Joe Gagnon - The Appliance Doctor

I am in a television class at Madonna University. The class produces a biweekly television show called Celebrate Michigan, that airs at 6:30 AM on channel 20 (MyTV 20) in Metro Detroit. The show focuses on community leaders who give back to their area. A recent guest on the show was the Appliance Doctor, Joe Gagnon. To learn more about Mr. Gagnon, check out his website.

I got a late phone call the Saturday before Wednesday's show, asking if I could film Mr. Gagnon's radio show, that he does Sundays at WTKD 1400 AM from 2 PM to 4 PM. Always wanting more experience, I gladly accepted and went to the studio a mere 14 hours later after getting the phone call.

I had a very enjoyable time watching a radio station operate. I remember how neat and clean everything looked, and looking at all the equipment that is needed to be on air. When I was there, the station was following the snow storm that was coming in to pound Michigan, so that was big news.

My directions for filming were pretty simple. Shoot enough footage to cover a 2 to 3 minute piece to air during Celebrate Michigan. With that in mind, I knew I wanted to shoot about an hour of footage. I made sure I got shots of Mr. Gagnon on air, as while as shots of his producer operating the equipment, and the equipment itself. Looking back on what I shot, I am happy with what I got, although I think my "film mind" got the best of me because I did an awful lot of zooms and pans. I wish I got more longer still shots. I think my steady cam skills worked well, although I wish I had a tripod. Being on such short time to film, I didn't have access to one.

I did three edits of the piece before Wednesday's show, with the final edit happening right before class. I did find an awesome tool in Motion for Final Cut, which allowed me to stabilize some of the shots that I wished I had a tripod for. I was amazed on how well Motion stabilized the shots and it looked great when I imported it into Final Cut.

WATCH "JOE GAGNON - THE APPLIANCE DOCTOR" ON YOUTUBE

The assignment itself had some challenges. Besides not having a tripod, I really wanted to make the piece exciting with what footage I had. I was lucky to obtain a copy of the first hour of Mr. Gagnon's radio show that I imported into Final Cut. On the show, Mr. Gagnon has an opening theme song. To keep the pacing going, I made some adjusts to the theme song, and extended the non-vocal parts of it during the clips of Joe talking with his call in guests. I am happy with how it turned out.

The Celebrate Michigan episode with Joe Gagnon on will air some time in the future, possibly in late Spring 2011. Hope you check out! Fridays at 6:30 AM on channel 20. (My TV20 Detroit)

News Class - International Coffee Time

Madonna University has started a new program called International Friendship Program. The goal behind the program is to partner up an International Madonna student with an American Madonna student so they can learn about each other's cultures and become friends.

The first meeting of the program was referred to as International Coffee Time. The partners met each other, and found out many important things about one another.

For my news assignment, I went down there and filmed the meeting. Everyone involved were very nice and accommodating, even though there was a camera directly in front of the them from time to time. The meeting started with the partners introducing one another. After they had their direct conversations, the entire group introduced their partners to everyone else. The meeting ended with the group learning the Chinese New Year song.

BCA 3750 - NEWS - INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP PROGRAM - EXTENDED

The followup assignment involved a re-edit of the original, but shortened for length. A requirement of the shorter piece was to use new footage as best as I could. That worked out well because my partner, fellow Madonna student Karlyn Eck, and I filmed everything that we possibly could during the meeting.

BCA 3750 - NEWS - INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP PROGRAM - SHORT

One of the biggest challenges shooting the meeting was the amount of light that was in the room. I had to do a lot of color correcting so things didn't appear so blown out. Next time though, I want to plan ahead by adjusting the settings on the camera so I wouldn't need to do a lot of color correcting. The audio came out pretty good, expect I had to raise the audio levels in the shorter piece to hear the partners talk among one another, since they were not individually mic'd.

I am very happy with the turnout of both pieces. I got pretty excited when I found the shot of an Asian student clapping with a big smile on her face at the end of the extended video. It was a great shot to end on.

News Class Interview

It's mock interview time! I wanted to something fun for my next News assignment, but unfortunately, this turned out to be more-or-less a fun side video that didn't quite fit the guidelines of the assignment. My goal behind this interview was to a improv interview, where I interview a video pirate, portrayed by Brett Wheat, a fellow Madonna student. The exciting part of this interview is that it was all one take, and besides perhaps one time, the video pirate and I kept a great composure throughout it.

For interview b-roll, I found some Hardee's training video footage from the 1980s on Youtube, which pertained to the fact that the video pirate steals restaurant training videos.

WATCH "BCA 3750 - NEWS - CAMPUS CLOSEUP INVESTIGATORS" ON YOUTUBE

A challenge of this interview was shooting outside in the snow. My camerawoman, Karlyn Eck, another Madonna student, had to adjust the aperture of the camera when shooting from the street, and when shooting at the front door. It was a fun challenge of the project to learn more about camera work.

I am still working on my interview skills. Even though I don't envision myself as a news reporter, speaking well is important in any job.

News Class Interview

This is my second interview I conducted for my News class. I interviewed my 12 year old brother, John, is performing very well in a math competition for Catholic schools, placing first after the first two tests among 792 students! I find out about the competition, how he prepares for the tests, and his plans for the future.

WATCH "BCA 3750 - NEWS - ADAM INTERVIEWS JOHN" ON YOUTUBE

For the interview, I included some b-roll footage, along with a fun sound byte that matched the topic of the discussion.

I was impressed with the quality of answers my brother had.