<![CDATA[May Moqiu Ma - Blog]]>Wed, 26 Jul 2023 05:31:31 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[#7802 How journalists should better connect their potential audience]]>Mon, 07 Dec 2015 05:03:19 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/7802-how-journalists-should-better-connect-their-potential-audienceHow people get information nowadays? From newspapers they subscribe? or from watching TV? Maybe. But the majority I see, or the people in my generation, they are mostly active mobile users, and they get news from their mobile phone.

There are a lot of advantages of reading on cellphone. First It's convenient, you can pull your cellphone out almost whenever and wherever you want, even though you're outside in the dark, waiting for bus to come. But what kind of contents are best for mobile? I believe people are able to finish serious reading on their phone, and it's more likely they could finish long stories on their phone than on computers—they can read in fragmented time. However, those contents should be well marketed on social media.

I firmly believe that journalists should advertise their work on social media once they finished a story. Social media is a good place to share articles and thus is instantly becoming many people's source for information. Not only can they share, but also comment on what they're read. I also think that journalists should pay attention to what the audience say about the story, and interact with them. Of course not all the comments would be worth replying, but some might—and interaction with audience could also stimulate ideas for new stories.

​ So journalists should drop their pride, reply and discuss their stories with their audience. And I think it's nothing shameful for them to ask audience for ideas—just to get a grasp of what the audience care about, what they need and what they want to see.


]]><![CDATA[J7802 Video story: Cruisin' with the 'jazz man']]>Mon, 16 Nov 2015 05:47:24 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/j7802-video-story-cruisin-with-the-jazz-man
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This is a story about a bus driver at the University of Minnesota, who was dubbed "jazz man" by his passengers. Jazz man loves jazz. He is a not only a driver, but also a DJ—he turns the bus he drives into a studio, where he plays more than 400 CDs of jazz music from his collection. When students ride with jazz man, they feel like they are in a music class or a concert that moves.

This video story is about four minutes long, but brought out the personality of "jazz man" perfectly. The story, written and voiced by Boyt Huppert for KARE11, is another heart-warming piece from Huppert's "Land of 10,000 stories." Besides his unique style of writing, the photography is very interesting too. They filmed the story both inside and outside the bus. When they are riding with jazz man, they interviewed students who are on the bus, and with the background music, you can actually feel what it's like to be a passenger on that bus. And there are some nice sequences: actions from jazz man, reactions from students; detail shots such as the CD collection, bus door open and closing, people's foot steps when they get on and off the bus... And the video also included some shots that was shot outside of the bus, but you can see jazz man driving and waving to people, and from that see you just can feel how jazz man is enjoying it, and what the relation is like between the driver and his passengers.

Another thing about the video that helps bring out the character's personality is they filmed jazz man not only at where he works, but also his home—and it turns out jazz man is as interesting when he's at home as he's at work. The narration also briefly mentions his wife passed away a few years ago, and that's when jazz man started to play music in his bus. But the video shows nothing painful or sad, jazz man appears to be cheerful and content, and so passionate about his hobby—jazz.

The video story in a whole is very colorful, even though it only has one major character. It's very nicely paced, and the music is waved nicely in the narration to help tell the story. I'm just wondering how to film on a moving bus, and make sure the shots are still steady, especially when the bus is crowded.
]]><![CDATA[J7802 Hardest things about doing video]]>Mon, 09 Nov 2015 04:54:55 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/j7802-hardest-things-about-doing-videoDoing video is the most interesting, yet the hardest assignment by far.

When doing video, there are just so many things to consider: light, sound, background, angle, storytelling... Those factors make doing video much more challenging than just taking photos or audios. When filming an interview, I think the most difficult part is to find a quiet place to conduct the interview. When I was doing my video assignment A in a gallery, I interviewed an artist in her studio. Even though there was no customer coming into her studio during the interview, there were people will walk by outside, and we can hear their voices as the studio is an open space, and I couldn't ask her to shut the door. So those background noises are kind of hard to get rid of. 

When taking B rolls, I think the hard thing is to capture the right moment when shooting people's movements. For the assignment B, I when to a dog breeder's place, where has many new born puppies. I followed the five sequences when filming the owner nursing puppies. However, because the position of video camera has to be adjusted when taking different shots, so I sometimes would miss some good actions between those shots. For example, a puppy opened its eyes when the owner was feeding it. It's a moment that can not be duplicated, and once I missed it, I couldn't ask the puppy to do it again, or people to repeat what they did (or it will be making a film?). I guess it's not only a hard thing about doing video, but also about filming animals. But I think with time, as I get more familiar with the video camera and its settings, it will take less time to get the camera ready, and hope one day, I can use it just like using a part of my body.]]><![CDATA[J7802 What I have learned from doing Audio SlideShow A]]>Mon, 19 Oct 2015 05:07:07 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/j7802-what-i-have-learned-from-doing-audio-slideshow-aThere are just so many problems with my assignment this time. A lot of room for improvements.

First of all, I should do a better job taking pictures for the next slideshow assignment. This time, some of the pictures used in the slideshow are repetitive, such as girls holding the cardboard, or people putting money into the can. The topic itself was a bit dull, not very colorful or visually appealing. I tried to take several other pictures, such as the building behind and pedestrians passing by, but it was in the evening, so a lot of the photos were not properly exposed, and I had to stick with those which were not that blurry. I probably should take a lot more next time, and from different angles, just to make sure the slideshow doesn't look boring, and also try to fully demonstrate the event.

Audio: I interviewed two people for this assignment. One of the interviewees was talking too fast. Instead of using a 20 second recording of her interview, I should have broken it down into several pieces, and insert room tone to create pause. It is easier to take control of the pace of the audio when only interview one person. But in this case, I think the trick is to pay attention to the flow, make sure when there are multiple interviewees, there is no one sound too fast or one sound too slow.

Editing: For me, the editing probably is the hardest part. I photoshopped the pictures, used audition to edit the audio, and then put them together in Final Cut. However, I couldn't really make the picture tie to what the person is talking about. Sometimes it's because there is not enough photo to showcase the content, sometimes it's just the timing is not right... For my next assignment, I will try to improve my editing and make the visual and audio elements more connected.

]]><![CDATA[J7802 What I have learned from doing the short audio assignment]]>Mon, 12 Oct 2015 05:00:55 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/what-have-you-learned-from-doing-the-short-audio-assignmentThe short audio took me a longer time to put together than the previous photo assignments. For photos, I guess one of the tricks was to take a bunch of pictures, and choose the best ones and then edit. Even if most of the pictures were terribly taken, there should be at least one or two that were more or less presentable (this method works for me, as a beginner). However, it probably would not apply to the audio assignment.

When I was trying to record, first it was hard to find a quiet place to interview people. And even if the room is quiet enough, there would be people walking by in the corridor and making noises. Also, because the equipment is very sensitive, I got a lot of noise in the background when I checked the recording. And the noise sounded even bigger when I normalized the clip. When editing the audio, I had to use the "delete noise" function under the "effect" button. It worked like magic! but still,  although the noise is gone, it has created an echo effect in the sound clip.

I also learned that choosing the right background sound is important. Like the Tango dancing I recorded, it was great that I could collect some sound bites of the  tango music, footsteps, instructors talking to students, which made the audio clip sound more rich and vivid. But if it's just the music, it would be less like "learning to dance Tango," but more like "just Tango." It was the noise of footsteps and people communicating in the background that showed it was a class, and the focus was "learning."]]><![CDATA[How photo work affected the way I see the world]]>Mon, 05 Oct 2015 04:54:06 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/how-photo-work-affected-the-way-i-see-the-worldHow photo work has affected the way I see the world? The answer is, in multiple ways.

Looking for stories

Every picture should have a story behind it. A photo is not a combination of color and light, but also a representation of mood, action, tension and memory. Now even when I'm not taking photos, I would subconsciously pay more attention to those elements in people and the overall environment, and how to show them through color and light. That means being more observant to my surroundings. 

Paying attention to details

When taking pictures, I think sometimes it's the details that would make an image more compelling. For example, the shape and color of a flower in the sunset, the wrinkles on people's face when they smile, the color people were to a game day, and the reflection of a dog in the water fountain... I start to pay attention to those details and find beauty in them. Also, I'm using my eyes as a camera lens, when looking at something, I would consider the color combination, the composition, the lighting..

Becoming a better observer

And also, because I'm constantly observing, I tend to be aloof so I can have an "outsider's eye". Now I'm not only thinking about how to feel and experience the world, but also about how to present the world to others. To put it simply, I tend to be pulling out from the role of an "actor," and turning  into more of a "director," just without the making stories up part.

]]><![CDATA[#7802 How to capture the right moments]]>Mon, 28 Sep 2015 04:52:28 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/7802-how-to-capture-the-right-momentsWhen talking about decisive moments in photography, I instantly think of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. The former is the one who created this term and published a book after it, while the later is Cartier-Bresson's predecessor, but also a reformer, when taking photos of those right moments.

Both Cartier-Bresson and Frank have a good, especially Cartier-Bresson, who has been trained in a classical art tradition and his work shows compositional techniques quite conventional to the cannon of 19th century painting. His pictures of decisive moments have a very classic and artistic touch, yet Frank's photos look more visceral in nature.

If Cartier-Bresson has a more of an artist's eye, then Frank tends to have a outsider's eye. At least that's what I feel after seeing pictures from his "Americans." Unlike Cartier-Bresson, Frank does not give too much attention to composition. He likes to hang out with artists and writers such as Jack Kerouac, who inspired him, Frank always remains as an outsider when he is taking pictures—the aloofness makes him able to capture the right moments. For example, I read from a New York Times article that mentioned when Frank was on the road shooting for "Americans," he was once arrested by the police. When he was in custody, Frank saw a young black women in the same room, and the expression on her face was, according to him, very impressive. Frank said he had the urge of taking a picture of her, but the police took his camera after he was arrested.

If there's anything that I share in common with Robert Frank, that probably would be the outsider's eye. Being a foreigner could be an advantage, when trying to capture some moments, you see the views people who lived here long tend to ignore, and you're always curious, but not too involved as to lose judgement. ]]><![CDATA[#7802 Ideas learned from readings]]>Mon, 21 Sep 2015 03:55:18 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/7802-ideas-learned-from-readingsIn the past week, besides assigned readings, I also spent a lot of time digging deeper about photography and photographers: Robert Frank, Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and also Rene Burri. I wonder how could I never know their names before taking this class, and how ignorant I was of the world of photography (still am tough). Some of those photographers are known for their skills of taking portraits, such as Richard Avedon. Avedon has an ability to unleash the deeper side of the subject in his photo, even without having to really know the person. I have wondered how to bring out personality when taking people's portraits—some of the pictures I took just look like snapshots, with unnatural smile and stiff pose. Avedon probably had a pair of sharp eyes, which could see through people when he met them. I still need practice, both with the equipment and with people. The second time when doing the portrait assignment, I let mu subjects keep moving, and I tried to take pictures when they continued what they had been doing. It certainly helped with the stiffness, but I'm not sure if the pictures really look better this way.

 Henri Cartier-Bresson, the photographer who was known for his "decisive moment," probably had been very well-prepared when he recorded those moments. I like the composition of his pictures, very delicately balanced. However, Robert Frank, who seems to care less about techniques, has taken some more powerful "decisive moments" than Cartier-Bresson. In Frank's most celebrated work "The Americans," I can see so many moments that he had carefully captured. It's not capturing a drastic movement, often times those "decisive moments" look very quite, such as the one that black and white passengers on the same bus looking out of the window. He revealed a more complex human nature through those moments, and also has a deeper and darker social dimension.

I also take a look at previous students' work. Some have very nice detailed shots, and that's what I lack of. I tend to take a lot of pictures in a very short time, without carefully considering the composition or the like before head, so a lot of the pictures ended up useless. Master pieces or Students' work, I find both of them very inspiring.]]><![CDATA[#7802 What I learned from Seeing Color assignments]]>Mon, 14 Sep 2015 03:18:54 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/what-i-learned-from-seeing-color-assignmentsMy first assignment was Seeing Green. A took photos of a green bicycle, a student's green shoes, and the grayish green window of the University Hospital. When looking for subjects to shoot, I tried to avoid leaves and plants, but look for something I usually would not pay attention to. It was cloudy that day, and I had to adjust the iso from time to time, but still, the photo of the hospital window was underexposed, and the window didn't look green enough, as it was reflecting the color of sky, which was full of light gray clouds.

From the feedbacks, I realized that I was not close enough to the subjects when I was shooting. For example, the pair of shoes. I could have tried getting down further or even lying or on the ground, so the camera would be on the same level with the pair of shoes, instead of from a look-down angle. Also, I learned that I need to crop dead spaces out when editing the photo. In that bicycle photo, there is also a blue bicycle on the left side. Even though it was just a small part of the picture, but it could become a distraction to the color that I wanted to emphasis, so I probably need to crop that bit out as well.

My second Seeing Color assignment is red. This time I paid more attention to the composition, exposure, and texture of the picture, and also, I tried to find red colors that really pop out from the background, and try to get closer when shooting the details, and pay more attention to dead space when editing, to make the color to appear as the only focus, and also make the picture look more complete.

]]><![CDATA[#7802 Three priorities for multimedia reporter]]>Mon, 14 Sep 2015 03:18:13 GMThttps://www.maymoqiuma.com/blog/three-priorities-for-multimedia-reporterI find my self more and more drawn to stories that are illustrated by more than one element, say, text. Not that text is no longer important. Ability to tell a story through words is still the most important and fundamental to a reporter, but with pictures, sounds, or even videos and info graphics, stories can be told in a more colorful and compelling way. From the perspective of a news consumer, I would like to say that there are some essential skills a multimedia reporter should have, and number one it would be good news judgement.

The "news judgement" here focus more on being able to know how to tell a story in a certain way, and how to utilize technology. Some stories are best to be told with the assistance of audio, some are best to be presented  through visual. And some times it requires a mixture of different platforms

Second, a multimedia reporter should know how to work with his/her equipments. From my limited experience, the quality of photos/audios/videos matter a lot, as well as editing skills.

Last but not the least, it would be writing skills. No matter how "multimedia" the story is presented, solid story-writing is indispensable. No matter its narration in an audio project, or cutlines for pictures,  words are important powerful.

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