Advanced Video Journalism

PITCH: Selaedin Maksut, the youngest Executive Director of all the CAIR chapters nationwide carries the heavy burden of helping out the Muslim community in any way necessary. CAIR NJ, a non profit organization, has been working towards enhancing the understanding of Islam, encouraging dialogue, protecting civil liberties, empowering American Muslims, and building coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. This is no easy task, considering hate crimes and islamophobia has increased in New Jersey since 9/11. Not to mention, the CAIR-Ohio director was fired just three months ago for allegedly sending spying on muslims and sending information to an anti-Muslim group.

I would like to tell the story of the muslim community through the eyes of the people that work for this nonprofit since they are working towards bringing justice to various victims in this community every single day. I want people to see what muslims have to face on a daily basis, and why it is important to be educated on Islam, not through the media, but through their typical muslim neighbors.

I want to execute this vision by conducting various interviews with the ED of CAIR NJ and his co workers, I also want to talk to any of the people that they represent, and I want to portray muslims not as victims, but as a strong knitted community that stands up for themselves.

I want to use b-roll of the CAIR NJ office, the mosque, and any other environment that I find myself in that is connected to the story and the vision of what I am trying to portray.

Main characters: Selaedin Maksut  Lawyer  Interns	Crew: Producer/ Director:Yasmine Mohamed
Filming locations: New Jersey, CAIR office Mosque	Shooting timeline: April-May

Edits complete: Beginning of May

Pitch

Mahmoud Adel aka Big Moe Kicks has been in the sneaker business for over 10 years. Although I was never really a sneakerhead I was always fascinated by the commitment I see in both the seller and buyer. The more I saw my cousin doing this the more I wanted to know more about it. 

So for this short documentary, I want to do it all about my cousin and how it has been being in the business for this long. i want to also highlight the past two years, I am sure covid has impacted him tremendously. I want to know what his journey was like, how he got started, and know what it’s been like. 

The growth in his business is something I witness personally so I want to know how did it go from selling a bunch of random sneakers from his garage to two fully stocked storge units and almost 35k followers on Instagram. 

I believe that this could visually be very interesting. I want to film his storage units, him delivering the sneakers, and possibly what a regular day would be like for him. I am sure he also has friends who have been with him from the start and customers who he might have had from day 1 so if i could get them to be a part of this as well it would be great.

 

Main Character

Mahmoud Adel

Ziad employee

Timeline

Filming: April 16– April 24

Editing: April 25 – May 3

Filming Locations

New York City if possible but mainly in Bayonne New Jersey

 

Pitch

Throughout her life, Anna Tripolitis has overcome an eating disorder, dealt with sobriety issues, and fled a cult. She is now an activist and has accrued a considerable following on social media and several blogs. She will be the central character of this short documentary. The piece will focus on body neutrality and eating disorder recovery as a whole.

As a character driven piece, this film will look closely at Tripolitis’ experiences with body image and how that plays into her relationship with food and exercise. I want to get a good idea of the growth she has made. 

There will be some establishing shots and a talking head shot of Anna towards the beginning of the short doc. Then I will follow with b-roll of her around the city, with her wife, and possibly eating a meal. I don’t want the film to be too on the nose when it comes to food and exercise shots. I want to focus on the positives of life after recovering from disordered eating patterns and thus the focus shouldn’t entirely be on food/exercise/body image.

I would love to include Lexie Kite in the film as an expert source, as well, but I have a feeling it may be a stretch to get her. I also have two backup sources to include in the piece for b-roll and interviews. Ideally I’d like to get a few perspectives on the subject.

Overall, I want the piece to be timely and punchy. I don’t want it to be an entirely serious tone and I want Anna to have fun with it. It should evoke emotions of hope and happiness, not the typical emotions that go along with coverage of eating disorders. I want to emulate the Vice short doc we saw on trans kids in Texas. I liked how lighthearted, yet important that piece was.

Main Characters

Primary: Anna Tripolitis

Expert Source: Lexie Kite

Backup: Lauren O’Leary and Jackie Rafferty

Timeline

Set-up: April 4 – April 11

Filming: April 11 – April 25

Editing: April 25 – May 3

Filming Locations

New York City

New Jersey

 

Pitch: Art is a creative form of expressing ideas our words can’t form. Art is unique, and it is what drives people to go further, some more than others. Most people are really passionate about art and it leads them to create such beautiful visual pieces for people to look at. When we hear the word art, one image or several images appear in our minds because art is such a powerful tool that helps us heal or remind us of certain moments. We see art when we open our eyes and look around. Whether it’s on the train, in our humble abodes, or even on our cellular devices, art is inevitable. The rise of modern art started during the time of the industrial revolution and has since risen. Many different forms of art have also become known and popularized. 

With art, we only see the final work. Never the entire process. We miss the moments when the artist smiles at his or her own work or when the artist is upset that his or her vision is not what’s reflected in the art.

This short documentary will capture the moments when the artist is engrossed in his or her art.  I plan to first open up with an establishing shot, to show the building that the artist works in, then I want to capture some of the other pieces the artist has worked on as a way to introduce the art, then the artist. As the documentary picks up, I plan to capture the process and shoot from various angles when I’m with the artist. I also plan to ask questions such as why they got into art or how. Also, what is it about this particular art that keeps them so focused. Then I want to show the final piece of the art and close it off with some more B-rolls and fade to black.

Location:

Manhattan, NY

Start Date: April 15 or earlier 🙂

 

 

 

 

https://www.kennethsousie.com/

Link: https://vimeo.com/694593863

 

Pitch: Gov kathy passed a bill where people with loud exhaust pipe have to pay 1000$ fine, I would like to document a underground auto club Dynamic Auto, about their take in this. I would also like to add arcs explaining what they represent and how this effects them and the car community.

Reminders and Upcoming Dates:

BEFORE SPRING BREAK

Tuesday, April 5: Guest speaker Kenneth Sousie, a recent Baruch alum, will be joining us next class to talk about how to keep building your skills and portfolio after graduation.

Thursday, April 7: Treatments for short docs are due next Thursday. (You can find reminders of what a treatment should consist of, and a sample one, here.)

Tuesday, April 12:  Each of the three people doing the long doc option will sign up with me for a one-hour, one-on-one editing session. Francely, Saad, and Bre, please sign up here! If there isn’t a time that day that works for you, let me know and I can schedule something another time that week.

There will be NO CLASS this day for people who are doing the visual poem/short doc track, so please use the time to get some research or shooting done for your docs!

AFTER SPRING BREAK

Tuesday, April 26: We’ll have an in-class editing and production day on the first class back from spring break.

Thursday April 28: Second cuts of long docs due.

Tuesday, May 3: Rough cuts of short docs will be due.

Tuesday, May 10: Final cuts of short AND long docs due.

Tuesday, May 17: Last day of class, portfolio websites due.

 

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Portfolio Websites and Reels

If you want to make headway in this industry when you leave Baruch, the single most useful thing you can have is a professional-looking portfolio website. Editors aren’t going to ask to see your transcript or your resume—they’ll want to see your work, and the most efficient way of doing that is to send them a link. It’ll show that you take yourself seriously

Discussion: Making a great portfolio website

What medium (or media) are you going to be featuring prominently? Keep that in mind when choosing a template.

A portfolio website is basically an online resume. You’re selling yourself, so make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. Link to your various social media profiles, Vimeo/YouTube accounts, etc. You can even post your resume on there if you like. And write a good bio for your About page.

Some people choose to adopt a more formal tone, while others let a bit of their personality show through. Think about how you want to brand yourself.

Requirements for Final Portfolio and Reel

You’ll need at least three main pages on your site: a Video or Home page where we can view your projects, a Reel page, and an About page where you describe yourself and your work (names/sections can vary, but that’s the general idea). Some people put their contact info on this page, while others choose to have an entirely separate Contact page. Those of you who have work you’d like to showcase from other classes or personal projects are welcome to create a Photography or Audio page… or organize it entirely differently if there’s another system that works for you.

You’ll want a nice professional-looking headshot taken for your bio page, or a shot of you in action reporting. I recommend taking advantage of having your school cameras to do this. And please make sure you proofread. I want to see a sentence or short paragraph introducing each of your projects, on the portfolio site if the template allows space for it as well as on the Vimeo page where the video is hosted.

It is recommended but not required for you to link the website to your own domain name, because I don’t want to require any of you to pay a website subscription. Most of the site builders listed above have basic options that will allow you to host your site for free if you have a ____.wordpress.com or a ____.weebly.com address; often your site will show up with advertisements unless you upgrade (the monthly fee varies). It’s up to you whether or not it’s worth it at this stage to pay for the more polished, professional-looking website that a personalized domain will give you. A domain name will usually run you about $12 a year and it’s fairly simple to link your portfolio site to it by going into the settings and making a few changes. Let me know if you run into any difficulty here and I’ll be happy to help you.

Bearing in mind that since most of you don’t have a huge amount of material yet to work with, your reel doesn’t need to be very long. One minute long is plenty, and you should keep it under two minutes—basically you’re just taking your absolute best shots from everything you’ve ever filmed and cutting them together with music. Feel free to use this as an opportunity to showcase clips from old projects from past semesters as well.

 

Some examples of multimedia journalist websites:

https://marianahenninger.com/

http://www.amandamustard.com/

http://www.edouphoto.com/

http://www.esthermbabazi.com/

https://www.keithlanephotography.com/

https://emilyjreports.com/

https://www.amralfiky.com/

http://www.neilbrandvold.com/

Documentary Photographer

 

 

A few popular website builder options:

WordPress

Adobe Portfolio (free if you subscribe to an Adobe programs)

Weebly

Wix

Squarespace (does not have a free version)

 

Buying a website domain:

Domain.com

GoDaddy.com

Even if you don’t want to pay to subscribe to a site builder, it might be worth buying your preferred domain name sooner rather than later just to lock it down. (Depends on how common your name is.) Years ago it was somewhat more common to have some kind of creative website name, but that’s rare these days. I recommend using some version of your own name dot com because it will look the cleanest and most professional.

The process of linking a domain to a website varies slightly based on which ones you’re using, but if you are planning on doing this and having trouble following the instructions most sites provide on this, let me know and I can help walk you through it.

Pitches for your 5-minute short docs are due today. We’ll workshop them together.

Tuesday, April 26: We’ll have an in-class editing and production day on the first class back from spring break.

Thursday April 28: Second cuts of long docs due.

Tuesday, May 3: Rough cuts of short docs will be due.

Tuesday, May 10: Final cuts of short AND long docs due.

Tuesday, May 17: Last day of class, portfolio websites due.