catching up

hey everyone,

I am sitting in my room on this blizarrdy Friday (i guess that winter is finally here) with my second cup of green tea (tea desires' green tropic is divine- the sales girl was right- you HAVE to get it) and one of my favorite old Bollywood songs playing in the background. Right now Shammi Kapoor is lip synching to a cheeky song about a fair skinned woman. It's so weird for a child of the 80's to identify with the music of the 50's.

I should be finishing off my school assignments. My reflection piece for Shauna's class beckons me. Paul's photography assignment pleads completion. Brad's layout homework has yet to be tackled and don't even get me started on Patrick's webportfolio (actually I really should get started on it).

Instead I am here still swallowing in some humility.Don't get me wrong- it's not that humility is a bitter pill- however it is a rather large one.

I always prided myself on my humility. Perhaps that is my biggest downfall .

I have learnt a lot about myself this semester:

• I have a terrible time learning new software. The rules for each program are too minute and complicated for me. I get flabbergasted when I see people (OK, mainly men) sit down with a new piece of software and totally understand it within a few hours. Usually within a few hours, I turn into a shrivelling child, sobbing at my technical inadequacies.


• I suck at grammar.OK, I always knew that, but it always sucks to be reminded of it. Especially when I have piece of paper floating around my bedroom somewhere telling me that I am educated. With a degree in English at that. But in my defense let me remind you that studying English literature is completely different from being able to properly compose a sentence.


• I still have not accomplished all the things that I wanted to do in this class-much less in life.


• I need to start living my life.

I could go on but I think it's time to focus on the positives.

I also learned:

• I am stronger than I thought I was. This semester has been one of the most mentally gruelling experiences of my life. I have been out school for 5 years before this course and even when I was at UofC I had never experienced any this intense. I am proud of the fact that anytime something went wrong or blew up in my face- which happened almost immediately- I did not break down. I did not cry and I did not give up. I will now share something on here that I did not reveal to many people until now. My mother had underwent an intensive surgery during the first week of class and spent over two weeks in the hospital and another month in bed recovering. The household responsibilities (yet again) fell to me. This is on top of working a mentally taxing and thankless job(although all jobs are thankless- working as a call centre agent is particularly stressful, especially when its a demotion that you take just to keep your pay rate while you are at school).

Please don't think that I am complaining. I am an adult, I do not run away my responsibilities. I had taken over the household duties in the past and am prepared do it again should my parents ever need me to. I am just sharing how intense this semester has been- because of the strain that I was under earlier this year, I fell behind my peers and I am only now beginning to catch up to them. But that's OK.. as the old cliche goes..it's not how you begin the race...its how you end it that matters.

• I learned what I really want to do with my certificate. I was not sure what I wanted to do when I enrolled in this program. I knew that I wanted to share stories that were often ignored and that I wanted to do whatever I can to promote human rights. I also knew that the skills that I would learn here would help me out. I'll be completely honest, I didn't come here to learn the technical skills, (which are helpful) I came here to learn how to get people to open up and share their stories. And above all, I came here to learn how to tell these stories. Now after to talking to my peers and instructors, I realise that what I really want to do is make documentary films. I know that the narrative techniques that I will learn here will help me in doing this.


• I learned to listen- really listen to the opinions and advice of my teachers, peers and editors. For the most part, these people know what they are doing and they have the best interests for my stories in mind. Any advice, even unsolicited advice is well intended and even if I do not agree with them, I should try to see where they are coming from. I mean,isn't that the first lesson of a journalist? To show all sides of an issue, even if you do not agree with everything that is being said.


• I learned that I love photography. As frustrating as it can often be to get the perfect shot, when I do get that shot-it's totally worth all the muttering and swearing. I can't wait to get my flash and start experimenting even more!

Above all, I have learnt that procrastination sometimes pays off... but now I think that it really is time for me to get back to my homework...but there is that old Bollywood movie I think I'd rather see...

(on a side note, i tried to upload a clip with subtitles but i can't find one)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywn5ecbh3DM&feature=PlayList&p=BA1B3E16EB496B74&index=14

Done!

It is such a relief to have finished up my stories for this class, and to have finished our group project, "to stunning effect" (sorry about that). I can't lie, this past week has been a tiny little bit stressful for me, as I worried about getting everything done in time. I had to have very quick turn-around on my reiki story - attending the class on Sunday, and have the story written by Monday morning. As always, things seem to get done, but I have always assumed that things get done only if I'm operating in a state of blind panic.

The magazine itself is just wonderful. Apparently blind panic works because the results are something that I think we are all really happy with. I would like to continue to produce Flash magazine into the next term, to showcase the work we're doing in this class. Potentially a winter edition and a spring edition?

I ended this class with such a high, excited to start the next term and am trying to come up with a great idea to focus my attention on.

A job well done

Our finished magazine is simply amazing! I think it really captures our creativity and our young, urban demographic allowed us to express a span of interests. Definitely going to do more of these! Such a good experience, despite the time pressure. GO TEAM GO!

Bring it.

The semester is finally over! The magazine was a semi-success (I am really hard on myself...but more on that later) and all my stories are completed!
I feel this semester has been a whirlwind. I feel I've grown so much as person with the completion of this semester. Only three weeks ago, I was sitting at home freaking out about stories and reflection pieces, a magazine, photos for Paul, and video voicer assignment, etc. etc. etc. I thought I was never going to make it to the end of the semester, and I was beginning to think how easy it could be to drop out of the program. Especially with all the assignments that were due, and three more stories that needed to be written for Shauna's class (she continued to nail it into me that, if I didn't finish my stories, I would fail the program!), I started stressing to the point that I wasn't able to function anymore. It feels so good to know that I succeeded without giving up hope, and that all my stories were completed in the fashion that I wanted.
The past few weeks have been the most stressful for me as a student, and I've been a student for over five years, so it's crazy how I felt this semester to be the hardest over all.

When I finished my last two stories, I began celebrating: I wasn't celebrating because I was done (this was part of it though) but because I was creating two stories that meant a lot more to me than just completion: my story on perfumes as a stress reliever meant that I was now able to write about a topic that interested me, one that did not necessarily conform to the typical rules of the journal, but let me use my creativity to full advantage. My last story on BestBuy was my biggest accomplishment: after experiencing so much stress with my other stories, spending much time concentrating on what I was going to say, how I was going to say it, what needed to be said, who I was writing for ETC. my BestBuy article was done in two days flat. After finding the topic, I set out to get everything done in one standing. In one Sunday, I was on the phone with the communications manager for BestBuy Canada; next, I was at the University searching for an old marketing professor; lastly, I was inside BestBuy looking for comments from customers. It was done. Though that night was tremendous, the day after I had completed an entire article ready for print... and it only took me two days! I felt like a real Journalist. Scratch that: like a superstar.

Moving forward, I could not be any more happy about the final product for COMM1707: Flash Magazine: Premiere Edition. So much hard work, effort and time (at the cost of sleep!) went into producing that magazine, and I could not be any more proud of myself for accomplishing such a feat (!). As I have previously said though, I still believe there were some faults that could have been corrected before it was published online. Had I more time to finish the magazine, I would have put more effort into creating more visually-appealing layouts, and I would have spent the majority of my time searching for faults in the text. There were definitely some pages that looked a lot better constructed than others, and if I had it my way, I would have tailored the magazine to my own style, incorporating not only the stories we worked so hard on during the semester, but also some of the photos that highlighted our creativity throughout the semester, and maybe some more fashion-related things (as I believe this is what I am interested in).

Enough about this though. I can be hard on myself. Too hard, sometimes. My perfection gets to the best of me, and this is a weakness (strength!) that can get the best of me sometimes. I need to learn how to take control of my surroundings, without penalizing my creativity or my hard work...

With this being said, I feel this semester was just a taste of what to expect for next semester. I cannot wait for next semester and a better, more thorough magazine issue. Same name, different format. Bring it on, Cert. program!

Georges is ready.

FLASH MAGAZINE - Premiere Edition

Publish at Calaméo or browse others.

Prototypes equal Good

We decided to learn by example, and take some inspiration from magazines already on the market today. Here is one prototype that we used for the Editors Letter in Flash.

four hours

I am having some serious self doubts. Way more than my usual, "how am I gonna get this story done"or "my sources are not getting back to me" type of doubts.  Today's layout disaster seriously has me doubting myself in this program. how did I get in?the other guys in here are geniuses- they seem to breeze past the tasks that i am struggling with.

so do i really belong here?  

I thought that I was strong in some areas and weaker in others. I thought Layout was one of my strengths, but apparently I am not strong enough. or maybe i should just stop letting intellectual sadists toy with my mind.

I find that my writing is also weakening- perhaps I am getting too tired. 

But isn't there supposed to be that second wind  where inspiration, talent and drive collide to create the perfect masterpiece? where is it?

I guess this is supposed to be the time where I pep myself up by reminding myself of all those famously brilliant people who failed and still prevailed over their failures. but after spending 4 hours working (and reworking) one simple layout and  4.5 hours stuck in traffic, i am really not in the mood for pep. I'm in the mood for a nap- a 4  hour one.

Frustration

When I went to Shauna to get this story vetted, I told her I was frustrated with this article. I felt like it was missing something. I had spent so much time, taking interviews, changing my focus, discarding interviews, getting different input, I felt like my head was spinning. My eventual concept was clean, and linear, but I felt like it lacked heart.

I am happy with the writing in this piece. But writing has never been the hard part for me. Again and again, I lack focus. I always come up with a story that takes on way more than I could deal with in 1000 words, then proceeds to only touch on some issues, as opposed to taking the time to really get in depth with one particular story. After speaking with Ron about this, I realized that this is what I felt was missing in the piece – any amount of depth. I seem to always be a “surface” writer. I should be writing stories about shopping, and puppies, and things that don’t really need deeper meaning, because that seems to be beyond my grasp. A ladies magazine, perhaps? I could write about the top five dishes to feed your man during the holidays, or something.

Okay, enough sarcasm. I love writing, and I have to accept that there are some challenges that I am facing. I believe Ron said something to the affect that if you aren’t struggling, you aren’t really learning anything. So, I can face the fact that I have a lot of work ahead of me as I continue to improve. It’s okay that I have to improve. I mean, you never stop improving unless you’re dead, right?

star suckers and media intergrity

Hello all,

 I was listening to a podcast of Q by Jian Ghomeshi  for November 18 2009 and he had on documentary film maker Chris Atkins whose recent film Starsuckers was about the news hoax and raised some interesting questions about how the 10 minute news cycle and the overall news quality.

Atkins and his posse bring into question the ethical practice of sensational media by planting fake stories to the media. The majority of these fictitious stories were published in tabloid and regular media outlets. Atkins points out one of the major flaws in the 10 minute news cycle and their desire to break the story first many media outlets do not even bother checking their sources. As a result,people are becoming wary about what they read in the media.

This reminded me of the discussion that we had in Ron's class a few days ago about the H1N1 shot and why people are not trusting the mainstream media. How can we as journalists  undo the damage caused by sensationalism?  How will people determine what is and what isn't a trustworthy source of news? As the influence of media becomes increasingly diluted through the internet and citizen journalism continues to rise the lines between what is truth become increasingly blurred.

What can we do do to make a difference? Will anything that we do make a difference? Even Jian didn't have the answer.

How can one spell Frustrated four times?

Besides Carolina's success in writing a proper article, I seem to be having some hardships with writing proper articles. My previous posts pointed towards a sensibility of "simple is always better" except when it involves me.

I wrote an article for Shauna's class on Air Canada and their third quarter results (as I am in the Business beat, and assumed this is what the business beat wanted of me);I included three proper sources with all the same opinions about the airline: because of Air Canada's new 7 per cent commission paid to Canadian travel agents for selling Tango based fares, and their new policies on capacity management (meaning, selling off more tango based fares as opposed to other fuller fares), the company was seeing a "profit" except more and more passengers were flying on tango fares, which in theory should lead to a decrease in Air Profit. The only reason they showed a "positive increase" was because of the rising currency exchange rate, and the lowering cost of fuel... this, my dear readers, meant that Air Canada had not seen any kind of profit, besides the profit they did not see coming.

But after all this research and the hardwork, the late nights and the many cups of coffee, my article was not good enough and needed to be "revised" (as per Shauna). This, even though I enjoy criticism (in small quantities), was not something I wanted to hear.

After receiving a beat that I had no intention of writing, I was not too thrilled: throughout the class, I have been trying my best to come up with interesting topics, and trying my best to write proper pieces even without the proper instruction of how to write proper articles. When Shauna gave me criticism for the first time, it was quite a major blow to my ego. I know that I am a good writer, even though I devote too much time and effort to a story... and I understand that I spend way too long on a story to have it be perfect and without faults and that I should change my habits. But old habits die hard.

Relating to my Air Canada story, I remember for the first time since I started this semester that I did not want to put too much "effort" into it, even though I was stressed beyond belief that it wouldn't fair too well with Shauna.

After coming up with a focus I believed would be good enough for her, and writing the entire story under an influence of "don't-put-too-much-hard-work-in-it", Shauna hated it. I was insulted, angered, saddened, on the brink of a major melt-down and fully wanting to drop out. I could not understand why I was having so many troubles in writing my pieces, even though everyone else seemed to be spitting out story after story for the Journal and spending as little time as possible on each one. I was (and still am!) frustrated that I have to put so much care and effort, and have to devote so much of my precious time into each of my stories just to have it make the grade while everyone else seems to be working out just fine.

I don't really know what else to say here, but I ended up rewriting my entire Air Canada story with the help of a little Vodka and some Chambord, and I think the piece is actually alot better than what I had originally written. I still have yet to discover what I can learn from this experience, but I'm sure when I am writing my last two articles, I will look back at my traumatic experience and remember that, though I should develop stories quickly, that I should never deny myself my own perfection... if that makes any sense.

On to story four...