Final Project

Final Project Synopsis: Rita Bole v Stonehenge

For our final project Nick and myself will be doing a piece on what it is like to live in Rita Bole. Living in Rita Bole is very different comparative to living in the Stonehenge resident halls. 

We will show what Rita Bole has to offer as far as what the dorm rooms are like and what extra utilities students get by living there. We will then show a suite in a Stonehenge dorm to show how it compares to a Rita Bole suite. 

For the Rita Bole suite we will be interviewing friends of ours, Zach Rodrigues, Matt Drew, Duffy Webster, and Jeremy Holden, to get their take on living in Rita Bole and what they do not like about it and what they do like about it.

For the comparative aspect to Stonehenge we will be interviewing our friend John John who has a room in the Stonehenge dorms, and who also spends a lot of time in the afore mentioned people’s suite, to get his spin on what it is like to live in the Stonehenge dorms and what he thinks is better.

Finally we will interview an RA to get him/her to get their take on what it is like to do rounds in Rita Bole compared to the Stonehenge dorms.

We will incorporate still pictures as well as video to tell the story. We will shoot video and take pictures on an iPhone and we will also strap a Go-Pro to some of the interviewee's heads to get their perspective of the dorm rooms. Adam will do the shooting, Nick will do the reporting, and we both will do the editing.  

Video Project 2 Web Producer

Lyndon State College is a Vermont State College located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in a small town called Lyndonville.

 As a student, you can choose many paths to go down in your college career. However, there is one that stands out from the rest. News 7 is a student run newscast that broadcasts out to the neighboring towns around Lyndonville.

Courtland Hanley, a senior at Lyndon State, works as a reporter for News 7. He is a senior web producer for the News 7 website, Newslinc. This is his first semester as a web producer and enjoys it very much.

Hanley works with three other web producers down in News 7 during the semester. The three of them rotate week long shifts and average about 6 hour shifts per day.

Hanley wanted to become a web producer because he loves the internet. ESPN.com is his most visited website as he is a huge sports fanatic. He gets most of his news from the internet. Working as a web producer allows him manage what news should and should not go online.

Hanley also likes the “free schedule” of web producing. He says that down stairs in News 7 there is a 5:30p deadline which is when you need to get stories in. However, up in Newslinc, “you are done when you’re done and it is a little bit more relaxed.”

As a web producer, like Courtland, he finds stories for the reporters down in News 7 so he will contact the producer downstairs and so they can figure out the more important stories are and then the stories are brought up into Newslinc for the writers to work on.

When the stories are upstairs, Hanley assists the writers and looks the stories over and give them some feedback. He then he posts the stories on the website in order in which they were finished for the public to see.

Hanley says that he cannot wait to web produce next year for his last year at Lyndon State College.

Video Project 2

 For this project, we are going to be shooting a day in the life of a web producer for Lyndon State College's news website, Newslinc. This will be featuring Courtland Hanley, who has been a web producer for the website for about 5 months.
          Throughout the video, Courtland will discuss what his job description is and what it takes to be a web producer. He will show us how he picks the stories that he wants on the website and how he decides those stories that will be posted. Courtland will then give us a 1 on 1 on reasons why he likes and dislikes web producing.
          We will be using an SLR digital camera for the shooting of this video project. Adam will be shooting the production and both Adam and Nick will be editing it. Nick will be doing the writing portion of this project.
          We plan on shooting this project while Courtland is working on his shift as a web producer. 

Guitar Hero Tournament

 Guitar Hero is a musical rhythm game that turned into a series in 2005. The series currently has seven minor releases and four expansions on gaming consoles and has become a sensation. Guitar Hero continues to be popular with the entire world and is still selling in high numbers.
          Zach Rodrigues has been playing Guitar Hero since he was 12 years old. When he plays, he focuses only on the game and nothing else. With purchasing almost every game in the Guitar Hero series, he could be considered one of the best.
          In this short video, we see Rodrigues duel against three contestants, Matt, Jeremy, and Duffy and blows them all out of the water. We asked them that they play on the same difficulty as Rodrigues which was "expert", the most hardest difficulty. On every song, Rodrigues scored an 85% or higher on the most hardest difficulty. Throughout the video, you can see that Rodrigues doesn't even have to put in an effort. In one clip, we can see that he plays the guitar behind is back without even having to look at the buttons on the guitar.
          After every contestant was finished matching up against Rodrigues, we interviewed them separately and everyone time we asked them what went wrong, their response was, "He is just too good." and that they need more practice.
          Rodrigues says that he will keep playing Guitar Hero because it is fun and it relaxes him. He knows he is good but wants to get better. There are plenty of people that are better than him in the world and he wants to increase his skill level.
        
Photographer: Adam Donnelly
Reporter: Nick Aresco
Editing: Adam Donnelly/Nick Aresco

Video Project Preview: Guitar Hero Battle

For this project, Nick and I will be taking a video camera from VIC and shoot a Guitar Hero Tournament.

Zach Rodriguez, a Guitar Hero pro, will try and keep his title standing. 5 others will compete and try and take his title away from him.

Adam will do the shooting.
Nick will be the reporter and editor.
We will both be editing the piece down in avid.

(This is just a joke, Zach is not really a "pro" but he is really good and we are going to pretend this is a Tournament.)

Video In Newspapers: Telegram & Gazette

This particular newspaper is the Telegram & Gazette which is a newspaper that covers central Massachusetts located in Worcester, Massachusetts.

This newspaper has a multimedia section on its website and within the multimedia section it has a specific video section as well. These videos do not look professional they look rather amateurish despite the fact that they are done by the Telegram's reporters.

The type of videos vary. There are sports videos, person profile videos, etc...in order to get to the video section you must scroll to the bottom of the homepage until you come across a single video. From there you can click on a link above the video that says "see more videos." It appears that the Telegram & Gazette does not make the videos that they produce a priority on their website.

Check out the Telegram & Gazette here: http://www.telegram.com/

Nick The Derp

Watch Nick Aresco in his natural habitat as he derps his way down to the mail room. Nick Aresco in all his derpiness glory.

CNN iReport Review

iReport is a page off of the CNN main homepage that allows the everyday average Joe to upload their own stories that they have made. The layout of the page I like because it is simple. The main page allows you to see videos and stories that the CNN Team i Report has recommended. The explore tab is a simple search tab that allows you to search for stories with iReport. The assignments tab I like because it gives you the real feeling of being a reporter by having an "assignment desk" where there are ideas for stories for people to do. There is your profile tab where you can edit your profile and finally there is the upload tab where you can upload the stories that you have done. Overall I feel a very user friendly site.

I do think that iReport is a good idea. It allows people to go out and do their own thing without having to be affiliated with a news station. While yes, most people's work won't end up on CNN it is cool that CNN does consider pieces to air on CNN if they are good enough.

Soundslides Project: Floor Hockey with Matt Drew

Over the weekend, an event occurred in Lyndonville, Vermont in the Lyndon State College Bole gym. At 8 o'clock, on Sunday October 20, Team Matt Drew took on Team J.D. in a competitive intramural sport of floor hockey. This would be Team Matt Drew's 6th game of the season and the first against Team J.D.

         Coming into Sunday night's game, Team Matt Drew's season record was 5-1. The team was feeling very confident coming into the game and expected to win against Team J.D. However, this was a very competitive game because both of these teams are very good.

          Matt Drew was starting and Goalie Joe Anderson was in the net for Team Matt Drew. For Team J.D. Michael Desmond was in the net. The game began with a quick goal by Matt Drew with just minutes into the first period. Drew continued to dominate the game as he scored a hat trick and had two assists. A hat trick is when three goals are scored in the same game by a player. The final score of the game was

11-0, team Matt Drew.        

          Drew has been playing ice hockey for 14 years and this is his third year playing floor hockey for the Lyndon intramural team. He says that floor hockey keeps him active and helps him stay in shape. Since he also plays for the Lyndon State club ice hockey team, he says that floor hockey helps him stay loose when he isn't at the rink.

          Susan Henry, the Athletic Facility Supervisor/Intramural Athletics Director of Lyndon State College puts together the intramural games and makes the schedule, including floor hockey. She also is the referee for some games. Henry hires student referees to ref the floor hockey games. Drew says that without her, there would probably be no well-organized intramural games.

Photographer: Adam Donnelly

Photo/Sound Editing: Adam Donnelly

Audio: Nick Aresco

Text: Nick Aresco

Music: "Paradise" from www.freemusicforvideo.com

Soundslides Synopsis

Nick and I will be going to an intramural hockey game on Sunday October 20 to watch team Matt Drew play team J.D. at 8pm. These two teams are the best teams in the League which is why it will be a good head-to-head match up.
While attending, we will be taking pictures of these two hard-playing teams battling against each other in the Stannard Gymnasium at Lyndon State College. The intended audience for this project will be everyone who attends Lyndon State. There are many students who love to watch intramural sports, and hockey is definitely a crowd-pleaser. While the slideshow is in progress, we will be interviewing one of the star players on team Matt Drew, Matt Drew himself. This will give the audience a different perspective on the game and will help the audience stay more engaged throughout the show. He will describe what is going on and give us some insight throughout the game. 
Adam will be the photographer for this project and Nick will be the writer. We both will then edit the piece together using the editing software, Avid.We will be using Olympus cameras to shoot this project for the slideshows

Slideshow Practice

Slideshow Critique

AUDIO SLIDE SHOW: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/packages/afarcry/

This slide show is about a Boston orchestra called A Far Cry. In this slide show they describe the orchestra and what they are all about and how they go about playing together. What I like about the slideshow is that there is some of their music softly playing in the background as well as that the slideshow is narrated by members of the orchestra.

SLIDE SHOW NO AUDIO:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wli_kccQAuY

This is a slide show on youtube of a man who repaired a Vorza RC car. It shows all the pieces that he had to repair and replace on the RC car as well as showed the viewer where it was, then showed a close up piece of the actual part that was used. I liked this slide show because it was detailed in showing what he did to repair it, as well as there were lots of different pictures and all the pictures moved quickly through the slideshow rather than hover on one particular picture for an extended period of time.

PHOTOGALLERY: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/main/photos/1310/leading-off-pictures-of-the-week-101013/

This is a photogallery from sports illustrated. This gallery show the "Pictures of the Week" from the previous week in sports. While it is not a large gallery I do like it. I like how each picture is a picture of the person or teams in action rather than that particular athlete(s) just standing there.

Slideshow

NewsLINC Critique

Personally as a writer for NewsLINC I find NewsLINC to be well done, made obvious due to the fact that NewLINC was recently judged as best in Northeast U.S . It is simple to navigate through with tabs being easily established for defining what area you are reading a story about. Since NewsLINC focuses mainly on the NEK the dropdown menu that is labeled "Around the NEK" is useful to find stories that are happening in the area. But, News7/NewsLINC does cover stories that happen in other parts of Vermont/New Hampshire that affect the NEK hence that is where the Vermont and New Hampshire tabs come in to play. Weather and Sports are easily spoken for themselves and the special coverage tab is a nice touch because the three tabs in the dropdown are big and key things that go on and that are covered by us in the NEK.

I also like how all the most recent stories are always on the front page regardless of how big or how significant the story was. Another nice touch is that the website teases what is coming up on the 5:30 newscast.

One thing that I think that could be improved with the website is the Twitter feed. I think that it should be showing live tweets that the NewsLINC account tweets but also connect it to any of the VCCJ reporters professional VCCJ accounts as well.

2013 Boston Red Sox

The 2013 Boston Red Sox are the perfect example of a team that has gone from worst to first. For a team that looked like they were on the down fall, to turn the season around like they did has been absolutely remarkable. First and foremost it starts with the manager. Having Bobby Valentine as a manager for the Red Sox was one of the worst hirings that this team has done in a long while. Bringing back John Farrel though was probably one of the best decisions that Ben Cherrington could have made for the upcoming season. And for only having to give up who? Mike Aviles? Yes please and thank you.

Another factor has been the players that Cherrington brought in for this season. New players such as Mike Napoli, Johnny Gomes, Mike Carp, Stephen Drew, Koji Uehara, David Ross, Ryan Dempster, Jake Peavy, were not just brought in as their skills as a baseball players, but their presence in the club house as well. All of these players are leaders in the club house and that is exactly what the 2012 Red Sox were lacking. The team chemistry of the 2013 Red Sox is that of a championship worthy team thanks to the likes of the afore mentioned players as well as John Farrel.

The on field production turnaround too has been remarkable. The pitching staff last year, which was one of the worst in the MLB ranked at 27^th, has been the biggest and most important turn around with the pitching staff this year ranked at 11^th. Having Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz return to being the form of Aces a top of that rotation has been key. Having John Lackey and Felix Doubrount take another step in success in a Red Sox uniform anchoring the back end of that rotation solidified the rotation. With Ryan Dempster being basically a non-factor bringing in Jake Peavy was key to locking down the final spot in the rotation and making the rotation solid and a rotation to be beckoned with in the playoffs.

The offensive turnaround mean while has not been much of a surprise but it has been nice to watch. Watching the top offense in the league has been fun, well as watching the team crush the tarting pitching of opposing teams night in and night out.

Finally one of the more promising contributions has been the young players that have come up from AAA. Red Sox fans got a chance to look at players like Allen Webster, Rubby De La Rosa, Stephen Wright, Drake Britton, Brandon Workman, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Xander Bogaerts whom are projected to make impacts for the big league in the immediate as well as for many years to come.

Overall the 2013 season has been a major success for the Red Sox and they are expected to be one of the teams competing to be left standing at the very end when it is time to crown a World Series winner. 

Podcast

Podcast Creation

For the podcast I will be working with Nick Aresco

and doing a podcast about the Boston Red Sox. We will discuss the 2013 season and discuss the remarkable turnaround that the Red Sox had this season.

Podcast Critique

98.5 The Sports Hub

The two podcasts that I selected were both sports podcasts. I chose to critique Toucher and Rich, and Felger and Massarotti, both pairs are radio personalities on the sports station 98.5 The Sports Hub, based out of Boston.

I chose to critique these two podcasts for two reasons. One, because I regularly listen to their radio broadcasts while I am at home, and two because I like am a big sports fan and like to keep what is up with the Boston sports teams.

Their podcasts are rebroadcasts of their radio shows so sometimes when I'm up at school I download their podcasts and listen to the podcasts.

Toucher and Rich 

Toucher and Rich are my favorite pair to listen to on 98.5 The Sports Hub. The two have great personalities and work extremely well together.

What I like about them is that they always cover a wide variety of topics about the different Boston sports teams, they do not just focus in on one team or one specific sport. The other thing that I enjoy very much about these two is that they love to have fun. They always are making fun of things and making jokes of things making, not only the listeners laugh, but in turn making themselves laugh which makes everything much more funny. One final thing that I like about these two is their passion. They don't just talk about sports for the sake of talking about sports, they are passionate and feverishly debate the topic until they have broken down every single possible angle.

There isn't much that I dislike about these two. The only real thing that I could say that I dislike is that when they go off on a rant about a random topic that doesn't relate to sports. While yes, the rants are hilariously funny they get away from sports.

Felger and Massarotti 

Felger and Mazz are my other favorite pair to listen to. They are another pair that work very well together and are very knowledgeable about all the Boston sports rather than just one sport in general. 

These two have a different approach than what Toucher and Rich do so that is what I like about them, to mix it up a little bit. While this may seem weird, one of the things that I enjoy about them is that I disagree with what their views on certain topics, especially that of Tony Massarotti. I like it because it gives me something to debate, whether it is with someone else or whether it is debating it with myself as I stand in the kitchen making lunch or doing the dishes.

What I do not like about these two is Tony Massarotti. While I do enjoy listening to him and he is a very knowledgeable broadcaster I do not like how he carries himself on the air. He tends to brush off certain topics and not want to talk about them or is very arrogant whilst on the air or even to people who call into the show.


-While I enjoy these two podcasts very much I do not carry their podcasts on my iPod or on my computer. I only tend to do it when I am up at school and I want to listen in to the shows that I have missed.

Vermont Symphony Orchestra is coming to Lyndon State College

Vermont Symphony Orchestra visits Lyndon State College

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra is on their annual "Made in Vermont Music Festival" fall foliage tour and one of their stops is here at Lyndon State College on September 26th. 

Their fourth stop on the "Made in Vermont Music Festival" tour, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra will play in the Alexander Twilight Theater at 7:30pm. New music is included in the VSO's ever expanding library of music and this program it includes new music by Vermont composers, as well as a commission by Andrew Massey which is called "Vermont Spring."

For your listening pleasure several of the VSO's extraordinary principal players will be playing selections from the likes of Vivaldi, Bach, as well as Mozart. The Music Director, Jamie Laredo will be conducting the event as well as soloing. 

The VSO will feature several performers in several of their pieces that they will be playing. The likes of Nancy Dimock (oboe), Jaime Laredo (violin), Janet Polk (bassoon), and Albert Brouwer (flute) will feature in the performance.  

It is not to late to purchase your tickets, with tickets starting at $10 and discounts available for Vermont State College Faculty, Staff, and Students! For more information about the performance contact the VSO at (800)-VSO-9293. 

Purchase Tickets for "Made In Vermont Music Festival" at Lyndon State College-CLICK HERE 

Event Information at Lyndon State College- CLICK HERE

Find out more about the VSO-CLICK HERE