https://medium.com/@racheldalloo/the-bronx-night-market-brings-back-its-shine-a-year-after-covid-19-darkness-e468e6d21da2
Subway Safety Radio Story
Radio Assignment Script
“Subway Safety”
HOST INTRO: During the worst of the pandemic, subway use dipped to historic lows. In April of 2020, ridership was just 8.3 percent of what it was in April of 2019. Today, New Yorkers are slowly making their way back to the subway despite the soaring crime rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic with as many as 168 felonies per month according to The New York Post. Kristal Roman took it under the streets of the city herself to speak to commuters about how safe they feel taking the subway after such statistics.
AMBI SOUNDS: Train noises faintly in background.
TRACK: Today, I am at the Washington Heights 181st street station where back in February of this year, 2021; two people were stabbed, resulting in the loss of a life, and leaving another severely injured. I’m accompanied by a local, Rosemary Mejia as she exits the train on her way home from work.
ACT: ROSEMARY: I take it five times a week, every day of the work week. I take it to Fulton Street, so on the A.
TRACK: Mejia details one time she recalls feeling the most uncomfortable when heading to her job.
ACT: ROSEMARY: I was on my way to work on a crowded, packed train, and there was this homeless man in the cart standing a few feet away from me, he stood up from his seat and he you know, pulled out his private and started peeing and the train was fully packed. Everyone then started to crowd to one side making it even worse
TRACK: This isn’t the only time she has felt unsafe—in fact, she says this kind of thing is a common occurrence.
ACT: ROSEMARY: As of lately I haven’t been feeling safe because of the high crime rates, and the homelessness and things like that. There’s a lot of people that are put out on the street and are like addicted to drugs and things like that and provoking problems for others who aren’t really messing with them. I actually have noticed that the crime rates seem to have gotten higher now after the pandemic.
AMBI SOUNDS: Train noises faintly in background.
TRACK: The MTA has doubled the number of private security guards patrolling the system from 100 to 200. Mejia is a fan of having police officers in the train carts and hopes they focus on the violent acts that might be committed and not small ones, such as boarding the train without payment.
ACT: ROSEMARY: I think that I would feel more comfortable if there was more police presence on the train, more so inside the trains than outside of the train like policing people that are like hopping the train. I really more so care about the safety of all of the riders on the MTA.
TRACK: Another Washington Heights local, Andrew Burbano, depends on the MTA a few days a week to get to his job. He has also noticed the steadily increasing acts of violence committed on the subway. He remains on high alert during his commute to get to his destination safely.
AMBI SOUNDS: Train noises faintly in background.
ACT: ANDREW: I take the train maybe two or three times a week to Spanish Harlem. After the pandemic there has been an increase in crime, but I always paid attention to my surroundings just because the MTA has always been dangerous.
TRACK: Like Mejia, Burbano believes Police Presence to be essential for a safe trip on the underground transportation system. According to the New York Post, Mayor, Bill de Blasio relented to weeks of pressure from past Governor, Andrew Cuomo, and the state-run MTA, and added 125 extra cops to the morning and evening rush hour in May of 2021.
ACT: ANDREW: I do believe there should be more police officers patrolling the MTA. You know there’s a lot of crime going on, and it’s just a necessity at this point.
TRACK: Aspiring Mayor, Eric Adams has a “Subway Safety Plan” in line if elected that goes into detail about the need for an increase in the city’s mental health beds to get care for those suffering from a mental health crisis, who are more often than not both the perpetrators and victims of subway crimes. He stated, “We can and must deliver safer conditions on our subway trains and platforms, and make New Yorkers feel safe again.” For Baruch College, I’m Kristal Roman.
AMBI SOUND: Train noise Fades out.
Wednesday, Oct. 27: Intro to Video Journalism
Intro to Video Journalism
With video, we build on the compositional techniques of photography and the structural, storytelling aspects of audio with one obvious additional element: Motion.
How does video storytelling for the web and mobile differ from TV and film?
- Need to be CLOSER to your subject. Web videos are smaller and more compressed.
- A large percentage of online viewers bail on a video within 10 seconds. So you don’t have a lot of time to grab your viewers and make sure they stick around.
How important is audio?
Good audio is of paramount importance. If you have low-quality video and good audio, the video will still be watchable. If you have gorgeous visuals but terrible audio, it will not.
Shooting Your Video
There are two main components to any video: your interviews and your B-roll. The rules of composition we learned for photography (thirds, colors, patterns, symmetry, etc.) all apply here, but you also need to keep an eye out for motion. Tracking shots involve following the action with your camera, while static shots involve keeping your camera still, but that doesn’t mean there’s no motion involved; you might just be letting the action go in and out of the frame.
As with the photo essay, since you will be shooting on your phones for this assignment, it is hugely important that you DO NOT SHOOT VERTICALLY.
What is B-roll? And what difference does it make?
Things to keep in mind while you’re shooting B-roll:
- Shoot more than you think you’ll need.
- Get a variety of shots. Close-up, medium, wide, detail shots, static shots, tracking shots.
- Use a tripod whenever possible. If you don’t have one or you’re shooting in a mobile, chaotic situation, be resourceful about stabilizing your shots.
- Think about your interviews and let them inform your B-roll shooting decisions. Look for shots that illustrate what the person is talking about.
- Hold your shot longer than you think you need to. A good rule of thumb is to hold it for at least 10 seconds (AFTER it’s already steady).
Things to keep in mind when you’re shooting your interviews:
- Frame the shot with your subject on one of the thirds, angled so that they’re looking slightly INTO the frame. Have them look at you, not at the camera, so be mindful of where you are sitting. It’s a bit intense when someone looks directly into the camera.
- If you’re working with a translator, be mindful that the subject will want to look at them, so make sure they are positioned in the ideal place to draw the person’s gaze.
- Prioritize good audio.
- Make sure their face is lit, but not too harshly.
- Think about composing the shot in a way that allows for some negative space where the Lower Third will eventually go.
When is narration necessary?
Sometimes, you can let the subjects of your video tell the story all on their own — as long as you edit with care, presenting what they’ve told you in a way that makes narrative sense. One benefit of non-narrated videos is that they can feel more organic. There’s no disembodied voice stepping in to tell the story, which keeps the focus on the characters in the story.
But sometimes, for clarity’s sake or for stylistic reasons, narration is necessary, or text.
Narrated videos
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000005277141/the-last-taushiro.html
Text-Narrated videos
These are more and more popular thanks to social media distribution because they automatically start playing as you scroll through your feed and they can be watched without sound.
Non-Narrated videos
Islamic exorcisms used as a ‘cure’ for homosexuality in Indonesia: ‘If I am Muslim, I can’t be gay’
Upcoming Dates
Your finished radio stories are due by class time this coming Monday, Nov. 1 and we will listen to them together during our live Zoom class that day.
A week from today, on Wednesday Nov. 3, please make sure to bring your cameras in to class for a hands-on video tutorial. Make sure they’re charged and that you have your memory cards with you, please! I will sign out tripods to everyone that day as well.
Pitches will be due on Monday, Nov. 8 for your video assignment: a two-minute video news story or mini documentary. (Give or take as much as 30 seconds depending on how tightly paced and edited it is.)
This video can be narrated if you are interested in broadcast video and want on-camera clips of you doing “stand-ups” for your reel. A stand-up is that clip at the end of a news package where the reporter is typically standing there with a microphone summing things up and doing their sign-off.
Here’s what I’m referring to:
And here is an example of a broadcast reel:
If you are not interested in being on-camera, the video can be non-narrated.
Photoville Assignment- Ariana Milian
For my photoville assignment, I attended an exhibit with a couple other students from our multimedia class. We attempted to view the exhibit at the East Side Community High School, but unfortunately there was apparently no exhibit at that location. We then decided to try another location not too far from the high school. This time we were in luck. We viewed the exhibit “Community Matriarchs of NYCHA.”
Once we got to the location which was at the Abrons Arts Center, we saw several photos of these women who are all residents of the Lower East Side public housing pasted throughout the building’s walls exterior. These women were being celebrated and shown appreciation for being outstanding citizens in their communities. There were multiple portraits by Courtney Garvin that were installed throughout the outdoor locations.
One of the portraits was of Jasmin Sanchez, an essential worker who was living in public housing throughout covid. Public housing residents were dying at two times the rate, but were still out working to keep the city running.
Another matriarch of NYCHA, Lilah Mejia was photographed at the Jacob Riis House. She spoke about how being from the projects, although challenging at times has made her who she is today.
This photoville assignment was a really fun and interesting way to learn about other cultures and people’s history through photographs and different mediums. These women all have amazing and unique stories and to have been able to learn about them in such a beautiful light was really funto experience. As well as experiencing it with some of my friends.
Photoville Assignment
For the Photoville assignment, I attended a zoom exhibit called “Looking Inward” it was a part of a three-part Youth Artist Exchange initiative that served to highlight the talents of young middle and high-school-aged photographers who were tasked with “creating intimate images that communicate personal identity and illustrate relationships to loved ones and to home.” We heard from four student photographers and three New York Times editors who fulfilled the prompt.
Destinee Marcion, who was one of the high school photographers, is on track to complete a film degree at her school. She noted the differences in filmmaking and photography and the challenges that arose for her when attempting to complete her photo project. Something interesting that I thought Marcion pointed out was the amount of planning that is required in both mediums. For her film requires a lot more time to think of ideas, photography is inherent more on natural instinct. Photos have the added pressure of getting any feelings or emotions right away. These thoughts were reflected in some of the photos that she took for this exhibit. With the main subject being her mother, one of the most stunning photos showcased her mother shrouded in darkness with a single light beaming on her solemn face. A quiet moment that had the potential of being lost if Marcion had waited for a second or two to snap the photo.
The NYTimes editors Nakyung Han, Jolie Ruben, and Ricardo Nagaoka, presented a project called, “Keeping Love Close” which was a photo assignment done in response to the rise in Asian hate crimes across the country. The editors wanted a chance to tackle this complicated topic in a way beyond the metro section in the newspaper. The prompt gave NYTimes photographers the chance to look inward in Asian communities and highlight their lives and experiences in a way that as Ricardo Nagaoka put it is “rare to see that in western media.”
Overall I thought the session was a great way to see how different people understand what “looking inward” means to them. For some like Marcion, it’s capturing an intimate moment before it gets away. For others like Nagaoka, it’s the chance to highlight a community that is often rejected from the mainstream construction of love and intimacy.
Jolie Rueben discussing one of the images featured in “Keeping Love Close”
Radio Script
AMBI: DOOR OPENS AND BELL RINGS.
TRACK: For over 60 years, N&R Deli has stood on the corner of 25th avenue and 78th street in Jackson Heights. Nick and Rosalie DiGiovanni opened the deli in 1960, and two years ago Genaro Geraldo Chino, better known as Gino by the community, took over the business after making sandwiches behind the counter for almost 20 years.
ACT: GINO: I came to this deli, Rose’s deli, Anthony’s deli, her son. I work with them 17 years. I start work here 5 days a week 9 to 5. I started like clean, put the soda in the fridge, mop the floor every night. Learning very hard for me because I never did sandwich before starting here.
TRACK: The coronavirus pandemic led the deli to close for 3 months, and Gino stepped up when he heard they would not be reopening.
ACT: GINO: Before, when the start of the pandemic, we closed 3 months. And I asked Anthony “When you open again?”, and he told me “I don’t open no more because my mother, she’s old, and I can’t do it myself.” I think one day why I don’t take the store because I work, I have many years with them why they don’t rent me the space. I start the store open July 9.
TRACK: Gino moved here from Mexico when he was 33 years old with his older brother.
ACT: GINO: I coming from Mexico um in 1996. I came with my brother, he was here before. When he went to Mexico I asked him “can you take me with you?”, and he said yes.
TRACK: Gino and his brother, Miguel, took over the deli together.
ACT: GINO: My brother and me we took the store and his son, he helps me a lot he’s a very good guy.
TRACK: And although Gino is in charge, he does not feel like the boss.
ACT: GINO: I don’t feel boss, I feel like another worker. Yeah, I do maybe a little extra. But I like it. I work uh 12 hours a day 6 days a week.
TRACK: Although the pandemic was difficult, business has improved.
ACT: GINO: It’s a little more better. Maybe 75% little better. Yeah, because I have a lot of things. I have sodas, beers, I have any juice milk whatever people want I have. We make everything clean, everything fresh.
TRACK: Residents of the community were also excited when Gino took over the business. Theresa Anderson, a Jackson Heights resident who has been going to the deli for nearly 15 years, was excited to hear that Gino took over.
ACT: THERESA ANDERSON: I brought all my kids to the deli before school and Gino was always there. He works hard and he deserves it. We all love him.
TRACK: Gino loves the community and his customers as much as they love him.
ACT: GINO: Yeah I like it, I love the job. I feel happy when I take customers, make sandwich for them. I talk with them, all the people. I talk with everybody young kids, old men. I love talking to everybody.
TRACK: Gino does not plan to retire for a while, but when he does, he hopes to go back to Mexico.
ACT: GINO: I plan to retire, but not now. Eh maybe in 10 years. I feel, I don’t feel old I feel young. I don’t know maybe I go my country, relax. Yeah, because I have family in Mexico.
TRACK: N&R Deli has been a family business that defined the community for decades. Gino has been a huge part of what the deli has been and what it will become. Although he isn’t going anywhere soon, Gino hopes to keep the Deli within his family. For Baruch College, I’m Mariam Kaawar
Radio Script
HOST INTRO: As the trend of environmentally conscious apparel sweeps the nation, one industry model has come under fire in recent years. Fast fashion, a hot button topic for corporations and consumers alike, isn’t exactly what we think it is. Baruch journalist, Mira Ciganek, sat down to speak with designer Peggy Chiang on what it’s like to work in the fashion industry and the misconceptions behind fast fashion.
ABMI: Nat sounds of apartment fade out.
TRACK: I’m sitting here with fashion designer Peggy Chiang in her New York City apartment. Chiang was recently selected to design a collection for the fashion e-commerce giant SHEIN, a company often tied to fast fashion.
ACT: PEGGY: The SHEIN X program was created very recently, I’m not actually sure when. But it’s meant to give, to use their power as a big ecommerce site to help young designers get exposure and to sell products. They’re really good at manufacturing and so to invite other designers to come and create a collection it’s a win-win for both the designer and the site.
TRACK: Chiang has noticed immense differences working with SHEIN compared to working for companies with a more traditional production model.
ACT: PEGGY: It’s been this kind of structure where a designer creates a collection and it goes back and forth between designers, merchandisers, buyers, all the people on the front end. And then it will go into production and take six months to be shipped to a store.
TRACK: For companies like SHEIN, however, things move a lot faster. From the initial design to the time a product is on the shelves takes about two to three months.
ACT: PEGGY: This newer fashion, fast fashion, has popped up and basically one of the things it does is eliminate the middleman. It goes straight from a designer or a brand and goes straight to the consumer.
TRACK: Despite the misconception behind the term itself, there is validity behind the concerns many have of fast fashion and industry as a whole. SHEIN and many others aren’t exempt from criticism based on the pure mass of products they create.
ACT: PEGGY: Say SHEIN makes 100 million different products, whereas a slow fashion company makes only 15. That’s the only way to be truly sustainable is to make a handful of different things. The numbers just have to be really really small to truly have a clean system.
TRACK: The fashion industry as a whole struggles immensely with environmental issues. As one of the leading contributors to emissions and waste, even slow fashion isn’t always the answer.
ACT: PEGGY: You buying one shirt from a fast fashion place and wearing it over and over again is still going to be more sustainable than you buying 10 shirts from a really reputable brand. Taking care of your own goods and not creating your own waste is more of an impact than only shopping sustainable brands.
TRACK: Integrating sustainable practices into ones like and understanding what really goes on behind the scenes of certain industry practices like fast fashion are the first steps in making a difference, as Chiang concludes. For Baruch College, I’m Mira Ciganek.
Photoville assignment
In late October I went down to the Lower East Side to see the exhibit presented by Photoville and the First Street Green Culture Park titled “Walking Tour of Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977-1987, with Joseph Rodriguez.” Joseph Rodriguez was a taxi driver who photographed his customers during the late 70s and 80s. I chose this exhibit because when I saw some of the photos on the Photoville website I felt as if they were nostalgic, even though I have actually never been in a yellow cab before. I think the fact that these photos are in black and white are what made them feel nostalgic to me initially, but I realize it was also the fact that Rodriguez mainly photographed people of color. This is not something I am used to seeing after having somewhat Manhattan-centric curriculum for the first two years of college, and it was an element of this art work that allowed me to feel the connected to the New York City-born and raised artist.
I liked that the emotions and vastly different lives he was able to capture in these photos show the multifaceted nature of this city. I also enjoyed the artwork in the rest of the First Street Green Culture Park, which I saw first because I got lost while looking for the Photoville exhibit. I have pictures of both in the Google Slides I pasted above. (I put these all in a Google Slides doc to avoid awkward formatting on this site).
Rodriguez worked hard to capture these photos, and through this viewers can clearly and easily see the human element so vibrantly placed in this black and white photos, displaying lives from sex-workers to church goers.
Photoville Event
On October 23rd, I attended the Photoville event entitled, “Walking Tour of Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977-1987, With Joseph Rodriguez.” The event took place in the streets right outside the First Street Green Cultural Park. Photographs taken by Joseph Rodriguez during the 70s and 80s were displayed on the fence of the park and we took a tour down the block.
Rodriguez was narrating the tour himself so it was very interesting to hear how each photo came about. Rodriguez explained what it was like living in New York City during that time, especially what it was like to be a photograph. He showed how it was definitely a very interesting time for photography with all the social issues taking place including drug abuse and gang violence. His work focused on very interesting subjects including sex workers he saw on the street or your average family taking a cab to church on Sunday.
Rodriguez himself was such a true New Yorker and as we walked down the street and saw his work we also got to understand such a deep history of the city.
Photoville Community Matriarchs of NYCHA
On Thursday, October 21st, I visited Abrons Art Center with a few friends from this class. The outdoor gallery display is called “Community Matriarchs of NYCHA.” The first part of the exhibit was a video piece which told the stories of New York women who have grown up in affordable housing units across the city, and how their upbringing has impacted their life and careers in public service. These “matriarchs” are mostly minority women of color who are working towards the improvement of their communities.
These women engage in community organizing by prepping and distributing food and other supplies to other NYCHA residents and underprivileged communities, amongst other things. I was struck by the thoughtful notes written on the bags because they each had different handwritten messages in pen, which I found heartwarming. The rest display featured photos turned into stickers pasted along the brick walls of the building focusing on members of the community, followed by short quotes from them.
One quote I found particularly interesting was “When I was young, there were so many of us that couldn’t afford a vacation. Going to FDR Drive was our vacation, our Disney world. Those were the most fun and memorable days. We weren’t rich with material but we were rich with love,” which was said by Daisy Paez, a resident of Baruch Houses. This resonated with me because it reminded me that the best things in life are free, which is something I live by to remember what is important in life. The quote reminded me to not take the small things for granted and to live everyday with gratitude.
According to the artists, the exhibit is meant to break the stereotype of people who live in public housing. NYCHA residents are often characterized as “single-parent families, welfare recipients, school dropouts, and criminals.” The display highlights people, culture, trends, and deep history.
