Multimedia Reporting Fall 2022

The film was recorded beautifully from different point of views to portray different feelings and emotions. The film itself was so heartbreaking yet so powerful and despite all the invasion, chaos, and destruction, there was so much beauty surrounding the film. There were mesmerizing shots of nature and people interacting with nature. In the beginning of the film when there were people playing in a river and having fun, the sadness however gets amplified as the film progresses because of the invaders and the actions they took to burn down the rainforest. Many times while watching the film I thought to myself if this film was reality, or if it was just a setup. Due to the nature of the situation it was really surprising to see so many things occur, such as the threatening kidnap call, or the murder of Ari. The film brought upon so many mixed emotions, especially since there were so many back and forth shots between happy and peaceful scenes to scenes that portrayed suspense and danger such as when they were capturing the invaders. It was also interesting to see how the protectors of the rainforest ends up using technology as a way of protection from invaders whilst using man-made tools for defense. I think in order to find these characters it must’ve been a difficult choice for them to make especially since they didn’t have anyone supporting them. But I think what made them agree to being documented and filmed, was their desperate need to bring awareness to people and find a support system aside from the government. I think it must’ve taken them lots of courage and bravery to stand up to people who didn’t give them any support and were constantly trying to bring them down. My final thoughts were that this film contained very strong messages of strength and bravery despite the constant battle and struggles, and the constant back and forth clips of nature untouched versus nature destroyed was able to portray that extremely well.

Host Intro: In today’s day and age everyone utilizes their cell phones and other technology as means of communication, entertainment, and much more. What happens when something we depend on so much is used as a vehicle to attempt to trick and damage us? Leonard Melnik spoke with several individuals pertaining to their experiences with scam messages.

TRACK: I am sitting with Ben Hecker on the MTA, he is a game design major at NYU who has recently released his own video game and has been telling me about a really fun social game he deployed in his class. While the FCC warns that text scams are on the rise, that does not seem so to Ben.

ACT: BEN: Um ,scam texts I mean they are a thing. They aren’t a big deal for me at least, they are usually in the form of “Your venmo account got signed into recently, click this link to fix it”. But every time I get the message the phone number is different and the link is really sketchy looking.

TRACK:  What Ben has just described is called smishing, it is a type of attack where the scammer will disguise themselves as a legitimate entity and try to trick the victim. According to BleepingComputer there has been an exponential rise in this type of attack.

TRACK: While he is very aware of scams and won’t fall for one easily, Ben also does not have a lot of public information that could be used in such scams.

ACT: BEN : But also I tend to be more careful on the internet and can imagine that other people who are less careful probably get a lot more scam stuff because their information is more out there.

TRACK: Now I am on Sheepshead Bay, speaking to Nicole who is a pre-med student. She shares a similar experience with Ben, and personally noticed a trend opposite to the FCC.

ACT: NICOLE: I actually noticed a decrease in scam messages when I purchased my new phone.

TRACK: While maybe her new phone is better at deducting scams, she also experienced Smishing attacks

ACT: NICOLE: Sometimes the messages tried to fake a company like AT&T

TRACK: When I asked her what the texts usually contained, she told me that they usually provide some sort of positive incentive.

ACT: NICOLE: It usually included a small paragraph like “Claim your prize now!” and then a link to some obscure website that I never clicked.

TRACK: While she had never clicked on one of the links, I asked her if she ever responded to the texts

ACT: NICOLE: No never, actually on one occasion I simply wrote “Shut up”.

TRACK: I am now sitting next to Massoud outside of his next class. He is pretty hungry but does not have time to run out and go get food between his classes. I was able to get a few words from him on any trends and what he has noticed about scam texts.

ACT: Massoud: I have seen them go up, a lot of people told me they have been getting more and shown me their scam text. I have gotten a lot of them so they have definitely gone up.

TRACK: When I asked him to give me an example of spam/scam texts. He brought up exactly what Nicole and Ben brought up, smishing. 

ACT: Massoud: One example I have gotten is a lot of texts saying “Your account has been compromised” from Chase or Citibank. I’ve got TD so it’s definitely a total scam.

TRACK: When I asked him if he had ever responded to scam texts, he had an understandable response.

ACT: Massoud: No, no, don’t want to risk that.

OUTRO: While we may be warned about rising rates of scam texts and rising losses. The experience will vary from individual to individual, some may perceive these texts as a joke. Meanwhile for others it could scare them into taking false actions. Regardless it is important to keep up with modern threats to make sure you and your loved ones are safe online. In the meanwhile, we can laugh at funny texts together. This is Leonard Melnik, signing off.

Some of the script that didn’t make it to the final version..

While Ben and others may know better than to trust these messages, our elders may not be as aware. In 2021 it was estimated that scam texts cost Americans over 10 billion (86 million in 2020), and these are just the reported numbers. When I spoke to Nicole she told me how her family was almost tricked.

TRACK: Unfortunately I could not get an interview with anyone who had been directly scammed, even though I was able to speak with them off record. The common consensus seemed to be scare tactics and urgency, some of the scams would threaten their future if they did not take immediate action and in the moment were unable to think clearly.

TRACK: Some individuals have reported being scammed on AARP’s scam tracker tool, where they explained how someone texted them pretending to be an uncle who was in need of money, and that person lost over a thousand dollars.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aLEaXPz7uS_P2eMzV_Al-OfgcwZIMcv588NjZ8L5SzU/edit

One of the most striking things about this film for me is the extremely clever use of stillness. Even from the very beginning, there is such a beautiful way that the directors are able to get across this anxiety-inducing tension without as much as a single gun being fired or a single voice being raised. I’m not sure how one gains access to a story like this to be perfectly honest, it seems amazingly limited and timely. The most astonishing part is how they managed to now only be able to gain access to one side of the story but both. Another aspect of the story that stood out to me was the ethical repercussions of allowing these certain actions to happen for the sake of the story. I wonder how they managed to get some of the scenes that are more candid. There is, of course, something amazing in getting these extremely rare action shots but there are also these other shots that make you feel like the camera isn’t there and those are the hardest ones for me to understand. The ending was extremely well done, it makes sure you know that this is not a story that is done or completed. The story is still very much being told today as changes to the political landscape continues to change.

Today we’ll be workshopping your pitches for your video story: a 2-3 minute video news story, either narrated or non-narrated.

Upcoming Dates

This Thursday, Nov. 15: Video Editing Workshop

We’ll be using the interview and footage you captured in your five-shot sequence shooting assignment in a practice editing exercise.

Tuesday, Nov. 29: In-class production day on rough cuts

Thursday, Dec. 1: Rough cut of video due

Over the last week, the second largest crypto exchanged crashed and burned. They were allegedly involved in numerious illegal activities and fraud all the meanwhile their CEO was known as “the worlds kindest billionaire”. After FTX declared bankruptcy, they were allegedly hacked and the rest of users funds were stolen.

This was not the first case nor is it the last.  Crypto has been notorious recently for having a lack of value yet everyone sees it as a goldmine opportunity. Most lose, but that’s not what people see, all they see are the rare winners and millionaires.

I would like to make a documentary speaking with individuals who have been impacted by the recent crashes in crypto. To shed a light on the damage that all this Mania causes to the everyday investor/person

In terms of sources I plan on using many reports regarding how much was stolen/lost from investors.

Finding a person might be hard, if I can’t find a person that has personally been affected then I will speak to an expert or someone who is familiar with economics. As I do more research the story is likely to change.