Final Project Interview - It's a Start

For those of you that don't know I am working on my J111 final project, which will focus on a genre of music that most people are not familiar with - organ music. Today I sat down with Halden Toy, an Everett Community College student and striving organist. We talked for over an hour. This video is an excerpt about some of the things we discussed, including how he started playing the organ and a little bit about his views on today's main stream music.

Final Project Brainstorm

Here we are thinking about our final and I feel like we just started the quarter. While I’ve been tossing a few ideas around, I still have yet to commit to one story.

Currently I have three or four story ideas, which all take a feature roll rather than breaking news. The first relates to Halden Toy, who is a local organist. On May 20^th he will be having a concert. I was thinking about covering the event, but also broadening the story to show the inner-workings of the organist community and the current effort to alter the organ’s reputation as old-fashioned and out-of-date. It’s far from main stream music and apparently is highly competitive.

My second idea relates to the annual Marysville Strawberry Festival in June. I would not cover the actual event, but the preparation for the event, its significance to the community and how it helps the promotion of local businesses. I know that EvCC is currently creating a float for the Strawberry Festival Parade, which I have heard will consist of plane materials. Jennifer Howard, I am told, would be the person to contact. In addition I would get in touch with the board members of the festival.

Another idea is also local to Marysville. Since 2006 the Marysville Historical Society has been raising $3 million dollars to construct a new museum. Construction was supposed to begin in fall. I’m not sure where the project stands, so depending on the status of this, it could be a story for now or perhaps should be saved for later.

Lastly, I was thinking on working a story related to newspapers and how they are both changing and shrinking. I remember when Marysville had its own printing press, but that has long been gone. This story is not fully developed, and I would have to contact a few people- whether it is Scott Frank from the Globe or an editor of another publication- to see if this would be possible. Perhaps take a tour of a printing press to show how these are also decreasing and how the web is dominating the industry more and more.

In my vision of my final project I see a combination of video, photos and audio. Not only do I think using all three aspects will be effective (especially with the last two ideas), but I also would like the opportunity to work with all three medias to sharpen my skills.

If anyone wants to voice their advice or opinion I will gladly take it. Thanks!

The Storyboard

What is Journalism if it’s not telling a story? The facts change, but there is always a beginning, middle and end to every article, audio recording and video. When making a video especially, there are a number of things to take into consideration – background, lighting, angles, environment noise, etc. To stay focused and take advantage of this impacting media it’s always best to plan. Thus we have the storyboard.

The storyboard – it’s a plan, displayed thinking, a sequence of simple drawings that identify the main ideas that you want to get across.

In no means should this tool be binding, but rather nimble. The storyboard is meant to help create an effective and compelling story. Minimally a storyboard should show a series of possible shots. It can also include ideas for possible long range and short range shots. Again you should always remain open to the opportunities that present themselves, but going in with a “thought foundation” will help achieve a better end result.

On site a journalist hast to be prepared. By knowing what you’re going after, by having a main idea, will allow you to be creative without being sidetracked. The worst thing is to end up back in the editing room with lingering regret – if only I took that “one” shot.

Planning is always a hassle, but until someone invents a time machine you often only have one chance, one deadline, to capture a scene and to tell the story.