http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000004052536/addicted-to-a-fantasy.html?playlistId=1194811622182®ion=video-grid&version=video-grid-thumbnail&contentCollection=&contentPlacement=26&module=recent-videos&action=click&pgType=Multimedia&eventName=video-grid-click
The above video is about a man, Josh Adams, who is recovering from a gambling addiction and retells his experience with fantasy sport gambling sites. The piece highlights a main issue in today's society about whether fantasy sports should be regulated as gambling sites. I chose this piece because, despite the topic not really having a "visual", the video maker still managed to effectively use his b-roll in a way that didn't subtract from the piece, but rather, reinforced it.
One thing I would have changed about the piece was to get more interviews from his family members and the people Adams owed money to, as I believe this would have added to the humanization of the piece. Moreover, by adding his family members interviews, the piece would have further showed the vices of gambling, as it would have incorporated several people's views.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Erica's Story
It's not very often that I see a piece of journalism that actually moves me, but this video is one that had a profound mental and emotional effect on me. Everything from the story to the subject matter to the way that the video was shot was a contributing factor that makes this and incredible piece of journalism, in my opinion.
Erica's story is one that addresses a larger issue that is especially prevalent on college campuses, so it is newsworthy. I especially appreciated the use of photos from Erica's childhood and testimonies from her family; they personalized the story, making it more relatable to the audience. In other words, it helped them to feel more personally invested in the topic (at least for me).
I highly highly suggest you take the time out of your day to watch this video. Its message says something extremely important about a culure that all of us are living in as college students.
Multimedia Piece- The Water Dance
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/31/fashion/20090131-street-feature/index.html
This piece was intriguing to me because the creator of the piece, Bill Cunningham, took such a small action, something everyone does almost everyday without even thinking twice about it, and turned it into an entire multimedia piece. Cunningham had noticed how the people of New York would react differently to walking off or onto curbs in the city in the winter time, in order to avoid puddles of water or mounds of snow, and he noticed some people would not take notice and ultimately mess up their clothing. He also makes a connection as to how people with different styles of fashion and the type of footwear they have can change the ways they react to walking off or onto these curbs.
It was amazing to me how such a small nuance of life could be analyzed so thoroughly. While the pictures are very clear action shots that grab the audience's attention, what really makes the piece, however, is Cunningham's enthusiasm. The joyous tone Cunningham uses to explain his piece, along with the laughter he interjects, makes the audience feel like Cunningham genuinely enjoyed working on this piece and loves what he does for a living. I was hoping the piece would have contained some video segments, as they would have provided greater context for how people reacted in these situations, but nonetheless Cunningham was able to make something out of almost nothing with his piece, and it seems as if he had a lot of fun while doing it.
This piece was intriguing to me because the creator of the piece, Bill Cunningham, took such a small action, something everyone does almost everyday without even thinking twice about it, and turned it into an entire multimedia piece. Cunningham had noticed how the people of New York would react differently to walking off or onto curbs in the city in the winter time, in order to avoid puddles of water or mounds of snow, and he noticed some people would not take notice and ultimately mess up their clothing. He also makes a connection as to how people with different styles of fashion and the type of footwear they have can change the ways they react to walking off or onto these curbs.
It was amazing to me how such a small nuance of life could be analyzed so thoroughly. While the pictures are very clear action shots that grab the audience's attention, what really makes the piece, however, is Cunningham's enthusiasm. The joyous tone Cunningham uses to explain his piece, along with the laughter he interjects, makes the audience feel like Cunningham genuinely enjoyed working on this piece and loves what he does for a living. I was hoping the piece would have contained some video segments, as they would have provided greater context for how people reacted in these situations, but nonetheless Cunningham was able to make something out of almost nothing with his piece, and it seems as if he had a lot of fun while doing it.
Chris Dimas' favorite multimedia piece: The Boat
http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/
This is a pretty heart-wrenching piece about refugees who fled Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. It retells a short story about life on one of the refugee boats, mixing text, sound, and watercolor illustrations beautifully, alongside bits of video. I chose this piece because I don't think it is something many people are aware of, despite knowing of the Vietnam War. It humanizes the refugees as well, which is a topic that continues to be relevant today in regards to Syria.
I wasn't a huge fan of the length of the narrative, although I can understand why the length was necessary. It takes around 15 minutes to view the entire piece, which doesn't seem like much, but can be a pretty big time commitment for someone just looking for "news" pieces. While I think condensing it would have damaged its overall impact, it is tricky considering how short the attention span of the average viewer seems to be nowadays.
This is a pretty heart-wrenching piece about refugees who fled Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. It retells a short story about life on one of the refugee boats, mixing text, sound, and watercolor illustrations beautifully, alongside bits of video. I chose this piece because I don't think it is something many people are aware of, despite knowing of the Vietnam War. It humanizes the refugees as well, which is a topic that continues to be relevant today in regards to Syria.
I wasn't a huge fan of the length of the narrative, although I can understand why the length was necessary. It takes around 15 minutes to view the entire piece, which doesn't seem like much, but can be a pretty big time commitment for someone just looking for "news" pieces. While I think condensing it would have damaged its overall impact, it is tricky considering how short the attention span of the average viewer seems to be nowadays.
Kristen Seto's favorite piece of multimedia journalism
This piece is about Italy's oldest horse race called Il Palio di Siena. I found this interesting because it was about something that I had know prior knowledge on and it is an interesting aspect of Italy's history and tradition. What I liked about the piece was that it was very authentic, and I could really feel like I was at the horse race myself. All the dialogue is in Italian with subtitles on the bottom, which gave it an even more authentic feel. I also liked how there were different elements that were shown besides the horse race, such as the "benediction of the horse" which takes place before the race. It made the piece more well-rounded.
Although having everything in Italian gave the piece the feel of authenticity, there was one word that didn't translate, which was "contrada"and it threw me off a little bit because I had to research it to find out what it meant. What I would've done differently is explain what a contrada was somewhere in the piece and also get more of the spectator's reactions to the race.
https://news.vice.com/video/gangs-of-el-salvador-full-length
For this assignment, I watched a very intriguing documentary about gangs in El Salvador by VICE news. There are many aspects that I enjoyed such as the variety of stories there are in the documentary For example, they interview a gang member, a police officer, and government persons who are on the side of the gangs/ government. The documentary also had an aspect of photos such as photos of victims that were gruesome, but not too gruesome. With those photos, it allowed the viewers to understand the extreme of violence that occurs in the country. Also, the way they conducted the safety of the people that were too afraid to be on camera was great. They stated what that person said, but instead did b-roll in the market area. Another interesting part in the documentary was when the crew of VICE was told that they could not be filming in that area anymore. To me, it was interesting to see their reactions, just to show how crazy the life is in El Salvador.
For this assignment, I watched a very intriguing documentary about gangs in El Salvador by VICE news. There are many aspects that I enjoyed such as the variety of stories there are in the documentary For example, they interview a gang member, a police officer, and government persons who are on the side of the gangs/ government. The documentary also had an aspect of photos such as photos of victims that were gruesome, but not too gruesome. With those photos, it allowed the viewers to understand the extreme of violence that occurs in the country. Also, the way they conducted the safety of the people that were too afraid to be on camera was great. They stated what that person said, but instead did b-roll in the market area. Another interesting part in the documentary was when the crew of VICE was told that they could not be filming in that area anymore. To me, it was interesting to see their reactions, just to show how crazy the life is in El Salvador.
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