My First Newscaster Role for Radio I Class

Our mid-term project was to collaboratively create a radio show with a certain number of liners, sweepers, songs, with news, weather, sports, and traffic report, along with station ID. I took the role of Newscaster, which meant that I had to write 6-7 short news stories from real news, create two "voicers" in ProTools that would accompany two of the stories, and deliver them live, along with sports and weather. The first 8 seconds is a liner at the end of a song (I've purposefully left out all copyrighted material, such as the music) is Sean Murphy (who was the DJ) introducing me for the news, and then following my news report at 3:41 is a sweeper created by Erik Gharaee (Production Manager) and Sean Murphy. For the Record, Kelly Dwyer was the Program Director, and Zach Barron was in charge of creating commercial spots.

Because this blog is about showcasing my talents (not to mention that the entire show was 35 minutes long, including a bunch of copyrighted music), this is the result of my efforts, earning me a "100" grade, and plenty of fine comments from my instructor John Buckley: "As good as it gets. First of all the stories you chose were excellent. Second, the writing of the stories was terrific and finally, your delivery was pitch perfect. I could really tell that you had practiced this; your delivery was straightforward, a little folksy and easy to understand."

An image of me is provided simply to accompany the audio.

DSLR Introduction Test

Assignment to acquaint us with the Canon T3i DSLR; shot with the standard 18-55 lens, only with available light; 7 shots. We shot it in 24fps. The original assignment was to have no sound, since sound wasn't a factor for learning how to use the camera. My partner was Dennis Cabral. Music is from freemusicarchive.org.  All scenes shot in the library at New England Institute of Technology. Special thanks to the head librarian for giving us permission to shoot the card catalogue.

[To see this video larger, please click on the image, then hover your mouse pointer near the top of the video and click on the link. This will take you to the YouTube page from whence it comes. You may then click on the enlargement "buttons" at the bottom right of that new video screen.]

Quarter 2 Final Grades

   I got my final grades for the Spring Quarter of 2012.  While not the 4.0 that I achieved for the Winter Quarter, it's still a nice 3.87, resulting in a cumulative GPA of 3.93.

   I'm quite happy that Algebra is over and done with.  The only other math (that I know of) which I'll need to complete at some point is "Business Math", whatever precisely that is.

   What I intend to do in the meantime, is to use the available resources online, to exercise and further hone my skills in After Effects, and digital editing.  It's really too bad that NEIT offers no advanced courses available in these two subjects -- that, along with an advanced Photoshop course; all of which would be highly valuable in setting NEIT students even further ahead of the curve, for the job marketplace.

   Speaking of job marketplace, I might want to look into getting some part time work, to help supplement the very small amount I'm collection from unemployment.  I'm allowed a small amount without it affecting those payments, and that's about all I'm looking for anyhow, for gas money, and lunches at school.

   Thanks for your continued interest.  Any financial gifts specified to my tuition are greatly appreciated, as this is not a cheap education.

   On another note, I'm a bit annoyed at the reading of the information concerning the graduation commencement, for those receiving their diplomas, this coming June 8th.  Firstly, it's on a Sunday morning.  Are they unaware that many people attend worship on Sunday mornings?  I hardly think that's possible.  The commencement begins at 11:00, but the students are to be there at 9:45.

   To make matters worse, there's not only (at least) one road race going on in downtown Providence (the commencement is being held at the Providence Convention Center), but there's also a circus being set up at the "Dunk".  It should turn out to be a real traffic nightmare.

   I'm thinking of speaking to whomever it is that plans these things, and seeing if next year's event can be held on a Saturday, elsewhere (why not Twin River Casino?), and not when there's a bloody road race (et al) going on.  Is that not a more reasonable way to go about it?

Continuity Project

[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

This is my submission for an exercise in Digital Non-Linear Editing -- a Continuity Project.  Continuity being, keeping a flow of action, in the form of a Match Frame Continuity, where there are many angles of an action or series of actions, along with appropriately arranged sound effects, to create the illusion that it's all happening in real time (I came up with the idea, I am also the actor, and Rachel Rodriguez does the camera work); and in the form of a Compressed Time Continuity, whereas events that would normally take place over a longer period of time, basically have all the steps in between removed so that the main point of the story moves along quicker (I, Eddy Alvarez, and Mishitaashen Conley came up with the idea, Eddy is the actor, and I did the camera work).

Project Final - Video Techniques / Studio 1

This is my project final for the class Video Techniques / Studio 1.  I worked on this with classmate Rachel Rodrigues.  We scripted it together, and I storyboarded it.  We took turns setting up the camera for the shots.

[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Rachel is the actor.  She arrives in the parking lot, steps out onto the running board of her car, and enters the building.  She takes the elevator to the second floor.  Alternately, she takes the stairs to the second floor.  Lo, and behold! As she crests the staircase, she sees herself coming from the elevator.  She waves at herself ... and she waves back at her other self.  The two Rachels meld into one at the entrance to a corridor.  Rachel walks down the hall to classroom 205, Video & Audio Production.

A note:

Since Rachel was a fellow student, and not a hired actor, I couldn't be as coercive as I might've wanted, in insisting that she make sure to land the same foot on the same spot, in order for the "meld" to take place.  Once it was all said and done, she was able to see what I was talking about.  But for a first attempt, I think it came out okay anyhow.  However, the part where the two Rachels are waving to one another, I must admit, was flawless.

I created the logo from a photo I'd taken a few years ago, and added the lettering via Photoshop.

The sound effects came from a SFX generator http://naturesoundsfor.me/

For this presentation, I removed the slate (as well as bars and tones) from the beginning.  The video quality is terrible, as I basically lost everything on my hard drive.  I only had a very low resolution version of this video that I made as an experiment.  I hopefully waiting for Rachel to send me her high quality copy of the file, so that I can replace the current one with a more pleasing version.