Magzalez’s eyes on media

I love me a good Ciara reference.

I edited a video shot by Alligator feature writer Chantelle Marcelle. She did a very good job of getting all of the types of shots she needed. The only real problem was the audio on the interviews was not very good. It’s OK though because I only used one of the interviews. She made sure there was a story in the footage she gave me, which is a good thing.

The video is pretty fun. Not much to say about it. I love me a good fiddler.

Hooray for a truly successful photo story! I went out yesterday with my girlfriend, cousin and two of my friends to Ginnie Springs in High Springs, Fla., about 40 minutes out of Gainesville. Ginnie Springs was the last stop this semester for the Gainesville Explorer series at The Independent Florida Alligator, which, as you know, I have had a heavy hand in.

Well I went out to the springs thinking I was going to shoot a video. I have been taking my new D-SLR camera just in case–ya know, the way photographers nowadays are taking video cameras out just in case? I do everything backwards.

I started with some pictures of my friends and realized that the lighting was just too good not to take advantage of the photography. The springs is also a very low-key, relaxing place. There wasn’t a whole heap of movement going on. So with that in mind, I never even bothered taking my video camera out, I just walked around like a regular photog, fly-on-the-wall style.

I tried my best to adhere to some of the guidelines of composition I learned way-back-when in my photojournalism class, ones have been applying to video lately–rule of thirds, fill the frame, get close, repetition of shapes, etc. One of my hindrances in all of this is that I only own one lens, 18mm-55mm, so when I say I have to get close, I mean it.

All in all, the photos came out pretty OK, but it took more than pictures to make my Soundslides successful. I got very good, rich sound. I just sat by one of the springs for about a minute and a half and captured the sound of the water and people rustling and bustling about. Then I decided, rather crazily, that I would play “Swanee River” on my lap harp over the natural sound. Then I did a voice over. The voice over could have been better, but I couldn’t believe how nice the music and the natural sound went together. My first few shots are of a bus riding by with some inner tubes and a bunch of people. The sound of the laughter, water and music gave it a going-to-camp feel.

So check out my audio slide show of Ginnie Springs for yourself, and tell me what you think. It may not be the best Soundslides in the world, but this is the best slide show I’ve done since I made one about a dance teacher here in Gainesville a while back, and it is officially my favorite Gainesville Explorer piece.

Maybe for one of my next posts, I’ll recap all the videos and slide shows I made this semester for the Gainesville Explorer series, grade them and talk about the dos and don’ts I learned from them.

Original content alert!

I finished my video about Capoeira in Gainesville, Fla., or at least Capoeira at the Brazilian Cultural Arts Exchange, today. The video came out to be about five minutes long. I think the nature of the content and the compelling sound, visuals and interviews back up the length of the video.

As far as the actual video quality, obviously what I am showing you is on YouTube, so it’s already looking funny, but I also had to butcher the video in the compression stages to get it under 100MB just to get it on YouTube. I’ll have a higher-quality version available on the Web soon.

So without further ado:

I plan on continuing to work on this story. This video is for a class assignment, but I plan on extending it to an almost-documentary as there are many, many more facets to the story that I have discovered along the way, like the Hoggetowne Middle School, also located in Gainesvegas.

So this video serves as a sort of five-minute teaser.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out: Chokito, Samurai, Prof. Borracha, Caitlin, Gaspar, the BCAE, etc.

Let me know what you thought, and remember: There is more to come.

In the fashion of my holiday post, here is a fun, random video that my girlfriend, some friends and I shot and edited. It was my friends’ TV production class in high school. It is a music video for Mates of State’s “A Control Group.”

Shooting the video was a lot of fun. We went many different places in Miami. Feel free to try and name some of them if you can.

The video was shot three years ago (2005), so take that into account. We sure thought we were funny back then.

Off for the holidays I go. Blogging should start up again shortly after the new year.

To not make this post a complete waste, I’ll leave you with this video of my band, Wanda Lee and the Drum Machine, playing at a battle of the bands a few years ago.