Sometimes, with all the hustle and bustle of people, it’s hard to notice the small changes while driving in downtown Columbia… and well a new street sign is no exception.
But nestled between Eighth and Ninth Street, more specifically right in between the building that houses the clothing store Breeze and an empty retail space, is a small alleyway where a new street sign stands: Alley A. It’s a street sign that has turned quite a few heads.
Behind this street sign is a story of how Columbia is growing and changing, and in ways some least expect it. After seeing the sign and the construction of a new business in the alleyway I wanted to speak with the owner of the realty business leasing the spaces out along the alleyway. Where did the street sign come from and how did the alleyway become known as Alley A? New businesses are moving into the alleyway, is this the beginning of a trend? Is a risk for them? What are the benefits? What does businesses moving into alleyways say about Columbia and its economic development? Dozens of questions formed in my mind.
After a little bit of initial research, I found the battle for naming the alleyways in Columbia started in 2007. Alley A is just the newest development in the battle. I hoped to get an interview with the realtor to find out what his personal stake and thoughts in the matter were.
It is clearly noticeable I only interviewed one main source, but during the time I put together this story I was working on a few other projects and had about 20 other interviews to conduct that week. Excuses, excuses I know; if I weren’t leaving town I’d probably work on it more. My ideal story would have included a few more sources and perhaps another angle to the story.
Originally this story started off as a broadcast story then became a print story. Finally I decided to make it a photo essay because it’s been awhile since I’ve worked on a multimedia project.
I’ll admit… this came out pretty weird, but it was my first attempt at a photo essay. It was also an attempt to try and turn a business story, and not a feature, into a photo essay, which made things a bit more difficult. Nonetheless, with the help of my still camera, flip cam voice recorder, Final Cut, and a Marantz I was able to put this together:
Over the next five years, with the introduction of iPads, digital textbook sales in the US will make up almost 20 percent of new textbook sales. This could mean big changes for a number of people.
In a six minute piece (yes… I know… six minutes…) I explain how new technology devices, such as the iPad, are impacting education in higher education classrooms. I also explain how it is affecting textbook companies.
I realize the piece should have been split into two, but due to, well we’ll just call it a complication, this wasn’t done. I also wasn’t going for your typical one minute thirty second news package.
A few problems I ran into was for one, my voice. I had a sinus infection and barely had a voice (just in case you were wondering why I sounded weird). My main problem though was coming up with video to help tell the story. With only shots of the iPad and textbooks I found it difficult to give the viewer a good grasp on the information I was giving them. It can be very distracting when I’m talking about one thing and the video doesn’t exactly match up to what I’m saying. It was also challenging to find ways to present the statistics.
This story was done over the span of a couple of days, and if I had the chance I would go back and make plenty of changes. Since this isn’t possible, I hope as I cover different consumer/business/technology stories I will learn from my mistakes and improve on the things that make these types of stories great.
Read the script below:
“We capture that so we can show the students the formula that the instructors talking about.”
Educational Technology Director and Professor Marc Strid sees it everyday in the classroom…. students locking into new technology and using it for educational purposes. One of those tools is digital textbooks.
“They’re here right now and it’s just basically that the publishers have to get a better handle on the business model they’re going to use. I know that they’re already publishers that are doing this, renting the books. But I think you’re going to see that rather quickly as the devices are now ready for us to use.” –Marc Strid
With the introduction of the iPad this year, educators expect to see more and more digital textbooks in their classrooms. For Strid he sees this as a positive in the learning environment.
“I think well managed, and if they’re utilized for collaborative learning for instance in the classroom then they’re not a distraction, then they’re a tool.” – Marc Strid
According to Xplana, a web based service that partners with textbooks companies and publishers to create digital textbooks and e-books, digital textbooks currently represent .5 percent of the overall textbook market. By 2014, digital textbooks will represent 18 percent of all new Higher Education textbook sales. By the end of the decade, digital textbooks are expected to make up more than half of the entire market.
“10 years from now we project the e or digital textbook market to be much more than 50 percent, as high as 75 percent at which point the vast majority of all the learning materials out there will be digital and that not only revolutionizes what we call the publishing industry today, but we have a dramatic impact on the way we do university teaching.”- Rob Reynolds, Director of Product Design and Research at Xplana
Reynolds says the popularity of digital textbooks are starting to pick up for a number of reasons.
“We are all aware of how expense textbooks in general are becoming, publishers are trying to take advantage of this by making materials available at a lower cost. One of those ways that publishers are doing this is by providing e-textbooks or digital textbooks and many of them provide digital textbooks about a 60, about 50 to 60 percent at the cost of new print textbook. Well a lot of students because of the cost pressures are taking advantage of that.” – Rob Reynolds
Although publishers are selling digital textbooks to students for half the price of print textbooks, CourseSmart and MBS Direct says only 20 percent of print textbooks are available in digital textbook format. As more titles become available, as more technological devices are introduced, and as the cost pushes students towards buying digital textbooks, rapid growth will occur.
“If you track trends right now, starting today you’re running over 100 percent growth per year. That’s very significant because at that point digital textbooks represent a significant piece of the overall textbook publishing industry that they pirate print textbooks sales significantly and they have a dramatic impact on how textbooks are actually created, distributed, ect.” –Rob Reynolds
Textbook companies and publishers are having to jump on board with the concept of digital textbooks. Currently digital textbooks are created at the end of the production cycle of print textbooks. This process could be reversed as the digital textbook market takes over, but it’s a delicate process.
“If you don’t do it at the right time and you get caught in the wrong part of the cycle, your costs are going to so far outweigh your revenues, you’re going to be losing revenue on your print that you’re going to have a lot of trouble. Some publishers could be really adversely affected, those who take advantage of it and get on the right side of it are going to be very successful.” –Rob Reynolds
Established textbook companies are also on the lookout for up and coming competitors. This world of digital textbooks is opening doors to new publishing houses like Flat World Knowledge and Lulu Existing.
“It’s every business, every companies job responsibility to keep up, to get ahead, and to adapt to the market. If you don’t you don’t make it.” –Rob Reynolds
Digital textbooks mean change for textbooks companies and change for students, but not every aspect of digital textbooks is so glamorous.
“We’re concerned about the digital divide where students are going to have the resources to buy both a laptop and an iPad. That’s why I’m excited about the possibility of having loaners or ones that could be provided to students that can’t afford to buy one.” – Marc Strid
“Some people don’t trust it yet, it’s understandable” – Ken Boehlke Microcomputer Sales Consultant
How is Apple pushing the concept of its new iPad and digital textbooks then?
“They believe this is a platform for delivering content more, less expensively to students, more interactively to students. It sounds like a win-win for the textbook publishers and for Apple.” – Mike McKean MU Associate Professor and Director of Futures Lab
Some industry analysts predict the iPad will sell more units than the entire e-reader market combined. The research group iSuppli projects Apple to sell more than 7.1 million iPads in 2010. Sales are expected to double to 14.4 million in 2011 and in 2012 sales will nearly triple to 20.1 million. By 2014 they believe students will most prefer the iPad and the upcoming Android tablets over any other computing device.
So as the rapid growth of digital textbook sales continues, Strid feels the excitement of what this could bring to student learning.
“Often times the benefit is not in an increase grade point, maybe it’s increased engagement in the classroom and maybe as a result of that they retain that knowledge a little bit longer, but we know students are engaged by these devices because we’ve done a lot of survey work and we know that they like more technology in their teaching learning process, so I don’t think there is going to be a resistance to that. I don’t think there is a lack of benefit by providing more technology in the teaching environment. I think it’s a win-win situation.” –Marc Strid
But in order for the win-win to take place, students, teachers, and the textbook industry will all have to adapt to these changes together at the same time.
Sometimes when you get so wrapped up in your own country’s media world, it’s really hard to imagine how other countries run their news stations. That was the case for me, until a few weeks ago when I was introduced to Slavica. Slavica is a reporter from Macedonia and for the past few weeks I’ve been working with her to put together a project about her experiences here at the University of Missouri. Since I’ve never had the opportunity to travel internationally, you can imagine how many questions I’ve asked Slavica about her country and how her station works.
I’ve learned a great deal from her, especially about how similar and how different reporting is here in America and there in Macedonia. The thing I found most interesting was the pressures journalists in Macedonia face from the government. American’s have a bit more opportunity to cover political stories without the scrutiny of the government and having the story kept from being run. As far as social media though, we are both on the same track.
More about the project….
Throughout the duration of this project I was essentially Slavica’s “photog”. The final project Slavica will put together is a 10-minute video giving insight into what she’s learned while being here since the fall.The final video will be broadcast by her station and shown at the National Embassy. Once it is done I will definitely post it!
While shooting for this project, we also put together a few packages to air at her station back home. The first package talks about Obama’s visit to Macon, Mo. on April 28 and how students at KOMU covered the event. She also talks about how his visit affected Missourians. Much of the footage comes from the actual KOMU newscast and some of it comes from things we shot.Since I don’t speak Macedonian we worked together to edit the package. We laughed our way through it, and she told me what shots to use and I laid them down!
Although Slavica thanked me a lot for helping her with her project, I think I can say I gained just as much from her (learning about journalism in her country!) as she did from me!
Like many, I’ve always hated going to the dentist. I can’t stand someone prodding around in my mouth or the numbing shots you must get before a procedure. Call me a baby, but getting my wisdom teeth out was one of my worst dental experiences. I’ve decided next time I get a procedure done like that like, I will definitely be put to sleep. I can’t say I will ever forget the sound of my teeth crunching into pieces and being taken out of my mouth.
Now, you can’t help when you actually have to have a procedure done for the right reasons, but what happens when dentists go too far? Back in December I attended the dentist for a normal routine checkup. They told me I had eight cavities that needed to be filled. Going along with it, I had two cavities filled. For months the tooth I had filled bothered me. I decided to go into another dentist to see what they had to say. Turns out I didn’t have eight cavities…only one. The one that was filled may not have even been a cavity, but now I may have to get a root canal to stop the pain.
From these dental experiences, I’ve wanted to do a story on dentists taking advantage of their patients for money. I know it would be tough, especially to find the right people to talk to. So when I saw 20/20’s “Littlest Patients Mistreated for Profits?” I couldn’t resist watching to see what their approach on the story was.
20/20’s “Littlest Patients Mistreated for Profits?” really opened my eyes to the horror in which some little dentist patients are subjected to during their visits. 20/20 took a unique angle to the story and showed how one dentistry chain, Small Smiles Dentistry For Children, takes advantage of its patients to pull in more money. For various reasons, I feel this was a great investigative piece that brought viewers into a world they may have never known about.
Some of the video 20/20 used showed little kids strapped to a table, squirming, and screaming throughout their procedures. I’m not quite sure how they obtained the video, but I did feel this was a time where video spoke louder than words. I feel this was a very smart choice on 20/20’s part to use this video. The fear in the little child’s screaming moved me, as I’m sure it would any viewer. Small Smiles Dentistry claimed they strapped the children to the tables so the dentists could perform the procedures without the children squirming around. What’s worse is, the parents weren’t allowed into the rooms because the dentists felt it would be too much for them to see. 20/20 showed us what took place in the room and how the children came out afterwards. One 5-year-old boy’s mother explained how her son came out of the room drenched in sweat with blood coming out of his mouth. The dentists had given him 16 baby root canals, filling nearly his whole mouth in crowns. 20/20 provided us with pictures and video of this. Once again the video spoke louder than any words that could have been said.
I found it interesting how the interviews with the children and parents took place. 20/20 gathered them in a room and talked with them together. I felt this was a really smart move as well. The parents and children were able to play off each other’s words, giving me more information than I’m sure a one on one interview would have. I also felt they had a fair amount of interviews. They spoke to several children and parents, former employees of Small Smiles Dentistry, a doctor/dentist at one of the chains, and many others involved. Each soundbite 20/20 chose to use magnified the emotion of the story significantly. This I feel like, was due to good interviewing by the reporter.
Overall I really enjoyed how 20/20 put this piece together. I feel it was informative and also drew the viewer in with its video. They had great nat sound, wrote to video well and the story had a really good flow.
I may hate going to the dentist, but after watching this piece I can’t be more thankful I never had to go through what some of these kids did. With stories like these, it really goes to show that journalists truly must be watchdogs for the public and bring to light issues such as this one.
Last Friday morning Mother Nature cleared away the rain, parted the clouds, and brought out the sun letting kids from all over the state gather on the capitol lawn for Missouri Earth Day 2010 to learn a little bit more about her. As for me, this would be my last reporting shift at KOMU for my broadcast two class.
For my last reporting shift, I decided to take a more proactive approach in finding a story ahead of time. I found a few different stories I felt would work and got in contact with sources I thought would be able to help me. Unfortunately all these stories fell through.When I saw they were holding an Earth Day celebration at the capitol I decided to ask the assignment editor if I could do this story for a couple of reasons. Mainly I was really hoping to work on the basic skills of putting a package together (instead of throwing one together) and working with nat sound.
Everything went well at the event. The biggest problem I had was the sun and the clouds were constantly changing. This meant I really had to pay attention to the ND filter and at times where the clouds were really dark or I was under a dark tent, I had to pay attention to the gain. This really taught me about how hard you have to pay attention to the camera settings so you don’t get too bright or dark of video.
I really enjoyed talking to the kids as well and was very surprised how well they answered my questions. The only problem I had was how much they swayed. I found some great soundbites when I got back to the station, but couldn’t use them because half their head would be cut off on a standard sized television. Next time I will center them more in the camera and ask them to try and stand still.
When I sat down to write the story I knew there were plenty of opportunities to make this package fun and filled with nat sound, but I couldn’t quite get in the mind set and find a way for everything to fit together to make sense.I really struggled with organizing the story and coming up with creative things to say. This story could have had some great conversational writing in it and I clearly didn’t achieve that. I learned I really need to work on better organizing my stories. Once I have that the creative writing part should come easier.
When thinking about how I wanted to write the story, I wanted to use the girl who wrote the slogan as my CCC. During her interview she said a lot of interesting things and showed her passion for nature. When I tried to begin with her, or move her further up in the package I felt she was more of a distraction to the story than helpful. I’m hoping to learn how to get better at using my CCC in a story like this to help focus the story.
From this reporting shift, I learned until I get better at finding a central focus for my story, shooting, interviewing, and writing my story I probably won’t be satisfied with any of my completed packages. With more practice in B3, I hope to keep working on the basics and then finally work on all the little things that make a package great!
To read the web story on KOMU.com click here or view the video below:
In the past few weeks, from just two reporting shifts, I've learned there will never be a greater adrenaline rush than that from which I get from reporting. Deadlines, pressure, interviewing people, finding creative ways to tape things, and carefully crafting pieces of information into a well-told story are just some components that make this job exciting. Even if you’ve had a horrible day where your sources didn’t call you back, you couldn’t get that piece of video you needed, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong… you always know tomorrow is a new story, a fresh start. It’s something I kept in mind while doing my first two shifts. Although they didn’t get as smooth as I would have liked, I know things can only improve from here.
My first shift I started off with a story about 12 types of fungus found in the gym of a Sedalia elementary school. The school had ordered air quality test after they thought mold and bacteria had been making some staff and teachers sick. The results came back Thursday night and they are working on ripping up the floor in the gym and cleaning out the heating ducts. I started by calling the superintendent of the school district who informed me the assistant superintendent was handling the situation. Since I wasn’t able to get a hold of him I moved on to finding parents from the school’s PTA to see what they thought about the situation. All phone calls kept falling through, I knew if I drove to Sedalia they might not let me shoot the school, and since time was dragging on I decided I needed to move onto my next story idea.
Earlier that morning KOMU did a liveshot about an autism intervention conference going on that day. I figured since we previewed it, we should probably cover it. The first trouble I ran into during my shift was audio problems. I listened to the audio through my headphones while testing the camera. I heard some feedback in what I thought was channel one. I asked around and everything seemed to be all right. While at the convention everything seemed okay through the headphones. But at the end, as I was replaying back some video, the audio was extremely scratchy. When I got back to the station I found channel two audio was completely bad. Next time I decided I wouldn’t be so careless as to leave when I know there might be a problem with my equipment.
Shooting video and getting interviews at the convention went well. When I first got to the convention I sought out one of the coordinators from the MU Thompson Center who helped get me the interviews. The only problem with the interviews was it took awhile to gather up the people I needed to talk to. They were almost always in a session. I took advantage of that free time to shoot my b-roll. Budgeting my time really helped. I decided I had to be back to the station by 1:30. Fortunately, while at the convention, I decided to write the outline of my package. This definitely speeded up the process once I returned to KOMU. Although I won’t be able to do this a lot, it helped to write the package while in the setting. I also learned how helpful it is to outline the story in your head as you’re gathering information.
My last problem came when writing the VO/SOT/VO for the five. I had talked to my sources about a Missouri bill trying to go through the capitol that would mandate all private insurance companies to cover therapy for children with autism. I felt it was an important topic, but my b-roll didn't match what was being said. I think I probably should have found a better way to solve the problem either with graphics or different video.
Overall I wished my package could have been better. I felt the standup was a little awkward and not quite what I wanted, and the information was very shallow. The topic of my story did change drastically while I was out. I began with the focus of how the MU Thompson Center is helping those with autism and I wanted to find out what new laws may go into effect to help those with autism. My story had to change after I had a hard time gathering facts at the convention because the main lady I wanted to talk to was always busy and the others I talked to glazed over the information. But I guess as one of the producers told me, “the first B2 reporting shift is all about surviving.” So although my first package didn’t come out exactly how I wanted, I’m glad I survived!
My next reporting shift happened to fall on a very slow news day, but this didn’t mean I wouldn’t get a taste of what a real reporting shift is like. A little bit of explanation is probably required before I state what I learned.
I started off with a story about the application deadline ending that night for those applying for the State Park Youth Corps Program though Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources.
I called around to Rock Bridge Memorial State Park and Finger Lakes State Park to see if anyone there would talk with me. At Rock Bridge they said I should talk with the DNR information officer first and Finger Lakes State Park said they would get back to me. Knowing they probably wouldn’t call me back I headed out to Rock Bridge where I shot my b-roll before it started to rain. I then went into the front office to ask if it was at all possible to get an interview. The lady told me I had to get in touch with the information officer before I could be granted an interview. Since the PIO hadn’t been answering her phone all morning, I headed out 30 minutes north of Columbia to Finger Lakes State Park. There the lady also told me she couldn’t talk unless she had permission from the PIO. I asked if there was any other way to get a hold of the PIO, but she didn’t have an answer. I called a few numbers to see if I could get to her, but number after number turned into dead ends. The superintendent at Finger Lakes State Park was the one I could talk to and she wasn’t going to get in until 2 p.m. anyway.
Finally I knew I had to move on to my next story. I headed back to the station where I imported my clips to do a VO on the State Park Youth Corps story. Next I started calling Columbia’s representatives to see if they could speak with me about the re-appropriation of funds for a new Ellis Fischel Cancer Center facility. It was almost 2 p.m. by that time and the producer still wanted me to turn a package for the five. Since all phone calls to the PR department of Ellis Fischel went to voicemail I decided to head out there anyway. Once there, the staff was able to assist me in finding the right people to speak with. After a bit of waiting a spokeswoman set up an interview for me, but told me I had to head over to the University Hospital lobby.
So off to the University Hospital I went. After the seven minute interview with the medical director, the PR guy took me around to show me where the new facility would be built. Afterwards I headed back to Ellis to get some b-roll. By this time it was 3 p.m. and I knew I had to make it quick if I was going to turn a package in time. While shooting my b-roll, the spring on the tripod lock snapped making it impossible to secure the camera into place. So I did the best I could shooting b-roll in fifteen minutes with a broken tripod.
When I got back to the station, the producers informed me I would be doing a VO/SOT/VO for the five and six, along with a VO for the five on the DNR story. They then said I could turn a package for the 10. With a little bit of time left before the five, I was able to get a hold of the spokesperson again from the hospital who answered questions about the financial aspect of the story --- questions the medical director told me he couldn’t answer.
Since writing and editing went fairly quick for the VO/SOT/VO’s I decided to head back to the University to shoot a standup before the sun went down. Editing and writing for the package went quickly, but the entire time I wished I could have done a better job. I hated having wallpaper video and just one interview. I also don’t feel my story had much substance to it. I had hoped to find someone who was opposed to it, especially because I feel my story turned out one sided. I had also wanted to attend the free cancer screening Ellis Fischel was holding from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. for b-roll, but time didn’t allow for it. (Someone ended up doing a package on that anyway.) The producer had also wanted me to head out to the capitol, but since I couldn’t get a hold of anyone there I knew I should probably head to Ellis Fischel instead.
My second reporting shift taught me a lot about the approach I should take when my sources aren’t calling me back. I definitely feel heading out to the locations to get interviews helped. I would have never gotten the interview with medical director if I hadn’t stopped by Ellis Fischel. Although this approach didn’t work quite so well on the DNR story, I don’t thinking sitting around waiting for the phone to ring would have done me any good.
This also ties in with time management. I typically set a deadline for myself to be back at the station by 1:30 p.m. so I can start writing and editing. I had to rework that deadline this time and set numerous deadlines throughout the day. I learned with each new story comes new deadlines.
Finally I learned being familiar with the locations you are covering stories on helps a lot. I’ve walked around Rock Bridge Memorial State Park many times and knew where some good places to shot would be. I also covered a story a few years back at the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, so this helped me to know my way around the center. With a tight deadline on getting to my interview with the medical director, knowing where to park and where the University Hospital lobby was turned out to be beneficial.
My package didn’t turn out the way I would want any story to turn out, but considering the sequence of events I faced Friday, I felt I did pretty much all I could do. I’m hoping with a little more experience things will go smoother next time!
For some basketball is just a game. But what does basketball mean to the players on Wyoming’s Wind River Indian High School basketball team? Almost everything. It’s life for them.
“Chiefs” is a documentary that aired on PBS’ “Independent Lens”. It is about the Wind River Indian High School basketball team and their quest to win the state championship. Even more so, the film digs deep into the personal lives of those on the team and the struggles they face in everyday life.
Al Redman, who has been coaching the team for more than 20 years, has helped the team reach five state championships and go on a 50-game winning streak. But before this film was made, it had been eight years since the Chiefs won a state title and it was about time to bring one back, despite whatever other challenges these boys are facing in their personal lives.
The Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, where the documentary “Chiefs” was shot, is the third-largest Indian reservation in the country. It covers over 2,000,000 acres in west-central Wyoming’s Wind River Basin. It’s also one of the poorest areas of the United States. Although success off the court is hard to find for those living there, winning basketball games is another story for these boys.
Basketball is a large influence in their lives. These boys grew up playing together and are now winning one high school basketball game after another together. All over the reservation there is sure to be a basketball hoop in each driveway. Although they face challenges plaguing the reservation, like poverty, alcoholism, and youth suicide, basketball is always there for them.
“Chiefs” is a thoughtful insightful film into how these young Native American men are dealing with life on and off the reservation in the 21st century.
I really appreciated how this film was put together. Although it wasn’t like a short broadcast piece, I picked up on many techniques journalists use. An example would be the shots. Filmmaker Daniel Junge made sure to have plenty of close-ups as well as wide and medium shots. His shots were not short like a broadcast piece, but this only made the story more fluent. He gave the viewer a chance to experience things like the feet of the basketball players on the courts, the pounding of their shoes and the bounce of the basketball. He showed close-ups as they laid the basketball up. Through these special shots, he brought the games to life.
I felt the interview settings were very appropriate for this film. Sometimes he would interview the players while they were relaxing on their beds. It showed their style of life and how calm they were. Each interview setting gave some sort of look into the personality of the player being interviewed. Community members were interviewed outside. This was a way to see them in the setting of the reservation life.
The sound in the film also entranced me. There is a point in the film where Junge takes us to the campfire where the players are getting ready for their ritual. He shows them moving the charcoal around and you can hear the players talking. He opens the scene by clearly placing a mic near the fire. You can hear the crackling of the fire and you feel as if you are really there. It reminded me, that as a journalist, to catch good sound you must be up close and personal with it.
Narration in the film is rare. Voiceovers give the viewer an update on where the basketball team is headed after they won a game. This kept the story moving, but it never got in the way of having the people in the film tell the story. I also appreciated this in the way of journalism story telling. As we have learned, let the people tell the story and as the journalist use your voice to piece parts of the story together. This is exactly what Junge did.
With many of his interviews, Junge laid other video of the person over their voice. This could be them sitting in the stands or walking somewhere. This was visually stimulating to keep the viewer in the moment. I feel like this is a good technique to use in journalism storytelling. It gives the viewer something to look at other than a direct shot of the person’s face.
Junge is not shy to show the challenges these players must face. When they play basketball at other schools he shows the abuse they face from their opponents. After a loss, one of the teams starts yelling that they’ve “scalped them” and how they should go back to the reservation. Moments like these kept the film real. We see how the players from Wyoming Indian School react: calm, cool, and collected.
Overall I really enjoyed “Chiefs”. I truly felt it was a real look into a way of life many don’t think about. From the film I gathered a sense of freedom, but also restrictions in these boy’s lives. The reservation they live on is a peaceful place with beautiful scenery. They seem to enjoy their time on the reservation, but also don’t feel as if they fit in with life outside of the reservation. Many of them head to college only to find themselves coming back home because it just doesn’t feel right for them. One comes back to attend community college and work for AmeriCorps, teaching kids on the reservation. One decides to also attend community college so he can stay home to learn the ways of bull riding from his father. Some do decide to attend college on a basketball scholarship, but even so they will never forgot their life on the reservation.
Through various interviews, compelling camera shots, natural sound, and a little narration Junge is able to give us a look into every aspect of these boy’s lives that make them who they are. Someday I hope to perfect these techniques as well, so I can bring someone else’s story to life like he did.
I am a passionate reporter with a constant yearn to learn. In this blog, I hope to take you on my journey through the crazy world of journalism and give you a chance to relive all the enlightening experiences I may encounter. It is a looking glass into anything and everything journalistic.
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