thestoryofjory.com

I finally watched The Social Network last night, just in time to appreciate its winning 4 Golden Globes.  What took me so long, you ask? I’m not entirely sure, but it had a lot to do with my personal opinions about Facebook, the knowledge that the film was not exactly a true story, and of course my own experience building a social network.

But all my misgivings about the film were completely transformed by one scene:

My heart just about exploded when I saw the tilt-shift. I love the effect in photography,  but there’s just something mesmerizing about seeing it in video.  It’s also sped up just a little bit, which gives the whole scene a model-like effect. There are a few tutorials out there about achieving the tilt-shift effect in post if one can’t afford the $2,000 price tag for a TS lens, but it’s definitely not beginner stuff. Also, I’m relatively certain that at least part of the film was shot on DSLRs, but I can’t find any source to confirm this suspicion just yet.

I’m also a sucker for changes in depth of field.  I agree it can be overdone, and it seems to be the effect du jour of late, but I think it’s totally appropriate in this scene.  I think the difficulty of the sport is emphasized when we see the rowers moving in and out of focus, and we get a feel for the importance of the race when we see the focus placed exactly on the row boats in an extreme wide shot.

The color of this scene is like visual candy.  When going for a dramatic effect like tilt-shift, it’s extremely important that your colors are consistent throughout the frame.  The greens and yellows are appropriately vivid against the muted, dramatic blues and grays of the sky and water.  In this case, the color matched the mood of the scene very well, and no one looked orange! Finally, I loved how the Peer Gynt remix added to the excitement of the race.

This scene changed my overall opinion about the movie. Utimately, I think the story is just okay; but the photography and attention to detail and getting things right technically made me really appreciate the film.

Did you see it? What did you think about the movie and/or its accolades?

Several weeks ago, Stan announced that he would be recording a new song he wrote for Eskimo Joe’s 35th anniversary.  The song is called “All Roads Lead to Joe’s” and it’s actually quite catchy.  You can listen and download it for free at www.eskimojoes.com/music.

Now, everyone I’ve mentioned this to gives me a puzzled look, but let me assure you that Stan can actually sing.  We actually karaoke’d together a few weeks ago, and  years ago he had a rhythm & blues band that even released an album.  In 1986, Stan and his band recorded a music video for newly minted MTV, right there at Eskimo Joe’s.  So, this is not a new thing for Stan, although he (and by proxy, Joe’s) hasn’t done in a while.

Today, for the first time in 24 years, we’re shooting part one of a music video for Stan’s new song.  As the director/producer of this operation, I’m more than a little psyched about this shoot.  Today’s objective is to film the live performance aspect of the video at Eskimo Joe’s – something that is challenging enough on its own – but they’ve only given me an hour to get it done!  The production schedule is brutally tight all day, actually.  We’re only shooting for the “All Roads”video from 7-8 p.m., but we’re also shooting the Bart Crow Band concert this evening as well.  And we’re doing all this with a crew of three.

Although I know there’s no way to control the schedule, I’m very confident that we’re going to get some great footage.  Gideon Thompson and Melinda Spurlin, the other two members of the crew, are very talented and capable camera persons.  We’ll have use of a jib as well, thanks to Marc Krein.  With these resources, I have no doubt that we’ll put out a finished product with very high production values.

Next week, I’ll post a recap of how it all went.  In the meantime, if you’re in Stillwater today and want to be in a music video, come see me at Eskimo Joe’s!

Some of my friends and family have been asking what exactly my thesis was about.  To answer that question, I’m posting the abstract I wrote for my paper.  An abstract is simply a 100-150 word summary of a research paper, designed to help other people get a quick understanding of what the research found and whether it is useful for their own research studies.

Burson, J. K. (2010). Measuring media literacy among collegiate journalism students. Proquest Thesis & Disstertations. p. 98.

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to measure and compare media literacy knowledge structure scores and attitudes among collegiate journalism students with those of non-journalism students.  The study utilized quantitative data analysis.  Data were collected using an online survey as well as convenience sampling methods.

Findings and Conclusions:  The study found that collegiate journalism students scored higher on the media literacy survey than non-journalism students, but that overall media literacy knowledge among the sample was low. Scores and attitudes of journalism students and students in journalism-related majors were also compared.  The findings suggest that journalism majors may use the media for more specific purposes than students in other majors.  A potential third-person effect was identified among journalism students when comparing scores on the media literacy survey with attitudes about media literacy.  Potter’s (2004) cognitive theory of media literacy was utilized to provide explanation of the findings.

I heard it takes awhile for papers to officially be published, so a few months from now Proquest should have my paper available online through your local library.  If you want a copy in the meantime (yeah, right!) just email me!