Recycling at Roger Williams University

The only direction we were given for this assignment was to find a story related to Roger Williams University and produce a video on it. My team decided to do a video on the recyclemania initiative that took place during the spring semester. Overall, the program was successful and I think our video about the program came out very well.



I only have a few self criticisms for this project. The first is the fact that the introduction is lit differently than the rest of the video. This flaw is the result of a botched first attempt at the standup during the afternoon that did not come out as well as we thought it did. Since we didn't notice how bad the first standup was until the evening we had no other option besides re-shooting the scene as the sun was setting.

Even with this flaw, I i am extremely pleased with how this project turned out. It was not an easy project to film and I think my team did a great job of finding b-roll to cover our voiceover. The only other criticism that I can think of for this project is the fact that our interview with Chelsea Fitzsimons-Diaz had some pretty bad ambient noise in the background. This noise when combined with the fact that Fitzsimons-Diaze tended to babble made her interview very difficult to understand.

Senior Video

The assignment this time was to produce a story that had something to do with the senior class of 2008. One of my group members knew Courtney Fraser, a rider on the Roger Williams University Equestrian Team, who is planning on joining the Peace Corps. this spring after her graduation.

We agreed as a group that Fraser would be an interesting subject for our second news package. Overall I am pleased with how this project came out. I have to admit that I did not realize at first how hard getting b-roll for this story would be.

At our initial production meeting, I figured that the b-roll would be easy because I could just film Fraser riding her horse and insert the voice over. However, once we had tracked the script and started looking at the footage we had I realized we needed more. Luckily the Peace Corps. was on campus, which presented us with an excellent opportunity to get more b-roll and to do an interesting interview with Peace Corps. representative January Zuk.

Another lesson that I learned during this project was how difficult it can be to film around animals, namely the horses at the barn. My team's reporter tried to do his standup in front of Fraser's horse, but he kept hitting him and nibbling on his jacket. So we decided to try and film in front of a different horse that kept doing the same thing.

We eventually got a good standup, but it took a while. If you want to see a video of these outtakes check out the bloopers video, which is posted above.

Radio Tower Relocation Story

The video below is my team's first real news package for our new media class. The story is about the relocation of the radio tower and transmitter of the Roger Williams University student-run radio station, WQRI.

The reason for the relocation is that the tower and transmitter are presently located behind the school's old dining commons, which is scheduled for demolition on May 11. The school's plan is to take down the current tower and replace it with an antenna that will sit atop one of the university's dormitories. This is just a basic summary, there are more details in the video.

Anyway, as I said earlier this was my team's first full news package and I have to say that I am very pleased with how well it came out. I am also pleased with how smoothly the production process went. When we first decided to do this story, I was a little worried about the visual elements of it.

I knew that the only b-roll we could possibly shoot would be of the old cafeteria and the radio tower, which I did on the first day of filming. However, as the story progressed we came up with new ideas for shots and actually put together a strong piece visually. The only visual elements I am not happy with are the two shots of my computer screen when we talk about the FCC and the web-casting of WQRI.

These shots were a creative solution for a lack of footage, but I still wish I could have gotten something better. Another disappointment for me is how poorly lit some of the shots are. We filmed our standup and several other shots in the WQRI radio booth, which was not the easiest light to work with.

Overall though I very pleased with how this piece turned out, and I think we managed the poor lighting as best we could.

Please enjoy the video.

Interview With Professor Bob Blackburn

Professor Bob Blackburn is a member of the philosophy department at Roger Williams University. Blackburn has been a professor at Roger Williams for just over 40 years, he joined the university in 1968 after finishing graduate school at Brown University. He attended Brown for his undergraduate work as well.

Blackburn said he was attracted to teaching by the professors he had while in college. He said that while he had some great teachers as a student, he also had some bad ones. Blackburn said he was attracted to teaching by the ineffective teachers, because he felt that he could teach the material better than they could. Reaching this goal has been Blackburn's primary objective over his 40-year teaching career at Roger Williams.

Blackburn said his favorite part of teaching is how the classes are always different, even if he is teaching the same material he has already taught to hundreds of students over the years. He said he greatly enjoys the challenges presented by having different students every semester.

In this video, Blackburn discusses why he was attracted to Roger Williams after graduating from Brown University and he explains why he has remained a member of the faculty for so long.

Interview With My Mom

The assignment this time was to to do a short 90 second interview with someone over the President's Day Weekend. Since I was at home for the long weekend I decided to interview my mom and ask her about her horse. So the video below is a short video of my mom talking about her horse. I tried to film some background video of her riding on Sunday, but because it is winter she is riding inside and the lighting is terrible. Therefore, the video that I used as background footage is from last summer. However, I think it still ads a lot to the video. Overall, I am very pleased with how this piece turned out.

Show and Tell

First Post

Hi my name is Shaun, my new media professor wants me to post my first entry on this blog, which is for class. I am a senior at Roger Williams with a major in Communications and a concentration in journalism.