Monday, April 21, 2008
Production Memo
When this project was first assigned, I knew I wanted to do something about cars. There’s no question about how much I like cars and driving, so why not do my project on something I’m interested in? After all, it still has journalistic value. Anyway, my first thought was to do my project concentrating on female car enthusiasts because I figured that when most people think about car enthusiasts they think of males. I wanted to get the other side of the story and show people what it’s like to be a female car enthusiast.
However, when I started on my contact list, I realized that to make this happen I needed some female contacts. I went online to car forums and asked around to see if anyone was interested in talking to me. Some seemed like they were and when one finally got back to me, I had already decided to change my topic.
I decided that since I couldn’t really get in contact with female car enthusiasts, especially ones that were available and in the area, I should concentrate on something else. Since there is a lot of talk recently about gas prices and how they just keep going up and about how the economy isn’t doing well, I figured I might as well see how that affects car culture and people who modify their cars.
Getting contacts for this was much easier because I already knew some people in a local car club called Forward Motion. I was able to get two of them to talk to me so that was one of the easier parts of this project. I also tried to contact some people who I considered experts or at least those that had more experience with cars and car culture. I called and called and sent e-mails but never got responses. The two people I tried to contact were Alex Roy of Polizei144 and Adam Weinstein of Manhattan Motorcars.
After getting my interviews and doing my stand-ups, putting the video together wasn’t too bad. But I realized that I needed to figure out a way to transition in some voice over because interviewees don’t always answer questions the way you want so that they fit perfectly into your video. Then of course Windows Movie Maker decides that it doesn’t want to work after all the time spent cutting videos to the correct sound bite, putting in transitions, etc. Just great! Or even better, the program won’t open in the first place. Well if it doesn’t open then I can work on it even less. Wonderful.
So let’s move on. Unfortunately, the pictures I took for this project are too big for Flickr so I had to put them on Webshots. I was just glad that at least one free online photo storage site accepted very large files.
Another small snag I ran into was when I wanted to transfer audio from my voice recorder to my PC. Unfortunately, the software to the recorder is for Windows 2000/XP and I have Windows Vista. It wasn’t a big deal because I just used a friend’s computer to download the audio file and then e-mailed it to myself and used it that way.
Since we’re talking about snags I might as well add the timeliness aspect that comes with any news story. Since I’m working with rising gas prices, the numbers are changing almost every day, so the information I use in my story today is different from the information I had last week. Luckily, I said the date in my stand-up and will be mentioning dates in my text story, so my different information shouldn’t look too funny.
I also had some problems with my video because a green panel is covering half the screen for any part of my video that I recorded using a flipcam.
However, when I started on my contact list, I realized that to make this happen I needed some female contacts. I went online to car forums and asked around to see if anyone was interested in talking to me. Some seemed like they were and when one finally got back to me, I had already decided to change my topic.
I decided that since I couldn’t really get in contact with female car enthusiasts, especially ones that were available and in the area, I should concentrate on something else. Since there is a lot of talk recently about gas prices and how they just keep going up and about how the economy isn’t doing well, I figured I might as well see how that affects car culture and people who modify their cars.
Getting contacts for this was much easier because I already knew some people in a local car club called Forward Motion. I was able to get two of them to talk to me so that was one of the easier parts of this project. I also tried to contact some people who I considered experts or at least those that had more experience with cars and car culture. I called and called and sent e-mails but never got responses. The two people I tried to contact were Alex Roy of Polizei144 and Adam Weinstein of Manhattan Motorcars.
After getting my interviews and doing my stand-ups, putting the video together wasn’t too bad. But I realized that I needed to figure out a way to transition in some voice over because interviewees don’t always answer questions the way you want so that they fit perfectly into your video. Then of course Windows Movie Maker decides that it doesn’t want to work after all the time spent cutting videos to the correct sound bite, putting in transitions, etc. Just great! Or even better, the program won’t open in the first place. Well if it doesn’t open then I can work on it even less. Wonderful.
So let’s move on. Unfortunately, the pictures I took for this project are too big for Flickr so I had to put them on Webshots. I was just glad that at least one free online photo storage site accepted very large files.
Another small snag I ran into was when I wanted to transfer audio from my voice recorder to my PC. Unfortunately, the software to the recorder is for Windows 2000/XP and I have Windows Vista. It wasn’t a big deal because I just used a friend’s computer to download the audio file and then e-mailed it to myself and used it that way.
Since we’re talking about snags I might as well add the timeliness aspect that comes with any news story. Since I’m working with rising gas prices, the numbers are changing almost every day, so the information I use in my story today is different from the information I had last week. Luckily, I said the date in my stand-up and will be mentioning dates in my text story, so my different information shouldn’t look too funny.
I also had some problems with my video because a green panel is covering half the screen for any part of my video that I recorded using a flipcam.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Transcription of Interview with Joseph Font
0:00 TP: So, what’s your name?
0:02 JF: Uh, Joseph Font
0:03 TP: How old are you and where are you from?
0:05 JF: Uh, 23 and I live out in Nassau
0:07 TP: Okay and what got you interested in cars and car culture?
0:12 JF: Uh I was always interested in cars when I was younger and finally got old enough to buy one. Became a hobby of mine
0:16 TP: What kind of car do you own now and what are the things you’ve done to it to make it your own?
0:22 JF: Uh right now I have a 2004 Mazda RX8. The major things I’ve done to it are work wheels from Japan, carbon fiber hood and trunk, intake exhaust, basic [inaudible].
0:34 TP: And these things from Japan…are they any cheaper than buying from the U.S.? Does inflation affect you in terms of the modifications you buy?
0:43 JF: Inflation takes a little bit of affect. Shipping is definitely a lot more. Um the only big plus about it is you’re a little bit more original. Not as many people have the same parts as you.
0:53 TP: And what about gas prices, how do they affect what you do to your car, how you drive it?
0:57 JF: Uh, gas affects it a little bit. I don’t really drive it as much anymore. For our cars we gotta use 93 gas so it’s about like [$]3.69 right now counting I only get like 13-15 miles a gallon right now as it is. Sucks.
1:10 TP: And because of that would you, do you go to car meets that are only close-by? Do you go…do you still go wherever you want?
1:17 JF: Um as long as it’s mostly in the tri-state area I’ll go. I like to go see other people’s cars, see what they done to it.
1:24 **End of Interview**
0:02 JF: Uh, Joseph Font
0:03 TP: How old are you and where are you from?
0:05 JF: Uh, 23 and I live out in Nassau
0:07 TP: Okay and what got you interested in cars and car culture?
0:12 JF: Uh I was always interested in cars when I was younger and finally got old enough to buy one. Became a hobby of mine
0:16 TP: What kind of car do you own now and what are the things you’ve done to it to make it your own?
0:22 JF: Uh right now I have a 2004 Mazda RX8. The major things I’ve done to it are work wheels from Japan, carbon fiber hood and trunk, intake exhaust, basic [inaudible].
0:34 TP: And these things from Japan…are they any cheaper than buying from the U.S.? Does inflation affect you in terms of the modifications you buy?
0:43 JF: Inflation takes a little bit of affect. Shipping is definitely a lot more. Um the only big plus about it is you’re a little bit more original. Not as many people have the same parts as you.
0:53 TP: And what about gas prices, how do they affect what you do to your car, how you drive it?
0:57 JF: Uh, gas affects it a little bit. I don’t really drive it as much anymore. For our cars we gotta use 93 gas so it’s about like [$]3.69 right now counting I only get like 13-15 miles a gallon right now as it is. Sucks.
1:10 TP: And because of that would you, do you go to car meets that are only close-by? Do you go…do you still go wherever you want?
1:17 JF: Um as long as it’s mostly in the tri-state area I’ll go. I like to go see other people’s cars, see what they done to it.
1:24 **End of Interview**
Transcription of Interview with Jayar Quintal
0:00 TP: What’s your name?
0:01 JQ: Jayar Quintal
0:03 TP: How old are you?
0:04 JQ: I’m 21 and I’m from Glen Cove, NY
0:06 TP: Okay, um, so what’s gotten you interested in car culture and cars?
0:13 JQ: Um, I guess I was always interested since I was young so I took it up as a hobby.
0:18 TP: And what kind of car do you have now and what are some of the things that you’ve done to it to make it your own car?
0:23 JQ: Right now I have a 2004 Mazda RX8 and right now I mod it for show and stuff like that so it looks nice.
0:33 TP: And how have gas prices affected the kinds of things you do to the car, places you go, racing, things like that?
0:41 JQ: You know, it doesn’t really affect me that much, um, I love to drive places so if it doesn’t get ridiculously high then, you know, I’ll still drive it.
0:50 TP: What’s your limit for gas prices? How high do they need to go before you’ll stop?
0:54 JQ: They need to go ridiculously high
0:56 TP: Numbers
0:57 JQ: Like ten miles per gallon.
0:59 TP: You mean ten dollars a gallon?
1:01 JQ: Yes, but I do get ten miles per gallon.
1:09 TP: And how has inflation affected the kinds of modifications you buy, whether you wait on buying something, whether you buy something before buying something else, things like that?
1:19 JQ: Well, my car’s not really my number number one priority, I still have school, I have books, I have to pay for other stuff pay my bills, cell phone, and then gasoline and then you can go to the nice stuff, but before that also there’s stuff like, you know, stuff you need to keep you car good like maintenance. Maintenance always comes before pleasure like, uh, nice looking things.
1:45 TP: And um, do the prices and gas and the miles that your car gives you per gallon affect if you’ll go to a car meet farther away or, you know, you’ll go to the ones that are in your area, things like that?
1:57 JQ: I’ll go to a car meet anywhere, I love car meets. It’s nice to see people modify their cars in different ways and everything looks nice.
2:06 **End of interview**
0:01 JQ: Jayar Quintal
0:03 TP: How old are you?
0:04 JQ: I’m 21 and I’m from Glen Cove, NY
0:06 TP: Okay, um, so what’s gotten you interested in car culture and cars?
0:13 JQ: Um, I guess I was always interested since I was young so I took it up as a hobby.
0:18 TP: And what kind of car do you have now and what are some of the things that you’ve done to it to make it your own car?
0:23 JQ: Right now I have a 2004 Mazda RX8 and right now I mod it for show and stuff like that so it looks nice.
0:33 TP: And how have gas prices affected the kinds of things you do to the car, places you go, racing, things like that?
0:41 JQ: You know, it doesn’t really affect me that much, um, I love to drive places so if it doesn’t get ridiculously high then, you know, I’ll still drive it.
0:50 TP: What’s your limit for gas prices? How high do they need to go before you’ll stop?
0:54 JQ: They need to go ridiculously high
0:56 TP: Numbers
0:57 JQ: Like ten miles per gallon.
0:59 TP: You mean ten dollars a gallon?
1:01 JQ: Yes, but I do get ten miles per gallon.
1:09 TP: And how has inflation affected the kinds of modifications you buy, whether you wait on buying something, whether you buy something before buying something else, things like that?
1:19 JQ: Well, my car’s not really my number number one priority, I still have school, I have books, I have to pay for other stuff pay my bills, cell phone, and then gasoline and then you can go to the nice stuff, but before that also there’s stuff like, you know, stuff you need to keep you car good like maintenance. Maintenance always comes before pleasure like, uh, nice looking things.
1:45 TP: And um, do the prices and gas and the miles that your car gives you per gallon affect if you’ll go to a car meet farther away or, you know, you’ll go to the ones that are in your area, things like that?
1:57 JQ: I’ll go to a car meet anywhere, I love car meets. It’s nice to see people modify their cars in different ways and everything looks nice.
2:06 **End of interview**
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