5 reasons Twitter intrigues me; 5 reasons I avoid it

Posted: July 31, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Blogging, Great tools, Industry | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments »

tweet!

I’ve been holding out from getting a Twitter account for years. Recently, my resistance has been slipping because:

  1. Twitter users transmit news faster than the news wires. Case study: Wednesday’s L.A.-area earthquake.
  2. There are tons of Twitter tools out there to play with, such as twhirl and summize.
  3. It’s beautiful in its simplicity.
  4. It’s like IM from your phone and SMS from your computer all at once.
  5. Many of my favorite bloggers use it and recommend it. (e.g. here, here and here.)

But then again…

  1. I’ve already got a couple hundred friends on Facebook, and I can use my status message as a tweet.
  2. Do I really need one more social networking account out there?
  3. I have a hard enough time keeping up on my RSS feeds!
  4. For news, how reliable is information provided via Twitter? Case in point: Subway Jared’s nondemise.
  5. I’m doing everything I can to maintain a longer attention span; I can’t see Twitter helping that.

So, who out there loves to Twitter? Who else is holding out?

Video: Spokane teens create news webcasts

Posted: March 9, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Self-promotion, Video | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieX5B6Ed0JQ]

What: Multimedia about multimedia. Emerge News is a grant-funded program that lets high school students create news webcasts. I visited one of their tapings and shot video of the process.

What worked: Tight shots. Lots of them. I like the popcorn sequence, but only because it was part of the story; the subsequent shot of the girl working by the bowl of popcorn is meant to establish that. Also, the setting was amenable to using a tripod, which helped keep my shots sharp and allowed me to zoom way in.

Wait, music? After my edit, the piece felt a little flat. My editor at work suggested music. I threw together a quick soundtrack in Garage Band using three loops. I think the result is a livelier video without distracting from the subjects.

Lessons learned: Check out the background on the first interview. Painted cinder blocks. How ugly. How stiff. I need to find better ways to set up my A roll interviews.