Concert Night at the Nugget

A Day in the Life assignment is one from that we were told about at the very beginning of the semester. We watched some very touching slideshows and I didn't think that I'd be able to ever do something like that. I didn't know where to start so I just followed the lead of my partner. We arrived at the Nugget and there was a lot of people in attendance for Concert Night. Pizza was in the air and heavy metal rang out of the speakers. The crowd of course was very punk rock and they were ready to party. Attendees went bananas and moshing was common practice. Since I love music I was right at home.

Speaking with the event coordinators was so refreshing. To say that they put the events on they were humble and very coy. They didn't want to take credit for having a hand in such a successful series of events. I enjoyed the energy in the Nugget that night. You could see clearly that friends were meeting up and were very happy to be there with each other.

The Nugget's night supervisor, Pamela Graham, otherwise known as Mama Nugget, who is also a Hurricane Katrina survivor, made her presence known and felt during the event. She swept the room greeting the attendees with hugs and high fives. She told me in an exclusive interview how she loves music and kids. She wants to use her live as an example of how you can make it through any adversity. As we spoke, a student tried to get one more beer, but Mama Nugget cut him off. She said she treats the students as she would her own kids.

The Daily 49er did an article on Mama Nugget, check it out.

A Day In Who's Life-Take ONE!

My partner for the slideshow project, A Day in the Life, is Steven. He seems like an interesting character, although we haven't met. He's been looking for me, but each time I'm leave the class he mysteriously appears. By the time I get back, he's gone. I don't know what the deal is with this guy, but from our conversations he seems really nice. He suggested an on campus activity at the Nugget. The Nugget is an eatery with pool tables, big screen televisions and best of all BEER! Usually I slide through the Nugget to grab one of those amazing pancake breakfasts so it will be amazing to see how they transfer this low key kick-it spot to a concert hall.

The objective next Thursday will be for us to tell the story of two KBEACH employees young female students who's bright idea has caused a snowball effect of entertainment. The concerts are promoted through craigslist as well as the campus radio station. Both ladies work in promotions at the station and with the help of "Mama Nugget" they are able to pull these events off free-of-charge. So far this semester they have had all genre of musical acts grace the stage. I can't wait to see what's good.

Editing and Writing The Script

Editing today was fun. Although the script was incomplete, we still got the guts of the project cut together. There was an additional interview that Staci and Misti got from the campus Chief of Police. We were unable to make clear contact with him until now. He gave some very chilling interpretations of the attacks and dropped a bomb. He believes a few of the attacks were fabricated. This changes the scope of the story since everyone on campus believes that there have actually been four isolated incidents. According to the chief, there have only been two confirmed. There was a lot of suggestions from him to use the buddy system and the night escort system.

We got the clips edited to under five minutes. Now we will go at it again next week to manage the rest of the project. Hopefully we can be on the voice over portion by next week. I am looking forward to it. This is one of my favorite parts of the production. It is actually helping us to grow together. There have been difficulties with some of the group members which has slown down production. Professor Aguilar pulled each of us aside and tried to strengthen our group cooperation skills. I think it worked.

Production...Take One

Today we attempted to begin production on the video footage we shot last week. It was suitable to ask that the script be written first in order to properly edit the footage. Names, time stamps, and interviews had to be sorted out to find out exactly what was needed for the final cut. Misti and Jess started on the script and choose the best interviews that we had gathered. The rest of the group worked on alternative projects while this part of production was under way. After all, we have a ton of things to complete before this is due so it has its pace that we are following.

It seemed that a few of the members wanted more group involvement so I gave some very detailed research information to the writers to make the script production easier. Hopefully this part will be done so that next week we can begin editing.

Group Project

I will start by saying Group Projects are not the easiest assignment in a given semester. I would liken them to the feeling of a ten page paper assignment. They are doable, but complicated never the less. Our project started off as a brainstorm. Jeff suggested we do a piece on the new recreation center to be built. We all decided that doing a follow-up report on the campus attacks would prove to be both informational and entertaining.

The first step we choose to do was to delegate tasks to each group member. I elected to do voice over and editing. Stacy wanted to be the camera operator. Jeff volunteered to help with editing. Jess and Misti agreed to do the writing.

Today was our first and only day out shooting. We got a lot of footage. I would have preferred the use of a tripod for stability when shooting Broll, but we had problems with the tripod and opted for the steady hand.

To find out more about the campus attacks you can click the following link. It was big news here in Long Beach and remains an issue for students at CSULB. Here the campus publication, the Daily 49er touches on the attacks. The case remains unsolved.

More Projects than I can handle

This class is the best. It really is. I mean, I didn't think that I needed a course in online journalism again, but I cannot say how much it has prepared me for this world of journalism that I am about to enter. First off, throughout all of my training I forgot the simple semantics of journalistic style writing like, AP Style, and the five W's. Did I loose all this while writing for magazines and trying to get into the hustle of the Journalism game. With the preparation of my first paper I bombed hard. My whole style fell off. I did horrible on my first story on Copyright and the internet. My story was on one of my favorite websites that is under fire for the use of unauthorized photos. Perezhilton.com is a tabloid blog that hits all across the world. My goal is to make it to "the office", the Coffee Bean on Sunset at 5 a.m. to meet Mr. Perez himself for a quote. Wish me luck. Oh, and by the way, check out his site, he's as entertaining as hell.