Author: LYLIA SAUREL

Hi, here is my final version of the video project about the Indian festival Diwali. I had a great time learning editing multimedia this semester and look forward to applying these skills for future reporting. Happy holidays!

I wasn’t sure there needed to be an interview audio part to it, so this is very basic.

https://youtu.be/8SIQHo_ifz4

For my video story I would like to report on the Indian festival “Diwali” also called the festival of lights. This festival happens once a year around October/November and this year it will take place on November 14^th. My previous subject for the radio story, Sakshee Sharmaa, comes from India and celebrates her culture here in the USA. My idea is to document her dressing up and getting ready for this festival that mostly takes place in one’s home. I believe visuals from her traditional outfits and makeup would be nice to see, and the narration would be more focused on what Diwali represents and its history.

Working Out Indoors: When Leaving Rooms And Gyms Become One

Host intro: The COVID-19 pandemic forced fitness enthusiasts and professionals to reinvent the way they train. Lylia Saurel spoke to a fitness instructor about what it’s like to work out from her living room.

AMBI: Instructions given to students “breathe in, breathe out” (FADE DOWN AS TRACK BEGINS)

TRACK: I’m here with Sakshee Sharmaa in her Manhattan apartment, watching her conduct a fitness class from home. Sakshee is a fitness instructor for the cultural academy Meri Sanskriti, which is popular with a South Asian audience. When she’s not teaching full body conditioning, she studies communication at Borough of Manhattan Community College, or BMCC.

ACT: SAKSHEE: I think at first I was really scared because I was so dependent on going to the gym and so less self-motivated that I was like I don’t know if I can pull this off, I didn’t have the discipline.

TRACK: Yet, after six months working out indoors she has settled into a groove. 

ACT: SAKSHEE: I live in a really tiny apartment so I have to move tables around, it’s a whole chore to work out and I kind of made that a routine for all of pandemic, so I’d say this is the most motivated I’ve been and it took home quarantining for me to get to that level.

TRACK: Only a few weeks into quarantine, she was so motivated to empower others that she decided to become a fitness instructor.

ACT: SAKSHEE: Once the world went virtual I felt like maybe I can do it, I started posting fitness videos for the sake of motivation and some academy found me on social media and asked me to fill in for one class, but now I’m just working for them.

TRACK: And that’s how twice a week she leads a 60min intense full body conditioning for a largely feminine audience who doesn’t seem to miss the gym.

 AMBI: Motivational feedback and instructions. 

TRACK: Sowmya Prahlad, a 47 year old mother who took a one year break from yoga says that the online sessions are a dream come true for her because she can do it from the comfort of her own house and still manage her busy schedule.

ACT: SOWMYA: I couldn’t have been happier, this is what I’ve been waiting for the whole one year that I missed yoga. I love the body conditioning, it has worked out to my advantage and I really look forward to it every week.

TRACK: This is the kind of attitude Sakshee loves to inspire, especially as someone who has struggled in the past with a healthy lifestyle. As a child in India and then as a teenager in boarding school, she would favor junk snacks over healthy food, which she says made her put on weight.

ACT: SAKSHEE: I started feeling very uncomfortable in my body, self-esteem issues etc. but over time I just ignored them.

TRACK: It was when she moved to Mumbai after boarding school, and saw more people around her taking care of themselves that she realized she wanted to work on herself.

ACT: SAKSHEE: I started getting into dancing and I started losing weight because of dancing and that helped my self-esteem and that made me feel better about working out. And then I started going to the gym because once I explored dance it was easier for me to explore machines.

TRACK: As a result she also started eating healthy, which led her to really get into fitness. Now based in New York as an acting student, she has witnessed the impact of the pandemic on the field, as well as the new opportunities it has created for her to remain connected with a fitness community. 

ACT: SAKSHEE: Technology has been a game changer and fitness instructors are stepping their game up virtually. This helps in cultures like mine, Indian-American, Nepalis culture, south Asian cultures because women would rather workout at home than go to a public space because of comfort or cultural reasons.

 TRACK: Now that gyms have partly reopened in New York City she says she will go back in order to stay toned and challenge herself, as well as continue teaching from home. Overall she believes people will continue to follow classes online for a long time.

ACT: SAKSHEE: I don’t think that virtual fitness is going anywhere, it’s not going to disappear. It’s going to be a trend, it’s going to be a business for a lot of people and people are going to make money off of it. 

AMBI: Instructions to inhale, exhale. (FADE DOWN AS TRACK BEGINS)

TRACK: For Baruch College, I’m Lylia Saurel in New York City.

Here is the short audio test  (1min) to learn to use Audacity. The track was recorded a bit too close so small sounds interfere a little but by the final draft of the radio story, practice will help.

Host intro: Today Irons Burgos, a BMCC student majoring in business Administration talks about how covid-19 changed his working out habits

ACT: IRONS: I stopped going out to the gym because I didn’t feel safe

TRACK: He says that even though gyms have started to reopen, the chances of him going back are small

ACT: IRONS: For the moment I do not see myself going to the gym anytime soon, I just don’t like the idea of running with a mask.

TRACK: One option that the 22 years old could consider, is to work out from home following an online training

ACT: IRONS: If it’s a personal session with someone else you can just be following a recording or something, you can work at your own pace and make it happen.

TRACK: For the moment gyms haven’t reopened to their full capacity and most people keep working out in outdoor spaces or from home. For Baruch College, I’m Lylia Saurel .

Newspeg: COVID-19

Angle: How the pandemic redraw the landscape of the fitness world

For my radio story I would like to do a piece about how the pandemic transformed the fitness world into a virtual one. In the story I will follow the journey of Sakshee Sharmaa, a 22 years old fitness instructor, who teaches classes for an Indian based audience via zoom from her living room in Kips Bay, New York.

What is particularly interesting about the story is that COVID-19 actually encouraged her to focus on training and enabled her to get a job in the field. Fitness wasn’t always a given to her and through the piece I’d like to capture her evolution as a young woman bullied about her weight to a fitness instructor empowering others.

On her social media she wrote, “My journey with self-love is still going on but I’ve gotten to the point where I am able to help others love themselves and their bodies”.

Twice a week she leads a 60min intense full body conditioning for Meri Sanskriti , so I intend to gather sounds both from recording her leading a session with the participants, as well as direct quotes from interviewing her.

Black Lives Matter Protesters Demand ICE Abolishment

Black Lives Matter activists gathered on Times Squares on Saturday, September 19 to demand Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s abolition over the recent discovery of unconsented gynecological procedures on detained immigrants held in Georgia.

On September 16, Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the immigration center filed a whistle-blower complaint that detained immigrants in an ICE-facility underwent heavy gynecological surgeries. Rapidly, influent people expressed their indignation, “If true, the appalling conditions described in the whistleblower complaint – including allegations of mass hysterectomies being performed on vulnerable immigrant women – are a staggering abuse of human rights,” said Nancy Pelosi in a public statement.

And so after months of active protests demanding justice for the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the BLM movement brought its support to these women, turning it into a broader humanitarian movement.

Despite demonstrators’ outrage and frustration, the march began peacefully at around 2pm ET in front of Times Square’s famous red steps, where the group accused the New York Police Department of protecting the wrong people.

Slowly protesters came together and formed a larger, more compact group of around 300 people according to a protester’s report to CNN. Before taking over the roadway, they remained for a few minutes on the central place of the pedestrian area, forming a human chain and holding signs.

As the event unfolded, tensions between law enforcement and demonstrators became more apparent. In order to prevent overflows, a dozen police agents as well as an NYPD vehicle arrived in support of the officers already present on the scene. As a response, protesters’ chants strengthened and the mass walked towards the roadway.

When asked why it was important for him to participate in the event D said, “Anyone who has a bit of humanitarian left in them should be here today.”

Once on the main avenue, a large part of the demonstrators decided to sit on the ground and consequently began to block traffic. Police officers tried preventing the crowd to engulf the street and, in turn, quickly created a chain with their bikes so that protesters on the floor were surrounded.

After a few minutes seating on the concrete, encircled by armed officers, demonstrators were asked to evacuate the road.  Many time the NYPD played the following message with a megaphone, “This is the NYPD, you’re unlawfully on the roadway and instructing the vehicularly traffic. You are ordered to leave the roadway and use the available sidewalk, if you do so voluntarily, no charges will be placed against you. If you remain on the roadway you’ll be placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct.”

No one moved.

Therefore officers came as reinforcements and began to arrest demonstrators. The crowd was dispersed, and by refusal to cooperate many protestors were pushed to the ground, handcuffed and handled by more than just one agent.

The arrests went on for about half an hour and in total 86 people were apprehended.

Two weeks after this event, the center accused of performing the hysterectomies still claims that its records show only two women have been referred for the procedure in the past three years. Accused Dr. Mahendra Amin also continues to deny any allegation against him.

By Lylia Saurel

For my photo essay I would like to focus on the MTA as a whole. While it might not resonate as the most appealing place in NYC, it used to be the most used means of transportation for New Yorkers before COVID-19, with 5 millions riders every day. Inspired by the project “Platforms” by Natan Dvir, I would like to photograph how the pandemic has impacted the subway and what our stations look like nowadays.

As a foreigner, the way I picture the MTA is almost like a city within the city where many stories used to get together for the time of a ride. However many people are now avoiding trains even though life slowly started again.  I believe capturing various stations and their riders, with different point of focus could be interesting to show how 2020 has changed our approach to public transportation.