BCA 3750 - News - Next Chapter Bookstore and Bistro (Scream 4)

As one of my last news pieces for this class, I decided to check out a bookstore in nearby downtown Northville that was used as a location in Scream 4. Scream 4 was filmed primarily in Northville and Plymouth, so I was very exciting to watch the movie and pick out locations that I saw in the movie.

I took a camera and tripod inside the bookstore and I told the owner that I was a Madonna student and wanted to shoot footage inside of the store for my news piece. She was more than happy to let me do so. I was thankful the store was decorated with Scream memorabilia because it made getting shots pretty easy! To repay the owner for her kindness, I purchased lunch there. And I must say, they have a delicious grilled cheese and ham sandwich!

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It was pretty exciting to have such a big Hollywood movie shot right in the neck of the woods. I can't wait to check out Scream 4 again for more moments of landmarks.

BCA 3750 - News - Stiggy's Dogs

Stiggy's Dogs is an organization in Livonia that provides service dogs to veterans who return from war with post traumatic stress disorder and similar disorders. The service dogs help them cope with issues like being in crowded area. The dogs give the veterans a feeling of comfortable, and the dogs can help them plan routes if they want to go around a crowded area.

When I did my interviews there, I did not plan to include my questions or myself on camera. It wasn't needed. So, I prepared my interviewees that I wanted complete answers. I shot with editing in my mind the entire time, and I like how the piece turned out.

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The dogs were pretty excited when I was there, but they eventually calmed down so I got some pretty good b-roll of them. I came with tripod, which is definitely my new best friend on shoots. Having steady and balanced shots definitely makes a new piece have more of a professional look and feel.

I did shoot more than I had in my news piece. I filmed Donna talking about the dogs being trained to alert their owners when to take their pills. I wasn't completely thrilled with how the footage turned out, and decided to cut it. For the next time I do a piece, I will plan the shot a little better and watch it the playback on the camera to decide if it's good enough, or time for a redo.

BCA 3750 - News - Aflac Duck Spokesperson Audition

This news opportunity just sort-of fell into my lap. I offered to help Bill Garvey, who is the spouse of a Madonna faculty member, with the Aflac duck spokesman audition. Aflac fired their former duck spokesperson, Gilbert Gottfried, after he posted some unappealing comments about Japan after their disaster. Aflac started a contest to find their next duck spokesperson.

At first, Bill wasn't excited about doing it because the job description said they preferred an actor with experience. However, that was not a requirement, so I convinced Bill that we should just go for it.

Bill recorded his duck impersonations with different emotional voices from angry to happy. He definitely impressed me because I really didn't have much of an idea how a person imitating a duck would sound like.

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What I did was record Bill's duck impersonations in Soundtrack Pro, and export the audio into Final Cut Pro to splice it all together with the good takes. Then, I exported the project into Soundtrack Pro and made a MP3.

I wish Bill luck in the contest!