This week I got a refresher course in Flash. Last time I touched Flash was my senior year of high school. I was really excited to learn it again because you can do so much with it. (just think if I would of kept with it all this time, I would be an expert by now)
I started building a Flash map on Thursday and I also worked on it today. I knew that I wanted to use an interactive map for my upcoming HFR about the auto industry. This story has so much information and Flash just gives me another outlet to put information out there. I finally decided to build a map showing 2008 car sales broken down by the counties in KOMU 8's viewing area. When you roll-over the county, the number of cars sold in 2008 shows up. Today I was able to modify this feature; now the number shows up inside a clip art image of a car. I hope this map will really add to my HFR. The numbers tell the story, and it is interesting to see the contrast between counties by letting the viewer see for themselves as they roll-over the map.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Blogging the Bootheel
Long week. Actually, it felt like one long day. I left for the Missouri Bootheel Monday morning to shoot a follow up story on the ice storm for KOMU. I traveled with a crew from Boone Electric Co-op; they've sent linemen to the area for the past two weeks. We headed out at 9am and didn't arrive until after 4pm. It was almost 300 miles! I didn't know what to expect on my way down. When I was about 15 miles outside Sikeston I started to notice the damage. The crew stopped in Sikeston to eat and I walked around to take pictures and talk to residents. As I made my way further south the damage became worse.
Finally, I arrived in Portageville. The Boone Electric crew that I followed met up with another crew that was already there. That evening I went out with the crew to start shooting my story. When I was talking with the crew I also found out about another story. The MU Delta Center was helping feed linemen, at least 500 of them. I headed over to Rone Hall, the place where all the linemen ate. It was really a sight to see; all the electric trucks were parked outside and inside all the linemen were eating. Everyone was extremely nice. I met people from MU Extension, Charles Crawford (the manager of the Pemiscot-Dunklin Co-op) and "Shorty" (the owner of a local restaurant who was cooking all the food).
I ended up staying overnight in Portageville, I actually got the last room at the New Orleans Inn. Jake Fisher from MU said I should stay there, he called and booked the room. Everyone in the town knew each other and I'm guessing he knew the owner. When I arrived, funny story, I went to go check in and there was a note on the door that said, "Go to the bar next door." Well, I went to the bar and sure enough the owner was there and he gave me my key.
The next morning I was up at 4:30. I went over to get video of the linemen eating breakfast and did a phoner for the morning show. After breakfast I followed Shorty to his restaurant to get b-roll over there. I decided to do a story about Shorty and the fact that he was feeding around 500 men three meals a day.
After I got video at Shorty's Restaurant I met up with the Boone Electric crew to get more b-roll with them. They were setting poles all day and it was really interesting to see just how an electric pole is put in the ground. I followed the crew around for a while and then decided to head back before it got too late. When I got back to Columbia just before 11pm I uploaded all my video so I could put together my stories the next day.
My thoughts on the trip: I really learned a lot over those two days. Both of the stories I shot came out very well. And I hope I was able to convey the sense of service that I experienced with every person I met.
Links to my Stories:
Recovery and Restoration
Shorty's Service
Finally, I arrived in Portageville. The Boone Electric crew that I followed met up with another crew that was already there. That evening I went out with the crew to start shooting my story. When I was talking with the crew I also found out about another story. The MU Delta Center was helping feed linemen, at least 500 of them. I headed over to Rone Hall, the place where all the linemen ate. It was really a sight to see; all the electric trucks were parked outside and inside all the linemen were eating. Everyone was extremely nice. I met people from MU Extension, Charles Crawford (the manager of the Pemiscot-Dunklin Co-op) and "Shorty" (the owner of a local restaurant who was cooking all the food).
I ended up staying overnight in Portageville, I actually got the last room at the New Orleans Inn. Jake Fisher from MU said I should stay there, he called and booked the room. Everyone in the town knew each other and I'm guessing he knew the owner. When I arrived, funny story, I went to go check in and there was a note on the door that said, "Go to the bar next door." Well, I went to the bar and sure enough the owner was there and he gave me my key.
The next morning I was up at 4:30. I went over to get video of the linemen eating breakfast and did a phoner for the morning show. After breakfast I followed Shorty to his restaurant to get b-roll over there. I decided to do a story about Shorty and the fact that he was feeding around 500 men three meals a day.
After I got video at Shorty's Restaurant I met up with the Boone Electric crew to get more b-roll with them. They were setting poles all day and it was really interesting to see just how an electric pole is put in the ground. I followed the crew around for a while and then decided to head back before it got too late. When I got back to Columbia just before 11pm I uploaded all my video so I could put together my stories the next day.
My thoughts on the trip: I really learned a lot over those two days. Both of the stories I shot came out very well. And I hope I was able to convey the sense of service that I experienced with every person I met.
Links to my Stories:
Recovery and Restoration
Shorty's Service
Saturday, February 7, 2009
More Content, Less Problems and a lot of Tweeting
Web extra, well it isn't really extra because it's required. All the reporters had an extra, mostly links. The challenge: what can Kyrsten and I do during our shift that is going to draw people to KOMU.com? I was talking with Kevin Schwaller who just finished interviewing UM System President Gary Forsee. We decided it would be great to post the raw material to the web, especially since Thursday was the night before Forsee's State of the University address.
Kevin was a big help, he exported the interview as a .mov and saved it in broadcastfiles. I created a new story and uploaded the interview to the web. But of course we wanted to promote it! Kyrsten and I used the KOMUNEWS twitter and we tweeted a lot. I tweeted before and after the video was posted using KOMU and my personal twitter. I think this shows the power of twitter as a promotion tool. Maybe someone received that update on their phone and thought to themselves, hey I really want to check out that interview.
I really hope people watched the raw interview. It is so easy to post an interview and I think dot com should push reporters to do it more often.
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