Going into the Videography program one of the things that I found to be the most interesting was being apart of the 519 Online News team. 519 Online News is a news show broken up into respective classes bring the viewer all the latest happenings from the 519 area. The thing I loved the most about it was just the overall feel of this was a real deal news show with everyone working hard to meet deadlines.

Nothing could prove my point even more is the fact the entire class went to Toronto to cover the Occupy protests back in Novemeber. We were shooing footage along side the likes of CBC and CityTv and I loved that feeling of covering news. The other big thing for me personally was getting to shoot two high profiled Politicians. At the start of the year I shot Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak when he was in the running to be Premier of Ontario. I got to be right in the scrums and fight for the best shot. Not many people can say the shot a high profiled candidate in college.

But for me the ultimate highlight for me was shooting Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty at the Communitech Hub in downtown Waterloo. That was the ultimate thrill as I had plenty of press pass from not just the Hub but I got one from the Premiers media rep and made me feel like I was the ultimate news shooter. During that shoot I was even asked by the Premiers secritary if I could keep my distance as I was too close to him. Hey you gotta do what you gotta do to get the best shots.

All in all my time with 519 Online has been a great one as it helped continue to grow with working in a team environment and just overall improving my skills.

Before I finish this blog I would like to thank our teacher Matt Pancer as being in his newsroom class I learned some stuff with Final Cut that I never thought I would of known so cheers to him and cheers to 519 Online News for a great year of reporting. 

Before you know it my time as a student at Conestoga College will be up and over with. The thought of that at first is very overwhelming as I will be entering the real world. But I think more than ever I am ready to take on the next chapter in my life.

Conestoga College was a great place for me to hon my skills. I came into the school with little to no knowledge of anything technical and now I would say I am super confident in my skill set and knowledge with equipment and editing software. As well, I got to meet some very interested and super talented people who I am sure I will hear their names as time goes on doing plenty of big things in the world of media.

As with everything there are two sides of the coin for me known as the good and the bad of going out into the real world.

The good is going out into the real world as a videographer means I have a lot more urgency to get gigs/job and make it as professional as possible. As sometimes I have had the mindset with projects to just do an a passable job on things and try harder the next time. That mentality will change when I am out in the real world. The other positive news I have is that it seems many news networks are hiring the new class of graduates. As one of my classmates from the TV Broadcast program Gerard Fegan just scored a nice job with City TV working as a floor director on Breakfast Television. I myself have made connections in terms of the freelance world and may hopefully get to travel across this great country and do some shooting for a topmmanews.com, the website with the best Canadian content in terms of MMA.

The bad or more appropriately the scary is just the whole fending for myself when your used to living at home and having lots of things taken care of for you and now facing the reality that you have to take care of your own self now.

However, I think I have reached the stage of my life where I am totally ready and very curious to see me take on those tasks and enjoy success in the world of Videography.

This past week I finally wrapped up my first feature for Inside Angle. The story was about how the local Post Office in Heidelberg was shut down with out any real notice from Canada Post.

I started shooting the story in January when the issue was the most pressing and was really impressed how the people of Heidelberg were willing to talk to me. The first person I interviewed was Steve McCathie the owner of the Forwell Variety Store the place that housed the post office for the people of Heidelberg for more than 10 years. Steve talked to me for a half hour and for a guy who had a very intimidating appearance he was very soft spoken and super nice. Steve explained to me how Canada Post wanted to take money out of his bank account at a moments whim in order to make payments. That whole issue just rubbed me the wrong me as Steve explained to me how that would be like leaving your debt anytime you went in to his store to buy something.

The next interview I got was from Morgan Catton a gentleman whose property was dug up to put the new Canada Super Boxes. With this interview I did a walk and talk and was able to insert myself in the story well where it worked out. Morgan was a very nice as well and actually showed me the marks on his property.

Since this story is going to air on TV my main issue was editing the story to make it fit in a time constraints. As with any story you don’t want it go over or under but still tell a good story. But I got the story how I want it and I am really impressed how it came out

The story came out well and airs on the upcoming edition of Inside Angle so don’t ya dare miss it.

One of the best parts about second semester was the ability to choose an elective. The choices were either Documentary Film Making or News Producer. I already had gone through a Documentary course last year in the TV Broadcast program so I figured I’d give the News Producer class I try.

When I went through the TV Broadcast program the whole idea of producing seemed too much for me. But entering the course I finally realized that I had seen enough people produce successful shows whether it had been College shows, shows I had volunteered on or even my internship last year. So I got the courage and put on my producer pants and decided that I would co-produce(with Zach Harvey) Inside Angle a show that airs on Rogers TV.

Producing has been a love/hate experience. The main thing I love about the show is watching a show start from nothing to having something. Inside Angle last year was a show that I felt could be totally improved so Zach and I basically restructured the show by building new graphics and new logos. The other thing I love about the show is working with my fellow classmates. Working on a show is a team environment and sharing ideas to help make everyones story the best quality it can be for the show.

The things I don’t like about the show is the pressure of meeting those deadlines for Rogers. Everything has gone smooth so far but it has been a near miss for the show on one occasion. I’m always a person that likes to get things done in advance and having a show take an hour to export always makes me nervous.

All in all the show has been going well and everyone is just doing a bang up job and makes me glad to see the many talent people we have in this program.

Well my internship has almost come to a close and I must say this has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Internships can be hit or miss and trust me I know about a miss of an internship.

Last year while I was finishing the Television Broadcast Course I did an internship at The Fight Network in Toronto. This at the time was a huge thrill for me for many reasons. The first was the fact that the Network launched in 2005 and I was an avid watcher of the network and could tell you all the names of all the on air talent and the majority of the programs. The second I was a fan of the content that aired on the network anything that involved combat sports and I could see myself working at the network one day. After all the that network was the main reason I got to doing my YouTube videos that gained me a YouTube Partnership.

But the experience wasn’t that well. In fairness I think it was 50/50 reason why the internship didn’t work out. In my opinion I didn’t think I was mature enough to be doing an internship their at that time. But the people at the Fight Network were great and always made it seem like it I can come back when ever I want.

Now on the second go around of internships I’m having a blast. As I am doing my Internship with DUA Motorsports (an upstart motorcycle part seller). I got this internship by doing some freelance work in the summer with the owner Rahul Dua and he was very impressed with my work so when he started his new company I asked him if I could do my internship with him and he said yes.

The thing I really love about this internship is the total difference between doing an internship at a TV Network and doing stuff for the corporate world. At a network there are deadlines that need to be met and it can get really intense. With corporate its busy when you are at the shoot but the atmosphere is definitely not as high.

One of the main things that I shot was a commercial to plug his website. The experience was a blast. The shoot took place at the International Center in Toronto and the entire time I was their the both of us kept getting looks of true professionalism. The video is currently in the editing process and I look forward to doing more work with DUA Motorsports in the summer 

Blog of the year

zachharvey:

My story got done. That’s all i care about.

For those of you who follow the world of Mixed Martial Arts or MMA the news today that UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre has torn his ACL and will be off the UFC’s Super Bowl show, where he was scheduled to face Nick Diaz.

They say its harder to be the champion than the challenger as you have everyone gunning for you. For St. Pierre he has faced every top challenger that the UFC has thrown at him. But St. Pierre’s problem seems to be in training has this is his second major injury in just months from training.

GSP was supposed to defend his title against Carlos Condit at UFC 137 but a groin injury forced him from that fight. However, fans couldn’t be too upset as Condit also suffered an injury in training.

Diaz become the number one contender after beating B.J. Penn on the same show GSP was supposed to headline. After the bout Diaz called out GSP for being a faker and was afraid to face him. GSP was very upset over this and voud to lay the smackdown on Diaz Super Bowl weekend.

Now that St. Pierre is out of the picture for a long time I think this can be a good thing as GSP has basically cleared out that division. Now the Welterweights can build up some serious contenders to maybe one day via for GSP 10lbs of gold. As well Nick Diaz will now face Carlos Condit a true fight for fight fans.

My feature story that will air over the holidays on 519Online News is over and done with and all I can say the experience was very memorable.

My story was on Brent Feeney, a young up and coming prospect in the world of Super Bike racing who got in a serious accident that ended any hopes of him ever racing again.

Going into doing the story I wasn’t worried about getting b-roll as I have so much bike racing footage from the summer, but my main fear was asking questions to someone who’s dreams and goals got cut short.

Brents accident put me in the whole mind set of appriciate what you have today because it might be gone tomorrow. The accident that Brent had was one where he lost control of his bike and fell. As he was spinning on the track another rider who had no where to go ran over his back and broke Brents T11, T12 and L1 veratbres.

So asking someone questions about that was kind of nerve racking. But Brent is a very easy going person and he realized how much left he has to do in life so interviewing him was a breeze.

The icing on the cake is after I finished the project I got to show it to him and he thoroughly enjoyed it making all my hard work useful.

What Suh did was wrong but the thing is that has been happening in the game for ages and if anything positive can be brought to the Suh issue its that the league will look at how clean the battles at the line of scrimmage really are

zachharvey:

Coaches actually are allowed to challenge plays on the field and I’m all for that. Sometimes the refs get it wrong, it happens. I agree that it is stupid to appeal suspensions and fines though, especially in Suh’s case. I would say he got off easy actually with all his prior penalties.

Social media has definitely taken over the world, whether its Facebook or Twitter I’m sure you have encountered one of these websites.

But with each tweet or wall post comes great responsibility as Paulina Gretzky found out. Paulina Gretzky of course is the daughter of Canada’s greatest hockey player Wayne Gretzky. Paulina felt the need to post some very interesting pictures of her self on Twitter.

A move that didn’t make the Great One happy at all as he made his little girl shut down her Twitter account once he found out that she was posting these racy pictures of herself.

Now this sort of stuff happens all the time on Twitter and to me I think Wayne made the wrong move by making his daughter closing her Twitter account. First of his daughter is 22 years old and has a mind of her own so let her put what ever SHE wants too on HER Twitter WAYNE.

Secondly the pictures really don’t effect the reputation Wayne has as a hockey player or as a Canadian ambassador. As plenty of famous celbrities have kids who have made mistakes but it never affects the famous parents at all.

So in my opinion Wayne should worry about maybe buying the Toronto Maple Leafs and trying to get his money from the Phoenix Coyotes and let his daughter post whatever she wants on Twitter.