Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > August > 24 > Entry
Class 1: Entertainment Journalism at St. Edward’s University
My favorite part of the semester: The empty classroom, brimming with potential energy, before the students arrive on the first day.
The location for St. Edward’s University’s Entertainment Journalism classes this fall is a tall, airy, modern room in the natural sciences building. Desktop computers line three walls. A dozen or so students face a screen, soon jumping with online data. They bring laptops and smart phones to grapple with today’s entrepreneurial style of reporting.
During the first three-hour class, students introduced themselves (all but one from Texas, a mix of English, communications and other majors).
Then we reviewed the syllabus, which has grown over the years. Students composed and signed contracts about the skills they hope to acquire or polish, and how much time each week they pledged to spend doing so.
Then the first exercise, meant to strip away the abstract to mine the concrete, uses observation, description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The dense, quickly paced 42-second title sequence for “Rubicon” was our repeated subject.
This exercise is toughest on the most accomplished student writers, who want to race ahead to words like “ominous” or “suspicious” without trusting their own senses. They urgently seek to string together ideas before considering the sights and sounds that feed those ideas. Through trial and error, they came up with these (edited) conclusions about the “Rubicon” credits (none has seen the AMC series yet).
Observations: (words) Numbers, names, streets, arrows, yellow, highlighting, bar codes, lines, black, white, crosswords, Abraham Lincoln, letters, scribbles, marks, paper, news, maps, money, violins, highways, clover, pencil, newspaper, graph, newspaper, dots, code, circles, bass, typewriter, fragments, chalk, schematics, blanks, credit cards, dollar, fast, upbeat, crown, jet, roads, puzzles, eye, high pitch, city, gray, puppies, e-way, Dallas, JFK, Queens, market, crash, New York, scratches and micro chip.
Descriptions: (phrases) Swift moving yellow highlighter. Pixelated black and white images. Constant, plucking strings. Monochromatic geometric shapes. Fast transitions of black and white images. Web connections images leading to the word ‘Rubicon.’ Rapidly etching and scratching out of plans. High pitched screeching music. Diagonal yellow lines crossing. Cold hard images. Various newspaper ads highlighted. Varying vantage points.
Analysis: (counts) Three female names. Four highway loops. One presidential portrait. 4:4 time. Three different musical sounds. Thirteen yellow circles. Four newspapers. Fourteen proper nouns. Two black-and-white pictures of roads. (Numeral sequence): 7775. Twenty-two prompts on the crossword puzzle. Two bar codes. Fourteen names. Seven highlighted words. Two references to presidents.
Interpretations: Somebody is always watching you or those around you. Conspiracy theory. A fast-paced puzzle game of many numbers, people and things. A search for something in New York involving codes, encryptions and danger. Cracking codes, tracking criminals, solving a mystery, re-writing someones past, stealing someones identity, investigating a bank robbery/economic crash. It’s a mystery-solving thriller, involving the government. Computer and camera noises, and sounds of drawing, all allude to a sense of planning, plotting or attempting to solve something; psychologically thrilling. Comparable to ‘Enemy of the State’ (Will Smith film), planes down, markets crash something in New York, investigation.
Evaluations:
Jessye Padilla: “I think it is effective in connecting many numbers, people and things together by calling attention to certain circled items with a highlighter, causing a viewer to be intrigued by pieces of a puzzle.”
Christina Logan: “Fast transition of black and white slides of highlighted images of government names and symbols, several forms of bar codes, encryptions, puzzles and newspapers that leads to the word ‘Rubicon’ forming a sense of mysterious curiosity.”
Ingrid Husby: “The constant plucking strings and monochromatic geometric shapes are effective in building suspense as well as curiosity and enticing me to watch the show”
Holly Aker: “With the suspenseful music, images flicking on and off the screen and the mysterious number sequences, this intro would make anyone want to know more about ‘Rubicon.’”
Orlando Sanchez: “A smarter than average TV program that looks to take viewers on a puzzling journey through New York City.”
Bianca Segura: “Effectively evokes a sense of curiosity and mystery that in someways makes the viewer want to play along and attempt to solve whatever puzzle is needing to be solved. It could be appealing to those who enjoy psychologically thrilling television.”
Meg Seeger: “The high pitched accelerating music and the black and white aerial images create a suspenseful tone that is effective at introducing the audience to ‘Rubicon,’ a puzzling new series.”
Ginger Grossman: “This quick and mysterious introduction left me feeling confused, which must mean it’s good! The introduction would leave the average viewer enticed to see what the show involves — with all of the numbers, scratching, screeching, technology, and highlighting.”
Megan Ganey: “The rapid changing and connection of images with the yellow lines and circles makes me wonder what the connection is between them all, and at the end of the credits, I want to watch the show to get out of my state of anxiety by figuring out this massive puzzle of a conspiracy theory.”
Will Parsons: “Digital nature (of) the presentation of images and numbers is relatable to a 21st-century audience.”
Alex Bruno: “I think this is an effective opening because it uses images and music in an intricate and puzzling manner to make you wonder what is trying to be solved and what is going to happen.”
UPDATE: Alex Bruno’s evaluation was added after the initial posting.
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By Caroline Stone
August 29, 2010 3:34 PM | Link to this
Though I missed the first class period, I tried my best to repeat the class exercise on my own at home. The first time I watched the video clip I caught almost nothing. It seemed to be just a jargon of words and cool graphic design tricks. But, after watching the clip five times my notes consisted of virtually the same thing the class had gathered. The sporadic appearance of objects, lines, and words was just a jumbled mess of information, but the more I watched the more sense it made and the more of a story it seemed to tell or suggest at least. It allowed me to see how much thought a preparation went into making this clip so detailed. It was an interesting experiment, and I enjoyed the fact that it got me thinking about dedication and careful planning.
By Holly Aker
August 29, 2010 3:01 PM | Link to this
Although this exercise seemed like it would be a breeze at first, I found it to be very challenging. I learned how fast my brain skips over minor details and goes straight towards the big, more obvious picture. I'm going to remember this exercise for future writing assignments because I think it will help me analyze subjects better and ultimately improve my writing.
By Alex Bruno
August 28, 2010 4:02 PM | Link to this
After this first class, I spent a long time thinking about the assignment we worked on that day. It appeared to be such a simple task, yet it was one of the most complex assignments I have done. I am so used to jumping into something without even taking the time to analyze what I am actually going. I think a lot of times we are taught to write about things holistically and use fancy language which in turn forces us to miss the small pieces. By breaking down each component, it made it easier to understand the video as a whole. This same method holds true for a lot of other things in life. Whether it be listening to song lyrics or analyzing a piece of art, it is always good to start with the basics before we try to make sense of something as a whole.
By Gillian Shewaga
August 27, 2010 11:55 PM | Link to this
This first exercise was not only humorous to me because it showed how A.D.D. my mind can be, but it also shed insight on how I tend to automatically over-analyze things or situations. I typically try to interpret and make final conclusions as fast as I possibly can. This assignment made me stop and disassemble a complex idea into its most basic forms- which was surprisingly harder than I would ever believe so. I think it was extremely effective in understanding the process of brainstorming and the inner workings of a finalized, creative product.
By Meg Seeger
August 27, 2010 9:23 PM | Link to this
The first journalism class really opened my eyes to how I love to jump ahead. The exercise we used to explore observation, description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation forced us to really think about what each of the words meant. I think this exercise was incredibly effective for all of us in the class. Now we are able to look at something and break it up into simple pieces rather than jumping to more complicated conclusions.
By Megan Ganey
August 25, 2010 10:48 AM | Link to this
This exercise was really effective in breaking down the many elements of writing. By looking at the clip closely and simply we were able to see the more complex ideas it portrayed. I also enjoyed seeing everyone's different take on it and seeing things I missed because of my classmates.