Okay, folks!! That's a wrap!!!

As the yellow exporting bar finally reached it's render goal of 100%, I got that feeling that I believe that all creators get when they finnish one of their works. They take a deep, proud breath and breathe a sigh of relief mixed with a sigh of accomplishment. That was me tonight. Seeing that bar fill up and then ding was like music to my ears.

After a month and a half of planning, writing, filming, editing, designing, printing, more editing and waiting, I have finally completed my final product. My film, "Living Life Offline," is finally complete!!
I feel very proud of this accomplishment given the amount of time and the resources I had to work with which was a sparse portion of each as my time was also being shared with other projects and my equipment and financial situation was minimal.

The process to get here though was very difficult and was sometimes, sorry, most of the time very frustrating as there are always unexpected bumps in the progress followed by redoing something that you thought was good but wasn't, to forgetting where certain files were and then staying up all night fixing it and so on and so forth...

But, I still had a great time making this film and if anything, it has confirmed that even though this field isn't easy it is a great feeling to make your vision come true and that makes it all worth it. Plus I actually enjoy shooting and editing so that helps a lot too! I look forward to a future full of creation, inspiration and sharing my visions with the world.

If you're interested in seeing the film, I will write a blog with a link to the Youtube link or you can view it soon on my film's Facebook page

The home stretch

As the date for showcasing our projects nears, I scramble to get everything in order for presentation.

Most of it is assembly work. 98% of the shooting is done along with the editing, audio, motion graphics  and the poster for the film is done.

I plan on doing just one or two more interviews before I wrap this whole thing up since I only have interviews given by younger college aged people and a teenager. I wanted to cover a larger range of age so hopefully my older interviewee has time to answer a few questions for me.

Other than that, I feel like the bulk of the project is done.    
My attention now turns toward working on blogs and and getting things ready for show.

I'm working on organizing my deliverables like my interviewee's signatures and information all filled out and getting ready to work on an online portfolio in a few days. I also will have to set aside some time to get some research information ready for the show.  
Here's where it would have payed to not put them off so long but I'm confident in my abilities to have everything ready for the show. 

Research Update: Getting the facts in place.

The time has come yet again to update you guys on the status of my project and I have some great news: Everything is going well!

I have been busy creating motion graphics for the intro, filming interviews, collecting more research and editing my studio footage. All in all, things are moving along very nicely. 

But to be a bit more in depth, I want to elaborate more on the research I am doing for this project. Due to the the lack of applicable information regarding the creation of ethnographies, that is the video documenting ideas and concepts with facts not playing as much of a roll. Not to say that they don't but they're not as critical to the idea.

The research I am doing for this project though relates to information regarding studies done by universities, software companies and doctors about the media and how it relates to the public on a personal and social level.

One of my sources for the medical side effects related to media.

 So pretty much that means that I'm looking up numbers regarding how many hours a week people spend online, health fallouts branching from an overexposure of media and also information on what kinds of mediums spend a lot of time on. As for the actual information I collected, well, you'll just have to wait and see it in the film which I will eventually provide a link to.

Other than that, there's not too much else I felt like I needed to research. As i stated, most of this project is mostly a collection of a group's ideas and concepts of what they think about my topics of discussion. 

Proof of Attendance: Artomatic Show

For the whole month of October, Jefferson County has it's own art spotlight with the opening of the Artomatic art gallery.  Located in Charles Town at the old Rock & Tile building, the gallery features local artists from around the area ranging from photographers, sculptors, painters and musicians and is open to the general public free of charge, which is why I decided to swing by. The Shepherd University art department also had a presence there with some pieces by students and professors so that was another reason to go.

I went to the Emerge art show earlier in the day so art was still on my mind and I was ready to see some local work and compare works and compare I did.

While I did enjoy some of the works at Artomatic, mostly the Universities' pieces, I felt a definite change in atmosphere in this art environment compared to Emerge and not on a finance level, but on a creative level. The art in Artomatic felt more like a hobby exhibition than an art gallery and Most of the pieces there failed to engage me as the day's earlier exhibition. It may have had something to do with me already have gone to a show, but in terms of concept, composition, creativity and execution, the works were a bit lacking.

Most of the artists were local and a bit older in years so the whole thing had that feeling of a social art hangout spot for them to meet, share their works and maybe, just maybe sell a piece to a casual art collector looking to spice up their place, which isn't a bad thing. It's just not what I was expecting from an art gallery.

Overall, I didn't have a bad time, but I would have loved to have seen some more interesting, contemporary work.

The show will be held every weekend until october ends, so If you want to experience some casual art or take the family out, then this is a great event and if you are a serious artist, don't pass it up because art is still art. It may not be next level, but where there is creative energy, there can be inspiration.
 

Proof of Attendance: Emerge Art Show

Once a year in Washington D.C. there is an art show called, "Emerge,"

and it features some of the nations finest contemporary independent and gallery artists.

I was able to attend this event along with fellow students a few weeks ago and it was truly a wonderful experience. The event was held at a hotel and from the parking garage to the restrooms on the 2nd floor almost every area of it was chalked wall to wall with work from different artists.  

In the brief 2 hours thatI was there I must have seen over hundreds of paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations from artists all across america. 

From chandeliers in the swimming pools, to beautiful paintings made from oil and silk, the amount of variety in the artist's creations were both fascinating, provoking, and inspiring.

As stated in an earlier blog, I mentioned that the more art I see the more inspired I am and that still rings true in this case. In fact, I saw so much great art that by the end of the day I had a bit of a headache from all the pieces and it took me the rest of the evening to process it all before I finally was able to rest my mind. 

Emerge was definitely worth the time and money to attend and I highly recommend that artists and art lovers attend this event next year and partake in the great joy of contemporary art.   

Film Progress: A few quick tests, mistakes and rain that wont go away.

Planning the film is complete and production has begun. So to start, I decided to run some microphone tests, white balance tests and focus tests. It's a good thing that I did all of these because they were all things that if I had just started filming could have ended disastrously. 

So after an hour or two of film tests, I was confident the quality of the shots I was getting. But then it started to rain. Now I'm glad I wasn't outside filming today, but it still managed to disrupt my filming schedule by raining just loud enough to where it could be heard on my audio.  

Normally rain is cool. Not today.

  

While I could deal with that later on in post, I want to make sure that my audio has great quality because having a clean sound is just as important as having great shots. With luck, I can get a lot of filming done over these next few days to bring me back on track with my schedule.

I do recognize that I’m producing this work on a fairly short time base (a little more than two weeks) but I am very determined and I plan on working very hard during this time to produce something to the best of my abilities and hopefully everyone who watches it will agree with me! 

Proof of Attendance: La Vie en Rose showing

Usually french films are not something I am too interested in, but with some persuasion and the possibility of some snacks, I decided to attend the showing of, "La Vie en Rose," a movie about a french girl who who went from a hard life on the street to becoming a famous singer riddled with drug abuse problems, illness and marital affairs.

 The french class at shepherd was hosting this showing above the rams den and was giving their students credit for attending. So including myself, Zachary Waters and people from that class, there was a huge crowd of about 12 people watching this film.

After a 2 hour run time, the movie finally ended. If you haven't guessed already, my opinion of the movie was not one of positivity. While it did have a few elements I liked such as the story and the acting, I had a lot of issues with the technical executions within the film like shaky footage, confusing flash forwards and flashbacks and just an overall long run time that I feel could have been condensed.
So while this experience was not the most amazing, I still got the chance to try something new and kept an open mind about so it wasn't a bad time after all.

The time has come. Get out the camera.

The time has finally come.

After weeks of pre-production, obstacles, other projects and long nights thinking, I can finally begin shooting some footage!

Since this is my first time filming a documentary, I am definitely a bit nervous about the whole project. I will be filming, editing, interviewing and finalizing this whole project on my won in less than a month so I feel I am justified in feeling this way. But even though there have been moments where I feel a bit discouraged and wanted to do something easier, I keep reminding myself that if I don't try new things and challenge myself, I can't get better at what I do.

So I figured that the best way to learn is by doing so over these next few weeks I'm going to take what I've learned from all my classes and apply them as best as I can to this project and with hard work and maybe a bit if luck, I can make something thats well made, informative and inspiring. With this in mind I am confident that I can do this and that the fear of failure is nothing but an obstacle that keeps us from reaching our goals.

 

Proof of Attendance: Slant Factory Freak Show

A few weeks ago, I gathered with fellow Shepherd University students and art lovers alike in The Slant Factory art gallery for an event called, "Freak Show."

The exhibition showed great paintings, prints and sculptures created by University artists and was a total blast. As the name implies, the show had a very weird and circus-like theme to it as all of the art was definitely odd and freak-showy. But that was right up my ally, so I enjoyed it very much.

Going to this event was not only a great time but it was also an inspiration for me and the weird things I like to produce. I have noticed that the more art shows I go to, the more ideas I get from seeing other people's artwork.

Hopefully I can continue to go to more shows and have more opportunities to learn more about art, artists and all the different ways it can be applied to my own work in the future.

Proof of Attendance: Contemporary Art Show

A week or two ago I had the pleasure of going to a contemporary art show hosted by the university.

It featured art by the Shepherd University professors and was hosted in the library and in the gallery of the new art building.

Having the opportunity to see some of a professors work is a great experience and it allows you to get a glimpse of how they approached art and it also gives you a chance to see how talented they and that next time they make an art suggestion, it's probably a good suggestion and you should probably consider it. 

The gallery showed wonderful pieces by Robert Farmer, Rhonda Smith, Peter Bella, Sonya Evanisko and David Modler and covered a range of art styles from painting to graphic design and even included some printmade pieces along with some photography. 

A beautiful piece by Robert Farmer

Going to this event gave me a boost of appreciation for good art and also inspired me to work at becoming not just a better artist, but a better content creator and I'm very glad I went! 

Next time there is a show in your area, be sure to come on down because seeing good art up close is truly a great treat!  

Research is under way. Filming is coming.

Starting today, I have significantly more time to work on all of my projects and already I have begun processing information regarding my topic for my film.

I looked at some research studies linked from news sites regarding the amount of time that people, especially children, and got some insight on how much time is averaged online and also some medial problems that are associated with a new term that I call "Media Obesity." Using these studies, I can use this information effectively in my film and use that to encourage my audience to use discretion with how much time they spend online and encourage a better use of that free time. 

I also finally cleared some space in my room to do the shots of me talking. I plan on getting a black sheet for the background and getting some lights up in there. I will probably release a short trailer for the film and begin filming very soon here! 

So far everything is going very well and I'm excited to work hard on this project and get it looking spiff! With luck, I'll have some actual content to preview here for your viewing pleasure but until then, stay tuned for more! Thanks! 

Documentary Progress: We're getting there!

So, big new for you all!

1) I'm resigning from my job to focus on this project! 

2) I have a Facebook Page for the project to which I also changed the name of the project to Living Life Online!

3) I have acquired some great Adobe software like Premiere Pro, Photoshop CSS and also Lightroom! 

4) And lastly, I'm coming up with some great ideas for this film! 

While filming has not started yet (mostly due to current work schedule conflicts and other classes quick turn around time projects) I have been slowly but surely piecing together my film! 

I have been doing a bit of research on the production aspects of filming a documentary from this great Youtube page called Indy Mogul!

They have tons of great videos on all aspects of filming and production so I can get great insights on different camera techniques, planning guides, interview protocol and more! 

The next step will be getting some research done for the factual aspects of the film and start filming ASAP.

I will be directing this film differently from a normal documentary and in terms of how I will present the information. Since this is a one man project save some interviewees, I dont have the ability to get a lot of moving shots of me, but i have some ideas on how to keep the film visually interesting by doing a mix of motion graphics, location switches and maybe even some sketch comedy. 

October is just about here and Im starting to feel the pressure so I'm gonna get back to work but thanks for checking in! I'll keep you all updated!  

The Research Has Not Been Forgotten!

To be completely honest, academic research makes me uncomfortable. Looking at scientific journals or notes on theory just don't connect with me as a producer, artist, thinker and ect. My mind happens to like to work in the hear and now and I feel that I work better conducting my own form of research.

Originally for this project I couldn't see academic research being too present in my project as most of it was highly opinionated.

Since then, my idea for this project has evolved and I am taking a slight turn with my ideas. My goal now has turned from filming a minimalist crusade ethnography into a more viewer friendly, informative public service campaign advocating a reduction in the amount of media we consume as a nation and some of the pro's and con's of too much, or not enough exposure to the media. This means that I will try to look up stats and numbers on things such as ADHD rates in children over the last few years, health changes, crime rates, educational changes and other research related to my subject.

With these studies and information, I can better inform my audience with more confidence knowing that I studied the "facts" that i will be presenting and hopefully be able to encourage some changes. 

I look foreword to finding out more about my topic of study and I hope that it will strengthen my project as a whole. 

In the mean time, I will be plenty busy with other more pressing aspects of my project but there will be more information on the research in the days to come. 

 

Senior Capstone Statement of Intent

I have been thinking about this project for a long time now and for the last semester or two my brain has been filled with various ideas, possibilities, concerns and mental blocks. Do I want to do a short film? How about a podcast? Maybe even a audio drama? After much deliberation, I asked myself what do I want to accomplish with my work? Then I thought of the perfect idea: A documentary/ inspirational video.

The documentary will be addressing the concept of success and happiness within the American lifestyle. I want to talk about and to people about what we think true happiness is and get their ideas, while throughout the film, explaining mine. 

What is happiness? Can money really buy it? What is the measure of success? What is the point of your happiness? Why do we torment ourselves to obtain a state of living that we can never achieve? These are just some of the questions I would like to ask along with others relating to the potential negative influence of modern advertising and media content.

Graphic I made. Possible name of Documentary.

I want to do something with my abilities and the skills that I have learned that goes beyond entertainment and a few chuckles from an audience. I want people to feel more than just the need to be entertained and try to get them to use their minds more and expand their comprehension of the things that matter in life, so I feel that this would be perfect for my topic of discussion. 

I know this is a lot of deep content here and I know that critical thinking can turn a lot of people off, but even if I can get viewers who want more out of life than what mass society tells them they need in order to be whole, I feel like this would be worth it. I also hope to continue making these in the future, using this project as a spring board for more content in this style. Who knows, I may even communicate these ideas using a different medium as time goes on, but for now, I think this will be a good start. 

-Vince

Reality As A Projected Perception. Woah, That's Deep...

Why, hello again! If you read my last blog, you, you saw that I reviewed chapters five, six and seven in the book "Why I Want My MTV." and did my best to locate and identify some common themes and elements within them for an assignment.
Well, I'm doing it all again now with chapters eight, nine and ten! So get ready for more!

Alright, so overall, these three chapters discussed Aesthetics, Aisthesis, Synesthesia, Perception, Logos and Echos and the only common theme that I was able to connect between them was the idea that all of them revolved around the idea of audience perception and the vision that the director and the camera want to portray.

In chapter eight, perception is discussed in looking at the visual aesthetics and the idea of synesthesia that goes into making music videos and how perception of a particular visual relates to the viewer. The director, as his title implies, means that he is in charge of directing all elements of the video in the direction he or she wants it to go in.
That being said, the director gets to incorporate their desired aesthetics in the video, and for me, that comes by listening to the music, and creating an image of my head, which in a sense is turning sound into images, like synesthesia, which  is pretty much a person who can hear images. From here, I can creatively imply my own perception and then attempt to relate it to an audience who I hope has similar perceptive tastes.

Chapter nine goes on to discuss the topic of actual perception, which can come from three places. As we probably know by now, the first two are the perceptions of the viewer of the music video and the director, but the third one is that of the camera. Perception is in simple terms, a way of seeing something, but that way changes based on the eyes ears of the individual absorbing or emitting the sensory information.
It is in this exact way that the video camera can take an image, capture it, and then modify it to the desired form, and whatever the camera ends up finalizing becomes a perceived reality, separate from that of real life, or at least how we perceive real life.

Finally, chapter ten deals with the latin words "Logos and Echos" or  "Words and Sounds" to be informal. These words mean much more than they sound though as Logos is representative of words as logic, signifiers of common or shared perspective. Echos in a nutshell here is represented as not just sound, but the way Logos is translated into sound or vise-versa. Either way you slice it, these two words sum up the human potential to translate sights and sounds however they see fit. The best part is that there are no wrong was of seeing; Only different ways.

Art in general is all about perception. The artist paints or draws something for the people and does his or her best to provide some kind of idea or thought behind the piece in their own style. From here, it is up to the viewer to draw their own conclusion, and thats exactly the same with music video but with sound and moving picture. But like an artist, the director marries sights and sounds in a single artistic conglomerate to represent a desired vision or idea in an evolved context.        



 

Music Video, Imagery and Hyper-Realisim. Fun times!

I got a chance to do some reading this week on the topic of music video and got some insight what makes it special, and from what I have read it gives great insight on why it is so very special.

 From reading three different chapters about it in Kevin Williams’ book, “Why I Want My MTV” I have determined that they all share a common theme. That theme is that music video is a form of expression that transcends just plain sights and sounds. It takes from those elements and combines them into something completely new, and the possibilities are only as limited as the creators mind is. Images, colors, light and dark, and even camera angles all interact in various ways with the music they are paired with. The result is an evolution and fusion between sight and sound, and the manifestation of this inspiring art form.

In chapter 5, the reading discusses how music video deviates from traditional cinematic filmmaking that includes narratives and plots and instead focuses on relating imagery, culture and symbolism to the viewer in a nonlinear format, relying on the music and images to convey the determined style, all the while trying to emulate pop culture.

A good way of summing up chapter 5 would be the concept of  “Musical-visuality is thus the interplay and interpenetration of sights and sounds, music and visuals whereby sights dance to the sounds of music and sounds appear visually.” a quote coming directly out of that chapter.

Chapter 6 continues expand on the concept of visual literacy and how our society has already determined what certain images mean and how to associate them to real life scenarios and how music video seeks to take what is familiar in a certain context and morph them into another entity. This allows practically everything to be used as ammo for the music video creator and nothing is out of their grasp. All is fair in the world of music video and nothing has to obey the rules of the rational world. Understanding this idea opens the door to a greater level of creative expansion.

This leads me to chapter 7. This chapter mostly discusses realism and hyper-reality; something that I find is the best thing about music video. It is here that music video shines at being a truly wonderful form of entertainment and communication. It takes the ideas that all these chapters have been discussing and meshes them together, using hyper-reality and what we know about realism as the glue.

It is here where we can really take all the things that reality has dubbed as something and make it something completely different. It can be as comical, explanative, obscene, confusing, metaphorical, or as symbolic as we want and we wouldn’t be wrong. This is the beauty of music video and visual literacy. Music and imagery together are great by themselves, but when orchestrated properly, they can speak ideas and thoughts they couldn’t separately.

All these different ideas about musical-visuality, non-linear narratives and style and association are all concepts that work integrate together perfectly to create some great art and without them, music video would either not exist or be really lame.     

Music Video Update

While we don't have any written material yet to provide, my partner Brett and I have discussed what our plan of attack is for our video. We plan to get an acoustic setup for 2 of the band members from Strikeout Kid preforming their song, 5:33, to do an audio recording of the song first, then shoot section 1 of the video in the studio.

The actual music video will consist of shots of the band playing from the studio (Section 1 as I call it) and shots outside the studio that depict the video's story which we still have yet to draw out Section 2).

We plan on beginning this process this tuesday and hope to provide updates regularly.

If we finnish this video in a good amount of time and have some extra left over, we want to shoot an experimental video with whatever song we can legally get our hands on. This would be just for the heck of it, which I figured was a great time to test out different techniques and ideas and just get a better feel for editing and adding effects.  

Audio Tech? I Like the Sound of That!

As the title partially implies, if I were to be part of a television studio, I would love to be part of the sound team in some form. Sound design would be my primary choice with audio operator being my second

 I am very well aware of sound's ability to make a production sink or swim  and I realize that without sound, visuals in almost any form are left lifeless.  A commercial without sound is just a car driving down the road or an ocean that just says "I'm just a body of water. Theres no fun here." A show with poor audio quality is doomed to mediocrity, and a movie with improper music scores can confuse and disconnect with an audience.

Courtesy of Matthew Keefe

While the effects of poor sound design and audio recording can be detrimental to any production, sound work that is well done can bring that same production to the next level. Stories and emotions can be expressed ten times better and good scoring can immerse the viewers into another a world in cinema. 

I have found that bad sound is noticed way more than good sound in todays media saturated world. If a program has a well produced musical track with clean audio levels on mics and cool sound effects, the viewers will probably end up saying, "Wow, that was a good show." They might talk to their friends about how awesome the show "looked" since television is primarily a visual medium and they might not even say anything about the sound, which is a good sign to me since I find it usually registers on a subconscious level for most. It's all to easy though to find an auditory mistake, and those mistakes tend to be the most off putting  for a viewer. 

Sound design and audio engineering is an art form to me, and I hope to work hard in these fields and hopefully master them someday. I am very fortunate to be a Communications major at Shepherd University and with the experience I am getting, I am confident that I will be prepared to put my skills to the test in the future.  

   

Experiencing the Studio

When it comes to education and learning, I am a firm believer that experience and hands-on training supersedes bookwork and lecturing, at least on a personal level. I find that when I get the opportunity to see the equipment for myself and have things explained to me as I actively work, I learn things faster and they actually stick, and this is what I love about working in the studio.

My favorite thing to do so far has either been doing sound or operating the camera.  Working with audio is something that I am extremely interested in so learning more about it in an interactive environment has been great. In addition to sound, I have taken a strong liking to video work, so getting in some time behind the camera, especially one of the studio's caliber, has also been a great experience.  

The only thing I really didn't like doing was being the director/producer. I have a good eye for what looks good in frame and on screen, but I don't multi-task well enough to call out shots, look at setting up shots farther down the line and then trying to tell the switcher and the camera operators what to do next.

If I had to pick something that I wanted to learn to do better, I would say directing and working at the soundboard more often. Both of these positions are critical to making a great program and being proficient at them would be a great asset to me and my Communications career. Overall, being in the studio has been a fulfilling experience and I look foreword to learning as much as possible.

Music Video Preproduction: Just Half of the Fun!

Music videos are not created simply on a whim. They require careful preparation, creative planning and foresight, and my video is no exception. Taking into consideration my resources and time to produce this, I have come up with a few different ideas for my music video.

My buddy's debut album. Check it out!

1. My first choice would be to use one of the songs a friend of mine has made to use for my video. His band, Asoflate, makes really good indie type music that is very well produced and musically executed and I would love to do a video for him. This wouldn't be the first time I have worked with his material. I made a 30 second kinetic typography video for him last semester so a music video would probably be something he would be excited about. The only problem here is that he lives all the way in Texas and would obviously not be able to appear in the video so it would have to be a story driven video without the musician present.

2. For this idea, I would shoot a music video to one of my sister's original compositions. She plays the acoustic guitar and sings, so getting footage should be quite simple since I wouldn't have to drag a whole band around everywhere. It's also a plus since we live in the same house, so again, I have that convenience of shooting almost anytime I want.

As for as specific ideas go, I really don't have one. I'm a big fan of developing a general story line and story board for a project, but as for as things like camera angles, editing and location of the shoot, I usually figure out as I go and let the ideas just come to me. Sometimes I find trying to sit down and concentrate on all the elements tends to stifle my creativity. I now devote half of of my creative energy to my impulsive intuition and the other half to strategic planning and coordination and we'll see how it goes from there.  

Swiss army syllabus.

So, the last blog I did I wrote about how awesome the COMM 333 syllabus was, aka, the “Music Video Syllabus.” Since the COMM 360 syllabus is similar in it’s content and layout, I will avoid repetition by discussing the different elements the Studio Production has.

This syllabus starts just like most syllabi by talking about all the usual class stuff, like: who, what, when, where and why thing in section 1 of the syllabus. It then moves onto section 2, which like the COMMM 333 syllabus, talks about podcasts, blogging and other communications related topics in an informative fashion, explaining to the reader the basic instructions to these realms.

From here, starting in section 3, the syllabus begins to mention the importance of critical and creative thinking and provides insight on how that relates to new media and the mindsets that governs it. Section 3 also provides some excellent charts that amplify the point like Bloom’s Taxonomy, which explains cognation levels and matches them with certain levels of education as demonstrated below.

E.S.A.A.C.K. = Best acronym ever.

Section 5 briefly goes over some concepts such as: critical and creative thinking, oral and written communication, quantitative and information literacy, collaboration and teamwork, problem solving, multiculturalism, and ethical reasoning and practices.

Ultimately, it feels like even though there is not to much information on the advanced production aspect of this class as I would like, this syllabus still does a great job at giving students a different angle of looking at production and the thought process that goes behind a television show or an advertisement or whatever it is that we are working. It’s one thing to have a good understanding of the technical inner-workings of a field of study, but I feels like it is of equal importance to have a solid understanding of higher thought processes, such as creative and critical thinking, problem solving and learning about how to get your ideas to relate to your audience.  

 

It's not a class syllabus. It's a career syllabus.

It's the first day of class and you have just arrived at your class. You take your seat along side your fellow students and your professor hands out the 8 page syllabus that most of us usually cram into our backpacks after the first week of class, never to be seen again. Normally, a syllabus consists of the same standard information that every student has probably memorized by now at least in terms of layout. It has information on what class you're in, what time its at, who your professor is, a calendar, and what you can and can't do. Thats about it, but not the Music Video syllabus. The COMMM 333 syllabus is not a normal syllabus.

While other syllabi tend to just give you basic info regarding the class, the COMM 333 syllabus not only provides the information a student needs to know about the class, but it looks beyond that and covers information that relates to the student and his or her education in the world of communications that the student can use outside of of class, and that's the best thing about the syllabus. If a student needs advice on a subject relative to the class, they can always refer back to their electronic syllabus and get some quality information on things. For example, starting on page 23: blogging, podcasting, critical thinking and even common sense in the digital world. This is something that I have never seen before in any classroom environment, or at this caliber at least, but as a student, I am really impressed by the amount of effort that my professor went through to ensure that we get, what I am now calling a, "Career Syllabus." I call it that because even though it is still a syllabus for a particular class, it is also a resource that is applicable to the job hunting world.

Page 24 from the syllabus.

This syllabus is a great tool for a students, especially freshmen, who may not be as familiar with the Mass Communications world. They now have the basic information they need to create good quality content for whatever medium they're working in. Even students who do know a lot about the comm field can still benefit from this syllabus, including myself.