Why I'm never going into broadcasting:

1. Unedited video

2. Edited movie with text

3. Edited video with fade

it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!

Yesterday was our first lab assignment. Where do I begin?

The assignment was fairly simple--interview a Lehigh student about a range of topics ( I chose the economy--wait, didn't I leave the business school to become a journalism major? Go figure).

My partner in crime, Andrew Daniels, and I then headed outside to look for our victim and we found her by the steps outside of Linderman library. She hesitated for one second and then agreed (studying can come later, or never).

So, we tried to interview her--tried being the operative word because shortly after each of us finished our interviews (Andrew chose to talk about Haiti, by the way) we realized the camera's focus mode was on portrait and unbeknown to us, the portrait mode is only supposed to be used if you're taping something less than a foot away. Therefore, both of our interviews came out blurry and useless.

Our interviewee did not mind our ignorance or the chilly weather so she agreed to be interviewed again. (Thank you).

This time, I encountered problems--I kept saying to many "ums." (Don't do this to stall for time...just say CUT!--it saves time and you look inarticulate and, most importantly, dumb.)

Also, my interviewee became tongue-tied so we had to stop and begin again.

What I thought would take us 10 minutes took us...20 or more, don't know, didn't look at my watch. And this was they easy part!

The "hard" part (it's not really hard, but in my world, it's not that easy) is the editing.

Downloading can take a while if you don't know which clip is yours and if you're sharing a camera with someone else (the good thing was that Andrew told me which ones NOT to download. Thank you).

When I started editing the video it took me a while to get used to the navigation and finding where certain buttons where. However, I had about 15 minutes left before the assignment was due so I just picked up the pace and added the title bar, text transitions and non-text transitions and credits and split the video into three segments more quickly than you can say YouTube.

Speaking of, I uploaded my videos on YouTube and this was by far, the easiest thing to do.

Overall, I'd give myself a B+ for not having a breakdown and finishing on time and an A+ for all the things I learned. I wonder what's in store for the next lab assignment...

The basics--not so basic for me

Today was the first time I learned how to use a Kodak Zi8 HD camera, how to download movie files into my computer, how to use the Prism file converter, how to use Windows Movie Maker, and how to upload my files to YouTube. Sounds like a lot but it all took about...20ish minutes, give or take 5 or 10 minutes. For most people this probably takes about 5 minutes, therefore, I am slightly technologically impaired but then again, that's the reason I'm taking this class.

I guess the hardest part was realizing how easy everything really is and still feeling a bit lost. This will probably fade as I get used to the process and do it repeatedly. And, I hope I can build upon these skills (soon) so I wont' have to ask my computer neighbor and subject of my interview, Andrew, for help.