/Nixon, both the original interview and the movie. Watch the movie for the whole process of researching. This guy was unbelievable. Nixon had a huge ego, and Frost had none, and he really accomplished what he set out to do.

Like a lot of things we learn in this class, I think it's good to know these rules on a basic level (as in, not word-for-word). We should know them as principles so that they're in the back of our minds, so that when we go out and interview and produce things, we'll have these principles innately inside of us.  It'll be more natural than if we're constantly trying to recall exact definitions. These rules seem kind of obvious, but, based on watching certain interviews, sometimes breaking them just comes naturally.

Doc Chris showed us a bunch of different examples of interviewers and interviewees that demonstrated both good and bad interviewing techniques. These were really helpful. Good: Frost/Nixon. Bad: Allen Iverson. They helped communicate the principles of the class that we discussed today. They also helped move along the end of our pre-production process. I feel like we're more prepared now.