…actually makes me sad to think about. There was a lot of yelling, stress, epic screw-ups, and fighting this year, but there were also things that more than made up for all of that.

Having a small class was something that the Brantford crew wasn’t used to when we first got here in September. We were all awkward, not just with the other people in the program but with each other. Most of us had hardly said a word to each other prior to the beginning of this year. Did that ever change, and for the best. I’m not going to go on about how much I’ve learned in my year here, because that really goes without saying. The Laurier group were complete n00bs at the start of this program, and I still consider myself to be one compared to most people, although we have all made dramatic improvements. Getting thrown in the deep end is always cold and scary but you always come out feeling like you can take on the world.

I’m going to miss our production days where everyone goes crazy from stress and it turns into laughter, the feeling of being free after carrying a camera around all day then finally returning it, staying up all night editing in the studio and 4 a.m. McDonald’s runs, and knowing that I’m going to run into all of you crazies at some point in my day, every day. I’m more than excited to go back to Laurier and back to the dirty town we love so much, but it’s been a wild ride and I’m happy I came.

So April Fool’s Day is this week, and the 519 Online Thursday crew took complete advantage. This is something we’ve been dying to do for a while, so we finally launched an episode of 226 Online News. Some of the stories included a local alien abduction, the pursuit of moving a couch, and of course a breaking news alert about the sleeve monster. There are also some amazing commercials produced by Baby Bird Potovszky himself, and some cutting edge segments.

We took the “do it then apologize later” approach on this one, and it turned out to be a pretty funny parody episode. One of the conditions given to us was that it had to be a technically sound show, and it looks to have turned out that way. Even if it doesn’t go over well with everyone, we had a great time making it and there was a lot of laughter involved. I don’t see how it can go wrong from here.

At first when I told people what my topic is for my second documentary, they didn’t believe me. No seriously, it’s about faking orgasms. Why? No reason, just because.

As the end of the school year is winding down, I am looking back on all my projects and am pretty angry at myself. All I really want to do is make creative and edgy pieces, and I haven’t really done that. I guess playing it safe until I know I can do a really great job on a more risky piece is the strategy I used, but now I think I’m ready to do something that I originally intended to do this year. That something is a production such as this one where people are shocked yet super interested in the topic.

I have some key subjects for this piece, one of whom I already interviewed last year at Laurier Brantford’s Sextravaganza, which Caitlin Henshaw and I covered for The Sputnik. Having a more focused and explicit interview this time should be interesting, and I’m excited to see where that conversation goes. I’m using the reflexive mode for this doc as well, and will need lots of action shots and re-enactments. Surprisingly, a lot of my friends jumped on the idea right away and are willing to be 90% naked (although no faces will be revealed) for the film. I have really awesome friends.

This documentary should take me down some interesting roads, and I’m excited to see what comes of it (pun intended).

The idea for my first documentary started out as a joke. It started taking up more and more of my thoughts, and then a bunch more ideas for it came to me so I had to make it happen, if anything just to carry on the joke I have with my friends at home. This thing was my baby for a few weeks, and once I have more time I’ll do a re-edit to touch it up and then post it on here.

I learned a lot making my first doc. First of all, I learned that you can never have enough footage. Film your heart out, which I thought I was in the habit of doing but apparently not enough. I learned what I can get away with and what I can’t in terms of lighting and audio, and most importantly I learned that I want to eventually produce artsier pieces like this one as opposed to straight news.

It was stressful and tears were shed. Taking buses to the ends of the Earth and back with cameras and light kits, bribing people to come help you film, and finding songs that you actually liked and also had clearance to use were just a few of the obstacles we faced. In the end I was overall happy with my doc, although it is far from perfect and there are many shortcomings that I plan to improve on.

Did you know that if you’re having a heart attack you shouldn’t try to drive yourself to the hospital? Bridget Parker and I found this out at our internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener. We are making after-surgery care videos for patients and their families, and these will be posted on the St. Mary’s website, and, as we found out recently, shown at national medical conventions…no pressure.

As soon as I heard the details of this internship, I instantly knew I wanted to do it and that it would be exciting and new- I wasn’t let down. We embarked on our journey in February and are now in the process of making the first of our two videos. The first one is Surviving a Heart Attack, and the second one deals with catheters. It’s been interesting to be the in the “expert” position when it comes to video production in our placement. The hospital staff are relying on us to give them the best results we can, and while it can be stressful everyone has been super nice and helpful so it has been pretty easy to get all of the footage and resources we need. There has even been talk of us getting to film a heart surgery in the operating room along side the surgeon. Bridget likes the idea, and I think I’ll just let her take the camera and I’ll watch from behind the glass. Either way, it has been a very rewarding experience to work alongside the hospital staff in helping their patients as best they can, and getting lots of filming practice in the process. I’ll post the finished videos on here at the end of April.

why am I still awake? what day is it? why is bridget hilarious?

I love my Gabby and we love Kenny♥

hazyshadeofrose:

please excuse my dough boy face, and focus on what is important here: you know you’re in for a good day when it starts with meeting kenny hotz for the second time after you were just watching kenny vs spenny before you left, and he creepily hits on you ♥

This is a really cool story idea! And so true, especially with the amount of people who leave their Facebook open at school but aren’t sure if someone “hacked” it or not. If your Facebook is left open, in my mind this is an invitation to tamper with it. I always try to make the most obscure passwords ever and change them frequently, and it baffles me when I find out that people aren’t paranoid when their passwords are similar to ones on this list. Having said that, Facebook should be the least of everyone’s worries, and even when I was told passwords at all of the jobs I have had, or for Internet access or bank codes, some of them are alarmingly simple. This would be a really good story to do and I’m sure everyone has had some sort of experience with hacked accounts.

nscox22:

For no particular reason, I decided to go with a Monty Python-inspired title. Yep, I’m out of ideas.

I clearly need to watch the news more, because every week I always struggle to find a news story to comment on.

So this week, I’m commenting on this story, the 25 worst passwords of 2011.

Some…

This whole issue is so sad. It always baffles me that Canada is so obsessed with accepting other cultures and creating a diverse society, to the point where the word “Christmas” has become taboo and is not allowed to be used in some places, yet the First Nations people who preceded our Canadian heritage are always swept under the carpet and ignored.

In this video, Angela O’Leary discusses the documentary she made while in Attawapiskat last year, while footage of it is played in the background and she is interviewed and gives context on what is really happening in this northern reserve. She obviously believes in what she is talking about, and brings up many good points about their standard of living compared to anywhere else in Canada, where no one would just accept it as okay and normal. This sort of video inspires people to look into the issue more. I would personally like to find out what dooms First Nations people to this sort of fate, and why the Canadian government is even allowing things to get to this point. The water situation is especially sad to me, because First Nations people respect the Earth probably more than anyone else in this country, yet all of the people in Attawapiskat have one tap of clean drinking water to share. That is disgusting, and yet they don’t complain, when many people in the rest of the country freak out about drinking water from their own tap.

Maybe instead of making sure people don’t say “Merry Christmas” in stores at the mall, and worrying about offending people of different cultures with trivial matters that are hardly worth complaining bout, the government should prioritize the quality of life of these people who are facing real problems, and who were here before all of us and ask for the least.

So I’m sure everyone has seen these photos, but I needed to do this entry about it because the fact that this is even a problem is so ridiculous. Paulina Gretzky, who is an adult at 22 years old, is facing public scrutiny because of some “racy” photos on her Twitter account. I’m not fully clear on why this story is all over the news- is it because of the existence of the photos or because she shut down her Twitter account? An even better question, who cares?

Why Paulina shut down her Twitter account is anyone`s guess. There has been no confirmation that she did so because Wayne was upset by the photos. I’m guessing he is aware that his daughter is an aspiring singer and actress, so naturally she will have public exposure. She is obviously confident with her body, and while people commenting on news articles have said things about her having a bad sense of self for needing to display photos like this of herself, shouldn’t that mean the opposite? The girl is aware she looks good, and if she wants to post revealing photos, is she the creep or are the people searching for them and looking at them?

As far as I can tell, no one has even asked her what the deal was with the photos, why the Twitter account was taken down, and her Dad’s stance on the situation. Wouldn’t those be some important questions for someone to start asking?