A Soggy Week Reporting

The week started off nice but somehow spring turned into snow. I know, I know - it's Missouri and these things happen. Monday was gorgeous, although it was raining in the early morning. Luckily it cleared up as I drove to Jefferson City. My story was about the number of applications River City Habitat for Humanity receives. You would think in a down economy more people would apply, but interestingly enough the economy hurts applicants. Habitat for Humanity won't accept people with recent foreclosures, bankruptcies or judgements. In the current economy that means less people could potentially qualify. In the beginning I thought this story would just be about applications increasing but it turned out to be more.

I was caught in the middle of a downpour during my drive to the station Tuesday morning. I turned on the radio and heard there was even a possibility of a tornado. First thing I thought, severe weather story. (good thing I had my rainboots) After talking to our meterologist we determined most of the damage and wet weather would be Southwest of Boone County. I decided to take a visit to Morgan County. Shot some good weather video, then something else broke. While I was talking to the Sheriff he told me they arrested a fugitive earlier but hadn't sent the press release yet. Turns out a Florida man wanted for attempted murder was hiding out in Morgan County around Stover. With this new information I did a short weather VO and an onset about the fugitive.

Saturday was equally soggy with the possibility of snow. Two years ago Missouri saw a devestating freeze in early April. I was wondering if growers feared a possible repeat after a fairly warm March. Wineries saw widespread damage in the 2007 freeze but they weren't too concerned. But the cold sent nurseries scrambling, especially ones that had all their flowers outside. It's a good thing they moved the flowers inside because it started snowing later that night.

Building a website from the ground up

My goal: launch my website http://www.lizgelardi.com/ in less than two weeks. Maybe I can even have it up a week from today, but I don't want to make any promises. So far I have the site laid out. I've also converted my videos and uploaded them to vimeo. I was really surprised how easy vimeo is, and my video looks great. To get this site up and running I still need to write a bio, figure out how to put my resume up and add pictures of me. - Hopefully it won't take too long.

Right now, I am also trying to start up another HFR. I don't know what my web extras will be yet. As I get more information, I will probably have a better idea of content to put on the web. I'll also be pretty busy this week, I am reporting Monday-Thursday.

Web Story - Completed

Last time I blogged, I talked about my challenges creating a comprehensive web story for my 8 On Your Money story. I created a flash map and Jen Reeves helped me add it to the story page as a KOMU.com web extra. I also created a graph and slideshow that I added as additional KOMU.com extras.

The web version of this story allows the viewers to look through the information at their own pace. It was fun to see my co-workers feedback of the flash map. I showed it to a few people, and as they rolled over it I could see their reaction to the number of cars sold by county. I hope the map, graph and slideshow add to my video and text. I also wrote an expanded text story by using more context and quotes.

The links section of my web story has a lot of the numbers I used to research this story. I hope to add transparency to this story by adding links to information from the Department of Revenue and National Auto Dealers Association.

Economy Driving Change

Creating a Comprehensive Web Story (trying to)

Right now I am writing a long-form web story for my 8 On Your Money story. So far I've added a few links but I hope to expand my content to include a slideshow and sound slides. I also have a graph that I hope to add as a pdf. I will update this post once I finish this story.

Resources for Breaking News

Last night I was working on my 8 On Your Money HFR and about to blog (I swear)... when we started getting a lot of traffic over the scanner. There was a rollover accident and house fire around 9pm on Saturday. The producers asked me if I'd go out to grab some video, so of course I couldn't say no. Plus, running out to get video didn't seem like a bad idea since I had been logging tape pretty much all day. I ended up going out with Kevin Schwaller to the accident. We interviewed the victim's dad and got video. Then, I remembered my still camera in the car so I started taking pictures. I also remembered twitter so I started tweeting updates.

After the accident was cleared we were on our way back to the station when we got a phone call that there was a residential structure fire. Change in plans, off to the fire. I continued to tweet updates and I also took pictures at the fire.

When we finally got back to the station I uploaded all my photos on the KOMU flickr. It was also helpful to have the still photos for the lead image. Then Kevin and I imported all our video. We cut stories for the web using sound from our interviews and b-roll from the scene. I think this was a really good way to get the information on the web long after the news was over.

Links: Rollover Accident and House Fire

Side Note: This week I also finished the flash map I was working on for my HFR. I am very excited to put that up on the web soon.