The Drive Link

https://drive.google.com/a/su.edu/?tab=mo#folders/0BzaMVfjCdlAFNlRjVnJtZlRhT00

Hugs,
Dr. C

Thinking about the storyboard

Storyboarding is a visual representation, using drawings and illustrations to map out the flow of your video. This should always be done before you film anything. This is your chance to create a blueprint, a solid plan that everyone on your development team can follow and agree on. This is also the chance to hash out details, specific shots, and get rid of any ideas that will end up being horrible on film. If you don't do this first, any mistakes or changes to the continuity of the film have to be edited out. That will lower the quality of the film, possibly drastically, as well as make your editor your worst enemy. Do the storyboard first.

 

Thinking about your multi media project

Outline what you want to first - this will help you organize your thoughts and your imagines.

Start with different pictures for starting different narrative perspectives

Take lots of pictures and come up with lots of images - you can always edit them out later; it is much easier that scrambling to find things at the last minute.

1. Point of View	What is the main point of the story and what is the perspective of the author?
2. A Dramatic Question	A key question that keeps the viewer's attention and will be answered by the end of the story.
3. Emotional Content	Serious issues that come alive in a personal and powerful way and connects the story to the audience.
4. The Gift of Your Voice	A way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context.
5. The Power of the Soundtrack	Music or other sounds that support and embellish the storyline.
6. Economy	Using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer.
7. Pacing	The rhythm of the story and how slowly or quickly it progresses.

1. The Overall Purpose of the Story	6. Pacing of the Narrative
2. The Narrator’s Point of View	7. Use of a Meaningful Audio Soundtrack
3. A Dramatic Question or Questions	8. Quality of the Images, Video & other Multimedia Elements
4. The Choice of Content	9. Economy of the Story Detail
5. Clarity of Voice	10. Good Grammar and Language Usage

You can also use Soundslides. 

Here are some amazing multi media stories

From The Guardian about the NSA

Washington Post about "Black Budget"

How to make a t-shirt from Planet Money from NPR

Writing for PR

A prime writing skill is the ability to communicate with the press. How does the media find out about things to report? Press releases. This tells all of the pertinent information journalists need to begin thinking about writing a story or a news brief. Writing for PR is very similar to writing in journalism but your focus changes slightly. What is the relationship between PR and journalism? How does that influence how you choose to write a release? 

This is an interesting site that discusses both the relationship between the press and PR and how best to write to capture attention. 

Here are some tips from PRdaily. 

And one more useful site PRweb. 

Let's see how the process works

Here is the link the the Drive

Press Release Writing Checklist

Look at each one of these questions to analyze the press release in front of you. After analyzing the release, rewrite it with your suggestions. Talk with the writer to get more information if you need it.

·      Did the writer follow the template?

·      Is there all the relevant contact information?

·      Does the headline reflect what is in the body of the release?

·      Is the information is newsworthy? (What news values does the writer employ?)

·      Does it answer the five Ws and H in the first paragraph?

·      Is the quote compelling?

·      Was there excessive use of adjectives or hyperbole?

·      How will the audience relate to this information?

·      Does the release follow grammar and AP Style?

·      What are the visuals?

Your assignment for Tuesday

Write a press release for the following 

INSTRUCTIONS: The following information is from an actual news release. Write a news release from the information provided. Remember to use Associated Press style. Use as much information as you think necessary to create an effective release. Add phrases and transitions to make the news release acceptable to editors. List yourself as the contact person for the sponsor of the release, decide on the release date and write a headline.

NEWS RELEASE
FROM: MADISON PANCAKE FESTIVAL
           P.O. Box 5029
           Madison

MADISON PANCAKE FESTIVAL

      MADISON'S Seventeenth Annual Pancake Festival takes place this Saturday and Sunday.
      The Festival has always been non-profit, sponsored by the Betterment Association of the Madison Area, Inc. and for the past three years, has been co-sponsored with the Madison Area Jaycees.
      Civic organizations, churches, school children, City Hall employees, inmates from the Copeland Road Prison, local businesses and residents from surrounding areas all work together to stage a smooth-running two-day event that over the past 16 years has drawn almost a million people to this small town of 3,200.
      From last year's proceeds, money was donated to the city of Madison to be used for park improvements.  Monies also were donated to the Madison Volunteer Fire Department and the Gateway Ambulance Service.  Also a portion of the proceeds were set aside for scholarships for local high school students.
      The volunteers' successful efforts to stage the Festival show what communities can do on their own—with ingenuity, determination, and effort.  Nobody gets paid.  All work is volunteer.  Chief lure of the Festival is the picturesque and historic town itself.
      The menu consists of pancakes with your choice of delectable toppings such as nuts, berries (blueberries, raspberries or strawberries), jams, syrups, bananas, and much, much more.  These Pancake Plates will be served both days, from 7 AM to 9 PM on Saturday and Sunday.  A Pancake Plate will cost $12 for adults and $6 for children 12 and under.  That one low price includes the cost of admission to the festival and free refills for an entire day.
      Visitors will also be able to purchase tickets for a drawing on a 16-foot boat, a trailer, and a 45 HP outboard motor sponsored by the Madison Volunteer Fire Dept.
      There will be over 100 booths to display a large selection of the finest arts and crafts.  Booths manned by local clubs and residents will also offer other special foods.
      Country music is played continuously both days.  The Festival will feature Country and Western artist "Lionel Cartwright" on Sunday at 1:00 and 3:00 PM.  Also featured will be clogging, kiddie and carnival rides, hot dogs, ice cream, popcorn, pies, soft drinks, coffee, iced tea and cold beer served in Festival mugs that the purchaser gets to keep as souvenirs of his visit to our event.
Madison has campgrounds and motels for guests who would like to spend the weekend.  There are many other attractions in Madison and the surrounding areas:  swimming, fishing, camping, hiking, horseback rides, boat tours, glider and plane rides, an observation tower to climb and shopping at the town's many fine antique stores.  In addition, there will also be a gigantic flea market with bargains galore.  Visitors are welcome to set up a table of their own.  The registration fee for the flea market is $10 per table.

      For those planning to come by plane, the City has an airport with a 2400-foot runway.  There is no charge for landing your plane.  Volunteers handle plane parking.  There is also an area close to the Festival at which arrivals in RVs may park for overnight stays for a modest fee. 

Assignment 2 - Due Tuesday.

Find an article in any news outlets and reverse it. Write the press release you imagine resulted in this news story.

How do we structure a story?

 No matter what you are writing there should be some narrative elements involved:

Opening - “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Exposition – What is the background? “She’s always been afraid of the dark”

Rising Action  - This is where it gets exciting. “She never thought she would have a gun in her hand.”

Climax – “She never thought she would pull a trigger – but she did.”

Resolution  - “Her roommate would ever forget her key again.”

Each person in the group will begin with an opening. After you complete your opening send it to the person sitting on your right. Read their opening and add your own exposition. When you are finished send your exposition on and write the rising action of the next story that comes your way.

The assignment for next week

You will find someone on campus that no one notices.
You will interview them. Transcribe that interview as part of your story archive.
Take 7-12 photos of that person being themselves and doing their "work" whatever that might be.

What is their story?
What stories can they tell?
Use your powers of language.
Use your power of description.
Use your power of structure (who, what where, when why, how)

This story should be 700-850 words.

Print it out and have it in my mailbox by noon on Monday, March 3.

Developing the Interview

Developing the Interview

This American Life

To The Best of our Knowledge

Part One – The agenda

• Determine the purpose or goal of the interview.
• Develop a brief statement that tells why this interview is being conducted.
• Specifically identify how this information will be used.
• Make a list of the information required.
• Draft questions that, when answered, will provide the necessary information to satisfy your goal. 

Part Two – Structure the interview

• Funnel Approach – Move from general to specific questions. This lets the interviewer discover the interviewee’s frame of reference. Move from open-ended questions to more closed questions with restrictive responses.
• Inverted Funnel – Move from specific to general. Forces the interview to think through specific facts before giving a general answer.
• Chain-link – Takes longer as it asks more probing questions. Sequence ends with a mirror or summary question which ensures accurate understanding interviewer and allows the interviewee to clarify, confirm or modify the information.
• Tunnel Sequence – These questions force a choice because the interviewee is given finite possibilities. Either/or, agree/disagree, approve/disapprove questions.

Part Three – Questions and questioning techniques

• Open questions – questions of feeling, perspective, prejudice or stereotypes
• Closed questions – yes/no tunnel sequence often needs more open and probing questions to round out the interview.
• Probing questions – Follow-up question on vague, superficial or inaccurate information.

• Elaboration – “What happened next?” “Could you go into that more?” “How did you feel about that?”
• Clarification – “What do you mean by the word BLAH?” “Could you provide examples of what you mean by BLAH?”
• Repetition – When the interview didn’t hear or is trying to evade the question. Repeat the question exactly as originally stated.
• Confrontations – Calls attention to inconsistencies, misinterpretations or contradictions. These are best asked at the end of the interview after ideas are established from open and closed questions.
• Mirror statements – Reflective or summary statements that indicate if the interviewee is being understood. “In other words you are saying . . .” Let me see if I am understanding you . . .”
• Neutral phrases – Demonstrates attention, indicates interest and encouragement to keep people talking. “Oh” “I see” “Go on” “Wow” “And then?”
• Silence – A powerful probe that gives both the interviewee and the interviewer time to think. Don’t rush through as this may be the only opportunity to talk with this person. Silence distinguishes the novice from the skilled interviewer.

Here is how it all comes together. Listen to Ira Glass. It is worth it!

Show me don't tell me

 Show Don't Tell Exercise

“You can take for granted that people know more or less what a street, a shop, a beach, a sky, an oak tree look like. Tell them what makes this one different.”  – Neil Gaiman

Answering the news reporter questions--who, what, when, where, why, how--turns bland writing into active writing.

• Write the following sentence on the board: "Mr. Smith is celebrating."
• That leads you to ask the following questions:
  • Does this sentence paint a picture for the reader?
  • Does it leave questions in the reader's mind?
  • Does it answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, how?
  • How could it answer who, what, when, where, why, how and paint a picture for the reader?
• That should lead you to these questions:
  • Who is Mr. Smith?
  • What does he do when he celebrates?
  • When does he celebrate?
  • Where does he celebrate?
  • Why is he celebrating?
  • How is he celebrating?
  • 
    

Rewrite each of the following sentences below with one or more verbs that increase the visibility and/or the sound of the motion suggested.  Do NOT add any adjectives or adverbs!

1.  He sat down.

2.  The puppy had a fine time playing in the park.

3.  The wind made a loud noise.

4.  He left the room in a tremendous hurry.

5.  She put the papers in her purse.

6.  The garden tiller worked quite well on the hard, rocky soil.

7.  She seemed to be feeling very happy.

8.  The old man went slowly across the street.

9.  The dog lay down on the rug.

10.  The boy drank the lemonade very fast.

Read the following paragraph and consider the ways that it shows rather than tells, and how that could be changed.

The Mercer men’s baseball team played hard throughout the game, achieving a score of 5-2 against Salem. Pitcher Matt Smith was particularly strong during the game, facing several league top hitters without any hesitation and pitching a perfect third inning with no runs scored. Mercer fans in the stands showed excitement throughout the game.

Rewrite the paragraph above adding description that uses at least three of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch). You may trim out text and change or add however you like, but you must keep all the key facts.

Now write a short news story as you would for The Doah, showing not telling, based on the information below. There are errors in this so don't just copy and paste but look at everything. Show don't tell how people may be feeling based on the interviewing you would be doing:

1. At first, it seemed like a wonderful idea! Your schools president learned the wife of the President of the United States was going to be in the area. He proceeded to invite her to deliver your schools commencement address for this spring's graduating class—and she accepted. Now, opposition is arising. About a week ago, a half-dozen senior women began circulating a petition opposing her delivering the commencement address and, thus far, more than 300 of their classmates have signed it. "To honor the First Lady as a commencement speaker," says the petition, "is to honor a woman who has gained recognition through the achievements of her husband, which contradicts what we have been taught over our years of study—that women should be honored for their achievements, not their husbands." The president of your institution has scheduled a meeting for late Friday to discuss the issue with members of the graduating class.

Check out this writer's blog about the "dull paragraph". It is a different perspective and, I think, helps to define what it means to think about the setting of a scene. 

For Thursday

Take one at newspapers or news sites and read all sections carefully. Write down what you think makes news. Don't think just about the specific event being reported. Think what it was about that event that made it newsworthy. In other words, don't say the President's news conference is newsworthy. Say political policy statements by influential people are newsworthy, because they have impact. Use the qualities of newsworthiness we reviewed last week. Now, take those ideas and think about how you localize it for your hometown paper or for The Doah. Think about who you might interview. We will start talking about interviews on Thursday. Also, in thinking about newsworthiness, focus and SMDTM write a news story based on the following information:

1. Five students on your campus, all members of a fraternity, Sigma Kappa Chi, have been arrested as the result of a hazing incident. The investigation began after one SKC pledge was hospitalized Saturday with serious internal injuries and another with a sprained back. Each of the five was charged with two counts of battery. The incident occurred during a fraternity meeting Friday at which members "beat pledges with wooden paddles and canes and subjected them to other forms of physical and verbal punishment," according to Detective Sgt. Albert Wei, who headed the investigation. One of the two injured students, sophomore Roland Dessaur, was hospitalized for kidney damage and dehydration. Another sophomore, Eddie Muldaur, was treated for a sprained back and bruised buttocks. State laws require hospital officials to report injuries that appear to be the result of a crime. Thus, hospital officials notified the police and, as the investigation continued, four other pledges were taken to the hospital and also examined, then released. Several suffered contusions, Wei said. A university spokesman said both university and national fraternity officials are investigating to determine what disciplinary action, if any, should be taken against the fraternity.