Twitter was introduced to me as a social networking site where people would post what they were doing ever second of their lives, enabling them to publicize their daily actions, thoughts and rants to the world. It wasn’t well received by my group of friends because it provided an unwanted plethora of status updates and play-by-plays— something that was already captured through Facebook. I tested it out, used it as a hub for my status updates, but slowly phased it out only to return to facebook as my status update hub. What I found annoying about twitter then is I saw it as a limited facebook and all I could get out of it was status updates. Also, I didn’t like the fact that random people could follow my tweets. The direct messages were a mess and it really didn’t serve a purpose outside of Facebook. Because I didn’t see a need for another source of status updates, I quit Twitter.

Twitter was then reintroduced to me again during my blogging class. I used it a bit, but still didn’t understand the reason to have one. It wasn’t until this journalism class that I fully understood the benefits of using twitter. The problem the entire time was I was trying to take twitter and apply what I knew about social networking from Facebook. My failure was not using a new approach with Twitter. The approach that I found necessary is using Twitter as a networking tool among people in your industry or field of interest. Instead of using it as a closed social networking tool, like Facebook where you are only friends with people in your inner social network, you should use it as an open social networking tool. This means allowing all twitter users to be a part of your social network. The difference in this approach is that you can now receive the industry updates or even status updates from those who may not necessarily be your friend in person, or even know who you are, but you are still “in the know” because you are friends with them on twitter. By following people outside of your closed social network but in a larger network within your industry or interests you are creating a larger network of people who can provide valuable information or opportunity.

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The Ballard Market Vibe is something that I’ve been wanting to capture on film in order to share with those unaware of the atmosphere at the market. I’ve been attending local markets for a while now and every time I go—and I’m not exaggerating when I say EVERYONE—there is cheerful and smiling. From my experience there, I wanted to show people the difference by shopping at local markets. Some of which were being able to converse with those that grow the food you eat, talk with happy people and just have a great start to your Sat or Sun morning.

My goals setting out on this was to get some good footage from the vendors and some of the market goers. I knew they would be able to paint a good picture and summarize the vibe in their own words. During my time at the Ballard Market, I was able to interview some pretty cool people who were perfect for expressing the emotions of the market. The problem was that these people were trying to sell their products so we were being interrupted by customers. On top of that the market is pretty hectic which made interviewing very hard. The sound was drowned out by background noise and the footage was hard to grab without people getting in the way (there wasn’t much room). However, everyone was awesome! Although I have a lot of learning to do when shooting on the go.

From this project, I learned that shooting video on the spot is hard. Looking at my footage I wish I had a better camera and tried harder to be more artistic. Normally, I can get in there and grab some nice shots but because I was shooting video, I seem to have forgot about my photography way of shooting. I wish I spent more time grabbing interesting shots from more angles. I know my final project will not be as good as what I was hoping to accomplish, but I think it will be a decent testament to the market vibe.

The video that you’ll find further down I reviewed using the 5 shot rule for shooting video. Below a quick review of what that looks like.

The five-shot rule (watch BBC video).

1. An extreme close-up (detail) of action (movement)
2. Close-up of the face of the person doing the action
3. Medium shot, face and action together
4. Over-the-shoulder view of the action (gives viewer the point of view of the person doing the action)
5. Another (different) angle

Now here’s the video:

ATM Swaps Cash for Gold [VIDEO]

And this is what I found:

• First shot is up close at a gold curtain and as the curtain is pulled down the camera is also zooming out! Which is already breaks the rules
• The camera is obviously having to be held up by someones hand as there is a noticeable shake in the video
• Quick over the shoulder shot, then straight up close up of the ATM screen
• Then an unusual over the head shot? I guess it helps give us a new perspective of someone putting money into an ATM
• And of course they have to show a close up of the gold that is dispensed. (again you can tell that the camera is going by free hand)
• When they did their first interview you can also tell that the camera is now on a tripod, and then the next shot the camera remains on the tripod and does another zoom out!

Overall, considering the situation where many camera men are video tapping the same event I guess it would be very difficult to have a tripod. But if I remember correctly you shouldn’t include in your video a free standing clip with a stationary one (I could be wrong about that). But either way, the clip now comes across as very poorly done especially when using our 5 shot rules.

Before I arrived on Red Square, I kept thinking to myself “what a boring subject to shoot, Red Square!?” Well when I showed up on campus, I still had that same outlook. I didn’t know what to shoot as everything was a washed out brick red—plus it was just bricks. So I tried to find a Red Square personality—I walked around Red Square in a complete circle. Starting in front of Suzallo and slowly adventuring around the area. I examined all stairways bridges and balconies encompassing the square. And what I began focusing my photos on were trash found all around. I thought it was an interesting clash of beauty and rubbish. I even noticed that in front of one of the halls there was a sign that said “To a green thought” yet it was made out of metal and was rusting, “what an oxymoron, a moron must have designed this” I actually said that out loud.

"What an oxymoron, a moron must have designed this"

So it only furthered my search in terms of the environment in red square. Another part of the story led me to the reconstruction of the bricks in front of Kane Hall. A team of people have been working on restructuring the bricks because they have been sinking into the ground. Since no one was a around, I got up close ad personal to try and capture work they’re doing to our square. After that part was done, I was lucky enough to have snuck onto a Kane Hall balcony which clearly stated “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY”…Hey I’m authorized right? I’ve paid my couple thousand in tuition this quarter. Anyways, that spot gave me another interesting angle to shoot the reconstruction as well as the people in Red Square, Yet it really was lacking something. I felt like the clouds only amplified the washed out colors making my pictures dark and dreary. But what the heck! That’s what photoshop is for…

From this experience I learned that having active people in your shots make them way more interesting if you’re trying to tell a story about Red Square. Since Red Square doesn’t have that much to offer other than interesting brick patterns—people make all the difference. Too bad I really didn’t capture many subjects in my shots. Since I’ve done photography before, I was very disappointed that I wasn’t able to turn boring subjects into interesting images. I feel like I didn’t create very many interesting perspectives and on a second whim I would definitely try and deliver Red Square from a perspective that we aren’t aware or even used to seeing.