Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Mass Comm: Anti Smoking Contest Info & Ideas

 http://www.doubledeckerbuses.org/nuttinbut/media/blogs/Nuttin%27%20But%20Pimp%20$$$$/AntiSmokingAshtray.jpg


All mass communications students please go to the: 84's RESOURCES PAGE  
for facts that you will use in your videos, ideas, and examples from other students.
Make sure your ideas stick within these three categories outlined on the website:
http://www.the84.org/filmshorts2010
In Google docs please start writing your ideas for your 30 second shorts.
You will be presenting your idea to the class on Thursday.


How this project breaks down with grading.


Idea Proposal on Google Docs: 10%
Presentation about idea: 10%
Storyboard of idea: 20%
Shooting/Editing: 30%
Final Video, overall: 30%

This project will be your first semester grade of term 2.
Due, before break on Dec 23rd.
http://www.whoindia.org/LinkFiles/WNTD_Anti-smoking.jpg

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Life


I think that this type of blogging is very interesting because it captures the audience in a different way than your typical blog does. I personally don't like to read when its unnecessary so for me to read an article so it's not fun for me to do but looking at pictures is okay. I would much rather look at a bunch of pictures with little captions then read an entire blog to get the same point across.  In this website it shows many different pictures that capture important images and if you find a particular image interesting then you can click on it and some of them will have more written about it or more pictures. When you first go to the website it shows the top images of the week and I find that much more interesting that just one story. The picture on the left is a Chimpanzee that is settling into Sydney's Taronga Zoo temporary Chimpanzee exhibit. The top photo section just has 19 different photos for 19 different topics so that way I can briefly learn about many topics than just one. 


John Daly

The man in the picture to the left is a golfer named John Daly. They show a bunch of different photos of him at different golf outings and the crazy pants he wears. It doesn't talk much about him as a player it mostly just shows his wacky pants. Some of the pants are kinda cool but the majority of them are just weird.

-Ben Sampson

A picture REALLY is worth at thousand words.

I do not care how cliche the above title is, it's completely valid, and has been proven by exploring several blogs this morning. By looking at photography, you can discover so much about people and the environments and cultures they come from, and the experiences they have to endure. 

One blog that really catches my attention is The Big Picture and its "article" on the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster in India. Twenty-five years ago on Dec. 3, 1984, water entered a tank at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India. That water reacted with the methyl isocyanate inside, raising temperature and pressure so high that it began to vent enormous amounts of gas composed of methyl isocyanate, phosgene, hydrogen cyanide and more. The poisonous gas infected neighborhoods near the boundary wall, disrupting residents with burning throats and eyes, killing about 4,000 people only within the first few hours. Over the next few years, the lingering effects increased that toll to about 15,000 dead. 25 years later thousands of people are still struggling with the effects of the world's worst industrial accident and the continued effects of the VERY TOXIC pollution. Union Carbide was bought by Dow Chemical in 2001, and Dow seems to think the legal case was resolved in 1989, with responsibility for continued cleanup now falling to the local state government. Viewing these photographs, it is very obvious that matters are nowhere close to being resolved.
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Do you ever feel like you were born during the wrong era? Well, I've been thinking that since I listened to my first Jimi Hendrix song, and while feeling so connected to his soulful music, I also felt a little sad that I would never have the opportunity to experience artists like him, Clearance Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, and other 60s psychedelic and folk artists first hand. I know with all of my heart, that if I were alive during the time Woodstock came to be, I would go. However, when I look at various photos of the event, I almost feel as though I was there. I discovered a pretty cool blog that shows some of the performances at Woodstock. Check out these pics!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Wall Street Journal
Photo Journal
This photojournalism blog  is composed of a variety of pictures expressing a wide range of emotions. From flooded farm land to a captivating picture from space, this journal has many interesting photos from around the world showing different cultures and personalities of people. The pictures in this journal are of a very high quality which is why it caught my attention, photos of art and sports are depicted from strong view points which make this journal different from others. The only reading involved are short captions of the photos which, in my opinion, is better because long blogs about from one individuals opinion can be uninteresting and boring. These pictures allow the viewer to create a mental story to go along with each photo.


(click above for the link)

This photo blog interest me mainly because of how they describe each picture. Instead of posing a random photo with no indication of where and when it was taken, this website tells where the photo takes place, what the message of the picture is, and even the photographers reason for taking the picture. This blog provides information on the photographers of each picture and describes their experience while taking the picture. For example one picture was taken at a pharmacy in Mexico and the photographer described the situation with people illegally bringing prescription drugs to the U.S. and also about her experience crossing the border and what she learned while there. The description of the photos is what makes this blog stand out among others.

-Eric Dupuis

Photo Journalists Site

The blog JPG is a blog on the New York Times website that sets up "photo challenges" that people can participate in. One challenge that really caught my eye is called "FRIGHTMARE" people have to take pictures of scary things and publish them on this blog. I find this blog cool because you are able to show creativity and organization in the pictures you take. For example, in the "Orange" challenge, the pictures the people posted show a lot of creativity in how they show orange in the picture. You could do any amount of things with the color orange.
Another blog that caught my attention is was "The Big Picture." This Blog used giant or close up pictures to show the detail in the picture, that could be for fun, or to put across a message. A lot of these photos are very unique and cool.
"Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands. Rajan is one of the few elephants in Havelock that can swim, so when he is not dragging timber in the forest he is used as a tourist attraction. The relationship between the mahout and his elephant usually lasts for their entire lives, creating an extremely strong tie between the animal and the human being. (Photo and caption by Cesare Naldi)"


The National Geographic photoblog is very useful, because instead of focusing on a specific subject, it focuses on many and has different sections. The quality of the pictures is really good and they are usually very moving. The one thing that I do not like about it is that some of the pictures have a long text, basically ruining the idea of a photoblog. When there is too much text, it looks like it is more of an article in a newspaper. The National Geographic photoblog is so culturally diverse that you can almost find any place in the world and find the climate and common life. 
The second photoblog follows the story of one American soldier as he goes through stages of his life, from graduating high school and going to Iraq to coming back to his family. These pictures are very emotional and capture the viewer's attention very easily. One of the best things about the blog is that it is very focused on one subject and it feels as though the viewer  is present at the specific instance. In my opinion, the best way to tell a story is through someone who has actually experienced the horrors of war, especially the war that is going on right now, because the public is virtually uninformed about it. I just wish that there were more blogs like this one and that more people knew about it. Also, I not sure about the person who came up with this idea and whether the money for it is provided by an organization or a specific person.