Lauren Marie Pritchard The Blog

Can You Edit This?

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:39:13 +0000

Today is dedicated to the art form known as editing. It requires acute attention to detail and patience that nobody has. What have I learned so far today? Pulling together an online publication is hard, especially when there are “too many chefs in the kitchen” if you will. Everyone has to work together and it sort of reminds me of the way traffic happens. We are all driving to the same place and should be chugging along at the same speed (in theory), but some people are slower than others, and some want to zoom ahead. The result? A fat traffic jam.

Fortunately nobody was injured in the making of this paper. Although those who were assigned to work in computer lab 1 with subzero (totally inhumane) temperatures are starting to look and interact like this:

Lab 1 is way too cold for warm-blooded writers

I, however, am curled up warm as a bug in a rug in computer lab 2, waiting for my article to be passed back for further editing. There have already been two rounds of editing, but we won’t stop until it’s perfect. Here is an image of Rebecca and I practicing our craft:

Snug, not smug.

The paper’s final deadline is 4 p.m. and we are all eagerly awaiting it’s arrival. I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Tuesday: Intro to the Observer

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:53:58 +0000

Today we are brainstorming ideas for our first dry run of the AU online newspaper, The Observer. Throughout the semester we will all be switching between these newsroom roles:

Managing Editor
News Editor
Executive Producer
Multimedia Producer
Copy Chief
Assignment Editor
Social Media Editor

If you are wondering which role I was assigned, you won’t find it above. The people who were left out of the production team (that’s me) were assigned the role of “reporter”. Reporters are assigned stories and they have to write them. Right now I’m envying the production team who doesn’t have to scramble to pull together sources or worry about deadlines, although I’m sure I will see them sweating at some point tomorrow.

My fellow reporter, aka partner in crime, Rebecca Peppah, and I have been assigned the topic of “internet trolls.” Internet trolls, for those of you who are unaware, are the pesky flamethrowers that disrupt civil discussion on comment boards, blogs, chatrooms, etc. with off-topic offensive remarks that are meant to freak people out. And for the most part, they do.

There are a few reasons why this is not okay and the least important is that it’s annoying. The most important is that the internet provides the most open forum for free, democratic discussion. Normal people can’t just voice their opinions on television or radio. They can’t even get in the newspaper or a magazine for that matter, so the fact that the average joe-schmo can post his or her opinion for everyone to see on the world wide web is pretty exciting; however, with great freedom often comes great vulnerability. Trolls take advantage of the fact that they can have their voices heard and try to spoil it for joe-schmo by disrupting the flow of ideas with outrageous comments or accusations.

What you do about this problem has yet to be solved, but I look forward to getting to the bottom of this issue and uncovering the truth about trolls as it relates to the future of open forum conversation.

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HTML

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:37:51 +0000

Working on HTML today in the lab was at first frustrating, and then it got better. Wait, no it didn’t. It got worse. In the end I was able to scrounge together a fairly decent webpage. The theme? Martinis of course. I know this isn’t very creative but given the time constraints and my inability to comprehend code, I thought it was pretty cute. Plus there is a whole lot of copyright-free stock images of martinis online, like this one:

Since you are probably dying to see what my website looked like, I will provide you with a little teaser. Remember, this is not a fully functioning site. I do not own any domain names and the links, especially the “submit” feature are basically fake. Seriously, where does it go when you submit an idea for “martini of the week”? Who knows, I don’t. Okay without any further delay:

Snazzy, right? Here’s what it looks like behind the scenes. This is the html code I used to build this page. Try to refrain from stealing it, I know its really, really brilliant, but please build your own.

Html:

A Martini For Every Monday

The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat , something to drink and somebody to love you

The Concept

It's Monday and you really need a stiff drink

The Recipes

For those who like to DIY

Best Local Happy Hours

For those who want to leave it to the pros

Martini of the Week

Submit your vote for Martini of the Week here

Oh, yeah. I'm smart.

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Watching Youtube

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:18:00 +0000

Today we watch videos all day and it’s awesome. I’m pretty proud of how my video turned out, notice I don’t say “how my video measures up” because compared to some other video veterans in the class, mine is slightly less professional. Moving on, I laughed and I cried (not really) along with the work of my classmates and I have to say that we are all shaping up to be quite the multi-media journalists. I like where this is going. I also like where I will be going this weekend, a little town called Raleigh. It’s supposed to take me 4 and half hours to get there, but I have a sneaking suspicion if I don’t get out here before traffic starts that this trip will take well over 7 hours.

My afternoon fantasy

Teacher: Lauren, you have worked SO hard this week. Why don’t you give yourself a break and leave early. You will miss traffic and most of all you DESERVE it.

Me: I know.

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Video Project: The Chess Players of Dupont Circle

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:47:10 +0000

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Adventures in FCP

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:52:47 +0000

Thursday, August 5th, was an excruciating roller coaster ride of emotions stemming from adventures in Final Cut Pro. In the end, it was a great learning experience and I feel pretty confident in using the program again, but there was a moment around 5 o’clock when I realized my video was three minutes too long, that I was pretty close to ripping out my hair.

They say there is a 100:1 ratio in editing video, meaning for every 100 minutes you spend editing a video, you get 1 minute of product. This is absolutely, painstakingly true. That being said, there is nothing more powerful that visual storytelling done right. Next time I go to shoot footage for a video, I’m going to try to not shoot too much. We had to cram and cut 50 minutes of footage into a 1:30 youtube video. This was not easy. Also what I learned about filming is the more you prepare your shots in advance by making a mental story board the easier it will be to put them together in the end.

Filed under: Final Cut Pro

Filming in Dupont Circle

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:56:22 +0000

Wednesday, August 4th, our group of three including Kate Musselwhite, Ashley Bright and myself met at the Starbucks in Dupont Circle to discuss filming strategies for our first video assignment. After thirty minutes or so of coffee drinking and interview question brainstorming, we decided to take our equipment (a microphone and Cannon HDD camera) into the field for some footage.

Only a few sweaty men were sitting around the chess tables, luckily two of them were actually chess players and not homeless wanderers. Honestly, the two are quite easily confused. The men, Marshall and Gabriel, were very accommodating and helpful in filming our video, telling us what we wanted to know and trying their best to play chess at the same time.

Ashley and Kate Film Marshall (standing) and Gabriel (sitting)

Although these guys were pretty entertaining, If we had had more time to film, I would have liked to come back at night when the heavy hitters come out to play. We learned from Marshall and Gabriel that a man named Emory Tate, who simply goes by “Tate” is one of the most feared and respected chess players in the United States, and he practices right here in Dupont Circle.

I also found out, and this might be more obvious to the less naive readers, that the people who spend all day playing chess in the park don’t have jobs because they don’t need a job: they play for money. So how much money are we talking about? Regular round robin tournaments with $25 entrance fees produce pots of up to $30,000 in the middle of a public park. This is not back room poker, this is gambling happening right in Dupont circle under the veil of nothing more than night.

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Day Number Five: JLab

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:10:59 +0000

This morning the geniuses behind J-Lab (The Center for Interactive Journalism) graced us with their presence. This is not sarcasm. If you don’t already know the J-Lab’s contributions to the field you can check it out on one of their four sites:

1. j-learning

2. Knight Citizen news network

3. New Media Women Entrepreneurs

4. New Voices

Executive Director, Jan Schaffer, gave a presentation on the newest trends in journalism including:

Hyperlocal start-ups
State Based Investigative sites
News sites
Niche sites

Notice that all the above mentioned “trends” are websites. This is the future, and while there will always be a time and a place for holding paper in your hands, the future of journalism is online.

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Perspectives on PNC Park

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:49:06 +0000

My first experiment with combining edited audio from Audacity and edited video from Soundslides.

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ELEPHANT CONSERVATIONIST WINS INDIANAPOLIS PRIZE

Lauren Marie Pritchard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:43:39 +0000

The Indianapolis Zoo announced Iain Douglas-Hamilton as the 2010 winner of the biennial Indianapolis Prize, for his outstanding advancement of animal conservation. According to the Indianapolis Prize press release, winner Iain Douglas-Hamilton has been shot, stabbed, suffered malaria and survived plane crashes in the most remote locations all for the sake of elephants. “The plight of the African elephant is intensly personal to Iain,” said Michael Crowther, President/CEO of the Indianapolis Zoo, who attributes this intimate relationship to the drive behind Douglas-Hamilton’s “forceful efforts to secure a future for endangered African elephants.”

A secure future for endangered animals is the ultimate goal for the Indianapolis Zoo, who initiated the Indianapolis prize in 2002 in an effort to honor those brave and talented men and women who dedicate their lives taking significant risks to advance the sustainability of threatened animal species. After more than forty years spent defending the African elephant against heavy poaching, draught, flooding, and near-extinction, Douglas-Hamilton will be awarded an unrestricted amount of $100,000 as a part of the Indianapolis prize; the largest individual monetary award for animal conservation in the world.

The cash prize, funded by the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, is used to inspire local and global communities to celebrate, protect, and preserve our natural world through conservation education and research. This mission, displayed in the efforts of Douglas-Hamilton will continue to manifest long after the glitz and glamour of the September 25th awards ceremony.

According to the Indianapolis Zoo, the goal of the prize and successive awards ceremony is to place conservationists on a pedestal that is usually “reserved for sports and entertainment stars.” This opportunity for scientists to toast their victories and celebrate the achievments of Douglas-Hamilton, a man who Crowther says “truly epitomizes what it means to be a hero.”

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