Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Broadcast Re-write

(Anchor speaking over video of Lauren Brown. Cut to shot of Atlas Building)

Lauren Brown, a University of Colorado advertising student is no stranger to technology. Brown has already produced a full-fledged marketing campaign for Boulder-based Evol Burritos using graphic and software skills she has aced through her minor in the Technology, Arts and Media program. Brown is one of 118 journalism students who are giving their degree a technological edge through Atlas's Technology, Arts, and Media program.

(cut to video quote of Lauren Brown)

I think that with emerging digital media being so present in advertising and journalism, you have to have these skills to be a marketable candidate.

(Anchor speaking over shot of the Armory)

University of Colorado officials agree that a merger between the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and ATLAS makes sense both academically and financially and a task force has already started exploring the idea of a greater School of Information.

(Video quote of Paul Voakes)

We've got a faculty that is definitely aware and studying these changes. In terms of all of the cutting-edge technical aspects, we see a wonderful opportunity with ATLAS.

(on site video on campus)

Currently, the journalism school needs to trim 7.7 percent of its $3.9 million yearly budget and
ATLAS needs to cut its $1.16 million general fund annual budget by 10 percent and a merger may be one way to do so. Not everyone is sold on the idea yet, including CU regent Joe Neguse, who says he would like to hear more about the topic.

(Video quote of Joe Neguse)

I'd like to hear from the students and the faculty.

(Anchor speaking)

Hopefully students will not be affected by the budget cuts, but budget documents have revealed that such a merger could mean the loss of at least one job.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Hard News Leads

1. Three to four children die every day in the United States from child abuse or neglect according to a survey released yesterday by the Child Abuse Prevention Center in Baltimore.

2. Yesterday nearly 150 of the anti-abortion protesters were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct as they demonstrated outside an abortion clinic in Milwaukee.

3. A delivery driver for The Great Wall of China restaurant was robbed at gunpoint yesterday at the apartment complex at 718 S.W. Western Ave.

4. A fire at the 2300 block of Main Street caused $45,000 in damages and left homeowner Kathy Mahoney with minor burns before firefighters were able to put out the blaze.

5. Murders in Colorado are up 53 percent and violent crime increased by 2 percent according to a report released yesterday by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

6. The increasing damage to the ozone layer could lead to a 10 percent increase in skin cancer according to a report released yesterday by the United Nations Environment Program.

7. A Santa Ana woman was charged with attempted murder yesterday after she doused her wheelchair-bound husband with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire.

8. According to Neilson/NetRatings, more people now use broadband than dial-up, as 53 percent of residential users have now made the switch to broadband.

9. This school year, Princeton University put a cap on the number of A’s which can be awarded in order to stem down grade inflation.

10. According to the National Sleep Foundation, as many as 47 million adults may be putting themselves at risk for injury, because they aren't meeting their minimum sleep need in order to be fully alert the next day.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

In-Class Editing

PANORA, Iowa. – This small town welcomed home one of its soldiers Friday, but instead of jubilant well-wishers, there were 525 mourners who packed every corner of the United Methodist Church. Instead of a parade down Main Street, there was a stream of cars that stretched from the church to the West Cemetery outside of town.

There were flags at half-staff; there were red, white, and blue ribbons tied to flower sprays around the altar, and there were tears – of grief, not joy.

Army Spc. Michael Mills was one of 28 people killed Feb. 25 when an Iraqi suicide bomb exploded. To the rest of the country, he was one of 191 Americans killed in the war, but to the 1,100 people in Panora, Mike Mills was the 23-year-old hometown boy who carried on a family tradition by joining the Army.

His funeral Friday provided a somber contrast to the joyous reunions held for returning troops throughout the country.

O’Neill’s imagery magic provides an alternate look at the ordinary

“I begin films not really knowing how I am going to finish them,” said the soft-spoken filmmaker as he introduced himself to the audience.
Monday night, Pat O’Neill showed his films Water and Power, and Horizontal Boundaries as part of the University of Colorado’s International Film Series. After each piece, O’Neill fielded questions from members of the audience and described the processes and motivations behind his film production.
“When I run across things around me that I think have a different meaning, I like to use them again,” said O’Neill. “I like to work on many projects at once and allow them to influence each other.”
Water and Power, which presents an abstract portrayal of Los Angeles and its energy exchange, and has been added to the National Film Registry, proved to be the crowd favorite.
Once the applause subsided, O’Neill explained that he did not craft the film as a geo-political statement, but wanted to record what he observed and felt about a situation as an artist.
Pat O’Neill, a specialist in visual and special effects, even helping George Lucas in the making of The Empire Strikes Back, said his next project will be on paper as it makes more economic sense. He plans to take listing photos that people have posted on ebay, arrange them in multi-image photographs and release them as a book.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Blogging a Scene

The alley stretched a mere 25 feet yet instilled more fear than the most menacing mile. To the west towered a massive hotel, square in its design and dressed in bricks of varying earth tones. The east side of the alley hosts an array of apartment buildings, each standing about three stories high, replete with enough windows to light a castle. The valley that lay between the structures was absent of motion and scent. Silence blanketed most of the block, broken momentarily by the voices of tenants shouting requests from the top of the buildings.

“Enough is enough,” yelled a resident of one of the louder and brightly lit dens.

On any summer night, a pass through the alley might last but a minute, yet tonight the mirrors of ice that crunch beneath my feet render the block nearly impassable.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Story Ideas for Karl Rove vs. Howard Dean

Having Attended Debate

- How speaking points made by Karl Rove compare and contrast with stances he has taken in the past.
-A review of the questions posed by students, and in which direction they led the debate. What topics are people interested in having discussed?
- Because the two come from opposing sides of the political spectrum, many people expected a very lively debate. Did the debate live up to the expectations? Describe the mood and atmosphere of debate.

Not Attended
-Background information explaining what led to the debate, how the two decided or came to do a debate tour.
-An article reporting on reactions and opinions of students on campus who attended debate.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Study Shows Left-Handed More Accident Prone

A study conducted last year to determine why fewer left-handed people are among the elderly population, was published in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine comparing the death and accident rates of left- and right-handed people.

Diane Halpern, a psychology professor at California State University at San Bernardino, and Stanley Coren, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, studied death certificates of 987 people in two Southern California counties and queried relatives of the subjects by mail about the subject's dominant hand.

The researchers found that left-handed people represent only 10 percent of the population and were four times more likely to die from injuries while driving than right-handed people, and six times more likely to die from accidents of all kinds. The average age of death for right-handed people was 75 while the average for left-handed people was 66, with right-handed females tending to live six years longer than left-handed females, and right-handed males living 11 years longer than left-handed males.

"The results are striking in their magnitude," said Halpern, a right-hander herself.