11/26 & 12/3 (2 hours)

Monday, November 26
The Interlachen meeting was held at 10:40 am and we discussed the need for involvement. Our attendance level has been lower lately and unfortunately that has been affecting our level of work getting done. So we encouraged people to continue to get involved taking photos, video, and working on layout. We also talked about our angel that we adopted from the angel tree and decided to plan to shop for her together on Wednesday December 5th. We didn't have much new business aside from these topics, so we gave out the events for the week and adjourned the meeting.

Monday, December 3
Today was our final meeting before Christmas break for Interlachen. We had a few topics to discuss. We started off by mentioning the checkout times for cameras and tripods from us. We've had an issue with people waiting until the last minute or needing to get cameras and trying when we are unavailable to check them out. So we had to establish the checkout times and make them known to the staff. We asked for volunteers to take photos and get names of graduates at graduation next weekend. Following this, we reminded the staff that they can get practicum hours by doing work on layout if they need last minute hours and had people sign up for the group shots that we needed taken this week.

Total Hours Earned: 2 HOURS

11-19-2012 (3 hours)

Monday, November 19, we had our usual Monday morning meeting. We discussed the layout edits that had been made as well as the other ways that people can start getting involved. We can now log onto the server and start dropping in pictures from events for the layout and we are also looking for people interested in writing copy for us! Bob told us recently that he can offer $10 for every usable piece of copy that we get and Tosha has scheduled an interest meeting on Monday, the 26th. Hopefully we will get some interest! This was one hour.

Following the meeting, I stayed in the Interlachen office and began dropping photos in for the pages on the layout. I managed to get done with 2 or 3 pages before Shannah and I realized that we had some issues with our master pages. So I went back and fixed those problems and continued dropping in pictures. I did this for two hours and then had to stop to work on something for class.

Total hours earned: 3 hours

October 22-November 12 (5.5 hours)

It has been WAY too long since I've remembered to blog, so I have plenty of catching up on hours to do.

October 22, 2012
Today there was the weekly Interlachen meeting at 10:40 in the office, as usual. We discussed the events for the week, addressed due dates coming up, and threw out the idea of everyone doing a practice journaling project on a building on campus. These are not necessarily stories to go into the yearbook, however there is definitely the potential if someone turns out good enough and wants it to be included. The group seemed to be interested in the idea and we are planning to assign buildings at a later date.

Total hours earned: 1 hour

October 24, 2012
Tonight we had a meeting with Dawn Drake, Bob's wife, to discuss layout and digital scrapbooking. Dawn had chosen some online scrapbook layouts and put them into a powerpoint presentation, both layouts that she liked and didn't like so much. As she went through the presentation the staff in attendance, Dawn, and Bob all discussed what we liked and what we wouldn't like for our yearbook and took note of these things as well. All in all it seemed to be a productive night and I think it gave everyone an idea of what we may be looking for in layout this year.
This meeting began at 6:30pm and ended around 8:00pm if I'm not mistaken.

Total hours earned: 1.5 hours

October 29, 2012
We met again for Interlachen today in the office and assigned events for the week. The events were not really a daunting list this week, so we got through the meeting fairly quickly. Shannah and I addressed needing to meet with the editors soon to find out where everyone stands on their work so far. Overall it was a slightly lackluster meeting, but we did get assignments out and the issues addressed.

Total hours earned: 1 hour

November 5, 2012
At the Interlachen meeting we assigned our usual shoots, as well as the building stories. As we all know Florida Southern is very famous for having its ghost stories and for its Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, which is unique to our campus. For these reasons, Shannah had decided that she thought it would be cool to practice our journaling style of writing by researching the buildings on campus. Everyone signed up for a building that they wanted to work on and they are to write up a story in a journal type of form and turn it back in to the editors. We are really looking forward to seeing what the staff can do! We also assigned 3 unique interview/photoshoot assignments. The assignment is to interview an athlete on campus who is assigned to you and schedule a photoshoot so that we can feature them in our sports section of the book this year.

Total hours earned: 1 hour

November 12, 2012
Another Interlachen meeting was today and we had a very small turnout. We checked the status on the sports interviews and photoshoots with those who were at the meeting, talked about/looked at some early designs for layout, and how we can make them better. We also talked about the idea of adopting an "angel" for the holidays from the SGA Angel Tree. We decided that we wanted to do this and make some child's holiday better, so Shannah went to pick up an angel for us to provide for :) We are really excited to make our first venture into community service with Interlachen!

Total hours earned: 1 hour

TOTAL HOURS: 5.5 hours

Week before Fall Break and 10-15 (10.5 hours)

September 28, 2012
Sara McNab shot an interview with me on this day for the package on Neuro Water. Because I work at Walgreens and we used to sell it (or at least stock it) she wanted to get my opinion on it and see if I knew anything about the product. I didn't have much to say about it, mostly just the experience of stocking a ton of it and that it never sold, along with some basic facts from the label that I noticed. Sara said that I could blog an hour for the interview.

October 1, 2012
We had our weekly Monday Interlachen meeting this day. We discussed the enforcement of deadlines coming up and explained how that would work. The hopes are to get deadlines enforced for everybody starting this week on a biweekly schedule (every other Friday). This includes layout, copy, photos, etc. We also talked about the need to watermark more photos and post them on facebook to hopefully draw some attention to us. Press passes are going to be available very soon, and we discussed progress on those as well. This meeting was one hour.

October 2, 2012
I helped Sara shot b-roll for the Neuro Water package today, as well as her stand up. We went out to shoot the stand up and I operated the camera since she was on camera (obviously). Then we went back to the Southern office and shot b-roll which was basically shots of different angles and labels on the bottle, as well as some shots of Shannah drinking it. We followed that up with editing the package together and placing b-roll over it. Sara wasn't quite done with it when we finished because the computer wasn't letting her save it, but overall the package looked pretty good. This was 3 hours.

October 3, 2012
I went to the media night to take photos of All My Sons for Interlachen this night. I arrived at 7:00 pm and took shots of the show while they performed it. I was pretty proud of how they came out on the camera but I have not seen them on the computer yet or heard any feedback from Ariel or Shannah. Following the show, around 10:00 they broke it down and moved scene by scene doing posed photos. I stuck around and filled up a memory card and half with photos from the show and the posed ones. Overall I was really pleased with what I left with. This ended at about 11:30 pm. This event was 4.5 hours.

October 15, 2012
We had our first Interlachen meeting back from Fall Break. It was a very brief meeting where we reminded the staff about the deadlines coming up, tested everyone's logins on the computers to make sure that they worked, and gave out assignments for the week. Overall it was a smooth meeting and we are hoping to have press passes ready in the next week or so. I know they have been printed but they may be getting laminated before being distributed. This was one hour.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 10.5 hours

Week of September 23-29 (3.5 hours)

Monday, September 24th

As usual, at 10:40 am we held the Interlachen meeting. We had intended on showing some video clips that have been taken this semester so far that T.J. was happy with (to sort of give the new members an idea of what to strive for), but T.J. was unable to attend so that did not happen. We did our usual check-in of any equipment that was needing to be checked in and then discussed the events for the week. Because it was Rush Week, events were pretty light. Not a whole lot was going on around campus so there weren't many spots to fill. After sign-ups were done, we addressed the upcoming "Interlachen bonding" night that we've been planning and gave the details on that. The meeting was then adjourned. This meeting was one hour.

Later on, I was lucky enough to once again be released from Intercultural Communications early enough to go to the "Go Healthy FSC" meeting! We discussed progress on the current packages and unfortunately there wasn't much to say about the Neuro Water package. Luckily, Sarah McNab is now taking charge of it and it seems to be shaping up much better. We also viewed the show from last week and Dr. Bradford gave her feedback on how it turned out. Overall she seemed pleased with it; only giving a few technical critiques. This meeting was also an hour. 

Following the meeting I met up with Shannah in the broadcast studio to observe her editing for her package on the Tutor Tables. We were there for about 30 minutes before heading to the Student Solutions Center to shoot interviews for the package. We interviewed the overseer on Tutor Tables, as well as one of their tutors that was there that day. Following the interviews we shot b roll of the tutors doing what they do best! We finished that up in about an hour. 

TOTAL HOURS EARNED THIS WEEK: 3.5 HOURS

Week of September 16th-22nd (3 hours)

This week was pretty calm for me. I didn't go out on any shoots, unfortunately, because one fell through. I was supposed to shoot video of the Cross Country team for Interlachen but it started raining right before they started and it wouldn't seem to let up :/

I did manage to get a few hours though.

On Monday at 10:40 am, Interlachen met as usual. We discussed the progress so far and what needed to be done/shot this week. Luckily we were joined for the first time by Natosha, our copy editor, so the newcomers got to meet her and hear a little bit about how they can help her out! This meeting was one hour.

I was very glad to realize that I was let out of class early later on that day because that meant that I was able to attend the Wellness TV meeting for the first time this year as well! We met and discussed the next show and who wanted to do what packages. I ended up teaming up with Olivia to work on the Neuro-Water package because the topic seems pretty interesting and its something that a lot of people probably don't know too much about yet. This meeting was also one hour.

On Friday, I worked an hour shift at the Interlachen table for the communications picnic lunch. Unfortunately we didn't have many people come by at all and actually care to hear about any of the programs, but it was still a good time and worth the hour put in. I stood at the table with fellow Interlachen staff and talked to students as they came. I worked this shift from 12:00-1:00.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 3 HOURS

Week of Sept. 9-15: 2 HOURS

This week I attended two events that amounted in hours for myself.

First event of the week was the Interlachen meeting on Monday, the 10th. We met at 10:40am in the office and we addressed some minor issues that we've had the past week. We had to talk to the staff about our camera check-out system and how it would now be structured differently until the cage gets up and running in order to keep better track of the cameras and tripods. We also assigned events as usual before the meeting was over. This was one hour.

The second event was on Saturday, the 15th. I attended Salsa Magic to shoot video for Interlachen's video portion of the DVD. It was really fun. I showed up at 7:00 when it was to begin and I focused on getting video of both the students getting taught the hispanic dances, as well as the professionals demonstrating. Unfortunately I only had one memory card in my bag, so once that filled up I had to quit for the night. :-/ It was beginning to get too dark to shoot anyhow though. I left the event at 8:00.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 2 Hours

Start of a new semester: 5 HOURS

With the new role of Managing Editor in Interlachen this year, I got a head start on some work towards my hours this year. That work started about 4 days before classes began.

Saturday, August 18th:

This was Freshman move-in day on campus. Shannah had given all editors that would be in Lakeland certain assignments to take pictures and/or video of during Freshman orientation. We were all on the scene in this one. I got out to the campus at 9:00 AM. To begin, I headed towards the girls dorms, JR and Spivey. I took a few photos there, getting a couple good shots of Dr. Kerr, but there seemed to be less activity and excitement there than I expected. So I went over to the boys dorms. Along the way I got some photos of the incoming girls with their families unloading some cars. Once I made it to the boys dorm, things were unfortunately still pretty dead. I got photos of people unloading their belongings, pictures of them walking into the building, a couple in the halls, but for the most part no one seemed too excited to be there. :( Then it started raining, which just made matters worse and limited my photo opportunities. After all of this, I decided to call it a day at 11:30. 

TOTAL HOURS: 2.5 Hours

Monday, August 20th:

It was move-in time again! This time I was assigned to take photos of Lake Morton apartments. I expected a lot of fun and excitement! I got out to the apartments at 11:00 when check-in began, however there were only a few people moving in. I followed one girl and her mom as they moved in some things and got some shots of them. Then I met a man and his daughter and her friend and got some shots of them. But after about a half hour with these families, it seemed pretty deserted. So I headed to my sister's apartment and tried to get some shots of her moving her and her best friend while they moved her belongings in. After about 15 minutes of that I gave up on them and decided to wait around for a rush to come through. Later in the day I checked out the apartments again and there weren't many more people to be seen. It was very stagnant, but I continued to get shots of the few that I could. It was tough, but I managed to get a few usable shots. 

TOTAL HOURS: 1.5 Hours

Tuesday, August 21st:

It was the Bingo Extravaganza! The final night of orientation and the first night to really intermingle with all classes at FSC was here and surprisingly people were pretty excited. I was told that this Bingo game was from 8-10 so I arrived at 8. They seemed to already be in the swing of things so I'm not positive when it actually kicked off. However I spent the entirety of the rest of their game circling the room in Ordway getting shots of people and trying to make Bingo look exciting! Haha. It was actually surprisingly much easier than it sounds and I was pretty satisfied with my result. They ended their game at 9:00 and everyone headed out around then. 

TOTAL HOURS: 1 Hour

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 5 HOURS

End of Semester: 500 Word Reflection

This semester of News Media Practicum has been extremely beneficial to me and I have learned, what I feel like is, an immense amount of things from doing work with our production groups. Similar to last semester, I was most active in Interlachen, doing a number of things to prep the yearbook for its release to the public. Throughout this process, I continued taking and editing photos on a regular basis, and I began working closely with Shannah on choosing photos for the book and dropping them into the layout. Along with these responsibilities came adding in name captions and searching the FSC websites to find names of athletes and things of that nature. Throughout this process I gained some basic knowledge of layout in InDesign, along with getting an insight into what makes a photo qualified for the yearbook and what the Editor in Chief has to do as the deadlines approach. This was most beneficial to me because I will be assuming the position of Managing Editor in Interlachen next semester. Without the general knowledge of these skills, I would have much lower chances of succeeding in this position and I definitely expect to expand these skills next semester.

            Something new for me this semester was my involvement with Wellness TV. I came in about halfway through the semester if I remember correctly, and I will be the first to admit that I was not one of the most active members by any means. However I did go out on a few shoots and even just within those short times, I learned a few things about the broadcast aspect of our programs, which I didn’t know before. Once again, I feel that Shannah sort of took me under her wing and made me get involved in our package, all the while showing me the ropes and teaching me the basics of what I need to know when creating a package. On the latest shoot that I went out on with Shannah, I got an opportunity to learn what types of questions to ask for interviews, as well as how to conduct an interview properly. This time also taught me how to properly roll a mic cord and how to use our HD cameras. They are fairly self-explanatory, but it was good to not be thrown in to use one and to have Shannah’s assistance. Along with interviews, I also got a little bit of knowledge about B-roll and what sorts of things to look for when shooting B-roll.

            Aside from the shooting aspect, I also got the chance to brush up and refresh my memory in editing. I have worked with Final Cut Pro since 5^th grade; however, it has been a few years since the last time that I used it (in my freshman year of high school) so it was definitely beneficial to observe Shannah and to regain that knowledge. This was particularly beneficial because I have never captured footage in the way that we do for Wellness TV. I’ve only ever used the “Log and Capture” feature/method. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to blog my hours for any work with Shannah on this package, so I do not have the editing time and the shoots documented on my blog. That was my mistake, and I apologize.

            Overall, I think that I learned a lot of basic skills in a couple different areas and that Practicum definitely helped me expand my knowledge this semester. I definitely intend to become more active in the broadcast aspect of these programs next year and I fully expect to expand my knowledge much more within the next three years. 

2/27/12 (2.5 Hours)

On Monday, February 27th, I came up to FSC to take pictures of the men's tennis matches for last minute shots in the yearbook. I showed up at 3:00 pm, when the games started, and shot until about 5:00. After finishing up with those shots, I decided to take some campus shots for the campus pages while the weather was holding up. I took these shots for the next half hour, simply taking photos of buildings, nature, etc, around campus. I left at 5:30 pm.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 2.5 hours

2/20, 2/22, & 2/23 (9.5 Hours)

On Monday, February 20th, I attended the Interlachen meeting and the Wellness TV meeting. The Interlachen meeting was our final one of the year, as deadline is approaching. We discussed what everyone's responsibility was for the finishing of the yearbook and when it needed to be done by. In the Wellness TV meeting, Dr. Bradford was there, and we assigned packages for the show after the break. I am listed with Shannah to help out on Fitness With Sarah. Each meeting was about a half hour. This was a total of 1 hour.

On Wednesday, February 22nd, I did a lot of work helping Interlachen. I came in the office around 1:00 pm after my last class finished and began work sorting through and editing pictures that Shannah had taken around campus. After finishing those shots, I began work editing and renaming a group of Portraits that we had taken last semester. After working on those, I moved onto putting pictures in the layout, naming people in photos, and basically doing whatever Shannah needed me to do in order to get us closer to being finished with the book. I left the office at 6:00 pm. This was 5 hours.

On Thursday, February 23rd, I returned to the office at 10:00 am after my first class finished. I started placing portraits in the layout and adding their names in the captions. Then I moved on to the campus shots pages, attempting to add in some extra shots to fill up our pages. I also went through a few sports pages to name people in the captions. I left the office at 1:30 pm. This was 3.5 hours.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 9.5 hours

2/20/12 (1 hour)

On Sunday, February 19th, I wrote two "blurbs" for Interlachen and sent them to Shannah for approval for the yearbook. A blurb is basically a short paragraph about an event or topic on campus. I was assigned to write blurbs for the Mike Super show that was performed at orientation, and Sweeney Todd, which ran the past few weekends in Buckner Theatre. Each blurb took about a half hour to get done, written, typed, edited, etc.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 1 hour

2/13-2/16 (12.5 hours)

Monday, February 13th, I came to the Interlachen lab to begin work sorting through some sports shots and trying to pick out my top photos from each team so that Shannah and I could compare notes for the final selections. I got there and started work at 3:00 and worked until the Interlachen meeting at 4:00. Following that work, I attended the Interlachen and Wellness TV meeting. In the Interlachen meeting, we discussed what needed to get done for the deadline and who was doing copy for the yearbook/when that was to be due. At the end of the meeting we took our group picture for the yearbook. At the Wellness meeting we discussed the progress on everyone's packages. Total hours earned this day were 2 and a half.

Tuesday, February 14th, I had agreed to go out at 5:30 to JRB and take the group picture of Tzedek. The lighting inside JRB is not known to be very good and this day was no different. We took a few shots inside to test lighting but when that failed we eventually moved outside. I took shots in a few different locations and poses before deciding that we had something that could be used. Total hours this day was 1 hour. 

Wednesday, February 15th, I went with Shannah to take pictures at the media performance of Sweeney Todd. We got to the theatre around 7:30 and the show started. Lighting was tough at times but I believe that we left with some good material. During the show I was able to move around the theatre (within the house) and experiment with different angles. Following the show, the cast posed for still frames from different parts of the show (chosen by the director). This took quite awhile but it made for some great shots. Overall that night I ended up filing 3 memory cards! We left the theatre at 12:30 am. Total hours for this day were 5 hours.

Thursday, February 16th, I had plenty of free time so I came to the Interlachen studio to import, sort, and edit the over 1,000 pictures that we had from Sweeney Todd between my own and Shannah's. I came in at 9:50 am to begin with, imported my pictures and began sorting and editing. I left to meet up with someone on campus at 10:50 am (1 hour). I returned to the lab at 12:00 pm to continue editing. Shannah ended up coming to do some work so I added her pictures and began sorting and editing hers as well. I finished with those shots around 3:00 pm. Total hours earned this day were 4 hours. 

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 12.5 hours

2/9/12 (1.5 Hours)

Today, in some spare time between classes, I went to the Interlachen to import some pictures and edit them. I got there at about 3:10, and left at about 3:40. I imported pictures taken from the Poetry Slam and the Sports Show group shot, edited the Sports Show picture, and sorted through shots from the Poetry Slam to decide which ones were potentials for the yearbook.

Later tonight I went to take some shots of an event that the Jewish Association on campus was holding. It was basically a party for a Jewish holiday and trying to recruit members to the group. Because of the time that my class ends, I couldn't make it until 5:00 and it ended at 6:00.

TOTAL HOURS EARNED: 1.5 hours

2/8/12 (1 Hour)

During my break in classes today, I went to the Interlachen lab to get started on editing some photos that still needed work. I got to the lab at 10:45 and left at 11:45 to head to my next class. While I was there, I edited a few club photos, photos from a women's basketball game, Up Till Dawn, as well as the Basketball game against Rollins ("Red Out" Game).

TOTAL HOURS RECEIVED: 1 hour

2/7/12 (2 Hours)

On Monday, February 6, 2012 I attended two production meetings. At 4:00 PM I attended the meeting for Interlachen. Shannah showed us the basic layout for the yearbook and discussed the jobs that we would have to do for the rest of this semester. Certain people would be in charge of specific sections of the yearbook (ex: sports, student life, etc.) and making sure that the pages get done. However, being the person that Shannah wants as photo editor next year, my job is going to be preparing the pictures and assisting Shannah in choosing the top picks for the final pages, as well as helping with some layout work. After discussing these jobs we signed up for shooting events during the week. I signed up for a party being thrown by a Jewish Organization on campus on Thursday night.

Immediately following the Interlachen meeting, I attended the Wellness TV meeting, which Dr. Bradford was sitting in on this week. The next, and final, show before Spring break is going to be revolving around just that. Spring Break wellness is the topic for the show and everyone signed up for what sounds like they will be great packages. :) I am signed up now to work with Shannah and Sarah on "Fitness with Sarah".

I was told that each meeting counts as an hour.

TOTAL HOURS: 2 hours

2/5/12 (2 Hours)

This past week I got worked 2 hours in different groups. Monday I was at the Interlachen meeting and received one hour. We discussed the events for the week, what clubs still needed pictures, and the opportunity to receive an hour for writing a blurb for the yearbook. I also uploaded some photos from that week to the computer for editing while in the lab. On Thursday, I met with my group for Wellness TV to assist with the filming of interviews for the package. We met at the Wellness Center and interviewed one trainer as well as 2 or 3 students who were working out at that time. We shot B-Roll footage in the center and then we were finished with the shooting. This took about an hour.

TOTAL HOURS: 2 hours

1/26/2012 (5.5 Hours)

Monday, January 23rd, I attended the Interlachen meeting. There was pizza for the staff and we discussed the deadlines that are rapidly approaching, as well as photos and video that we need to get very soon to meet deadline. We also discussed vital layout details so that we can get to work on that as well. This was an hour.
On the same day, I attended the Wellness TV meeting for the first time ever. I was a little in over my head, as it seemed that I was the only new person there, but I ended up getting signed up for a package with two others about group exercise/workouts. Dr. Bradford showed us pointers on how to write a good/proper script as well. This was another hour.

Wednesday, January 25th, I went to the FSC basketball games (men's and women's) with Shannah to take my first venutre into sports photography for Interlachen. I think I did okay and got some usable pictures. It was definitely a good experience and it seemed like Shannah approved. And FSC won both games! :D This was about 3.5 hours.

TOTAL HOURS: 3.5 hours