Coming into this semester, I felt like I did not know a lot about making film. Despite seven semesters of learning, I felt like I was so behind. But now I feel the exact opposite. In one short semester, I learned so much. I just made my reel, and I was looking at some of my past projects. At the time, I thought some of those projects were decent. Now, I would never show them to anyone.
I think the most important thing I learned was that making film takes more time than I truly realized. I spent more time in my editing lab than I did in my own room. I also learned how important it is to go above and beyond for your projects. If everyone puts in 110%, then a project gets a lot easier to work on. I am very blessed to have been in two awesome groups this semester, and I am so proud of the projects I worked on. Be on the lookout for Gecko Dad and I SEE RED. Gecko Dad is a short documentary I directed, and I SEE RED is a short fiction narrative that I designed the audio for.
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More and more people are getting their news from the internet and social media. I used to be under the impression that physical newspapers were going to die completely, but I am not so sure anymore. According to the textbook: "However, in spite of these threats, newspapers remain an important source for news and advertising information and the dominant source for local news and information."
The piece of the quote that I am trying to target is about local news. I do not truly know why local news has remained succesful on a physical format, but I have a suspicion or two. One of the things that people like about national news outlets like Huffington Post, New York Times and Buzzfeed do well on the internet is because a lot of their content is free for viewing online. I am not sure if there are any local papers that have free content available for viewing. I know that one of my local papers, Newsday, requires a login if you want to view their content online. I am curious if local papers will lose out financially if their articles are free and one doesn't need a subscription. Also, I think maybe local news has done well on physical media because local news a lot that national news doesn't. Newspapers about your local community or hometown have a certain charm to it that is hard to describe. At the end of the day, we should all support our local newspaper. There is nothing else like it. In the textbook, it talks about how there is no single media that is the most effective: "Effective at doing what? Different media have different strengths" (Warner). It is important to choose your medias wisely. Some medias work better than others for certain purposes. Even music, which is its own media, can be advertised well with visual medias.
I mean, if I was selling music, I would probably get more buyers from advertising this music as a YouTube ad and a radio commercial. At the same time, music can have visual elements: when you go to a music store or record store, some album covers might grab your attention than others. I am sure plenty of people who bought Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band bought it because the album cover got their attention. Other artists have used physical means to advertise themselves and their works. Lady Gaga is known not only as a musician, but also as a perfomer. She has worn dressed made out of raw meat, and arrived at an award show inside a giant egg. Also, music videos gave music a new way to visually present itself. Before the concept of a music video was solidified, there were TV shows were bands and artists would perform their songs, such as the Ed Sullivan Show. The Beatles can take some credit for music videos: in addition to making a bunch of wonderful films that include scenes of singing their songs, they also taped music promos to send out to shows like Ed Sullivan so that they can satisfy the demand and not make themselves so crazy. MTV actually honored The Beatles and Richard Lester (director of Beatles films A Hard Days Night and Help) for their part in the creation of music video. So, your music can be really good, but you will definitely need some sort of awesome visual media to help the music really take off. Warner, Charles. Media Selling: Television, Print, Internet, Radio (Kindle Location 9304). Wiley. Kindle Edition. Not only has technology advanced, but it has become so much more accessible.
Today, I was walking with a friend and we were talking about the advancement of smart phones. Everyone today has a smart phone, but back in 2008 they were still kind of expensive. My dad first got the iPhone 3G around that time, and it was the coolest thing ever. My mom, my sisters and I all still had flip phones, so this new phone my dad got was really cool. I remember one time we went on vacation one of our flights back home was cancelled, so my dad had to buy new airplane tickets from his iPhone. It was so crazy back then. It was the first time I ever saw something like that. Nowadays, anyone can buy airline tickets from their smartphone. The media selling textbook points out that in 2008, 75% of adults were using the internet. When I first read that, I was a bit surprised. I thought it would be a little less. I mean, at that point most people had computers, but everything has changed with the introduction of smart phones. I have a feeling that young kids today are learning how to use the internet from smart phones instead of computers. I am also amazed that adults who didn't grow up with this technology have been abale to adapt and learn it so well. My 89 year old Grandmother recently got a computer and an iPhone. She is getting there. It continues to amaze me how easy technology is to use. I am excited, because we finally took the midterm, and how we have gotten to social media marketing. I love social media from both sides: not only as a consumer, but as a manager. People like interactivity, or in other words, they like direct communication: "Interactivity allows customers to communicate directly with advertisers and tell them what they like and do not like, and what they will buy." My boss at StarTalk Radio worked in advertising for many years. The reason why he made the switch to social media and internet advertising is because he liked being able to communicate directly with consumers. I feel the same way. You can apply a lot of real like tips to this. People like it when you talk directly to them, rather than look down at them. the same can be said about social media. Also, I think that in order to be effective in social media, you need to be good at communicating with people on a personal level. Social media is only getting bigger, and I cannot wait to take it by the horns.
Most people who use the internet think it is so simple, and that anyone can understand it. It is kind of true, but at the same time, there is so much about the internet we don't know. Specifically, if you are in marketing and social media, you need to understand viewing patterns and trends. I work in social media, and use it on a daily basis, but there is so much I don't know. As I have written about before, I am an intern at StarTalk Radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson. It is an internship that has given me a lot of opportunities. I have also learned a lot from this internship.
I just recently got a new assignment. I am now taking viewing numbers from Soundcloud, and putting them on a spreadsheet, so we can better understand what kinds of guests and co-hosts we should get for future shows. This is so exciting and challenging, and I am thrilled I get to partake in such a serious assignment. I am looking forward to it. I love the internet. When I have free time, or when I am working, chances are I am using the internet. It is an incredible way of communicating with other people and finding funny cat videos. However, the internet has given us its fair share of bad things. Many products of the internet came from bad intent.
Internet advertising is so huge, but it can be sketchy, especially if it comes up in form of a pop up. I hate pop up advertisements. If you are not careful, one of these pop up advertisements can cause havoc on your personal computer. I actually read somewhere that the person who created pop up advertisements ended up regretting his creation. Another abuse of the internet lies within the people who use it, especially in the form of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is such a huge concern nowadays, especially among kids under the age of 18. I remember one site that was pretty big when I was younger was a website that people wrote anonymous questions to each other. It seems kind of harmless, but then people started to write mean and hurtful comments. This lead to a young girl ending her life. The internet is a powerful tool. As someone who work with it (see my previous post about my internship at StarTalk Radio), it is only going to get bigger, more powerful and more accessible. Make smart decisions, don't browse any harmful websites, and be kind to one another. I was born in 1995, so I am a product of the digital age. I listen to radio in the car, but I was not around during the days where every home had a radio in their living room. So many famous events were broadcast on the radio, and I am going to list a few that I wish I got to be there for.
1. In 1938, Orson Wells broadcasted his famous War of the Worlds program. Even though it was only a story, it sent its listeners into a frenzy. It sounded very much like a real Martian invasion, but thankfully it was not. Nowadays, many plays/stories are broadcasted, but this one had a huge impact. I mean, it is 2016 and we are still talking about it. 2. World War II was a very unique time in our nation's history. People were so engaged with the war effort, and the radio was used effectively. One of the most famous uses of radio during the war was President Franklin Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. There was not just one fireside chat, but instead there a bunch of them. He talked about many things, such as the war, the economy, recession and The New Deal. This was one of the first times that a US President had direct communication with the American people, and it definitely boosted morale during the war. 3. I have been a huge Beatles fanatic my whole life. I often wonder what it was like to live in America during the peak of Beatlemania in 1964. During this time, the only thing playing on pop radio was The Beatles. They held the top 5 spots on the Billboard charts. Even though they are more well known for their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the radio was still a huge part of it. There are many events, but those are just three of them. I am obviously missing a few bigger ones, but these are still important to radio and media. Here is a list of other famous radio events: http://listverse.com/2007/07/19/top-10-historic-radio-broadcasts/ In the last few years, I have become more aware of the workings of social media, as well as the effect it could have. I previously mentioned that I was a social media intern at StarTalk Radio, which is hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Since last week's post, I am proud to report that I am continuing my work with StarTalk through the school year. During the summer, I was doing content creation, but now I am working with numbers and analysis of viewership. I learned a lot about ratings during my class last semester with Dr. Holmes, and I am learning more about it this semester, so hopefully I get the hang of it. It has been so long since I learned about Arbitron and Eastlan Ratings, so hopefully this semester I can brush up on my knowledge. I actually have some questions for all the readers out there who might be more familiar. How do ratings work with a show like StarTalk? StarTalk is a podcast, and the episodes are posted on services like SoundCloud and iTunes.
If I find out, I will let you know. Up until recently, I did not know much about advertising. I always thought it seemed simple, but it wasn't until I took Introduction to Advertising last semester, and my social-media internship at StarTalk Radio this past summer that I realized how complicated it can be.
I still have a lot to learn if I want to further my career in social media. Nowadays, I am the social media manager for my local chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi. There is still a lot I need to know, but at the same time, some of the important points listed in the chapter 17 reading by Charles Warner were already in my brain. One that stuck out to me was the concept of continuous scheduling. This summer, I was originally going to limit my posting to a few times a month, because school wasn't in session and I didn't think people would be paying attention. Thankfully, I was convinced otherwise, and ended up posting once or twice each week. In addition, I made new AEPi social media accounts for twitter and snapchat during the summer too. Our AEPi chapter's social media accounts do not have a huge audience. I think this is because of how small the school is, and that Greek life on campus is quite small. I am hoping that this year, our posts will reach out and people will see what AEPi has to offer on this campus. It will be hard, but hopefully this class will give me some new methods and ideas. Just incase you wanted to see what we are up to: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AEPINP/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aepinewpaltz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AEPiNewPaltz Snapchat: @aepi_nurho |
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This is Benjamin Schoenfeld's blog. Most of these posts are for his Advertising Sales class. Happy reading! Archives
May 2018
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