Everything you didn't know about Packard Lab

Packard Lab certainly has an interesting history.  Going into the project, I really did not expect to find out as much as I did.  My online research did not lead me to a lot of findings.  However, I was lucky to interview Professor William Haller, who knew more about the building than I ever expected.  My video is already on the longer side, 8 minutes, but there was so much more information I could have included.  I had a hard time cutting things out because every story Haller told me was interesting!  Professor Richard Decker also had a lot to say about the building, as he had a lot of knowledge about the architecture and design of the building, things which I was unable to find in my research.  I have both professors to thank, but especially Professor Haller, who took almost two hours out of his day to share his stories with me and give me a tour of all of the interesting places in the building.  He took me to the spiral staircase and the original elevator, places which are locked to students, and even showed me the original building plans for Packard which he had acquired over the years.  All in all, this project was rewarding for me, both for experience and for knowledge.

History of Mohler Laboratory

In 1986 Lehigh bought the B'rith Shalom synagogue and turned it into the hub for its industrial and systems engineering programs. It was named after Lehigh almumnus and former Hershey executive Harold Mohler '48 for his continued service and leadership to the university.

The project was actually rather hectic for me because my laptop died the week it was due, which caused me to have to scramble and rush to get more interview and video footage. Regardless, I thought the finished product turned out pretty well.

I would've liked to put in more video shots and less picture shots, but I felt the pictures with the Ken burns effect actually worked well, and made it have video feel to it anyway. In the future I will also use a tripod for all of my video shots to avoid some of the shakiness seen, particularly in the beginning of professor Zimmers' interview.

Overall, this project was enjoyable. I learned a lot about video editing, and more importantly how to adapt when technology turns against you.

Lamberton Hall

For my building project I chose to do Lamberton Hall. I am a little bit torn about how I think my final product came out. I do think that Lamberton has a very interesting history and I think it is architecturally cool so a lot of my still shots came out well. However, a lot of the video footage I got was mind-numbingly boring. I couldn't bring myself to overlay video of people sitting at Hawks Nest eating or walking in and out of the door. When I went through all of my material, I thought that the pictures gave a much better picture of what goes on in Lamberton and how cool the building is. The quality maybe could have been a bit better but I think that would have required a better camera (and less shaky hands on my part!) Overall, I am happy with how my interview's went. I think I got a lot of good, interesting information from pretty diverse sources about the building's history and current uses.

Southside Business Development

Two years ago I had the pleasure of taking J198 Multimedia Reporting for which I did a comprehensive video/website project about the coffee and music scene in South Bethlehem. (This can be found at lvcoffee.net)

Recently I realized that two of the businesses that I did a video profile on have had three transitions in ownership in the last two to three years. I decided to explore the current businesses that are in these locations, speak to their owners and attempt to pinpoint the reasons relatively new businesses have difficulty thriving in Southside Bethlehem.

This first video explores what is now Wrap'd Tight, the former location of The Wildflower Cafe and then its successor Terra Cafe, both of which closed down. The Wildflower Cafe has left such a mark on the Bethlehem Community, being a staple of the coffee and music scene for years. Its iconic stage and murals, inside and out of the cafe, has left a legacy that was undoubtedly a tough act to follow for Terra Cafe. The owners of Wrap'd Tight hope they can progress beyond this shadow of a legendary cafe and create a household name for themselves that still cherishes the heart of the two cafes.

This second video takes a walk through franchise frozen yogurt shop, Euro Yogurt, now under control of its third owner in three years. It becomes clear that many successful businesses in South Bethlehem gained its success as a result of it's long standing and loyal fan base in the community. New businesses struggle in the wake of the fail of Bethlehem Steel and need time to catch on with community members.

Christmas-Saucon Hall History

I had a lot of issues with this video publishing. I'm not sure what went wrong but the quality of the entire video was downgraded drastically which takes a lot away from the video. But overall I think it came out really well.

The University Center (Julie Tatios)

 

   The UC was the building I chose to gather information, photographs, interviews etc.. Overall I'm not thrilled with how the final product turned out. The amount of time that goes into a video like this is a lot more than it seems after watching the three and half minutes. Gathering the photos, particularly good shots, is difficult in itself but to compile them with interview footage and then match up the still images with the audio overlay is quite a challenge. I think I started with over 50 photos that were decent shots and ended up deleting a bunch of them because I had no audio to put them with. I may have overused the burns effect too much but I found the transition from video/interview to still shots very disruptive unless it had some sort of movement to it.

Interview with Prof. Bruce Thomas on the History of the Chandler-Ullmann Building

For my video project, I chose to do the history of the Chandler-Ullmann building. It took two days to be satisfied with the amount of photos and sound footage I was gathering, and i incorporated a good amount of them in this video. I did a lot of online research on the history, as well as tweeted ASA Packer's Ghost as to what he/she knows, and got more resources to find information. From this, I compiled a set of questions to ask the people I wanted to interview.

When it came to recording the actual interview, I prepped Professor Bruce Thomas, Professor of Architecture, with the order of questions I wanted to ask. I had already planned for two people for my interview, but weather definitely messed with both of those scheduled meetings with professors and finding people who actually knew more substance behind the history became a scavenger hunt. However, the one interview I was able to get was more than perfect because I had prepared myself and Prof. Thomas very well before hand and he was very knowledgeable to the point that recording flowed very smoothly.

I think this time around I was very content with the outcome of my project, especially because I learned a bunch of history that I probably wouldn't have learned before. I think I'm getting the hang of making and editing videos a lot better.

Christmas-Saucon Hall (Meghan Barwick)

 I chose to research Christmas-Saucon Hall, but I ran into a problem where one of my main choices for an interview declined to give me an interview, which was a setback because all of the other faculty in the building told me he was the man to speak to. After this, I changed the focus to some of the daily going ons in the building, mainly consisting of student's math classes. I do wish I could have gotten that interview, because there is a lot of interesting information about the origin of the building. I also really liked finding the historical pictures in the special collections (I found them through wikipedia). I think that viewers will find these historical scenes very interesting.

STEPS Building - Sarah Siegel

I chose to do my building project on STEPS. STEPS is a new building on campus, and it has many eco-friendly features that make it so fascinating. I was able to sit down with two faculty members who work in the STEPS building. Professor Pazzaglia and Professor Lungu were both extremely knowledgable on STEPS. I found their facts interesting and intriguing. Putting the video together was difficult. Having to cut the video and trim the audio was hard for me. Overall, I found the project extremely beneficial for extending my knowledge about the Lehigh campus. It also, once again, pushed me outside my comfort zone and introduced me to faculty members that I may not have met due to my major track.

For my building project, I chose Coppee Hall. I was really interested in learning about how the journalism department ended up with their own beautiful building. Once I started researching the subject, I realized that Coppee has been on campus since the very beginning of Lehigh. Alongside of that, Professor Lule and Professor Jirik both gave me good material to work with during my interviews. My only issues started when I used moviemaker for the first time and it took me a while to figure out how to add in transitions and effects.

I chose to do the AOII house for my building project. It is where I live and I think it is such a spectacular house. I have always heard a lot of rumors about the history of the building so I wanted to take this opportunity to learn more about it. I interviewed the director of residential services and he was able to provide me with a lot of information. I also interviewed our chef here to provide an inside account on what goes on in the house currently. As for problems that arose, shooting the video shots with my iPhone left for some shaky videos and when they translated to iMovie the quality went down and they seem a little squished. Other than that, iMovie was really easy to work and I had fun editing and making all the clips and pictures into a fluid video.

History of Williams Hall

I was a bit worried about this project because I didn't have enough video or enough sources and used too many photos, but I think it came out decently.  The volume of my voiceovers overpowered Dr. Cundall, so I did my best to equalize the sound.  Williams Hall is mostly empty, and nothing happens inside, so the video clips I have don't look much different than a photo would.  I know we needed some ambient noise in the background, but you could hear me breathing in them, so it made the clips much creepier than necessary.

Dr. Cundall didn't know too much about what happened in Williams Hall before he got there, and only knew a little bit of what is to come, but he was very helpful.

Coxe Hall

For my building history project I did Coxe Hall. Overall, I’m glad that I picked this building because I really didn’t know much about it, and I found in my research that most other students don’t either. Before this project, I had only been in this building once.
I used iMovie for my video, which caused some glitches. When I tried to put a video on top of another video, problems would arise. That is why some of the transitions are a little shaky, I would have liked for them to be more smooth.
I also was not able to get my second interview because it was cancelled due to the hurricane. He was unavailable to reschedule, so I was disappointed about that.
I replaced my missing second interview with two student interviews. I tried to get different perspectives for the student interviews, and it worked nicely. I had one from a student who knew nothing about the building, and one from a student who spends a lot of time there. I decided to just use their voices since they were really only giving me their opinion.
However, I was pleasantly surprised after I was done with the video, because I had enough information. I actually had to cut out a lot so that it wouldn’t be too long. Overall I was really happy with how my video turned out despite all the setbacks.

Philosophy Building - Alison Mango

For my project, I chose to look at the Philosophy Building. I was always really interested in the building because it was clearly a part of the history of the campus, and not one of the more modern buildings. But, people rarely frequent the building, so it was a mystery to me. For the video, I interviewed two current professors of philosophy, Roslyn Weiss and Steve Goldman, as well as two retired professors, Robert Barnes and Norman Melchert. I think that the interviews went very well, and although information on the building was scarce, I was able to get good stories out of them. I thought that my panning video sequences weren't very good, they were shaky and too fast. I also wish that I was able to get more of a variety of shots, including those with students interacting like the professors talked about. But the times I was there, there were no students. Overall, I think it went well and I learned a lot about the building.

Election Day 2012 - Alison Mango

On Election Day 2012, Kelly Mueller and I collected a wide range of political views from both Lehigh's campus and the north side of Bethlehem to contribute to the #JElection hashtag on Twitter. We grabbed a few people walking to and from class or around campus, but our main goal was to head into the UC. One of the Sodexo workers allowed us to enter Lower Cort without swipe access to do some interviews. These people were more at ease talking to us, because they were in less of a rush. But, because it was crowded, it made for some noisy interviews. My least favorite video came from here, when we interviewed a freshman girl who was hesitant to participate, but ended up doing so anyway. I think that her reluctance to talk, and the loud noise, made this video not one of our best. Also, because it was loud in the room, we tried to put the camera closer to her face, which only resulted in an awkward close-up. To tackle our off-campus interviews, Kelly and I decided to head over to the north side, where we thought we would find more people leisurely shopping around who would hopefully be willing to talk to us. We were surprised that we got a good mixture of people who weren't interested and people who were very adamant to share their views. We tried to get a variety of people, such as construction workers, sales people, and others just walking the streets. This proved to pay off because we got some unexpected answers and many different insights from people. Below was my favorite video of the day, taken on the north side in a store called The Attic. I like this video because it was a quiet setting, and the salesperson who is talking is willing to elaborate on her views. I like that it's an interesting background that matches the interesting subject. I liked this project because it gave me the chance to see the variety of different views that people have. It's interesting to see what was important to most people, economic and social issues, but also to see that their specific interests in those topics were often catered to what they did. It gave us a good opportunity to get out there and talk to people about their beliefs, and many were excited about getting their opinions out in the open. ALISON MANGO

Election Interviews

The assignment to interview 16 people seemed a little bit daunting, but proved to be a valuable learning experience. Courtney and I asked many people on and off campus about the issues that influenced their vote this past election. This time around was much easier in terms of asking people on campus, however when it came to off campus the situation changed drastically. People were not willing to share their political opinions largely or they were not registered to vote. The number of times we encountered this was actually quite alarming.

 It was so interesting to hear everyone’s political opinions, especially those in the community. Although it was much harder to elicit those responses it really provided a lot more insight into the mindset of the people who live in South Bethlehem.One of my favorite interviews was the one with Alex Hiznay. He seemed to have a good grasp of the issues and have strong personal convictions that he was able to express. Some of the other people we spoke to were a lot more forced.

   

I thought that Tayrhi Saldana's interview provided a lot of insight into the mindset of many people who live around the area. I think that in the future we could have utilized the background of the kitchen at Horns, where she was cleaning dishes, to enhance the character of the video.

Dalisbeth's #JElection Reflection

For this assignment, Julie T. and I asked many people on and off campus about the issues that influenced their vote and why they would encourage people to vote. We definitely got an variety of answers, but some were common among the people we interviewed. This time around, I think it was more of a challenge to do interview for a number of reasons. The weather was one reason it was challenging, with the strong winds adding to the sounds in the background as well as lighting. During the time that we were asked to do our interviews, it was from 1-4pm when it started to get a bit darker. It was a pretty hectic day so it getting good sound quality even 50% of the time was difficult. Some of the things that did become a little easier for me this time around was being able to come up with follow up questions if the person's initial response was too short.

Overall, it was a pretty great experience for me because we got to interview people from the community on the day of the election, so it was great to hear what the community had to say about the importance of voting.

Below are some of my favorite video interviews, some a favorite because of the content of the interview (how the well the questions were asked, how well people did in answering them naturally), or because of video quality (not to much background noise and good composition).

#JElection Reflection- Kelly Mueller

On November 6th 2012—Election Day—Alison Mango and I talked to 8 faculty, students and staff members on Lehigh’s campus and 8 people on the North side of Bethlehem. This assignment was not only very practical and interesting, but it was also rewarding as I gained insight into the various views, concerns and thoughts regarding the election from a wide variety of citizens. Some interviewees were very hesitant to talk in front of camera and spoke only briefly about the issues that they found the most important. On the other hand, we did encounter other interviewees who were more than willing to express their candid opinion in detail and some even used this interview as an opportunity to give Alison and I a 10-minute lecture on economic and foreign policy. Despite my efforts, I am only knowledgeable of the surface level of social, economic and foreign issues that affect the United States, so I was thoroughly impressed with the eloquent and persuasive answers we received from the interviewees.

 My least favorite video was likely the one where we interviewed Ryan Miller. Being one of our first videos, we weren’t prepared to ask any additional questions after asking the ones provided on the sheet. This led to some discontinuity in the flow of the video and also just made us, the interviewers, seem a little timid and uncomfortable during the interview. Ryan also talked very quietly and at times was barely audible However, I did like some aspects of this video, such as the shooting location, as the video was shot outdoors which provided a pleasant ambiance and a nice background environment.

 Despite the great responses we got from both the interviewees in the Lower UC cafeteria, the crowded lunchroom made for poor sound quality. Despite this, I really liked the interviews that took place in the lunchroom setting because the interviewees just seemed to be more at ease and more talkative when sitting in a crowded environment, as opposed to the interviews that were conducted after the interviewees were ambushed while walking outside to class by themselves.

            My favorite video would likely be when Alison and I talked to a grad student, Charles French, in the Upper UC. Although the audio of this  video was relatively quiet throughout,  it was the speaker himself who really made the video. With the ambiance of students and faculty eating in the background, Charles French wasn’t hesitant to speak and was very vocal in his perspectives of the candidates. The fact they he spoke so confidently and stood firmly by his opinions really added value to the video. 

Iacocca Hall

My building project was on Iacocca Hall. I interviewed James Harper, Public Relations Professor and Public Relations Advisor for the Iacocca Institute, as well as Dick Brandt, Director of the Iacocca Institute and Global Village Program. Overall, I think my interviews went well, I took a lot of footage, so there was a lot of left over tape I had to throw away. I think my videos of Iacocca Hall could have been better, but since there is little-to-no activity student up there during the day, I didn't have much to work with. I used final cut pro to edit this video, and I liked using that program a lot more than moviemaker on the dell computers.

Election Interview Reflection

The in-class assignment to interview 16 different people, both on campus and off campus, taught me a lot about the video interviewing aspect of journalism. Many people were very hesitant to participate once we said that we were going to be videotaping them. However, students on campus were much easier to access in terms of being responsive to being videotaped and to having participated in the election. Many off-campus people that we approached either hadn't voted and weren't planning on it or were uncomfortable being videotaped. Also engaging with the interviewee was challenging because most were hesitant with being interviewed with video and therefore didn't want to look into the camera, losing the personalized aspect of eye contact.

I learned the importance of lighting and background noise because in some of the videos the lighting was really dark or the background music or conversation was dominating and the person's voice couldn't be heard. Logistically I didn't realize the need to make sure that you don't stop someone in a pathway. We accidentally did so and then had to move midway through because someone wanted to pass by without interrupting us. Nonetheless background scenery is very important for providing a context of where a person works or the natural environment for someone.

I think the video of Alex Hiznay was done well because he engaged with the camera and was opinionated on the subject matter. Also the background scenery showed that he was on Lehigh's campus, providing the college background appropriate for what he talked about.



Another video I liked was Tony Silvoy's because he was very opinionated with a different perspective by saying that issues don't matter. Having the menu of The Goose in the background was good and there wasn't distracting background noise.



The last video that I liked was Anthony Spagnola's because he was engaged in the subject and answered the questions with clear, concise responses. One comment that I would make is to ensure that the video allows him to finish his thought as it appears he was cut off.

History of Christmas-Saucon Hall

Professor Jerry King gives an outstanding perspective on the history of Lehigh's oldest structure, Christmas-Saucon Hall.

#JElection Reflection

For me, the entire #JElection experience was a learning and rewarding experience.  It was interesting hearing the political views of both students and community members, for they were not necessarily what I had expected.  Before the project started, I was preparing myself to hear a lot about the economy and the job market, for I assumed this would be the issue on people's minds as they prepared to vote.  From Lehigh students, we did find this overwhelming concern with the economy, specifically directed at student loans and the job market.  However, what was interesting was the overwhelming amount of Bethlehem community members that did not even mention the economy.  For them, social issues took the prominent role in influencing their vote.

One of my favorite videos was probably the first video we shot of Clinton Wolfe in Deja Brew.  The camera angle and the background noise were perhaps not the best, but Wolfe was a very dynamic speaker and had a lot of interesting things to say.  He even gave us his Twitter to tag him in the post so that he, too, could become part of the #JElection conversation.

My other favorite video was Harrison Fenner's interview.  He was the one community member we interviewed who was a Romney supporter and who did not list social issues as his No. 1 priority.  Fenner is in the military, so he provided a unique perspective and gave us insight into which candidate the military would support.  The lighting and the background of this video are good.  However, although everything Fenner says is clear, at times the sound of the cars passing by behind us becomes a little loud.  It would have been better if we'd walked a little further from the street in order to do the interview.  

Overall, I felt more confident videoing this time around than during the scavenger hunt.  Although looking back I can point out improvements I would have made to the videos, I feel that this time I had a better understanding of which shots would have the best lighting and how to frame a person within the shot.  The one think I wish we'd taken more into consideration, however, is sound, for in some of the videos the background noise threatens to be too loud.  Achieving better sound quality and softer background noise is definitely the thing I will focus most on when conducting video interviews in the future.

Connor Tait's #JElection Interview Reflection

On election day Sarah Siegel and I stormed through Lehigh University and South Side Bethlehem, interviewing numerous individuals about their thoughts and opinions concerning the election. It was a hectic three hours, but at the end of the day we produced 16 videos to YouTube from various individuals throughout the community who all shared many different reasons for voting.

Casey Rule was our first interviewee, but I actually think his video turned out to be one of our best. He was extremely informed on the issues he spoke about, and passionate about promoting voter turnout and political participation. In terms of video shooting Sarah did a great job keeping the camera steady, while still keeping it close enough to Casey so the audience could hear what he was saying. We also made sure the lighting looked good on him before we shot the video.

This video was probably the worst one we shot. We were in a rush to stay on pace to finish on time, so we were pretty desperate to grab any Bethlehem resident who would speak to us. We should've just packed up and left when he told us not to use his last name, but we stuck around and interviewed him anyway. He kept looking around, so it was hard to hear what he was saying, and he didn't have a whole lot of interesting input. In retrospect we should've either found a better candidate or at least gotten him out of the car to do the interview, but time was against us and we took it and ran with it.
Overall I had a lot of fun shooting these videos with Sarah and felt more engaged than I ever have with residents of South Side Bethlehem. It was extremely interesting to hear the various political opinions on and off-campus and I was glad to take part in the #Jelection experience.

Sarah Siegel #JElection Response

Store owner John Clark was one of my favorite people that we interviewed. He was really passionate about his reasons for voting, and I think as far as the content goes, it was the best. My one problem with this video is the quality. We originally took the video on my phone, but as my phone was dying (note to self- charge your phone before you go out on video phone interviews!!!), I sent it to Connor to upload from his phone. I think the transfer of the video deteriorated the quality, making it slightly fuzzy on YouTube.



Patricia McAndrew was my favorite person that we interviewed. She was actually the one that approached Connor and me about being interviewed. She has overheard us asking someone else, and when that person turned us down, she told us that she could do it. Her kindness did not stop there. During her interview, she opened up to us about how she is voting for the next generation. She said that she wants to create a better world for her friend's children and their children. My only qualm about this video is the lighting. Deja Brew is not ideal for the best of lighting when using a camera phone.



This interview interested me the most. When we approached Chelsea, we weren't expecting her response. When she told us she was voting for Ron Paul, Connor and I immediately became more intrigued. Usually, when people don't like the Republican or Democratic candidate, they don't vote. Chelsea still casted her vote and seemed knowledgeable on her reasons for voting Independent.



This interview created another opportunity for me to step outside my comfort zone. Connor and I approached people and asked for a minute of their time to give us their insight on voting. While not everyone was receptive of us, we were so appreciative of those who were. Overall, I think Connor and I worked extremely well together and got great interviews that profiled diverse viewpoints.

The #JElection hashtag is a great way for Journalism students around the world to cultivate ideas on topic issues. While I didn't see many people doing what our J024 class did here at Lehigh, it was still cool to see people connecting and conversing through the hashtag. It would be an interesting project to get students from across the world to start communitcating using a specific hashtag and getting real time answers about local and national issues. Perhaps this is the new version of having a pen-pal!

#JElection Interviews

After getting over the initial awkwardness of asking people if I could interview them, I actually kind of enjoyed hearing what different types of people had to say about the election. I spoke with people ranging from girls in a sorority to political science professors to a guy who sells hot dogs on East 4th street. To be completely honest, my interviews defied many stereotypes commonly associated with these people. First of all, I really enjoyed my interview with Erin McCarty.

I thought she sounded incredibly knowledgeable about the election, and had an in-depth knowledge of many of Obama's policies. She had reasons why she supported the president and specific policies. In stark contrast, I thought Professor Matthews had no interest in sharing his opinions and spoke almost condescendingly. Whereas many people I interviewed were eager and willing to talk about the issues, I feel as though both of the professors that I spoke with were very brief and disinterested.

My favorite video that I came up with was my interview with Donovan Ruth, a Lehigh grad student. Not only did he note specific issues that he was concerned about but he talked about how the were relevant in this election as well as why they directly effect his life. I also liked the way he was positioned outside, in his jacket, walking between classes was a great location because you could tell I literally stopped him on the street. Also, he lighting was good because we were not standing in direct sunlight and it was not too loud around us so it is easy to hear his answers.

This interview confirmed that a knowledgeable source is the key to a successful interview. Hearing my voice asking questions all the time is boring for the audience, I think it is much more interesting and entertaining to hear a subject like Donovan who is intelligent and well-informed speak about his issues and opinions. It is obvious that a bunch of the videos I posted were of subject who were not as well informed and they were noticeably more uncomfortable and less enjoyable to watch.

As far as the #JElection twitter hashtag goes, I think it was a very neat idea and I love seeing what other journalism students came up with. Not only is it cool how small our world was become with social media sites like twitter, but this specifically connected me with other journalism students from prestigious universities so it is even more interesting because I was able to look through a bit and see some of their work as it compares to what I believe I am capable of. I know it wasn't intended as a way to "size up the competition," per se, but for whatever reason as I was scrolling through the tweets, I couldn't help but analyze the work of these students.

#Jelection Reflection

Laura and I ran into a lot of problems trying to get people to let us interview them- most people immediately had this look on their face when we told them what they were doing and tried to politely refuse. And for those who were reluctant, it took much convincing to let us do it. I think most people thought we were going to ask them who they were voting for or they felt that our questions were too personal.



This is one of my favorite videos, because the subject, Rose, was so willing to talk about her views of things regarding the election, and that was hard for me and Laura to get. A lot of people simply refused to talk about it, or to be recorded in an interview. She was a fun subject, and I feel like with more time, she would have a lot of interesting things to say about her own comments. This video could have been bad if we had a quieter speaker, but Rose spoke loudly and clearly, however in the case that she was not we should have prepared by moving further away from the noises of conversation.




Layla was also a great subject because she talked in a knowledgeable way about her own views- though this video did not have great sound quality because we were standing right in front of the road, which is retrospect, we would not do. Laura and I liked being in the video, because it made the subject more comfortable with talking, but the awkward zoom of iPhone video meant that I had to walk closer to her to get a good picture and louder sound.



For this interview, I stayed behind the camera, but I dislike hearing my voice like that. It's not much different for me to be interviewing the person side by side, but these assignments make me feel self concious also appearing in film (so of course it's no surprise no on wanted to be interviewd, especially on video). We would constantly have to convince people, "You look great, you'll be fine on camera!"

Reflection on Election Day Interviews

Overall I think mine and Meghan's batch of videos this time around, but we definitely did run into some problems Our main problem was finding people off campus who would talk to us. A lot of people said no to us interviewing them either because they didn't want to be on video or because they didn't want to answer any political questions. The more this went on, the more hesitant Meghan and I became to approach people. It's kind of sad, actually, because a lot of people thought we were just going to ask them who they were voting for (which we never did). So, we had to convince a lot of people that 1.) this was just for a project for school 2.) we were not going to ask them any personal questions, just general election questions and 3.) that it would only take a minute. It's funny because the people who finally agreed after having to convince them, turned out to be some of the best videos we got. Like this one:

Lisa did not want to do the interview at first, and she told Meghan and I that she wasn't the right person to ask. After some convincing, though, she agreed and gave my favorite response out of all our videos. Her thoughts were well stated and made sense, she spoke well and clear and she made a convincing argument as to why people should vote. I think the fact that she didn't want to do the interview at first makes me like it even more. People just don't know what they are capable of.

Despite these issues, Meghan and I got better videos because we were a lot more aware of the way the video would look. We shot them all horizontally, did our best to make sure we were close enough to the person to hear what they were saying and got better with continuing the interviews as we went along. This is another one of my favorite videos because I like the way it was shot:

I think Layla did a good job of answering this question, but I also like how Meghan and I dealt with the surroundings that could have posed problems. Meghan started the video off with having both me and Layla in the frame, but once she noticed that the passing cars were getting louder she paned the camera to have only Layla in the frame, so she could be heard. I thought it looked really cool how the camera sort of moves around her. It made me more interested in watching her answer our questions.

Alumni Memorial Building

            A video and photo documentary describing the history, architecture and importance of the Alumni Memorial Building. This building, constructed with Gothic architecture, was built in honour of the students of Lehigh that lost their lives in World War 1. Since then, the names of every Lehigh student who died in a major American war have been memorialized in the building. Besides the admissions department, the building is also host to the President, Provost, Registrar and Bursar. The film consists of 3 interviews with Eileen Gozelic, Matt Herr and Karen Krajczar.
           While making this video, other than having difficulty finding substantial interviewees, I ran into several problems concerning the audio. All of the interview locations were unfortunately indoors and in a rather empty room which hindered the original video with echoes and the muffling of the air conditioning. Luckily, with the imovie, I was able to remove the majority of the unpleasant background noise, make some speakers more audible and add some background ambience to make the overall video a little less flat.
            I really enjoyed making this video because as a tour guide, I am frequently in the Alumni Memorial Building but only knew the very basics about the building. The interviews were interesting as they added insight and perspective that went beyond the mere structure and history of the building. If I were to make any improvements on this project, I would try to film more scenic shots during a more busy time, such as open houses, as the building itself isn't frequented often by the average student. I would also try to get into contact with someone involved in the facilities department or who assisted in the actual building or renovating of the Alumni Memorial Building.

Election Day Interviews

This was our second crack at interviewing people on the street, and I have to say, I'm still not too comfortable with it.  Many people were uncomfortable speaking about politics and even more were uncomfortable speaking on camera.  Christina and I were only able to get seven interviews on campus and two off campus, but I hope the quality of our videos is what really counts.




My favorite off-campus interview was with Baron Chase of Hellertown, PA.  He was very enthusiastic about election day and friendly to everyone who walked by.  Chase was standing outside of the Obama headquarters on Third Street next to his car that was completely covered in pro-Obama stickers.

While the shadow from the brim of his hat covers his eyes, I think the rest of the lighting was good in this shot.  The background wasn't too distracting, and Chase had a lot to say about the issues that decided his vote.  I also enjoyed that, while he was very much pro-Obama, he never bashed Romney.



I think one of our best on-campus interviews was with Alex Bloom.  He was also voting for President Obama and had quite a lot to say about the progress that has been made.

Our lighting here seemed pretty good, the walkway wasn't too busy or distracting, and we didn't have Alex dead center, which made a more visually interesting shot.  I enjoyed this interview also because Alex knows his facts, and dropped a lot of statistics, which no one else really got in to.

As for the #JElection hashtag, I didn't see too much that interested me during the election; it seemed to be mostly pictures and peoples' opinions.  Our class definitely contributed some good content, but the #JElection hashtag wasn't my priority last night, with all the electoral votes neck and neck for so long.

I found speaking with Judge Stocklas to be very interesting. It was cool to talk to someone who has been elected to positions in the past and has a different way of looking at it. As did most of the people we talked to, the economy was a very important issue in determining who he voted for this election. He also passionately stressed the need for everyone to express their opinions by voting, which I agree with.  This is the way we participate in how our country functions and we should take advantage of that.

Reflection on Election Interviews_ Julie Tatios

Ismael Arcelay of Bethlehem Pa. shares his thoughts about 2012 Election

 

   In my opinion this was my favorite video because of the content that Ismael provided in his interview. I think that what he said was different from others that we had interviewed and that he gave an enthusiastic and informative amount of information regarding the election. The backdrop of the bricks isn't terrible but I think it could be improved so that it could provide more contextual information for the viewer. The beginning of the interview is cut off, which again adds to small imperfections within in the video, but overall I think the purpose of journalism and communicating visually is to find and relay informative and interesting content for the public. Interview with Jovan Campbell; he voted to have better healthcare and affordable education.

 

   This was a another video I liked most. I think the lighting outside is great and compositionally I think the video looks nice. The background includes the entrance to a voting facility which is very appropriate considering the topic of the interview. The posing of the questions was a little shaky at times and calls for some improvement but I think overall it was shot well compositionally and the content Jovan provided was good. _____________________________________________________________________________
  
   In comparison to the first time we set out to gather interviews, this set is much better. It includes
the name of the people, the questions are posed so that the viewer can understand what is being asked of the interviewee. The composition, including the background, the lighting, the positioning of the subject etc.. is much better. The sound has some issues and should be improved. What I think is really important is to make your subject feel comfortable with what they are doing, so that they can give you a clear and succinct answer that is attention grabbing for your viewers.

Election 2013 Interview Reflection

During our hunt for interviews on voting, Abby and I found out much to our dismay that many students and community members are not a fan of video. Therefore, the project ended up taking a lot longer than we had anticipated. However, I feel as though we received a lot of interesting footage that included more informed opinions than we had originally expected.

Our video with Clinton Wolfe was the first video we recorded and I think its pretty obvious to see through some of the mistakes we made. Firstly, I tried interviewing inside the camera's view and we decided afterwards that it didn't look right. Additionally, we had problems with the sound and at some points Clinton's voice was muffled. Nevertheless, I think that Clinton had some really intriguing points and he also requested that we tweet the video link at him!

David's video was split because we had an unfortunate technological slip. My iPhone decided to stop filming in the middle of the interview because I had no storage left. However, David was very gracious and let us continue filming on Abby's camera. Although the split is in a nasty spot, we both thought David gave some really good points.

Katie & Connor Election Interviews

These are mine and Connor's favorite videos from today's election assignment. Overall, I think going into this project, we had a better idea how to film and communicate with the people we were interviewing. Filming horizontally was definitely a better choice, and the way we conducted our interview was more conversational vs. the scavenger hunt. The only problem we faced during this project that we didn't have as much as an issue with last time, was trying to get non-lehigh student to talk about politics. Majority of the people we asked said they wouldn't discuss politics on camera, or just simply were not informed enough to answer the questions. Following the #jelection on twitter has definitely opened up the world of politics to the average person, making personal political views to be more easily accessible.

The History of Packer Memorial Church

For the video slideshow project, I chose to investigate the history of Packer Memorial Church. Because the church is so central to Lehigh's campus and has existed on campus for many years, I thought it would have some interesting facts hidden in its past. As I researched I found just that. I started by asking Asa Packer's Ghost about the church on Twitter and got a response directing me toward helpful resources and people. A wonderful essay called "Sermon in Stone" written by W. Ross Yates was very helpful in providing historical facts. Talking with Seth Goren provided a new perspective on the role of the church today.