Video #1: Your Wednesday 7/9 Homework

So yes, we now have a video assignment to cram in along with your ongoing social media, blog and out-of-class story assignments.

For this assignment, you will be asked to create a news video no shorter than 1 minute long and no longer than 2 minutes long, on the subject of, what have people been up to this summer? Your interview subjects can be working or going to classes or hanging out; whatever.


You will be required to interview at least two people on-camera and shoot b-roll (a video camera would be great, but a simple Flip cam or a good smart phone will suffice); edit the raw video using iMovie or FinalCut Pro or some other comparable video editing software; create an edited news video with a lede and attribution and such; upload the video to the YouTube account you were supposed to create for this class; make sure that the YouTube account is set to a public setting (and not private); and then email me a link to the video to omars@msu.edu, with  a subject line of video #1.



As long as you meet the basic parameters of this assignment, I will give you a 4.0 equal to that of a practice story. Those parameters include:

-- staying within the 1-2 minute range and on-topic
-- containing at least two human interviews on tape

-- containing B-roll
-- showing signs of editing; that is, not simply pasting entirely unedited tape onto YouTube. You want to create a video story using raw video as a base to be edited and moved around, in the same way we want t write a text story using raw information as a base to be edited and moved around.
-- containing NO fatals

The penalty for failing to meet these parameters is 0.5 of your grade, per error. In addition, a fatal resulted in a 1.0 grade. And failure to turn it in, of course, is a 0.0. Please review the video links provided in the earlier blog post to get an idea of what this assignment may look like, in finished form.

These same deductions will apply on all future multimedia assignments. But future assignments WILL include consideration of content and journalistic value.



The deadline for this assignment will be no later than 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 16 via email to omars@msu.edu. Again, you should be emailing me links to your YouTube account, and not an attached video file.

If you are unsure about your topic or fuzzy on some of these concepts like B-roll or captions or whatever, or if you have any questions whatsoever, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

I will be in between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursday at 517-432-3009; omars@msu.edu, and/or 435 E. Grand River Ave. (The State News Building, at the corner of Grand River and Division, next to the SBS bookstore and across the street from Berkey Hall). 

Plus, don't forget you still have a blog/tweet assignment due Tuesday, July 15 and your second out-of-class story due Thursday, June 17.

Good luck, everyone!