Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Black Men The world needs YOU: Follow YOUR calling
Being a senior broadcast journalism student, I have spent the last four years of my life in cultivation for the journalism world. I've transformed from an eccentric freshman; expressing myself through fashion, hair cuts, photography and art, to a poised senior that can now express myself through words... A Voice... writing.
I must say a glimpse around my classroom today, which was the first day of class, baffled me. We never think to go around counting heads and calling role wherever we go, but oddly I did. In a class of nearly 20 students, there was only 3 black males; I was the only one sitting in the front, the others were back row. As soon as I got home today I checked my e-mail and I received a follow-up e-mail from an interview I did this past October; It led to a brief daydream. Thus the writing of this blog entry...
I must say a glimpse around my classroom today, which was the first day of class, baffled me. We never think to go around counting heads and calling role wherever we go, but oddly I did. In a class of nearly 20 students, there was only 3 black males; I was the only one sitting in the front, the others were back row. As soon as I got home today I checked my e-mail and I received a follow-up e-mail from an interview I did this past October; It led to a brief daydream. Thus the writing of this blog entry...
As any senior would do just months away from the real world, I prayed and asked God to lead the way. Looking out for signs, that next step, I stumbled across an opportunity to work for Teach for America. I met with the recruiter, she was awesome, very encouraging and even inspiring. Though i've had my mind set on going straight to Hollywood after graduation, I entertained the idea of being a contribution to the country's desperate need for black male educators. I called my mom and told her about it and surprisingly, my mom said,
"that would be nice but don't give up on your dreams just yet."
In my mind, I was thinking, job security, health benefits, and still having the option of requesting Los Angeles as my location to teach.
I went ahead and applied for the program, but one day something hit me. I was like, "how productive will I be in my Hollywood pursuits on down time if I'm tied down to teaching?" Epiphanies of lesson plans, getting attached to the kids, staying after everyday because I know I will end up starting some type of after-school program..... All came to me at once. Granted these are not bad things at all, in fact these are great things that I'm sure these kids need. However, I made the decision that at this point in my life, it wasn't for me.
"If we lost sight of our goals at every opportunity that came our way, we would never make any more than 3% progress on 100 different pursuits vs. 100% Progress on our master plan." Brandon McCaskill.
I had to ask myself, "In what way do I want to impact the world?" My next question was, "who the most influential teacher in the world?" Sadly, my response was, "the media." So many kids learn the words of rap songs before they learn their vocabulary words for spelling tests. Strangely, my intuition leads me to believe I have a greater calling in life. It could be looked at as I'm selling out, thats fine, but in my mind I think, "if the media is where every American gets their perception of beauty, self-esteem, success, etc. Why not be a positive representation of what a black man is supposed to be on a large scale? Right now kids are going home after school, dropping their book bags at the door and racing to the television until their parents get home; thus subconsciously serving as "daily homework" for kids across the country. Their incentive for finishing homework is to get back to the TV screen. Who are their black-male role models? Lil Wayne, T.I, Soulja Boy and Kanye West. Will Smith can't do it on his own.
The moral of the story is, I believe we all have our purposes in life. I believe mine is to replace the black males current representation in the most powerful teacher in the world; the media, with substance and an African American Gentleman.
I just got a email reminder about the Teach for America deadline tomorrow, January 8, 2010. Though I feel this opportunity isn't for me, I would love for all of my black males to at least go to the website and see if it might be for them: http://www.teachforamerica.org/ . If you're a senior and have been trying to figure out your next stage in life, this might be your answer.
I'm going to end this with a quote of mine and a link:
"Just because we're capable of doing something doesn't make it our calling. God put billions of people on the earth for a reason; if everyone did THEIR part so much work wouldn't need to be done. Find your calling by listening and that call will lead you the rest of the way."
Lastly, read this article: Obama’s win could have effects within classroom
Lastly, read this article: Obama’s win could have effects within classroom
If you're interested..E-mail Tevie Monk at :
tevie.monk@teachforamerica.org
GRANNY KILLS GRANDSON
(Left Photo of Marianne Bordt/ Tallahassee Democrat)
I am astonished. This is sick and it really exposes the kinds of people we share Earth with everyday. It just baffles me when people feel the need to fill the shoes of God and determine themselves when someone's time up. I can understand being concerned about your grandchild growing up in a divorced household, but it's 2010! It's not the 17th century and times have changed. I grew up out of wedlock, my parents were never married and I know for a fact they never had any intentions of getting married; In fact i'm an accident. The best "mistake" God could have blessed the world with. I am a positive, successful, black man that is
ambitious and more driven than anyone I've seen at my age, 21.
If God can work in my life as he has, and I'm sure he has in the Grandmother's life as well, how could she possibly think she was doing the will of God; was that even the intention?
To the family, you are in my prayers. I am so sorry to hear this, I just experienced the loss of a close friend Sept. 14, 2009, and to this day, it has been the hardest thing I've ever had to endure in my life. I didn't see a picture of young Bordt, but from this article I can tell he was a special kid. I cannot imagine playing with a kid on the beach one weekend and hearing such bad news the next. My prayers go out to everyone impacted by this travesty.
As for the grandmother, my first response would be to stone her. However, that'd be contradicting myself. God will deal with her, life in prison will suffice (what little time she has left).
THIS STORY CAN BE FOUND ON THE BELOW LINK:
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100107/NEWS0102/1070326/Child-s-death-stuns-local-family
Monday, November 16, 2009
News Day Mon: November 16, 2009
Today I did a package on Ben Carson's motivational speech at Florida A&M University last night. The event was in Lee hall auditorium and it was there he went into depth about his childhood, career highlights and how he came to become the first neurosurgeon of any race to separate two siamese twins joined at the head.
I started my package by logging all of the sots from the package. I had sound bites from Dr. Ben Carson himself, SGA President and Vice President Gallop Franklin and Calvin Hayes, I also got interviews with spectators of the event. After logging all of my sound bites I wrote my script. Once I finished my script in ENPS, I recorded my voiceovers. Next, I log and captured all of my video and made mental notes of all the B-Roll I had. After that I chose b-roll that matched the audio of whatever my voiceover was talking about. When I did this for all of my voiceovers and inserted my sots, I went back and adjusted audio so the natural sound wasn't competing with the voiceovers. I also left room for nat-leads and padding.
I also went live today so the anchors tossed to me as I introduced my package. Things went well, I felt great and had tons of fun in front of the camera. I had a bad audio box so I couldn't follow the show audio wise but when my package played I saw great reactions from peoples faces and our sports anchor even looked over at me and said, "great sot" so I felt confident about my package. When I went into the production room after the show ended, the feedback I got from Mike and Jeff Walker was that my story was well written and well shot but had a few jump cuts. There were no black frames or anything but as far as virtully following the story the shot sequencing was jumpy and was not consistent. He did say however that I had good a shot count.
I took in the constructive criticism and will pay more attention to shot sequencing and flow and I even plan to re-edit this package to revise those minor errors. Overall I felt great about today though and our producer Jamesha Moore ran an excellent show. Especially considering that we were light on staff.
I started my package by logging all of the sots from the package. I had sound bites from Dr. Ben Carson himself, SGA President and Vice President Gallop Franklin and Calvin Hayes, I also got interviews with spectators of the event. After logging all of my sound bites I wrote my script. Once I finished my script in ENPS, I recorded my voiceovers. Next, I log and captured all of my video and made mental notes of all the B-Roll I had. After that I chose b-roll that matched the audio of whatever my voiceover was talking about. When I did this for all of my voiceovers and inserted my sots, I went back and adjusted audio so the natural sound wasn't competing with the voiceovers. I also left room for nat-leads and padding.
I also went live today so the anchors tossed to me as I introduced my package. Things went well, I felt great and had tons of fun in front of the camera. I had a bad audio box so I couldn't follow the show audio wise but when my package played I saw great reactions from peoples faces and our sports anchor even looked over at me and said, "great sot" so I felt confident about my package. When I went into the production room after the show ended, the feedback I got from Mike and Jeff Walker was that my story was well written and well shot but had a few jump cuts. There were no black frames or anything but as far as virtully following the story the shot sequencing was jumpy and was not consistent. He did say however that I had good a shot count.
I took in the constructive criticism and will pay more attention to shot sequencing and flow and I even plan to re-edit this package to revise those minor errors. Overall I felt great about today though and our producer Jamesha Moore ran an excellent show. Especially considering that we were light on staff.
Monday, October 26, 2009
News Day Mon: Oct. 26, 2009
Today everyone is recuperating from homecoming last week. Nonetheless we are back to our routine and our producer assigns stories. Some of us are covering stories recapping homecoming, others like myself have a little bit of both.
Unfortunately, late thursday evening, a teenage girl went missing. The press release said that she is the daughter of a FAMU employee and was with her parent late thursday evening in their office. She allegedly stepped outside for a moment around 11pm and she wasn't seen since. There was no reports about her whereabouts over the weekend besides the fact that she was missing. This morning I called The FAMU Police Department to see if I could schedule an interview with someone for updates on the story. However, their response was that the girl was found and they couldnt release any more information on the girl because she was a minor. She said there was no need for an on camera interview because that was all the information she could give. Therefore I didn't get an on camera interview but I did include what the police said in my story. This story ended up only being a reader.
My other story was about FAMU being awarded their big check this past weekend on saturday at the Homecoming Game. This was interesting and required some creativity because the event had already passed and I didn't have any footage of it. However, I pulled the story up on the FAMU website and recorded the screen and the picture of President Ammons holding the check. I got different shots and angles of the screen to make the VO interesting and relevant.
That was it for today, it was a great newscast and my video and scripts got in on time. Until next time...
Unfortunately, late thursday evening, a teenage girl went missing. The press release said that she is the daughter of a FAMU employee and was with her parent late thursday evening in their office. She allegedly stepped outside for a moment around 11pm and she wasn't seen since. There was no reports about her whereabouts over the weekend besides the fact that she was missing. This morning I called The FAMU Police Department to see if I could schedule an interview with someone for updates on the story. However, their response was that the girl was found and they couldnt release any more information on the girl because she was a minor. She said there was no need for an on camera interview because that was all the information she could give. Therefore I didn't get an on camera interview but I did include what the police said in my story. This story ended up only being a reader.
My other story was about FAMU being awarded their big check this past weekend on saturday at the Homecoming Game. This was interesting and required some creativity because the event had already passed and I didn't have any footage of it. However, I pulled the story up on the FAMU website and recorded the screen and the picture of President Ammons holding the check. I got different shots and angles of the screen to make the VO interesting and relevant.
That was it for today, it was a great newscast and my video and scripts got in on time. Until next time...
Monday, October 5, 2009
News Day Mon: Oct. 5, 2009
Today I did a story on on FAMU's recruitment and retention plans for the near future.
After getting my story assignment from my producer, Jamesha Moore, I did some background research on the topic which included researching current and past enrollment numbers at the university.
Once I decided on my angle and approach on the story, I called the FAMU's vice-president of student affairs office, who is over recruitment. I set up an interview with Vice-President of student Affairs, Roland Gaines. Next, I went to the Foote-Hilyer building where their office is and I got my sound bites for the story. From Gaines, I received hard facts on numbers such as President James H. Ammons 15,000 student goal within the next five years. He also shared how the university plans on reaching that goal and how they plan to accommodate those students.
After interviewing VP Gaines, I went around the campus to get some b-roll of student/campus life and some of the buildings that were said to be renovated soon to accommodate the increase in students.
Once I was finished with b-roll, I headed back to the channel 20 newsroom and logged the soundbites I planned to use from the interview. Once I chose the soundbite, I wrote the story and went down to the edit bay to log and capture/digitize my video footage. After logging/capturing I cut my b-roll to the script and made sure my shot count flowed with what was being said in the script.
When all this was done, I exported my b-roll into the news feed folder as DV-Stream and 48k audio and checked to make sure the production crew had it. It went through safely and aired.
As the story was airing, Professor Horton looked at me when V.P Gaines Sot came on and he said..., "that was a great soundbite." I responded with a thank you and immediately felt proud that the day's work was a success... Till next time
After getting my story assignment from my producer, Jamesha Moore, I did some background research on the topic which included researching current and past enrollment numbers at the university.
Once I decided on my angle and approach on the story, I called the FAMU's vice-president of student affairs office, who is over recruitment. I set up an interview with Vice-President of student Affairs, Roland Gaines. Next, I went to the Foote-Hilyer building where their office is and I got my sound bites for the story. From Gaines, I received hard facts on numbers such as President James H. Ammons 15,000 student goal within the next five years. He also shared how the university plans on reaching that goal and how they plan to accommodate those students.
After interviewing VP Gaines, I went around the campus to get some b-roll of student/campus life and some of the buildings that were said to be renovated soon to accommodate the increase in students.
Once I was finished with b-roll, I headed back to the channel 20 newsroom and logged the soundbites I planned to use from the interview. Once I chose the soundbite, I wrote the story and went down to the edit bay to log and capture/digitize my video footage. After logging/capturing I cut my b-roll to the script and made sure my shot count flowed with what was being said in the script.
When all this was done, I exported my b-roll into the news feed folder as DV-Stream and 48k audio and checked to make sure the production crew had it. It went through safely and aired.
As the story was airing, Professor Horton looked at me when V.P Gaines Sot came on and he said..., "that was a great soundbite." I responded with a thank you and immediately felt proud that the day's work was a success... Till next time
Monday, September 14, 2009
News Day Mon: Sep. 14, 2009
Today I had the duty of getting Bill Hayes', Florida A&M Universities former athletic director's, side of the story. Hayes was laid off in addition to a few others in his department. According to his statements released in the FAMUAN Newspaper, he said there was no warning signs of disapproval of his work ethic, he has been there for over 30 years and all of a sudden President Ammons decides to "go in a different direction," without explanation.
I started off my news day by calling Mr. Hayes to see if I could schedule an interview. Surprisingly yet understandable I spoke with him and he declined the interview. He told me he doesn't have anything else to say on the subject and that he has said enough. Being a reporter and needing to get the story, I tried to convince hayes to still do the interview by saying "this is his time to get his side of the story out." He thanked me for the opportunity but still declined the interview.
To bounce back from this, I contacted my producer, Jamesha Moore, and informed her of what happened. We ended up making the story a VO and I proceeded tot he athletic department to get b-roll of the building, the trophies inside of gaither gym, other athletic signs and anything that could get across the story visually without the actual video of Hayes and his soundbite. I did my best, but thats not always enough in the reporting world. This was an awakening and eye opening experience of the reality of the real world. All I could wonder was what if this was my actual job and source of income? Would my job be on the line because he didn't respond?
We did however announce that he denied any further comments so the effort to get his side of the story did take place.. Great news day,
Until next time...
Brandon
I started off my news day by calling Mr. Hayes to see if I could schedule an interview. Surprisingly yet understandable I spoke with him and he declined the interview. He told me he doesn't have anything else to say on the subject and that he has said enough. Being a reporter and needing to get the story, I tried to convince hayes to still do the interview by saying "this is his time to get his side of the story out." He thanked me for the opportunity but still declined the interview.
To bounce back from this, I contacted my producer, Jamesha Moore, and informed her of what happened. We ended up making the story a VO and I proceeded tot he athletic department to get b-roll of the building, the trophies inside of gaither gym, other athletic signs and anything that could get across the story visually without the actual video of Hayes and his soundbite. I did my best, but thats not always enough in the reporting world. This was an awakening and eye opening experience of the reality of the real world. All I could wonder was what if this was my actual job and source of income? Would my job be on the line because he didn't respond?
We did however announce that he denied any further comments so the effort to get his side of the story did take place.. Great news day,
Until next time...
Brandon
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