SC State "Bulldog Walk" Fashion Show

My TV Production/Editing students here at South Carolina State University produced quite an entertaining fashion show in class today.

Mufasa Shaw and Kyre Cox were the hosts, with Alexis Rabb in the control doing a smooth, professional job setting up everything and executing the production to perfection.

Alexis ran the production by way of the NewTek Tricaster "studio in a box" unit we have.

Thanks to all of the models for participating in the "Bulldog Walk" fall fashion show. Thanks also to the rest of the production staff today: Ericka Moore, Terrance Hamlet, Lynn McGrier and Devante Williams.

Stephen and Craishaud's Entertainment Chat!

Today, my Television Production and Editing students did another "live" program in the TV studio. Stephen Wells and Craishaud Foulks hosted (click here!) "SC State Sound and Sight", an 8 minute discussion of current and past favorite movies and music and performers.

Kizoa Slideshow: Magnolia Cemetery in All its Splendor

Kizoa is a fun, easy to use, slideshow and collage program for creating colorful presentations put to music and an array of special effects and animation.

I created this Kizoa slideshow about Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. I have written two books about this grand 19th Victorian necropolis. You can read about them on another blog I have called BirdsEyeViews. 

Magnolia Birds - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

There are just a few easy steps to embed a Kizoa slideshow onto a Blogger post. After copying the HTML code while in Kizoa, start a new post, write a few sentences to set up the presentation, then click to HTML from Compose (in the post template's top left corner), paste the code into the template, then switch back to Compose, hit Update, then View blog, and then your slideshow should be there.

Kizoa is free, up to a point. So just sign up and start creating! 

Kiiyah Skywalker Invades Crawford Communications!

It's a bird, it's a plane...it's a Skywalker!?

Thanks to communications student (and SC State cheerleader) Kiiyah Stokes for demonstrating her cutting-edge transportation device. She let several students try it outside. Fun for all, and no one get hurt either!

Check out this Skywalker music video I found on YouTube.

It looks like Skywalkers and similar boards range in price from $200-$300- so you have better been really nice to get this expensive gift!

SC State Sports Talk with Devante Williams and Javonte Neal

This is a second TV production interview we shot and recorded in the SC State Communication Program's studio on the second floor of the former Crawford Engineering Building.

Christian Manning jumped at the chance to direct this sports talk segment with classmates Devante Williams and Javonte Neal. Everyone did a great job, including the students operating the studio cameras and the ones in the control room assigned different tasks.

This week the class, divided into three groups of five students, will begin to organize their own studio interview productions. What a great facility we have for such excellent hands-on learning!

Here are some photos I took during the production:

Video Interview: Kyre Cox- Student/Soldier

In my Basic Television Production (BC 320) course a few weeks ago, we did our first production in the Communication Program's fine television studio. Students operated the three cameras, another was the floor director, and several others were with me in the adjacent control room.

On set was Christian Manning and the classmate he interviewed, Kyre Cox. In October Kyre's National Guard unit was called up to help with the flooding disaster that swept South Carolina earlier in the month. Kyre spent two weeks collecting debris and helping homeowners dealing with the unprecedented- in its scope and destructiveness- natural disaster.

For this first production, I set up the control room's  NewTek Tricaster "studio production in a box" unit. Students observed and were later given step-by-step instructions and one of them, Christian Manning, would be at the helm for the next studio interview.

This first production has plenty of glitches! I was a bit rusty on running the board, doing the switching and directing. Lots more hands-on experience in the weeks ahead for the students- and I.

iMovie "Picture in Picture" Video "Quick Takes"

This is a neat assignment we are tackling in my Electronic (Digital) Media Production II class. Weeks ago, the students did a green screen project blending photos of themselves with background images under the general theme of "Where Do You Want To Be?"

Now, the stakes and skills have been raised with this new green screen "Quick Takes" project. The idea is to gather three short video clips on three different topics, one of which has to be a timely news or sports story.

Then the students, using their smart phones or other cameras, shoot themselves or have a classmate videotape them against a green screen as they give their comments and thoughts about the video they speak over.

For this project, we are using iMovie, which is available on the Macs in one of our program labs.
Here's what I put together to help give the students a better idea what this assignment involves.

I found iMovie very user friendly for this project. I look forward to seeing what my students produce!

The above video was rendered to QuickTime. The below video is an MPEG4. I'm trying to decide if one looks better than the other.