Go to: 1st Term, and Study Guide (click on "Business Web Page" tab)

Wed., Oct. 21 through Wed., Oct. 28, 2009

We are practicing writing by taking the daily announcements that are emailed to teachers and creating scripts in Celtx. Then we are taking turns in the TV studio reading our work in order to get more comfortable in front of the camera and to improve our writing.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Today we took the scripts we wrote in Celtx and broke into groups to read them aloud. This serves two purposes: 1) become more comfortable reading the news; 2) actually realize that we need a lot of work learning to write for television. This was rather enlightening for all of us since it's not until you actually try to read your writing out loud that you realize the awkwardness of sentence structure and may realize more appropriate vocabulary for the anchors to read. You need to turn in a script you wrote in class by Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

You were given the school's daily announcements in class today and instructed to rewrite them in such a way that it would sound good if read by a news anchor. To do this, you needed to use script-writing software. In class, we use the free program Celtx. If you want to practice writing at home, you can download the program for practically any platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.). Be prepared to read you scripts in class on Monday, October 19, 2009.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I am happy to hear that you were well behaved during my absence. That means that you completed the reading that was assigned and took exceptional notes as you read. Therefore you should have no difficulty taking this test at the beginning of class. If you took notes, you are welcome to use them. However, the book is off limits.

Friday, October 9, 2009

You need to read Ch. 1-3 (pgs. 1-54) in the Television Production Handbook thoroughly. You were warned that we would need to do some serious catch-up on reading. I would advise that you take really good notes since I will give a test on the reading on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. [NOTE: Since there is no assignment attached to this reading, you will have absolutely no idea what will be on the test, so take your time and read carefully. Also take lots of notes.]

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

In class we practiced writing 30-sec. news stories for broadcast from stories I printed out from the Salt Lake Tribune in order to get the feel for writing for television. Writing the news for a newspaper or magazine is quite different than writing or TV as everyone soon found out. The class concluded with everyone reading what they had written to the class.

Monday, October 5, 2009

I broke the class down into three groups and individually took each of you into the studio and assigned you positions. Then I walked through a typical broadcast to let you know exactly what it would feel like and to give you a clue as to the chaos you can expect in a live broadcast. I hope it was enlightening.

Mon., Sept. 21 through Tue., Sept. 29, 2009

Voting and tabulation is completed and the name we have given ourselves is Stallion Broadcasting (or Stallion Broadcasting Network). I like this name because it is no longer that broadcasting is limited to TV, but that you can broadcast over various medium. For instance there is streaming over the Internet as a way to broadcast. This is something that we will eventually be able to do. Besides, there are no TVs in the school, so why use TV in the name!

This week we chose a partner to interview in class. Then we all took turns interviewing each other in front of the camera and mic so that we have an idea what it's going to feel like. Additionally, we analyzed our questions so that we will get responses that work well in video instead of asking questions that elicit a "yes" or "no" response (boring).

Tue., Sept. 15 through Thur., Sept. 17, 2009

Voting and tabulation started this week for our 'look'. The results will be made public in class on Thursday. I started talking about the components of the video camera and other terminology that will take us through Thursday's class. We covered panning, tilting, pedastal, dolly, truck, and arc. I explained the difference between CMOS and CCD chips in cameras. And then I started explaining depth-of-field. You can review an outline here (click on the tab on the right labelled "Intro to TV", then click on the bullet next to the topic you want to review).

Next week we'll start practicing with cameras and learn video editing. To do this, you will need someone to interview. Choose someone in the classroom you'd like to interview and write 5 questions down you'd like to ask them. Then you will interview them on camera, download to your computer, and then learn to edit.

Wed., Sept. 9 through Fri., Sept. 11, 2009

You demonstrated to class your ideas for our 'look'. Due to technical issues (aren't new school buildings great!?), we'll finish with the last six students on Tuesday. Then we'll have a survey to narrow the choices and a vote on the final look.

Wed., Sept. 2 through Fri., Sept. 4, 2009

Work continues on creating our 'look'. Be ready to share your ideas to the class on Wednesday, September 9, 2009. We will share to the class your ideas and artwork for our broadcasting program on Friday. I showed you the equipment that arrived last night (some pretty impressive cameras). We'll begin training on them shortly.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Work continues on creating our 'look'. You started this last week and there is new software on the computers for you to use. Some information, equipment should be arriving in the next week. Also, we'll look at a bit of documentary style filming by starting to shoot the creation of our broadcasting program.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Today we start work on our 'look'. How are we going to be referred to, what is our name, what is our identity. I talked about this in class and you are to do some research or TV stations, networks, etc. If you want to start working on a logo or image idea, here are some file you may want:

In Photoshop format (PSD): Mascot, Logo
In JPEG format: Mascot, Logo

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

As mentioned yesterday in our introduction, the news director at KUTV told me on my tour the day I started there that everyone has a college degree and can write well. It is now time to exercise our writing abilities. I told you that writing something that runs 25 seconds is quite a challenge. We won't start doing that just yet. Instead, we'll start with a simple writing exercise called "What's YOUR Story?" This is where you write about an event or defining moment in your life that tells something about you. This is not an autobiography, we don't have time to hear about your whole life. We just want a story that tells something about you. Your story should be written in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or some other word processor. It should be at least one page single spaced and be emailed to rathke@teacher.com by the beginning of class on Thursday, August 27, 2009.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Welcome to the first day of class. Today you will receive my disclosure, which is due back to me next time we meet or you will not have access to the computers. And you will forfeit points since this is your first assignment. I will discuss what my expectations are and what the rules in my classroom will be this year. Your disclosure is due back to me signed by you and a parent/guardian by Friday, August 28, 2009.