http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez26oct26,1,3435455.column?page=1&coll=la-util-news-local
Within this "story" that Lopez writes about several times he uses the first person point of view. The first word that he used within this particular copy was "you." I believe that by doing that right away it grabs the readers attention because it made me want to keep reading to find out what it was that I as a reader knew this "thing" had to happen.
The way that Lopez delivers his stories is by keeping the reader on an adventure of sorts. Obviously the majority of the country did not go down to New Orleans after Katrina and more then the majority of Americans are not going to go to San Diego or other neighboring cities in California to offer a helping hand. By Lopez giving a first person account for the damage and restoration of these places it is giving us, the reader, an opportunity to see the what is going on within the tragedy.
One part of the story said that:
"We've evacuated more people than were evacuated in Katrina," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender said Wednesday. Not only was that ridiculously untrue, but one might argue the evacuations in the San Diego area were made necessary by a lack of firefighting personnel and equipment in a region that shuns taxes and happily sticks outside agencies with the tab when the bill comes due.Talk about being on the dole.And I hate to break up the back-slapping party President Bush, Gov. Schwarzenegger and various local officials staged Thursday, but the equipment shortage in the state's wildfires was indisputable.In 2004, a Schwarzenegger panel recommended that the state buy 150 new fire trucks, and only 19 have been ordered.
Within this small piece of the story not only is he telling us what San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender thinks of the situation but then it tells us that Lopez thinks that his comment was "ridiculously untrue" which is in a way giving us a first hand account of the situation. Not only does he comment on the number of people evacuated in both disasters but he also gave his opinion about Bush and Schwarzenegger's press conference held on Thursday and the current situation that is going on still in New Orleans and in California.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Finding Murry's "line" in a TV Series
The question remains:
As you watch, ask yourself what was "the line" of this series? What insight -- or insights -- made the show hang together as Burns and Novick researched the show? What were they looking for? (They discuss how they made the series in the trailer. They don't use the word "line," or at least I didn't notice it, but they are clearly ) What were the points of tension they focused on? How did they pursue the line? Please post your thoughts to your blog between now and Wednesday.
The goal of making a trailer is to show in the audience, in the quickest way possible, what to expect within that particular documentary. Burns and Novick broke the trailer up into different subsets so that they could focus on one main idea, give a brief, and then move onto the next. With this series "The War" there was so much information to be covered in a very short amount of time. The biggest obstacle was condensing the information and still having it all run smoothly. I believe that the "line" of this trailer came when one of the director/producers Ken Burns said, "...I see this film as a kind of great merger of a vast public archive...particularly the National archives which has so many of the treasures of what we have done and mesh that with the personal archives..."
I believe that this is the main point throughout the trailer because it all began with looking for the right information to make the film. With the use of the national and personal archives they successfully had hundreds and hundreds of film hours and thousands of pictures. By taking all this information and compiling it into only 14 hours took a lot of time and energy for each person involved, which was in turn the focus of the trailer. When they showed the clip of how they made this series we got a glimpse into the director/producers experience while making this film. The best part about this series is that almost 98% of it is all real video and pictures donated by the people who had first hand experiences during this time. That is the point of the series and that is what I believe most people should focus on. It is not just a movie about that time in history but it is the first hand accounts of many people and their personal experiences during WWII. By presenting this series in a way that is not acted out but instead pieced together but authentic film makes this particular series unique and unlike any other released.
As you watch, ask yourself what was "the line" of this series? What insight -- or insights -- made the show hang together as Burns and Novick researched the show? What were they looking for? (They discuss how they made the series in the trailer. They don't use the word "line," or at least I didn't notice it, but they are clearly ) What were the points of tension they focused on? How did they pursue the line? Please post your thoughts to your blog between now and Wednesday.
The goal of making a trailer is to show in the audience, in the quickest way possible, what to expect within that particular documentary. Burns and Novick broke the trailer up into different subsets so that they could focus on one main idea, give a brief, and then move onto the next. With this series "The War" there was so much information to be covered in a very short amount of time. The biggest obstacle was condensing the information and still having it all run smoothly. I believe that the "line" of this trailer came when one of the director/producers Ken Burns said, "...I see this film as a kind of great merger of a vast public archive...particularly the National archives which has so many of the treasures of what we have done and mesh that with the personal archives..."
I believe that this is the main point throughout the trailer because it all began with looking for the right information to make the film. With the use of the national and personal archives they successfully had hundreds and hundreds of film hours and thousands of pictures. By taking all this information and compiling it into only 14 hours took a lot of time and energy for each person involved, which was in turn the focus of the trailer. When they showed the clip of how they made this series we got a glimpse into the director/producers experience while making this film. The best part about this series is that almost 98% of it is all real video and pictures donated by the people who had first hand experiences during this time. That is the point of the series and that is what I believe most people should focus on. It is not just a movie about that time in history but it is the first hand accounts of many people and their personal experiences during WWII. By presenting this series in a way that is not acted out but instead pieced together but authentic film makes this particular series unique and unlike any other released.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Donald Murry
The question we were asked was: Donald Murray was 82 years old when he died. Is there anything in his last few columns that you can learn from in your own career as a professional writer?
From what I read I believe that there is some information within the columns that Donald Murray wrote that I could use in my own career as a professional writer, however, it I would only use it on a personal level. Within the columns that we were assigned to read it sounded almost like Murray's preparation to leave this world. Almost as if it was his last advice to his readers. Throughout his 82 years of life, Murray wrote a lot of articles and toward the end of his life they were focused mostly on the advice he would want to give to his young readers before he past. In the article titled, "Adventures Close to Home" Murray writes, "Do I stay at home or go out? Each invitation has its own challenge, peculiar to our combination of ailments, discomforts, indignities. The easy way is to stay home watching soap operas as my father did in his last years. But I want to live the life I have been unexpectedly given as fully as possible."
Murray focused the last of his articles on writing about his life and the experiences he went through, the lessons he had learned, and what he believed to be the important things in life. What I learned from Murray's last articles was that we should all live our lives to the absolute fullest and take every obstacle in stride while enjoying every minute. Even with life's trials and tribulations there comes happiness and ultimate satisfaction if you strive for that within your own life. Do the things in life that can make you a happier person in your own life. Bring people into your world because in the end it makes the life you live seem so much bigger then it was while you were sitting all alone.
From what I read I believe that there is some information within the columns that Donald Murray wrote that I could use in my own career as a professional writer, however, it I would only use it on a personal level. Within the columns that we were assigned to read it sounded almost like Murray's preparation to leave this world. Almost as if it was his last advice to his readers. Throughout his 82 years of life, Murray wrote a lot of articles and toward the end of his life they were focused mostly on the advice he would want to give to his young readers before he past. In the article titled, "Adventures Close to Home" Murray writes, "Do I stay at home or go out? Each invitation has its own challenge, peculiar to our combination of ailments, discomforts, indignities. The easy way is to stay home watching soap operas as my father did in his last years. But I want to live the life I have been unexpectedly given as fully as possible."
Murray focused the last of his articles on writing about his life and the experiences he went through, the lessons he had learned, and what he believed to be the important things in life. What I learned from Murray's last articles was that we should all live our lives to the absolute fullest and take every obstacle in stride while enjoying every minute. Even with life's trials and tribulations there comes happiness and ultimate satisfaction if you strive for that within your own life. Do the things in life that can make you a happier person in your own life. Bring people into your world because in the end it makes the life you live seem so much bigger then it was while you were sitting all alone.
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