Citizen Journalist

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519 online news and its intentions

519 online news has been covering news for the Kitchener Waterloo area since….It is a tool for the students to showcase their journalism work. Every week the website will be uploaded with the latest news from the area. 

This is an idea that works. If a TV company wants to hire a student from Conestoga, this web newscast speaks for the student. 

I have produced two newscasts so far and those have given me some experience. I think students need to be more professional when it comes to news production. Airing the show on time really matters in the professional world. But we have lack of time to do news stories in the proper way. 

If we concentrate on entertainment programs and commercials and make the show a two-day program, it will have more depth I think. 

A newscast like this has more potential if done in a professional way. The studio room and the editing studio should be exactly the same as a real TV studio. Then students will feel more like working for the industry.

Everybody has different talents and they should be given opportunity to do the work they like. In that way, they can sharpen it. 

Using the media van for coverage will an advantage for the students. Since all the students have no cars, these facilities provided by the college will enable them to bring news in a fast and easy way. 

If students have the option of getting insurance against equipment damage or theft, they will have the confidence to use cameras in any challenging situation. 

Internship with Ken Roche

The very first day I met Mr. Ken is unforgettable. But a few words about him would give an idea who he is. Ken Roche is a blind massage therapist from Cambridge. Ken seems to be least worried about his disability. He is a real inspiration to those around him. Even without vision, he can sense things around him. 

The biggest advantage of internship with Ken is the inspiration it gives me. He goes for skiing, does standup comedy, massage videos,Karate training and inspirational speeches. 

For a person with such a disability, it is absolutely wonderful. I’ve been blessed with everything and I am not able to do a minor part of what he is doing! It’s his attitude towards life.

Once you have the positive mindset towards everything, the rest comes automatically. 

The amazing memory power this person has was the first thing I noticed. He will say things we have shot together with date and time! 

All those internships were the same, but this one’s a little different.

I have to make some promotional videos for his website and for other purposes. So I will be shooting and editing extensively for the next one month. I hope all these working experience will stack up over time to give one amazing experience!

Internship at Doctors4Cambridge

Internship- They are meant to provide industry experience to students. According to wikipedia, Internship is a system of on-the-job training for white-collar and professional careers. 

My internship happened to be an education for them. They don’t know much about videography or editing. They don’t know to give suggestions…OK..

They are a a small not-for-profit organization that provides family doctors for the city of Cambridge. The person who coordinates our internship from Grandview is Donna Gravelle, a very nice person. 

Every week I go to the Grandview medical centre with my internship partner and friend Aamir knowing that nothing big will happen. But one thing is for sure, this will be a good part of our demo reel. Because this has many beautiful parts of the city of Cambridge. Moreover, I have more knowledge about this city now. For a person who is from India, all these travelling and shooting works to know more about this country. 

Two dozen times of travelling from and to The Grandview medical centre has taken more time than shooting. 

The purpose of the video that we are making is, it should attract doctors to Cambridge and they should spend the rest of their life in Cambridge. 

We are supposed to show the beauty of Cambridge and the facilities for a doctor here.

Now the biggest challenge is finishing the shooting and starting the editing. I hope that it will be smooth once we get all the footages required. 

Documentary-Olfactory

Ever since the birth of mankind, the sense of vision is extensively used by humans when compared to any other sense. From the thought-if we train our senses properly, we can achieve remarkable results -is the birth of the documentary named “Olfactory”. 

Although I wanted the documentary to be a comprehensive piece that showcases researches conducted on rats, the lack of time never allowed me do that.

The endless possibilities of odors are open to a human everytime. But since we are too much concentrating on the other senses to live, the sense of smell is often neglected. 

To find a restaurant in Toronto named O.Noir, I started one morning with the camera. O.Noir is a restaurant that has no lights inside the dining room. The concept means if you dine in the dark, your sense of smell and sense of vision will not distract your sense of taste and smell. To understand this fact and to shoot for my documentary, I went there. 

As expected, I saw pitch black dining rooms in O.Noir, located in Toronto’s Church street. They prevented sunlight from entering the dining room. 

Although I wanted to dine in that room, it appeared scary. No lights at all. 

But I saw customers dining. The owner of the restaurant, J.Feng didn’t allow us to shoot inside the dining hall. 

With his interview and some B rolls of other rooms, I had to satisfy the camera. 

For the doc. I wanted the interview of a person who has more powerful sense of smell. So I went to Ken Roche, a blind massage therapist, whom I have worked for. 

I wondered to know the fact that he actually has an amazingly strong sense of smell. Although it was just interview, I got more than I wanted.

Anyway, I got a good experience shooting for my documentary. 

Sifu David Hackett, the real inspiration

Ever since I started thinking of doing a documentary, the first consideration was none other than Kitchener Kicks and its owner and head instructor Sifu David Hackett. The Cantonese word Sifu means “Teacher”. 

Sifu Dave lost his right leg in an accident at the age of 16. Even after that, he tried to pursue his passion and went to many martial art clubs. He received a cool reception from all those clubs. Most of the clubs pointed that he can seriously hurt another student with his prosthetic limb. 

Finally, he went to Master Ron Day’s academy and was given admission. Master Ron Day was a significant person in Dave’s personal life and career. 

Sifu David has been teaching martial arts for the last 28 years and has been an inspiration to many students. His academy boasts of world class instructors, who have won championships. 

The school teaches Kung Fu, Karate, Aikido and Kickboxing. 

When I went to sifu, he was very cooperative in every aspect of filming I asked for. Even his colleague instructor Mr. Peter Freer was very much willing to explain the inspiring story of Kitchener Kicks.

Peter was the world lightweight Kickboxing champion once.

I did an amazing interview of Sifu David Hackett using the Arri lighting kit.

Sifu teaching kids, especially the physically disabled was an inevitable part of the documentary.

What is left in the documentary to shoot is the members of his family and the CKKA competition that is yet to happen on March 30^th.

I think I’m also inspired to watch the life of this amazing personality who is so passionate about martial arts and works round the clock to achieve his goals. I have never seen him slowing down because of his disability. 

DeGeNeRaTiOn NaTiOn: 519 Online News: Point of View

Mother accused in kidnapping denied bail

A mother kidnapped her own child from the father. Apparently weird is the first few sentences of the news.

A woman who has been charged with kidnapping her own child 18 years ago was denied bail on Wednesday after a Toronto court appearance-This is how CTV reports the news.

I was wondering how a mother could kidnap her own child! But as I read the whole story, I understood that it is a case of parental abduction.

CTV presents interesting facts about the abduction. But I am very eager to know why she abducted her own child. What was the problem between the child’s parents?

Every story should be presented in a creative manner. Journalists can tell stories in their own style. Without distorting the facts, stories can be made interesting.

Patricia O’Byrne is a 54 year old lady who was arrested in British Columbia.

Todd White says it perfectly. People should know the whole story before condemning O’Byrne.

How could someone abduct her child just because of a fight for possession of the child?

Joe Chisholm, the father of the child is happy to find his daughter after a long 20 year search.

He is fighting in the court of law for justice now.

(Source: toronto.ctv.ca)

The god of editing is crazy at times.

I failed in the early stages of feature story production and I learned soon. I committed some mistakes twice and I slapped myself in anger.

Every commercials and documentaries that I have worked in India presented me some kind of trouble and learning experience. None of them where finished before deadline.

Unforeseen things keep on happening.

The god of editing is crazy at times. I never expected Mac to behave in such an unruly manner. The problem is that when I insert my card, Final Cut Pro quits his/her workplace. I decided to work on another Mac and faced the same problem next day. I don’t know why. But eventually, I learned more about patience.

What I understood from this is, no matter what you face, keep moving. There is a solution always. Even when you are falling from the top of a cliff, you have something to do, either to survive or to alleviate the pain of death.

What you need to have is PRESENCE OF MIND.

I shot my feature story in and around Conestoga College. There was a point of “no going back” where I realised that the scope of B-roll is very limited.

I always proclaim about the importance of script. But I didn’t prepare any script for my feature story. I ended up in trouble because of the absence of a well-written script. I’m sorry, my dear feature story.

Anyway, my experience is my teacher. My teacher just teaches stuff. No harm yet.

Insert Clever Blog Title Here: Raising Gangsters for Fun and Profit