Following in Family Footsteps: A Journey to Videography – Article #4 FINAL

Filed under: Uncategorized on Friday, December 9th, 2022 by Benedict | No Comments
Videography Stock Image

It’s not everyday that you get caught in the midst of national news story. Even more unlikely when tragedy strikes 1,000 miles away from home.

Ryan Schmidt travels with the University of Northern Iowa athletic teams and films their games. On Monday, Schmidt was traveling and preparing to film the Panther’s Men’s basketball team in their game against University of Virginia. The Panthers were in their hotel rooms, getting mentally ready for the evening game against the Cavaliers, when tragedy struck Virginia’s campus.

Schmidt recalled, “Something happened on [Virginia’s] campus, and all we were told was that we had to stay in our hotel rooms.”

Shortly later, Schmidt and the rest of UNI members learned that it was an active shooter. The team was staying at Holiday Inn, just a couple of minutes away from campus. They were close enough that the hotel had to lockdown until the shooter was apprehended.

On that cruel Monday evening in Virginia, Schmidt found himself sitting in his hotel room, patiently waiting for what was next for the UNI mens basketball team, and reminiscing on what got him there.

Schmidt is a college graduate who is continually perfecting this craft. Currently he is an Athletic Video Creative at the University of Northern Iowa. As mentioned previously, he travels with all the sports teams at the university and creates recap videos or hype up videos. He uses this gift to capture a moment and showcase the emotions displayed.

Schmidt said he hasn’t always been interested in videography. He said he really got into it when his cousin, who is a lead compositor for an animation studio in Toronto, showed him the ropes. “I thought it was cool, but I didn’t fully enjoy editing frame by frame,” Schmidt told me, “I made little videos here and there with friends, church, school, and I really enjoyed it.”

Getting into videography can be a daunting task to many, but for Schmidt, he took it head on and embraced the rumbles. “The worst part is the late nights, right as projects are coming due,” Schmidt said, “but I know these videos last and people look back on them, ideally with happy emotions.”

Last week, Schmidt experienced embracing the rumbles in a whole new manner. Schmidt said, “My cousin always told me to be ready for what happens next. I guess today showed that you never really know.”

Schmidt’s athletic creative colleague, Andy Saigh, was also in attendance and commented on the situation, “It was weird because in the moment we didn’t fully understand, but we also weren’t too shook up. We assumed the game was still going to happen.” Andy said he was chatting with Schmidt during the whole ordeal, and he said that Schmidt’s excitement to film the game never wavered. Only later would they find out the game was canceled.

Ryan Schmidt (left) & Andy Saigh (right)

After the cancelation, the team packed up and was able to travel back to Iowa safely. These players and staff will be able to tell this story for a lifetime. “Every day is precious. We all have seen that. I am just happy to be where I’m at,” Schmidt concluded with passion filled eyes.

Schmidt said he’s open to where his ship steers next. He sees himself spending time at other colleges, creating video creatives, and continuing to refine all life skills.

Elon Musk: A Busy Man – News Article #14

Filed under: Uncategorized on Sunday, December 4th, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

Elon Musk announced this past week multiple news at each one of his companies.

At Neuralink, he announced that in six months they would be ready to start testing the brain chips on humans. At Tesla, he announced an all-electric semitrailer. At SpaceX, he helped plan new space launches. Lastly, at Twitter, he was involved in a high-profile account suspension of Kanye West.

Wall Street Journal does a great job covering a wide variety of aspects of Musk’s life in this article. I actually found that reading it was quite interesting. This story is essentially a feature. It involves a variety of quotes from Musk.

Oftentimes I find myself intrigued by all that Musk is doing; however, the more I look into what Neuralink is, the more worried I seem to get. I do think Musk intends for good, by helping people without brain function. But I think that if this human chip becomes a real thing and shows it’s effective, it will raise a lot of ethical problems and questions.

To me, the biggest piece of this story that seems newsworthy to me is the Neuralink. As of lately, anything that Musk does ends up in the news, but the activity that is evolving around Neuralink is the most bizarre to me.

Zookeeper Finds Polar Bear Dead

Filed under: Uncategorized on Friday, December 2nd, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

A Midland Zoo polar bear was found dead an hour after his feeding.

The polar bear is known as Homer to the community. Homer was sixteen years old, the oldest bear at the zoo. Zookeeper Sara Getty said, “Homer was a very curious and playful polar bear and we will miss him terribly.”

Zoo director Chris Bacon says, “Animal welfare and the preservation of species are our primary goals here at the zoo.”

The unique exhibits have created an environment that have helped polar bears thrive at the zoo since 1985. The polar bears can dig in gravel, hunt trout, and do other natural activities in these exhibits.

Midland Zoo believes these exhibits help educate zoo visitors about the threatened polar bear species.

AllWork Announces $4.9 Million Series A Funding Round – PR Newswire

Filed under: Uncategorized on Thursday, December 1st, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

The story announces how the company, AllWork, acquired this $4.9 million to spend on creating and expanding freelancer payment platforms. The goal of these platforms are to meet the growing demand for software and payment solutions.

I would say the audience to this article is definitely stakeholders of AllWork. This would be customers, employees, owners, possibly even suppliers, and the community. Customers would probably be the biggest group, such as businesses or individuals looking for a new solution.

The idea is to share the fact that this company is continuing to innovate and expand what they’re working on. The goal is to tell the reader that there are big things anticipated in the future, and that this company may be one that will be solving the demand for payment solutions.

The benefit to the company is that they can grow more audience in general as well as making sure that everyone is excited and motivated moving forward with the progress. This is all part of building their brand image.

This story is written with business jargon and in a voice that is not what you might typically hear with the more “common” news story. This story also uses a lot of quotes directly from the AllWork’s team and the goals of their project.

Morningside Aviation Program Takes Flight – Website Analysis

Filed under: Uncategorized on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

On November 1st, Morningside University announced the School of Aviation partnership with Oracle Aviation, ahead of the fall 2023 semester.

This is news to me because it directly impacts me by relevancy and proximity. Although I won’t be here for the fall 2023 semester, it is still interesting to me. I have family that are pilots and I’ve always thought getting my pilots license would be awesome, but just don’t have the time. Adding this program to Morningside University has great potential.

The potential audiences for this news announcement include future pilots, future students, or current students that are interested in aviation and taking their talents to the air.

The purpose of this story is to share the news announcement to the community, and bring awareness, so that enrollment in this new school of aviation at Morningside takes off.

The readers benefit by learning about the program. Perhaps a reader knows someone who is interested in aviation, and is then able to tell them about it.

Morningside gains by sharing this post by increasing enrollment, and receiving more publicity about the school in general. Even if people don’t come for the aviation program, they can see that Morningside is doing new and exciting things, and may encourage more enrollment.

An Old West Hollywood Estate Sells for a Record Price – News Article #13

Filed under: Uncategorized on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

Designer and developer Morgan Brown recently sold the 1920 estate for $16.55 million, which is a West Hollywood record.

The Los Angeles-area estate was designed by Morgan Brown and was intended to be a retreat location. According to Nancy Ruhling, the Mediterranean styled residence was built in 1924 and consists of four buildings. The buildings are connected by a courtyard with a saltwater pool. This estate is considered to be one of the first and one of the largest of the area.

This is news to me mostly because it is bizarre, although I would typically say this wouldn’t be a leading article on a news site… This article also had a few interesting points that made me think it was almost a mix between a feature and an attempt at being a news article. The article had a few quotes from the real estate agents, but mostly just discussed the estate.

I just now went back to the article, and I realize it is not a Wall Street Journal article like I normally select. As it turns out, I clicked on an advertised article that was linked on the WSJ. It is considered to be an independent article from the WSJ newsroom. But that goes to show that it was bizarre enough that I didn’t even notice it was a different source, I was intrigued enough in a $16.55 million home that I wanted to read more.

Confidence Molds Jax Neubert: Life Moving Forward – Classmate Anecdote

Filed under: Uncategorized on Thursday, November 17th, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

Imagine being twelve years old, sitting on a stand in a courtroom. You look out and your mom is on the left and dad on the right. They are separated by an aisle with police and lawyers present.

Your world gets flipped upside down as your mom and dad go head to head in a custody and divorce battle. This is exactly where Jax Neubert found himself at twelve years old. Divorces are messy and can leave families in shambles. He found himself sharing damaging stories from his childhood to the judge.

“I knew I had to be confident. I had to be able to say what I was going to say, to be able to look my mom in the eyes, and still be able to say it,” Neubert said as he recalled his mom was wearing sunglasses and bright neon shirt.

Many events help shape and mold a child, but this was the factor that helped Neubert grow into who he is now. “My world changed so fast,” Neubert shared, “I believe I have always been confident, but my parents divorce only made that feeling stronger. I had to learn to not care what some people think about me.”

Recalling the memory of the court room and divorce, Neubert concluded, “I went from being a normal twelve year old, to a kid who now has to really think about what my life moving forward is going to look like.”

Now, Neubert enjoys spending his time being outside his comfort zone and displaying his confidence. From time to time, he goes out and just does something that is out of the norm. One time, he wore a Spiderman costume into Walmart. By his surprise, he ended up getting hired by Walmart to interact with kids at the store, all while the new Spiderman movie was trending.

Following Family Footsteps: A Journey to Videography – Article #4 – Draft

Filed under: Uncategorized on Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 by Benedict | No Comments
Videography Stock Image

It’s not everyday that you get caught in the midst of tragedy. Even more unlikely is when you travel 1,000 miles away, and find yourself in the midst.

Ryan Schmidt travels with the University of Northern Iowa athlete teams and films their games. On Monday, Schmidt was traveling and preparing to film the mens basketball team as they would take on University of Virginia for an exciting matchup. The Panthers were in their hotel rooms, getting mentally ready for the evening game against the Cavaliers, when tragedy struck Virginia’s campus.

Schmidt recalled, “Something happened on [Virginia’s] campus, and all we were told was that we had to stay in our hotel rooms.”

The team was staying at Holiday Inn, just a couple of minutes away from campus. Which was close enough that the hotel had to lockdown until the shooter was apprehended.

Many people were affected by the shooter at University of Virginia last week. Many people just happened to be within the campus vicinity at the time of accident. Many of these people could be someone who was just there to do their job.

On that cruel Monday evening in Virginia, Schmidt found himself sitting in his hotel room, patiently waiting for what was next for the UNI mens basketball team.

Videography Stock Image

Capturing energy in athletics is not an easy task. Being able to turn that energy into a piece of artwork can be even harder. Becoming a videographer may not be the typical route that families encourage their child to take, but it’s exactly where Schmidt ended up.

Many collegiate athletic teams chase prospective videographers to capture such moments. These clips are highly shared among sports teams and fanbases. The video production allows for fans and students to experience the sport from a different viewpoint.

Schmidt is a college graduate who is working on perfecting this craft. Currently he is an Athletic Video Creative at the University of Northern Iowa. He uses his talent to capture a moment and turn it into a video or clip that showcase the emotions exhibited in the moment.

Schmidt said it hasn’t always been this way. He said he really got into it when his cousin, who is a lead compositor for an animation studio in Toronto, showed him the ropes. “I thought it was cool, but I didn’t fully enjoy editing frame by frame,” Schmidt told me, “I made little videos here and there with friends, church, school, and I really enjoyed it.”

Getting into videography can be a daunting task to many, but for Schmidt, he took it head on and embraced the rumbles. “The worst part is the late nights, right as projects are coming due,” Schmidt said, “but I know these videos last and people look back on them, ideally with happy emotions.”

That’s exactly who Schmidt is. However, he grew up with strong influences in his life that helped guide his ship. Although sometimes his work consumes the majority of his life, the same could be said about anyone else. Finding something your passionate about is what drives everything else around you.

Those who know Schmidt say he’s extremely passionate. His colleague, Andy Saigh, says, “I’ve worked with Ryan for a couple years now, and more directly for this past year. He is the hardest worker I know. He stays late and comes in early. He is always producing content that is visually appealing and exciting. Although he shows a ton of passion for videography, it isn’t his only passion. He loves to run.”

Ryan Schmidt (left) & Andy Saigh (right)

Many people enjoy running, but combining his day job of videoing athletics, to running on his own, has allowed him to create a type of bliss. “Oh yeah! I’ve always loved to run! It helps me clear my mind and reminds me to always push my limits,” Schmidt enthusiastically shared.

Schmidt said he’s fairly open to where the boat steers next. He see himself spending time at other colleges, creating video creatives, and continuing to refine all life skills.

“Every day is precious. We all have seen that. I am just happy to be where I’m at,” Schmidt concluded with passion filled eyes.

Panthers Caught Among U of Virginia Tragedy – Article #4 Anecdote

Filed under: Uncategorized on Tuesday, November 15th, 2022 by Benedict | No Comments

It’s not everyday that you get caught in the midst of tragedy. Ryan Schmidt was traveling and preparing to film the University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team as they would take on University of Virginia for an exciting matchup. The Panthers were in their hotel rooms, getting mentally ready for the evening game against the Cavaliers, when tragedy struck Virginia’s campus.

Schmidt said, “Something happened on [Virginia’s] campus, and all we were told was that we had to stay in our hotel rooms.”

The team was staying at Holiday Inn, just a couple of minutes away from campus. Which was close enough that the hotel had to lockdown until the shooter was apprehended.

American Citizen Remains Barred from Exiting China – News Article #12

Filed under: Uncategorized on Sunday, November 13th, 2022 by Benedict | 1 Comment

It has been since Christmas 2017 that Henry Cai, a United States citizen, has been banned from leaving China.

According to the WSJ, Cai was approached by police at the airport as he was trying to fly home. His exit ban has been the result of a financial dispute between business partners and a Beijing company that he was a director and shareholder.

Cai is allowed to move freely in China, but greatly misses his family, who is also battling crisis. Last year, his daughter fell seriously ill, and is still undergoing treatment. His son shoulders payments on a line of credit that was taken against their families home. Additionally, his wife, has added new students to her tutoring list and has found new substitute-teaching opportunities.

This story is news, but more importantly, it is a feature. It brings up human interest. A feature story is a good fit for this week as we move closer to writing our own feature. It is also a little bizarre to me that Cai has been barred from exiting China over a financial dispute. The story might be a little subjective as it writes that Cai seems to be a target of the Chinese justice system.