Another video/audio editing wonder

I cam across this during a study break. Hope you all enjoy it! The level of editing is top-notch, especially the audio. This guy is good.




Re-blog this if you like it!

READ ME: A vote is not editable

A few weeks ago, I did a blog presentation in my Editing Print and Online Media class. During that presentation, I mentioned that I hadn't voted in the recent election. I remember seeing a few confused faces and shaking heads, so I just thought I would try to explain a bit about why I didn't vote.

Part of the reason I didn't vote is because a vote is one of the few things that cannot be edited after the fact. When the 27th of October came around, I didn't feel like I knew enough about the candidates who were running to make an informed decision that I wouldn't regret later on. So, rather than supporting a candidate I knew nothing about, I chose not to support anyone. I refused to blindly vote for the favorite because I didn't have enough information. Granted, it was on me to get that information, but I would much rather keep my vote to myself than make an uninformed decision that I couldn't change later on.

In a sense, I had edited my right to vote, and instead exercised my right to not vote.


On a different note, I had a little run-in with one of the candidates for the upcoming by-election on the 29th.

The fence of my house faces a fairly busy street, and we share it with about 7 other houses . On that fence, I have signs showing my support for Kevin Lamoreux as Winnipeg North's MP. My neighbours also have signs supporting Kevin. These signs are there because Kevin came to our neighbourhood twice to ask for our support, and to ask if he could put his signs on our fence.

Now, about a week and a half ago, I was in my basement enjoying a game of Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies, when I hear the doorbell ring. My sister answers the door to a filipino man. We'll call him Tito. Tito immediately launches into a protest against Kevin Lamoreux, saying he hasn't done anything worth mentioning for the filipino community during his time in office, and that he is "monopolizing" the fence with his signs. He then informs us that he put up signs on our fence for his wife, who is also running for Winnipeg North MP (surprise, surprise). Then, he hands us a flyer, and takes his leave without mentioning anything about who he is campaigning for and why we should vote for her.

At this point, I assessed the situation. Tito assumed that Kevin just put up signs without asking permission. He assumed that we would support who he was campaigning for based on the fact that we are filipino and we would support any filipino running for office. And he assumed that I wasn't smart enough to do something about this. Wrong!

I immediately went outside and took down the signs Tito had just put up. About 2 days later, I hear the doorbell, and I answer the door to Tito. He asked me why the signs he put up were taken down, and I told him that he didn't ask for permission to put the signs up, and that Kevin did. He then asked me where my family was originally from in the Philippines. I told him, and it turns out that we both came from neighbouring provinces. He then implied that because we're from the same area, I should show my support for his campaign. I told him that my support is reserved for those who take the time to come to my door and explain how they can help the community, not how others do not. I also explained that my personal support goes to candidates who respect my family's property and don't take advantage of cultural similarities.

He had nothing to say after that. In retrospect, he should have edited his attitude to reflect a positive view on his candidate's campaign, rather than a negative view on the opposition.

Mockumentaries and why I love them

So if you didn't already know, a mockumentary (also known as a mock documentary) is a genre of film and television where events are presented in a non-fiction or documentary format. Great examples of these TV shows are The Office (both the UK and US versions) and Parks and Recreation. While other TV shows are very well edited and presented (like Dexter, 24, Freaks and Geeks, etc.), shows like The Office are edited in a way that further exaggerates the joke. Often this is done by prolonging a scene to capture the reactions and emotions of the actors. In a lot of TV shows, emotion is communicated through background audio (Law and Order, for example). The Office does this without any audio at all, which is why I love this TV show so much.

And since we'll be talking about Wikipedia in today's Editing Online Print and Media class, here's a link to a short clip from The Office. In this clip, Michael Scott talks about how awesome Wikipedia is? Agree, disagree, or agree to disagree, its all good =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBDn5PiL00

Legal guidelines for Jounalists

I came across this video on Youtube while doing research for the Libel assignment in my Online Print and Media class. Enjoy!

Legal guidelines for Journalists (Part 1 of 2) (Sorry, I don't know how to embed videos -_-)

Does size matter?..

... When it comes to headlines? Of course it does.

Although I missed the last Editing Print and Online Media class on headline writing, I think the message is pretty clear. Be concise, but descriptive. Hook the reader, but don't give the story away. Of course, this is easier said than done, but the headline in the picture below falls short on all counts. How did this slip by the editors?

After reading that headline, the only details left out are the specifics. Things like the date this happened, the name of the pub, and the names of those involved. But most readers don't care for this information. If I had come across this in a local publication, it's likely that I would have read the headline, glanced at the pictures, and moved on to the next page. Some would argue that there's no point to printing the story that accompanies this headline because it tells too much of the story. Although, to be honest, I would want to skim the story for an explanation of the sumo suit and the Snickers suit.

Editing boundaries and rules

Editing is all about boundaries and rules. Should I include this detail in the headline? Is this number relevant to my research? Should I mention the groom's bachelor party during my toast? Basically, it comes down to whether or not we should include or do something, and when we should not.

Over the weekend, I saw the movie Unthinkable. This is a great movie to watch if you want to have your moral boundaries tested. I don't want to give away too much of the storyline here, so...

*** Spolier Alert ***

Now that that's out of the way, the movie is basically about a terrorist who plants 3 nuclear bombs in 3 American cities, and then gets captured. While in captivity, he is tortured in order to gather information regarding the whereabouts of the bombs. The U.S. government employs a specialist who essentially does anything and everything to get the information he needs from the terrorist. The use of torture alone crosses most people's moral boundaries, but it gets even worse.

All I can say is, watch the movie, and you'll spend the next few minutes arguing with yourself about where your own moral boundaries are.

And, just to end on a lighter note..

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

Happy Turkey Week Everyone! I call the week following Thanksgiving Turkey Week because I know many of us have massive amounts of leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. Which means turkey for lunch and dinner for at least a few days. Hope you all had a good one!

Today I'm going to blog about a polical flyer for a candidate, Casey Jones. Casey is running for City Councillor, and hails from Old Kildonan. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to take a picture of the flyer, but I'll try to describe it as best I can.

I found his flyer in my mailbox just yesterday, and I immediately noticed quite a few errors in grammar, parallel form and punctuation. It bothers me that so many errors could go unnoticed during the printing process, and then again during distribution. It makes me wonder whether Casey himself even looks at these flyers because some of the mistakes are so glaringly obvious. Just as an example, on the second page, there is a little blurb about his background. Right in the middle of the first paragraph is an extra space. How does anyone miss that when proofing the final copy?

I found this flyer to do slightly more harm than good for Casey's campaign. Quoted from the flyer:

"I bring years of experience in leadership, time management, planning and implementation, all of which will enable me to pursue a position as your City Councillor with unwavering confidence and pride."

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a lot of planning took place in the editing process, and the distribution was poorly implemented because even with the large number of errors, the flyer was still distributed. Though the content is good and the message is clear, the way the message is conveyed through the flyer implies a lack of quality in the work he's putting into his campaign.

This reminds me of the Stark County speaker some of us had the pleasure of experiencing in the Oral Presentation class today. He had a message, but it was so hysterically presented that it completely destroyed his presentation. It was quite entertaining though, we can all agree on that.

It's a J, not a B

I'm sure everyone has received their Voter's Notices in the mail this past week (I also just noticed that on the card itself, there is a missing apostrophe in the word "Voters"). Somehow, after spelling my name correctly for the past 8 years, they managed to spell it wrong. I now understand how Iain feels when his name is spelled/pronounced wrong.


Strange how they managed to confuse the letter "j" with the letter "b." They look nothing alike!

It's StandardAero, not Standard Aero

I spent my summer in a co-op position working for StandardAero as a Technical Writer in the Publications department. I spent the bulk of my time there implementing and editing revisions to the existing online and print documentation for a specific aircraft. During that time, I was told to ignore obvious grammatical and structural errors if they were not included in the revision notes.

I found it odd that the senior editor was okay with this, so I asked him about it. He told me that it irritates him too, but leaving things like that alone means more work (and consequently, more money) for us when they realize the errors for themselves. As he puts it, "They never asked us to fix that error. Why fix what they think isn't broken?"

On top of that, I realized that our company specifications and style guides are not likely to be the same as the customer's, so it's safer to leave it untouched, as long as the error does not impact any technical data (part numbers, tolerances, etc.).

The Winnipeg Sun Sucks!

Some of you might recognize this from the Winnipeg Sun a little while back.

"RIDERS SUCK"

How's that for a headline? Personally, I don't think the editor made the right choice. The headline shows poor character and digs a deeper hole for the Winnipeg Sun. Granted, it gets people talking and it gets them to take a second look at the paper, but is really worth putting another scratch in the Sun's already dull reputation?

I suppose we can attribute this to the economy; decreased paper sales equals wavering moral compass, which in turn equates to slightly increased revenues. Do what you gotta do, I suppose. But how does that explain the running Riders Suck article in the Sports section of the Winnipeg Sun website?

Mike's Blog, Too

Does my blog title look right to you? No? That's because it's wrong! Here's a picture I snapped on my phone a few days ago. It's a sign just outside of one of the local Filipino/Asian convenience stores.

The title on its own is grammatically incorrect, since it's a sentence fragment. Well, maybe there's a reason behind the poor grammar, right?

NOPE.

The owner of the store used to work at the original Water Plant at the corner of McPhillips St. and Logan St. When I asked him about the store name, he told me that he decided to open up another store closer to his home, and named it "Water Plant, Too" because it's both the second store and a Water Plant store.

"Why not just call it 'Water Plant 2'?" I asked.

"Well," said the owner, "I wanted the name to be clever and recognizable."

It's certainly recognizable, but not because it's clever.

Also, a bit of a bonus. At the bottom of the sign, under "Chicken," there's a phrase that says "LU2ONG FOOD." Reading that phrase out loud, you might pronounce it "loo-two-ong food" because there's a number two in there. However, spelled correctly, the phrase should read "LUTONG," which means "cooked" in Tagalog, and is pronounced "loo-tong."

So why the extra number 2 in there? Still trying to be clever? You tell me. *shrugs*

Virgin BLOGGER no more!

I have never posted my own blog before. To be honest, the only blogging experience I ever had before this consisted of a few occasional mindless blurbs on a couple of social networking sites. That is where I'm coming from. Where I'm hoping to end up is somewhere completely different.

Throughout the course of my Online Print and Media class with Duncan McMonagle, I'm hoping to develop my writing so that it provokes intellectual conversation. I want to be the kind of writer who leaves an imprint on their reader. I want my readers to understand me, and relate to me, so that if I happen to come across them in the halls, they feel comfortable enough to stop me and engage in conversation. We can have a meaningful conversation about the miners trapped underground in Chile, or just shoot the bull about the latest and greatest installment in the Street Fighter video game franchise.

And of course, I want to get better at finding errors in other people's writing, so I can point them out in the hopes of helping the author(s) grow as a writer/editor. I also do it to poke fun and make jokes, but let's be honest, who doesn't?

Feel free to post comments and critique me and my writing. I have a long way to go, so your help is very much appreciated.