NYU Visual Storytelling Class Starts

I know everyone loves WordPress but I’m finding it annoying photo-wise — specifically because the “large” option for photo uploads doesn’t seem to work, leaving just “medium” — way too small — or “full size” — the results of which are clearly ridiculous. I’d investigate further if I ever had time …

But I don’t have time, since I’ve now started the second of my two NYU non-credit courses this semester: Visual Storytelling started last night, three weeks after Final Cut Pro. Both are terrific. Both are also going to be a whole lot of work. FCP really requires practicing outside class to retain what I learn; and VS has a number of assignments. Today I took off to, in theory, practice FCP. Instead I’ll be going down to Harlem to work on an assignment from class last night.

Technically it’s not required that I go to Harlem. But to get this assignment done the way I want it, the trip must be made. With a camera. I hope it stops raining soon …

The above was a quick pic last night while waiting for the bus after class. A little interesting. Not a lot interesting.

Multimedia Project and FCP Class

Some day I will figure out how to not only do all the learning and training (and day job and running and cycling and socializing) I need to do, but also how to capture all of that in two blogs. Since that day has not yet arrived, I shall continue to lag pathetically in updating what had started out as my initial forays into learning new stuff.

It’s been a wild and busy time on a couple of key learning-multimedia fronts:

–Last week I spent two days working on a photos/video-spearheaded project that we’ll put out in a few weeks.

 My job was to help a photographer craft a print story from the video interviews that had been done by two colleagues and from her own observations. At the same time, I got to observe as four photojournalists pulled together months’ worth of photos and video and interviews … some really, really compelling stuff.

It was a fascinating experience and an absolute joy to be part of. Among other things, I loved how the photographers’ interview questions were much, much better than those that many traditional print reporters come up with. And how those same photographers excelled at recognizing the truly compelling sound bites and quotes — again, better than many print reporters do. I’d love to capture this and share it somehow.

–My Final Cut Pro class is digging into learning the software. The instructor, Michael Grabowski, is an outstanding technical teacher and also terrific at giving the bigger picture (as it were). I’m really loving it, although exhausted by the fact that it ends at 9:30 and I don’t get back to Riverdale until 10:50 or so, on top of getting up at 4:30a on the days on either side of it.

And, it’s frustrating that so far I haven’t had much chance to practice, what with everything else being so busy. And I’m the type who really has to practice this stuff before fully grasping it.

–I bought myself an FCP keyboard. A HUGE help in learning.

–I did practice Flash for a day and made some progress there. Now I need to devote some quality time to putting it to actual use.

 –Continue to get great feedback on the APKnows piece on Getting Wired. Shows that there’s a big appetite out there for this kind of training. I’m delighted that I get to do it.

And now, back to my day job (on a Sunday …)

Getting Caught Up

So for the first few weeks after starting this Blog No. 2, I was too busy with work in general to do either blogging or training. Then recently I’ve been still buried in work while also getting more training … so, still no time for blogging.

But this gap is getting unsightly. So a few quick, if unpoetic, updates:

–Final Cut Pro with NYU continuing ed started last week. Spent most of the first night getting acquainted and learning a bit about the evolution of film and video editing. Provided some good context. Last 20 minutes we played a bit with the software, but didn’t dig in.

I had been hoping to skim through my books before class started, but obviously not a chance of that happening at this point.

–I did Getting Wired, First Round for the general editorial staff — using Howard Owens’ 2008 list as a resource for everyone, and then elaborating a bit on a few points. It got enthusiastic reviews from a lot of people who said this was just the kind of thing they’d been needing. So that felt very good. They also liked that I made it seem fun — which was part of the whole point. I think the biggest thing it accomplished was showing that it can, indeed, be accessible and manageable, and giving some key resources to get people started.

–Then, today was Day 1 of the two-day Flash for Journalists seminar by Media Bistro. Today was intense (for a dumbo like me) but very manageable and quite a lot of fun. I believe there’s hope. Tomorrow, Day 2.

Now I just need to find time to practice all of this. And of course, do my day job … and start taking pictures again.