What I’ve learned……

This semester has been a little difficult for me…5 hard classes and being pregnant.  But, in spite of that, I have learned a great deal.  Before this class, I had never used a recording device, camcorder or the programs audacity, soundslides or Flash.  So, yeah, I learned a lot   I think I liked the audio recording + editing in audacity = soundslides, project the most.  Since I did it all by myself and really liked the final project, I took the most pride in that project.  Not to say it didn’t scare me and I didn’t get stressed out!  But I did enjoy it   I think that the class was set up in a way that made it easy to ask questions….even it they were so elementary and dumb   Our teach, Lisa Parisot, would always answer my silly questions with respect and encouragement.  The class atmosphere was always upbeat and fun…with lots of joke and stories.  I have never really been the type that likes having deadlines for projects like this, so this class showed me even more, that I probably need to have a job with a little slower pace   The class was also set up where a student could learn as much as they wanted to.  Meaning that the knowledge was there for the taking, if the student wanted to put the time into it.  I must admit, with having so much on my plate, I didn’t take advantage of this.  There was awesome tutorials to watch and I only watched a handful.  My lose.  Even though this class was very time-consuming for me, I’m glad that I took it.  It has made me more well-rounded as a journalist major.

“Revitalized Faith”

We (group 16) decided to cover a revival in Aubrey, TX. Their goal at this revival was to develop a multi-cultural church where all God’s children felt welcome to come and worship God. It started on a Sunday night and went all the way to the next Sunday afternoon. We went the 1st day, 3rd day, 5th day and the last. On the last day they had a potluck that we were invited to join I just took pictures. Throughout the week, we thought of questions for our interviews and who we wanted to interview. We wanted to interview people who had been to most/all of the revival, so we waited to interview until the last day. The congregation was so warm and welcoming to us. They seemed so excited when we would show up. The paster who was putting on the revival was so nice. His name was Preston and you could tell that he is a pastor because he truly loves people and wants to help them. I enjoyed the music a ton. This one man, Pastor Brown, played the piano and sang, kinda like New Orleans style gospel music and I loved it…it made my baby jump around my stomach…no joke! Even though going to the revival so many times took up a TON of time…I later realized that that was the easy part. We then had to log….log….and log some more. We had wanted to make sure we go enough footage of the event, so we ended up with way too much! Even though it was a pain, I am glad that we had too much verses not having enough. Having to work as a group was hard too. Only for the reason of time conflicts. All in all, I’m very pleased with our final layout. Sam did a great job with Flash and it works perfectly! I think our team worked well together and for the most part I enjoyed it. Here is a link to our fabulous story!  www.lisaparisot.com/Revival/Revival.html

“Choosing a President” Election 2008

For class we were asked to watch a program that the New York Times made about the 2008 election.  I absolutely loved it!  I thought they did such an amazing job of keeping the story clear and keeping me enticed through the whole thing.  It started off with a time line showing the length of the campaign then when right into a graphic showing a map of the U.S.  Different voters in different states stated why this election was important and why they supported their candidate.  The quality of photographs throughout the entire show was fabulous.  They really took the viewer to the situation and dropped them into the intense emotion of the people there.  They used not only pictures and graphics, but also soundbites and video.  Everything was put together so nicely that the story flowed very naturally and stayed interesting.  They gathered a wide range of interviews from voters and I felt kept everything pretty fair on each side.  Also, the narration throughout the program was enlightening and helpful as the viewer is guided through what at times could have been confusing.   The soundbites that were used were informative and well-placed.  They enhanced the pictures so much!  Again I have to mention the pictures.  They were amazing to me!  They captured the mood and told dozens of stories in and of themselves.  I think this is a wonderful example of what a story told through several different media should look like.  It’s timeless because of the historic impact and inspiring not only because of the subject matter but also the quality of the production.  Here is a link to it: http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/11/nyt.html

Election Pictures

We were given the assignment to take pictures of the upcoming election.  I wasn’t feeling well this past week so I didn’t get out much – I just got some signs in people’s front yards.

This was on Bell Street and I thought it looked classy

I really just liked the mailbox

Blog Assignment #2

Churchill’s Speech Interactive

http://www.churchillspeeches.com/speech_player/index.htm

The longer I stayed on this site the more I liked it.  At first I didn’t really know what it was about or what to think about it.  It took me a bit to figure out that the fabulous color pattern at the bottom was a time line that allowed for skipping forward.  I also didn’t see the controls for the audio link.  I loved that they put the audio of Churchill’s Westminster College speech.  Hearing him was so much more powerful than just reading a transcript.  Hearing the way he spoke, the language he used, I think, really brought me into the era.  It was extremely helpful to have the words to his playing along.  I loved the time line of information because after listening to his (almost 1 hour long!) speech, I could click on boxes that explained crucial information that helped me understand the time the speech was given, like what the world was going through at that time.  The pictures used in some of the information boxes were classic and invoked emotion.  On the “Atomic Bomb” box, inside it had more links, one of which was called “Hiroshima and Nagasaki”.  Inside that one was 8 pictures of the destruction that the bombs caused.  I thought that some of those pictures were pretty powerful. All and all I thought that the use of combined media really enhanced my understanding and enjoyment of the information that this site put forth.

The Halifax Explosion

http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/index.html

I liked the way this site was explained on the front page.  It gave a clear overview of the occurrence.  Text was the main media but several words were underlined and linked to information boxes that had either interviews with survivors or just more detailed explanation.  There were also photos of the event.  To me, the written interviews were more powerful than the photos because of perhaps the poor quality of the photos up against the vivid accounts from the survivors.  There was some audio interviews but I couldn’t hear them very well.  I liked the photo sideshow of the town right after the disaster and then 30 years later.  There was an extensive media library that had tons of interviews, facts, and photos.  For the person really interested in researching this event, there was plenty of information.

NEXT PART – Pick category and find a story to back it up:

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to use a story on the web site that we read that article on, or find one else where.  I watched the story that was linked about the family that lost their son who was murdered  (http://www.boston.com/news/multimedia/luis_gerena_murder/).  Oviously this story dealt with emotion.  Seeing and hearing the family at his funeral was so powerful.  The little sister going histerical and the family trying to be strong and comfort her.  So sad but really got the mood and feeling of the family across.  Just to be safe, I found another story elsewhere to write (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/medicatedchild/) about   I found a story on Frontline that I thought was interesting.  It was called “The Medicated Child” ()and was about kids with ADD or ADHD and being told that they’re Bipolar at very young ages.  I thought this made a really great video story because it was dealing with children and the way that they move and talk makes the story what it is. It dealt with emotion, movement and something that most people would want to know about and see.  Explaining how a temperamental child acts is not as powerful as seeing the kid go crazy and seeing how people react to them.  I think pictures with audio would have worked as well…but probably not as well.

Peace March 2008

www.lisaparisot.com/TyePeaceMarch

This is the March for Peace that was put on by UNT students.  It was on September 11 2008 and their main focus was their opposition to the war in Iraq.  I interviewed many people but only got to use a few because of my minute and 30 second time limit.  I appreciated the fact that America allows this kind of opposition, even if at times is pretty crude. Two Marines showed up to voice their different view and at times were showed a very non-peaceful reaction by the “peace” marchers.

First Audio Assignment!

www.lisaparisot.com/Tye

This is my mom, Melonie Milne, who is wonderful.  Her music has been a big part of my life and it’s very inspiring to me.  Her voice is also very pretty, both in singing and in speaking…very calming to me.  I wanted to get part of her life/music story on tape…not only for class  but now I have it forever! (also when she gets famous I can sell this to someone)    She encourages me daily to pursue my dreams and leads by example.  I love her very much.

About Me

My name is Megan Tye, I am a senior at the University of North Texas studying photojournalism.  I have lived in the Denton area my entire life and love the artsy feel that it has.  I have been married for a year and am expecting my first child in February.  I love my major because I enjoy capturing life’s little moments on film that most people go through their whole life without noticing.  I plan to use the skills I have learned to document life as I see it.  I do not want to work for a busy newspaper or station because I enjoy following my own interests rather that toil over a story I have no interest in.   I  don’t know where God will lead me but am very excited to follow Him and find out!!!

My Expectations….

I am excited and scared at the same time about this class.  I have no experience with video or audio.  I am also nervous because I am NOT computer savvy AT ALL.  I have a Mac but use it mainly to use the web, store photos and write papers… nothing special.  I hope to leave this class with the knowledge and confidence in video, audio and even still photos.  I am one of those people that can take a pretty good picture but doesn’t know how to use Photoshop and gets confused when I have to shoot manually.  :)  I guess…I’m a mess but I’m excited to learn!