iStory Production Notes!

Seeing as this is the second iStory tour from Kean University, I thought you might want to know about the production elements involved in the process. Here are a few lessons learned in the first three days of Paris iStory.

1. You can never have enough equipment......in our situation, we have approximately 30 students who are blogging, recording sound, videotaping and producing news and feature stories for Journalism, Flm, Cultural Studies, and iStories while enjoying Paris and what it has to offer. We bought with us 8 Apple Macs, iPods with microphone recorders, a few video and still cameras. Many students bought their personal still cameras, a couple bought their own video and a few even brought their own laptops. Every piece of equipment we have is constantly being requested by students. This leads us to the second point......

2. You can never have enough Power. All of our electronic equipment needs to be recharged daily. This is turning out to be a major issue, since our hotel rooms only havve one outlet available. The faculty and staff support are being overwhelmed with the demands placed on them to recharge equipment. We already had a power strip fail, when it was attempting to recharge multiple items.

3. Save it for Post Production. To create quality productions (which we in the Media & Film dept require) you need to spend time editing your work together in a package that can be disseminated. We continually stress to the students that you need to time to create quality projects. With an iStory package, it's important to be quick and get everthing posted to the web to see what is going on. While these two thought might be contrary....it's important to realize the goals of each parrticular project.

4. Internet Access. Blogging and posting media to the web takes quality access to the internet. Our hotel does offer 10 hours of time for 15 Euros. There is free internet at a Restaurant/Bar across the street, but you do need to be eating/drinking to remain there for some time. We also have to be thoughtful about how to create with certain software and have compatibility with the requirements of the Internet Content Providers, whether it's blogger, youtube, Apple or Microsoft.

After the trip, I'm sure I will be adding to this quick list and making suggestions for advancements in the iStory Travel Learn Course .

Needless to say, Paris is beautiful and we are having a good time seeing the sites. In our short time, I've been to Versaille, Notre Dame, Le Louvre, the Opera House, the Catacombs, walked around downtown Paris and dined in the Latin Quarter.

Many of the students have been posting photos, blogs, and working on short video pieces that family and friends are commenting on.....this will definitely continue in the next few days and after we return to Kean.

scott

Sunday Morning in Paris!

Here's a short iStory on our Visit to the Louvre this morning!

Off to the Louvre

A group of us are off to the Louvre, early on sunday morning.....I'll try to have some pics for you later today....photos seem to be too big...check out some of the student blogs for some photos.....perfect weather for photos and tourism......au revoir

Planes, Coaches and Metros

After a long trip, starting from CAS 420 to Paris, we safely made it to France at 8: 30 Friday morning. Even though everyone was quite tired, we were still excited about being in Paris together.

After a quick break at the hotel, we walked to Bercy Village to enjoy some frittes and Vin Rouge with Natalie, our EF Tour Guide. The students walked around and had lunch at Frog Pub in one of the many restaurants in the area. There's a pic of the nice pastries available in one of the shops.

We then got a quick lesson in the Metro Ettiquette, from Ms Natalie, make sure you get on quickly and stay together at the stops....we don't want to lose anyone in the Metro!

We walked around Paris and saw some of the sites, the Modern Architecture of the Pompidou Center set in a historic district and the stained glass windows of St Eustache on the Right Bank of Paris. Modeled on Notre Dame, it was built between 1532 and 1754. Cardinal Richelieu was baptised here and Moliere had his funeral here. It also hosted the First Communion of King Louis IV....whose home we will to visit today.....

We seem to be feeling better this morning after a good night's sleep and look forward to our visit to Versaille and Notre Dame. I hope Paris is ready for a visit from the students at Kean University........The bus is leaving soon, so I better get some croisants and cafe...a nice big cup....Au Revoir for now.....scott

Publish to .Mac Account

Sign up for a free 60 day account at .mac using your iWeb application on your mac. Here's the web address to my page. Send me a link when you sign up! You can post your photos and iStory's to your site. There's a link over on the right side of the page. Here's the address....copy and place into your broswer.

http://web.mac.com/scott_mchugh/iWeb/Paris%20iStory/Welcome.html

French History!

Here's a short video about the history of France. It's good to know something about a Country when you visit. Enjoy! Thanks to Laurie Troutman for doing the VO.

Your First Paris Digital Story!

It's now time to start putting your Paris Digital Story (60-90 secs) together.
You should be in the process of acquiring the following materials .

• Voice Over (VO) Script (adapt your 1 page post)
  
• Images saved on USB Drive or CD-R
• Music Bed (please email me if you need this, I have some nice Paris songs available in CAS 420)
  

When you are finished, we will post your Digital Story to YouTube or another Internet Video Space and link them to our blogs. Nadia posted her's to YouTube and I've embedded it here for all to see!