But it makes sense, given the parameters of this class and the time schedule we’re working on.

My struggles in other classes, namely Chicago Broadcast, came from a fundamental difference of personality. A class like CB requires mechanical storytelling: Person A, Person B, standup, Person B, export, never talk to sources again. I detested the superficiality of the format. For that class, a mediocre story that can be shot within a safe radius of the newsroom was preferred to some out-of-the-way area where something more significant went on. I just couldn’t swallow that pill. Being labeled a malcontent isn’t something anyone should aspire toward, but at the same time, the local news reporter and the documentarian aren’t the same person. It wasn’t right for me.

More than anything, I want to feel like my work matters. Delving deeply into issues, to me, is the way to go about that. Living and breathing work is the only way I know. Journalism school is far too expensive to approach it any other way.

And here I am, working on a topic I don’t consider ideal.

My preference would be to take a social issue head-on. In a way, sports is a workable compromise–sort of hiding the vitamins in the ice cream. Before the class even started, I was torn: I trusted Whitney’s level of work and professionalism, but knew that she would want to work solely on sports. She and I are headed in different directions; she wants to be a sideline reporter, or at least working local sports news, whereas I am after the best stories I can get, no matter what subject area. I admire her singular focus.

Whatever trepidations I may have had, trust trumped. I trust her. She will work hard and produce quality video. Not to mention, there would be no way, even if completely honest, to not hurt her feelings by saying that perhaps we should work on different subjects. But I digress.

High school football provides an abundance of quality stories. Sure, the subject has already been covered extensively in other formats, but every good story has already been told in some manner. Here in Chicago, sports can save kids lives. They can be a way out of a dead-end future. They offer a vehicle to getting a college education. On and on.

Thus far, we’ve looked into a number of area schools. The most compelling stories are likely to come from schools with smaller budgets; that eliminates a number of the high-end, private powerhouses one finds in an area like this.

Through our research, we’ve whittled down a couple of city schools. Simeon is the real target. Last quarter, the most successful documentaries were those with a definite event: an MMA fight, an immigration rally and a food critic visiting a well-known restaurant. For us, the high school season will end during this quarter. In cinema verite, we have a natural climax. No drama needs to be written.

If there’s a bullseye within our target, it’s a kid named Chris Bryant. Bryant is from the South Side. He’s 6 feet 5 inches, 330 pounds. He bench presses 395 pounds. He runs a 5.3 time in the 40, but most important: He’s got a 3.6 GPA and a 21 ACT score. These aren’t landmark scores, but all combined, we’re talking about a special kid.

Now, we’ve not yet talked to Bryant; he could be boring as all get-out. But he’s being recruited by some major college football programs and he’ll have his pick. Right now, we want more than anything to talk with this kid. Maybe he isn’t a compelling character. But maybe he’s exactly what we’re looking for.

I played phone tag with the athletic director at Simeon last week. We talked on Thursday and he said that he’d forward my story on to the head football coach. We’re hoping to just chat and let them know what we’re after. Even if Bryant turns out to not be a compelling story, the team itself should be. It’s ranked No. 5 in the state, the highest of any of the CPS teams. That’s a big deal. Last week, they thumped a worthy opponent by 40 points. Ideally, we’d follow Simeon: They’re high-achieving, have a couple of standout prospects, and expectation just bubbles with stories. If they succeed, we win. If they fall short, we still win. There’s a lot to like about this.

We’ve spoken with Lane Tech, and they’re open to having us. Lane is good within the Chicago, but expectations don’t extend beyond city limits. We could do fine work with Lane, but I’d be afraid of not having enough sprawl or weight with them. Again, it’s all about finding the right story. Maybe a kid comes from a rough background and football is his haven. Maybe there’s some exceptional circumstance we have no idea about. Hard to say right now.

But I’m more than alright with working on this story. There’s no lack of confidence for us getting solid video and editing it well. Now it’s just about finding the right story within the genre. Therein lies the rub.

We’ll see what comes up in the next few days. Tonight, we’ll be attending Simeon’s game to get a feel for what the atmosphere is like, and to see them in-person for the first time. Should be fun.

I’m looking forward to it.

Regardless, here we are.  The last two months of my life have been filled with work.  Would I have it any other way?  Absolutely not.  I was putting in 10 to 12 hour days during the week.

And I lived for it.

The work I was doing was compelling, fun and challenging.  That’s what I want out of my life.  I am on spring break this week and will attempt to catch some of this up.  It will be impossible to catch all of it up.  Even so, I will post the stuff I was churning out as a journalist and to give an idea of what my professional arc has looked like.  You can see, however, that from week one to week 10, I made vast strides.

At present, I feel comfortable with who I am as a journalist and have found my voice.  Some people may never get to that point.  It took me less than six months to get there.  I cannot tell you how much it pleases me.

So this will be brief, I have other things I am about to do.  But I will be posting this week and making sure that renewing my domain was not a worthless $10 for 2010.

Posts forthcoming.

I am breaking with that goal for today.

Today was a full day.  We held funeral services for my grandmother.  My mother read a tearful eulogy to the woman she spoke with on the telephone nearly every day of her adult life.  I cannot imagine  how difficult it was.  And yet, she did well.  She should have cried.  She did.  But she got through her written words without completely breaking down.  It was a catharsis, I think, for my mom.  She has suffered alongside my grandmother throughout her dementia, cancer, and general decline in health.  It is inevitable for a body to break down.  It is not inevitable for a spirit to break down.  My grandmother was lost to us, at least for me, when my grandfather passed away three years ago.  Yes, she was still alive.  But her mental faculties worsened, and I could see at his funeral that something left her that day.  Nearly three years to the day, she left the rest of us behind.

Today was spent crying in the morning, consoling one another, and gathering afterward to celebrate the family we have.   Through time, people do drift apart.  But today has made me realize, again, that it is wrong to dwell on what hurts.  My grandmother loved us dearly.  She was kind-hearted.  But she would not want me or anyone else to put our lives on hold.

Some time last night, I felt a spark that perhaps was missing over the last few weeks for me.  I am 25.  I have a bright future in a career I have chosen.  Every day presents new challenges to me.  That’s what I live for.

From this vista I return to Chicago re-energized in many ways.  I know that my mom is okay.  My sister-in-law has a healthy child on the way.  And I see more now that I was allowing one confusing relationship to drag me down rather than exploring what else I had out there.  As a perfectionist, I think I can solve anything.  It’s not true.  But that doesn’t prevent me from thinking it.  The assignments I’ve turned in this quarter make me feel dissatisfied.  I know I can do better.  I will.  But even with this relationship, I was thinking of angles to make things better.  To be honest, there’s little I can do at present.  She was great.  Are we meant to be?  I never really thought so.  But that didn’t stop me from caring about her.  And it shouldn’t lead me to being bitter about the whole ordeal.

Rather than dropping some cliché here, I want to say that I plan to be more energized and focused come tomorrow.  I want to be great at what I do.  I want people around me to feel happy when I walk in a room.  And more than anything, I feel re-focused on my goals.   They are attainable.

Time to get busy working.

Things didn’t start out great.

Without going into details, the concept of “extra” web editor was new–and I was the very first to do it.  Needless to say, some quirks need to be worked out.  Stuff that I thought would take me maybe an hour took closer to two and a half.

Two buttons popped off my shirt.  That wasn’t good.  I sewed them back on later, but still.

The story I was working on that day fell apart when sources didn’t call me back.  That sucked.  It was about a deadline that day, but ended up not really being a story.  Again, it sucked.

I was in the newsroom until 5:45 on Friday.  I was done with class at 12.  That sucked.

I found out some time in there that my grandma had less than 10 days left on this earth.

So that night, I went out for a drink with some friends from school.  We were in Andersonville, keeping it low-key.  I felt bad because one of my friends is now seeing a girl I go to school with, who happens to be close friends with the girl I was seeing before.  Not wanting to deal with that whole situation, I reluctantly didn’t call back, figuring they’d all be together.

I get to the bar, and my friend is not there, but the girl he is seeing, along with the girl I was seeing, are there.  Begin awkward dynamic.  Others told me after the fact that they felt uncomfortable.  I tried to play it cool and talked to other people.  Apparently things still need to be ironed out.

Saturday and Sunday were spent watching football.  Good.

Monday, I had the day off and ran errands.  Good.

Tuesday, my brother called me on my way to the newsroom to say my grandma had less than 48 hours left.  That didn’t start my day well.  By noon, she was gone.  That wasn’t easy to deal with.  I carried on through my day and told a couple of people that she had died, but I finished the story I’d been working on Friday.  I didn’t want to cause a scene.

Wednesday I covered a CTA protest, but was more or less backup for another reporter, since it was in his beat. I didn’t want to step on his toes.  I tried to film video and take still photos, but neither turned out well–you can only do one or the other.  Not both.  I turned my pictures into a slideshow, which I ended up unhappy with.  I had to take audio from the video I’d shot, chop that, export audio only, convert the audio, open that in Audacity, chop that, edit down, export for Soundslides.  Needless to say, with all the technical difficulties on top of being distracted, my project wasn’t crisp.  It wasn’t even good.

Then, I couldn’t get my story uploaded for about an hour.  The CMS was so slow.  I was going nuts.

Today, I flew home to be with family and to bury my grandmother.  It has been a tough 7 days.  Will I get through it?  Surely.  I’m not one to stay down long.  But I was near my breaking point about 36 hours ago.

I spent the day moving furniture from my grandmother’s room in the old folks’ home.  It wasn’t fun.  But it had to be done.  This is what you do for family.

One of the few people on this earth I can say I love with no reservations was taken away this week.  That hurts.  But I will make her proud in the coming weeks and years.  She wouldn’t want me to mope over this.   And I don’t plan to.

Nevertheless, here is my second story.

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=153987

Regardless, I am enjoying reporting to a great extent.  I’m absorbed and engaged.  There’s lots to do, and I feel like I’m accomplishing things.  I will be reporting on stimulus spending this quarter.  Looking forward to it.  Here is the first story I published on the first day of reporting:

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=153354

Enjoy.

From  9-1, I have a broadcast producing class.  From 1:30-4:30, I have global journalism.  It’s a lot of class in one day, for sure.  Not to mention, it’s the only time I’m up in Evanston, and there are plenty of administrative things to take care of–getting my new CTA pass, paying the deposit on the camera for broadcast, buying books, scheduling a doctor’s appointment–whew.

So yeah, that was a kind of long day, but the real meat and potatoes of this quarter will be spent in Urban Reporting.  There I will function as a full-fledged reporter in the city of Chicago.  Day one was spent going over administrative stuff and figuring out what sorts of beats we’d like to be on.  I chose the community/politics beat.  Specifically, I will focus on stimulus spending.  I’d like to see where the money is being spent.  It should be a good challenge, and will help me do some good stories.  I am very pleased about that development.

Furthermore, my desk setup is fantastic in the newsroom.  There are a couple of undesirables, I guess you could call them, and they are nowhere near my desk.  Instead, I am surrounded by a number of friends.  I laugh a lot at my desk between periods of doing work.  It’s terrific.

Last, but probably most important, our professors are the best I’ve encountered yet.  While my broadcast professor seems kind of like a dick, and global is a bit dry, reporting professors are incredibly charismatic.  Marcel Pacatte and Steve Duke are the urban guys, and damn if i’m not excited to work with the both of them.  Already I’ve developed a rapport with Marcel.  I can tell he will be my mentor–even more so than my peers.  Yesterday, I cracked a number of jokes with him, and this morning I sent him a haiku.  He said it really made his day.

This quarter I will become a better reporter.  I look forward to it more all the time.

So what do I think?

NEWSWRITING

Well, the workload is about right.  If anything, it probably errs on the side of being too light.  I say this only because for all the time that professors and directors refer to methods as “boot camp,” there were only two instances I could cite where I felt at all overwhelmed–and even then, it was completely manageable.

The first, as you could go back and read, was when my class had 4 pieces due in 4 days.  But even then, those were not difficult pieces.  You just had to know how to allot time.  That’s half the battle with being a journalist: time management.

The second, as it’s fresh in my memory,  was the end-of-quarter video fiasco.  That, in many ways, was simply on me.  If there’s one piece of advice I would lend to future Medill students, it would be to get beat reporting video done early.  It’s much easier to throw together a print piece than an A/V piece.

I wonder how well-prepared we are for the forthcoming quarter.  In my opinion, far too many people complained about their workload this quarter.  Again, we were not swamped. But moving forward, we will have to deal with churning out work in greater quantity and quality.  On top of it, we are expected to be more efficient.  In some ways, I think we were having our hands held–not necessarily a bad thing–but it might come back to bite us in the ass once we’re actually reporting.

I also think that  perhaps the emphasis on technology could be better spread.  Audio stories should be optional–mine totally sucked, and while I understand the merit in learning how to do an audio story, I don’t find it terribly compelling.  But that’s just one man’s opinion.  There’s a lot of technology and software to learn in a short period, and many are not good with newfangled stuff.  But it’s a good crash course in that manner, and I think we hit the key points.  I think the administration should ensure that a print person is paired with a broadcast person, however.  Most classes functioned this way, but our two professors were both print people, leaving me to wonder if we were as stringently graded as other classes would have been.  I’m not one to know.  Just a thought.

EDITING

Editing was tough.  I got an A.  I knew a lot of the stuff going in, as I had to learn many of these things while I was teaching English.  But if you think you can be a journalist with poor grammar and usage, then you should find a new field.  You’re just willing to be sloppy.  Everyone will bitch and moan about this class, but guess what?  It’s stuff you need to know.  By the end of the quarter, it should be second nature.

At times, I did feel that we wasted a fair amount of time in editing, but at the same time, people work at different paces.  I felt bad for foreign students.  I know native-born Americans struggled in here, so I can only imagine what it was like for people whose first language wasn’t English.

All in all, people need to suck it up and study for editing.  There’s not much more that can be said.

LAW AND ETHICS

This was everyone’s favorite class.  I loved it.  Craig LaMay was a terrific professor.  I had little interest in the subject going into this quarter, but after having taken this class, given its format and the material it covered, I am a convert.  I think most any student will enjoy what they learn in here.  That’s the nature of being in this program–people cut from a similiar cloth, enjoying similar things.  I’ll tell you, I know things about the First Amendment that I had no idea about before.  I feel like I took a lot out of every hour I was in this class.  And the readings were surprisingly engaging.  Perhaps I’m a nerd, but I say any journalist should love this class.

JOURNALISM BY THE NUMBERS

In short, a waste of time.  The idea behind this class is good, but the execution is poor.  It should be a remedial course for people who can’t fucking round or convert fractions.  I wanted to learn about computer assisted reporting and how to identify trends.  Instead, we focused far too much on basic information.

The administration didn’t make clear enough that anyone can test out of this course–not just seasoned journalists.  My advice: take the test and get the hell out of this class.  Even if it’s the only one you test out of, your Mondays will be much happier because of it.  Most students spent 2/3 hour in class browsing the internet and G-chatting.  Our professors seem good at what they do, but handcuffed by the simplicity of the material they were forced to cover.

OVERALL

I’m ready for next quarter.  It will be interesting to see who does not come back after Winter break.  If you feel overwhelmed by Methods, it’s doubtful you’re going to cut the mustard in the future.  Go work in a cubicle my friend.  For as much as Medill may talk things up, if you have your head screwed on straight, you are reasonably intelligent, and you have a good work ethic, you will be fine.

I’m happy with what I’ve learned to this point.  Professors are helpful and want students to succeed.  Use them–they’re an invaluable resource.  That’s where your $44,000 is going.  Make the most of it.

Going into the final week of class, I had to file two stories, one of them being my video story.  Per our requirements for the quarter, we had to do only two A/V projects: a Soundslides piece, and a video.

I enjoy shooting and editing video.  For me, it’s sort of like doing a puzzle.  Regardless, I put in 10X the amount of work on my video story as I had for any other, and yet, had nothing to show for it by the final day of class.  My plan was to simply interview someone going through foreclosure–either having already gone through it, or currently dealing with it.  It proved a lot tougher task than I had ever imagined.  Even so, I knew it was the most compelling story I could tell on the housing beat.  To that end, I had exhausted every resource I had.  Realtors and non-profits could not give me names of people because of confidentiality agreements, and in general, websites such as RealtyTrac and Redfin proved hard to translate, as addresses didn’t always come with contact info.  Not to mention, it’s not like you can just get into a condo complex, which was the majority of foreclosures I was dealing with.

The path to my final video was difficult.  I modified my original idea twice, and still had nothing.  Instead of foreclosures, I was looking into pre-foreclosures.  Still nothing.  A lot of shame is involved in foreclosure, so it made sense.  Then I moved into short-sales, at the behest of my contact at the Woodstock Institute.  Still nothing.  No one wanted to talk to a student journalist.

My backup plans even fell through.  My contact at Woodstock said she’d be OK with an on-camera interview, only to inform me on Tuesday that she didn’t have time then, and would be out of the office all week.  That sucked.  I also had a crappy profile story I tried to set up several times with a couple that runs a home-improvement blog in Rogers Park.  They pushed me several times, and it became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen.  So even plan B and plan C fell through.

This all left me scrambling on the final day.  The last day we could file was Wednesday…and Tuesday was veritable hell for me.  I made something like 40 phone calls to various people involved in real estate.  I called some agents.  I called for sale by owner listings.  Nothing.  All this was happening as my complete bitch of a roommate was informing me she was planning to screw me out of over $100 she owed for unpaid bills.  WIthout going into specifics, I will say, she is far and away the worst roommate I’ve ever had, and I am glad she is (mostly) out of my life.  She is a bad person.  But that is a digression, and the point is, we were exchanging emails over the course of that morning, on top of my school work, so I was more than stressed.  I found myself smoking cigarettes–something I wouldn’t normally do, unless perhaps having a few drinks.

I thought I’d found my salvation when a guy I’d left a message for, a FSBO, picked up at 6:30 on Tuesday night.  He said he’d have to speak with his wife about being on-camera for an interview, as she wasn’t home, but that he was fine with it.  He said she might give him a reason to say no, but that she was a NU grad, so it would probably be fine.  He said he’d call back between 8 and 9.

I got no callback.

So at 9:15, I tried calling to no avail.  I had less than 24 hours to shoot, edit, and file a video with no current subject.  I was freaking out a bit.

I arranged to have my friend drive me around RP the next morning to shoot some B-roll.  That was a good help.  Unfortunately, it was also snowing and windy that morning.  I guess it added to the general demeanor of foreclosure.  So I held my camera out the window and filmed the neighborhood for a few minutes.  I then proceeded to walk around RP for about an hour in the cold, filming “For Sale” signs.  I figured I could do something with it.

The previous night, I’d left a message for the Rogers Park CDC, to inquire about a short interview.  Even 2 minutes would have been enough for me.  As it were, I was on Lunt, where their office is, and I stopped in at about 11:00 to see if I could set something up.

Caleb, the director, was my savior.  He set me up with a foreclosure counselor, who had time for me at 1:30 that day.

I whipped home, uploaded my B-roll, and logged as much as I could before having to leave.  I scarfed down lunch, then headed back north.

Once at the RPCDC, I talked as I set up my equipment about foreclosures and housing with the foreclosure counselor, Agustín.  He was so helpful.  And as luck would have it, he had been dealing with foreclosure in a personal way–he and his sister had to do loan modifications for themselves, and his other sister was being foreclosed on.

From there, I shot the interview, which was great, and flew up to Evanston.  I logged my video (which sucks, honestly) and edited the shit out of it.   I put together a 3 minute interview with transitions and B-roll, all by 6 p.m.  I didn’t get into the classroom until about 2:30, so the fact that I turned things around so quickly made me ever-so-pleased.  I had said to my professor that it would either be my finest hour or my darkest day.  It turned out to be one of my finest hours.

Moving forward, I know I am capable of doing great work on short time.  It’s not the best video ever, but it is palatable.  I also learned a great lesson: you may not always get the story you’re looking for.  Journalism can be tough.  You may do a lot of work and have little reward.  And even when you finally get something, it may not be what you were looking for.  But for all the crap I waded through to get there, I am proud of what I accomplished.

Plus, I know I do better work than my bitch ex-roommate who seems to think she didn’t need the training we went through.  I know broadcast work is where I belong.

Here is my video, without further ado.  It won’t be winning any awards, but I am proud of it no less.

Craig LaMay, our professor, is a fantastic professor.  He’s a guy who knows his shit.  I was very surprised that he doesn’t have a JD…he dropped out of law school.  He then started a trucking company with some of his friends.  Then he went into journalism.  It’s an interesting story, for sure.  I’d like to get to know him better.  He seems like a terrific reference moving forward–I can’t say enough how much I love that class.  The readings are thought-provoking, and I always feel engaged during class.  Can’t always say that in other areas of education.  Basically, Craig kicks ass–and he probably could.  He’s a rugged-looking dude who wears work boots to class.  I wouldn’t fuck with him.

So now I’m in editing, 45 minutes from leaving.   I’ll head to a happy hour with a few of my friends from class before I ship off on a bus to good old Mentor, OH.  Tomorrow I will be playing with my brother’s dogs, and Thursday I will be stuffing my face with turkey and falling asleep to football.  I’m more or less caught-up with school work, and plan to do some stuff over break to get ahead for the following week.  I have a two finals Tuesday after break, and one the following Monday.  None should be too difficult.

In summary, life is good.   Happy Thanksgiving.