Video widths

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Michigan — I was glad to see many of your welcome videos posted here. One item, I did notice and that I wanted to address in this post is width. In some, you'll notice the width of the video bleed over. That's because the default width setting is wider than the default on this blog. You can adjust, though, in the html coding. Look for width. It's in pixels and sometimes you have to adjust it through trial an error to get it where you'd like it to be.

For example, in YouTube embeds, it's repeated twice. Here's how the code looks with 480 pixels, which fits here nicely. The second embed, it's at 680, which you can clearly see is too wide.

So, for those of you who have videos that are too wide, I recommend you fix them before I grade the assignment.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PN2HAroA12w?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PN2HAroA12w?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Video Assignment

While making my welcome video, I will admit it can be difficult, if you're not familiar with it creating videos but if you make sure you're having fun with the project, I'm sure it'll be much easier. I rarely use iMovie on my mac, so this was very new to me. I used my camera on my computer and was trying to talk off the top of my cranium. Excuse Keeping Up With The Kardashians in the background - it's a guilty pleasure. All the images are from complex.com, from posts that I've written, Didn't want to add any more than what was necessary even though I had tons I wanted to throw in there once I figured out how to lay them over my voice to keep it going when the camera picked back to me. Thanks to this class, I will be being more creative with this iMovie, making tons of pointless and/or purpose-filled videos.

JRN 350 Blog Project from Christopher Nic. on Vimeo.

Dissecting Video

Okay, I'll be straight with you. While this assignment was difficult-sounding on paper, I actually had a lot of fun with it. I own a FlipCam, which if you're a journalist, you should really own anyway, but I used that instead of the iChat function on our computers in my office or my Skype webcam at home. As soon as I finished my video, I opened iMovie on the Macs in my office and proceeded to just start playing around. I was able to cut the very beginning and end of my starting and stopping the recording so it looked more natural. I placed the full one and a half minute video in the editing section and jumped on Flickr, where I got the first three photos in my video. I took screenshots of those, as well as the last picture which is off ESPN.com, and dragged them onto the editing section of iMovie, where it asked if I wanted to put it in as a cutaway where it would show the photo, but I would still be talking over top of it. I looked thorough the video again to make sure it worked then exported it to Youtube. The process took about two hours.

Of course, there were some roadblocks and speed bumps, before finding the cutaway feature, I just tried dropping the photos wherever, but that would take the video and audio up to the photo, then stop to show the photo, then come back to me speaking where it left off. That was tricky, so I consulted the help option and was able to figure out how to do cutaways. Because there were four photos, when I was running through the video, it would show the first photo, then freeze on me when trying to show another. I deleted the last two photos for memory's sake, then uploaded it and it ran through with no problem. I went back and put the two photos back in and uploaded it again and it ran perfectly.

I loved the assignment actually, it was a lot of fun. I got to mess around with something I have never had to do before and I feel like I could do this time and time again even after this class is over.

Video Foundation Assignment- Vrbensky

While getting things ready for this video was not hard to do I did have some problems piecing everything together in such a way that I was actually happy with. I had small problems with my audio over the pictures and figuring out how to use an updated version of my video editor. I did know my way around for the most part because of a class that I took while in high school, but finding the things that I knew that I wanted to use was a little tedious. To begin with I wrote a short script that went through the steps that I wanted to take with my blog. I then found the pictures that I wanted to use and began piecing it all together in the editor. That was probably the longest part, but I was most nervous about the video. All in all it was not a bad project and I enjoyed getting back into the video editing that I had fun with in high school.

Dissecting Video

In the process of making this, I learned a few things. The first thing is that if you have the basic knowledge, all technology is easy, and basically the same. You can edit video the same way you edit audio. The next is that I really need a video camera! I don't have one, or even a webcam, and I had a wedding this weekend, so I had to improvise since I was crunched for time. I also learned that I need to work on my time management skills. Other than that though, once I realized that my computer had Movie Maker on it, it was a snap. Like I said, once you know the basics, the rest is kind of simple. I recorded the video with my digital camera and then threw in some pictures from my computer. I know it isn't the best, but for what I had to work with, I think it turned out okay. All of the pictures used are owned by their respective movie studios, but I think since they aren't the focal point, that should count under 'limited use', right? Correct me if I am wrong. Anyway, since the whole idea was to prove that you know how to edit video, I think the point is proven. Thanks to this class, I now know how to make rudimentary videos.

Video Blog Reflection

To have troubles is saying the least for me when creating this blog. To start things off, I had A LOT of trouble finding a camera in my house that would upload to Windows Movie Maker (the only program I have on my ancient laptop.) It's upsetting to me because I have more extensive knowledge of recording video than I this video shows. I hope to get better equipment in the upcoming months. This will also help me with my current job at the Hartland Patch, where creating videos is something that I would like to pursue.

Video Blog Reflection

While I enjoyed making the welcome video, the process definitely presented some difficulties along the way. I used my camera to take the video for the welcome address and used screenshots of my Twitter and Facebook pages for inserts in the video. I also used power point to make the initial slide. It was difficult for me to use the screenshots because I did not know how to save them as images. After foraging through little used programs on my laptop, I found Microsoft Office OneNote and used a program on it to save the screenshots as JPEG images. There has to be an easier way than using OneNote, but, in the end, the program was sufficient.

The other major issue I ran into was using editing software to piece the video together. I read online that Jumpcut.com was the best free program to use on a PC, but I was unable to access the program at all. Whenever I typed in the web address, the browser automatically directed me to the Yahoo! homepage. I know Professor Machniak mentioned that Jumpcut was recently bought out by Yahoo!, so I assume that is why I was redirected to their homepage. However, even after scouring the Yahoo! homepage I was unable to access the program. There were other programs available online but they were taking much too long to download on to my computer. I had recently bought a Canon camera and was looking through the software that came with the camera when I found an editing application. I ended up using this software to complete the video. It definitely is not an advanced video but at least it meets specifications.

Dissecting Video

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — As you work on your video assignment, I thought I'd share a little bit about the ones I've been producing for Patch. Note, I've included one I haven't done, as well, for discussion purposes.

First, let me explain my philosophy on videos: Like articles, my style is to not insert myself overtly into the story. That means I want the subject to come through as much as possible, so I edit out my questions and banter in favor of black screens with the questions in text form. This way, I can edit down the footage more easily and provide transitions for the viewer.

I also want to say that video is not my greatest strength. While I've had visual experience in my journalism career (taking a video and photography classes in high school and shooting pictures on one of my internships) writing has always been my main focus. Yet, I welcome more video opportunities because it gives journalists, I believe, more options in telling the story.

So, I would encourage everyone to practice video and incorporate it whenever you can because there aren't as many people out there with these skills.

Blog Proposal

For my week of blogging I would like to develop a blog about books. My blog would include aggregations from different major websites. Aggregation pieces would include new interviews with authors, new book releases, publishing news, and various other pieces that might relate back to the subject of books. Books are a subject that I am very passionate about and, therefore, I think I would be well suited to write this blog. For journalistic pieces within the blog, I would like to feature brief book reviews and industry news, including a piece on the increasingly popular social website, GoodReads. I could also write a piece on how the newest Harry Potter movie compares to the book since the movie is due out during my week of blogging. I would like my week of blogging to begin on Nov. 16 and end on Nov. 22.

My one quandary about taking this subject as the topic of my niche blog is whether or not I could relate my final project back to this subject. As of yet, I have not thought of a final project that I could relate to book industry. However, given time and a little bit of research, I am sure I could develop a final project well suited to this idea.

As I continue to prepare my blog site and further develop my idea, I am sure I can narrow down this topic to a more precise niche. However, should this idea prove too broad or subjective, I have a couple of other plans. Supporting blog ideas include writing a blog about UM-Flint, focusing on UM-Flint as a place of renewal within the city; or, writing a blog about my hometown of Davison. I am not too enthused about the Davison idea as I spend more time in the Flint area than I do in my hometown.