Limited This and That and Timing

This is my last blog for this Digital Newsgathering class. I’ve posted my last assignment: a multimedia blog on NEW PEOPLE. I felt relieved and nervous at the same time. The video that I made was a bit choppy and the transitions were a bit rough or even mediocre. I would definitely spent more time on it if I can. I was bad at time management and always thought if I can do it later.

The final week was a hectic week. My finals were already finished like the week before and many of my friends envied that. Well… I didn’t said to them if I have works to do. For this class, we didn’t have any final but we had a final project. Many of my class in journalism department required more than just a final with 100 questions comprised of the knowledge that we learned from our textbooks. Journalism class definitely had something more than just a simple exam (yes… I said final exam is definitely easier than a final project!!). And I should’ve known that doing a final project will take a lot more time than I usually needed for studying on my final exam.

People always think doing a final project is easier than taking an exam but they, definitely, will never know what they’re going to get until they experienced it. I also thought this assignment was better than taking a final. I was wrong!! I was wrong in many ways because although I got my video, I didn’t know what should I do with that. I felt like I needed more time to learn about Final Cut Express. I was a bit disappointed with my video because I cannot make it the way I envisioned it. I had some plans, of course… but working on it was a different thing. I guessed I was just trying to do too much in such a limited resource and knowledge. It would be awesome if we can work on it a bit early. With finals on the week that I had to submit this video, I felt a bit overwhelmed and worn out… But again, it was partially my own mistake for procrastinating.

I would like to have a tripod and better equipments next time. My video quality wasn’t good enough for me. It would be better if I could have a voice recorder. So, while recording the picture with my flip camera, I can have my sources’ voice recorded on the voice recorder. A small voice recorder that can be attached to their shirt would be perfect. I can then use that voice and combined it with the video. I would also like to record a nat sound by itself. I felt like I was in a hurry because Beth (Elizabeth Crawford) who gave me a permission to shoot a video inside the store would have to attend a meeting after that. She said there should be someone who accompanied me if I wanted to record something. My brain was a bit overworked with all the finals and I felt like I was rushed by the limited time that Beth had. I only recorded the picture and forgot to record the background/nat sound separately.

If I could do it differently, as I mentioned above, I would definitely do multiple recording. First, I would record the picture of the person. Second, I would have her voice recorded on a mini voice recorder. Third, I wanted to have a separate recording of the natural sound.

Besides that, in the process of editing, I felt like doing a combination of the video and photo slideshow. So it would be a video of Beth showing the store and then, there would be a quick slideshow of items that they sell there. The pictures will flicker very quickly with an upbeat J-rock song as a background sound. The idea sounds really promising and cool but then, I realized if I had a very limited ability of the Final Cut Express so I can just do some very basic editing.

Lastly, when we did our editing on our last day of class, I just remembered if I had very long video. If they’re all combined, it would probably worth more than 45 minutes… Uh… I should remember if we only do a very short video. I came to my video shooting a bit unprepared so my questions were kind of general. I should make it more specific and thus, the video would be shorter and precise.

Anyway, I enjoyed this project if only I did it for fun and not for grades. I was nervous now knowing that I finished the project and the class but did a really mediocre job on my project. It’s such a good assignment and the NEW PEOPLE was really a great source… These thoughts made me feel like I should do a better job! I was truly disappointed with the final product because I had so much material to work on and yet… the result was just standard. I should do a better job given this assignment was purely excitements and not punishments like any other final projects for other GE classes. I will definitely recommend this assignment to be given to students who will take this class next semester!

Gya… it won’t upload!

So, I’m guilty for doing a last minute work. I checked the computer lab yesterday but it’s closed. So I did my work today with the assumption if the lab will open all day until late at night.

I went to the lab today but it’s closed. I freaked out (again I said I got stress a lot). So I went to the journalism department office and the lady who worked there opened the lab and said it’ll be opened only until 4:30 today. I was glad but I was not sure if I can finish it by that time.

Almost all my videos were already in my lovely MacBook Air (yes, I love my MacBook although it’s really slow) and I gave them names and numbers to speed up the editing process. No… not helpful at all because when I tried to transfer my files to my flash disk, it said, “Not enough memory.” I felt like screaming and pulling my hair and just cried. I was so stressed and I didn’t have enough time. Oh yeah… I didn’t have enough time… I remembered so I tried not to be stressed and think about what should I do.

I took out my flip cam. Yes! All the files that I recorded were still there so I copied some of the video that I needed and did a quick “inpoint” and “outpoint” thing on the video (a quick dirty way but it worked a wonder for me!)…. I nearly finished my little decent or nearly decent video. I tried to put a video transition on it but what happened??! I didn’t know what happened but it won’t work. So after I played with the cursor a bit and tried to google things. Anyway, finally, I just worked like that and yes, a little bit after 5 o’clock in the afternoon, I was done (or so I thought).

I tried to upload the video to Youtube and somehow, it won’t upload. I was so desperate I google it again, hoping I’ll find something. Yes, I did find something but I needed a Final Cut Express Pro for that… Ergh… didn’t have that.

I tried to use QTAmateur (don’t know now why I even considered using that program) and export it through Quick Time Player. When I used the Quick Time Player and hit “export,” it took me forever to export the video. It kept on showing if it still worked on exporting my video when in fact the program actually didn’t responded to my request. After I ran out of my patience, I put the video that I made using the Final Cut Express and transferred it to my lovely slow Mac.

I clicked Youtube and yes, it worked. It took me about 45 minutes to upload the video and I kept on praying if Youtube won’t hate me and my Mac will not fail me by doing a decent job this time. Yes, it failed me several times before… Anyhow, the video uploading process was really the most painful one because I thought all my painful work with the Final Cut Express will be wasted if I won’t be able to upload it to Youtube. More importantly, what should I do if I cannot upload my video?

I need a decent program to work on my videos in the future. Hopefully, the program won’t take all day to render or respond to any of my command. I want a program that won’t make me feel nervous about not being uploaded or crashed in the middle of my editing process… Santa, send me a miracle this year so I’ll be good next year.

NEW PEOPLE: where new things meet

NEW PEOPLE is a relatively new store in San Francisco’s Japantown. It opened around summer this year. It has a theatre on the bottom floor, café and gift store on the first floor, fashion on the third floor and art gallery at the top.

NEW PEOPLE focuses on the Japanese pop culture and welcomes everyone who is open-minded and doesn’t mind about being different. The concept is to bring new things and new people. NEW PEOPLE is the place where new things meet.

Seiji Horibuchi, the owner of NEW PEOPLE, created this store with the theatre as the focus of the store. He has an interest on anime and manga. With that in mind, he created the NEW PEOPLE. To complement the theatre, the art gallery, gift store, fashion store and the cafe were brought to NEW PEOPLE.

The fashion floor is a mix of gothic, punk and Lolita style. People can find dresses with layers of laces dominated with white and pink colors. On the opposite of the store, people see clothes that are mainly black and white with a cross being embroidered at the back of the clothes. In this floor, there are four popular brands from Tokyo: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Black Peace Now, Sou.Sou and Tokyo Creators Garden. Each brand has a distinct character.

The art gallery currently featuring seven artists from Tokyo including Junko Mizuno, Kim Songhe, Mikito Ozeki, Noritake, ON ZA Line, Kazmo aka Tomomi Kazumoto and Yuichi Yokoyama. Mika Anami, the art gallery manager, said if the exhibition is popular with children too. The playfulness of the arts seems to draw children to this exhibition.

Anami said, parents will say, “No touch, just see.”

There are lots of pretty dolls along with some little colorful things in Kim Songhe’s art. She made a chandelier from hello kitty dolls. Besides that, there’s also a playful tea chandelier. The chandelier was designed to hung so low so that people can put their cups and plates on the chandelier.

The art gallery also featured, Junko Mizuno, a well-known artist in the United States. Mizuno has published some comic books. However, different from what people have in mind, comic books are not just for children.

Anami referred to Mizuno’s art as “X-rated.”

Mizuno created several dolls shaped like a heart that she named as heart goblins. The dolls have big eyes and very unique style that will make people exclaim, “Oh… these look like Junko Mizuno’s work.” These dolls looked cute but again, Anami said it’s not for children. Mizuno was very popular that even before the exhibition was opened, some of these heart goblins were already purchased by people.

After doing a lot of shopping, people can spend their time at NEW PEOPLE’s  café on the first floor. It sells delicious cookies along with Blue Bottle Coffee’s coffee and Delica’s bento boxes. The café has free wifi and the store is generally pretty quiet so people like to spend time here browsing the Internet or do their work on the laptop.

The underground floor accommodate a small theatre for around 125 people. The theatre was designed by an architectural design firm, Torafu, to resemble the lights of Tokyo. It screens Japanese movies along with some anime. If people feel like eating popcorn, the cafe sells popcorn with Japanese flavours like curry, Japanese seven spice (shichimi) and wasabi.

NEW PEOPLE offers thing that may be hard to find elsewhere. The price may be a bit expensive but along with that, it comes with quality and a great shopping experience.

NEW PEOPLE used twitter and other social media to advertise its products. According to Elizabeth Crawford, the marketing coordinator of the NEW PEOPLE, the store will launch its online store soon to maximize the use of technology.

Along with that, NEW PEOPLE also held several events. Just two weeks ago, NEW PEOPLE worked with Redbull to offer free screening of Viz movie hit, Death Note. This week, they worked with the Bay Guardian to screen 20^th Century Boys. So far, the response from people have been good and NEW PEOPLE planning to do more of these events to attract more people to the store.

The current economic downturn caused many stores closing down. NEW PEOPLE too has a lot to do. The competition’s really hard.

Crawford said the store did a lot of trade with other businesses like during the past movie screening with the Bay Guardian. For that event, NEW PEOPLE provided the space to held the event while the Bay Guardian gave a free advertising space. The event was successful and the beginning of NEW PEOPLE too looked bright.

With J-pop culture as its focus, the NEW PEOPLE came into a niche market and seems to going strong everyday. This market has a lot to expand to. J-pop culture is not only for kids nor exclusively for adults or Asians. J-pop culture is where many different things and people meet. NEW PEOPLE is the intersection of the meeting point for these people and things.

Japan export to the U.S.

The first floor of the NEW PEOPLE

Audio slideshow

I Freaked OUT!

I’ve gotten my permission to shoot a video from the NEW PEOPLE. As this store is considered new, they’re really open to media. The person that I talked to was Beth, a marketing coordinator of the NEW PEOPLE. She was really helpful and even asked if I needed to talk to someone, she will do her best to make some of the staff available to me.

So… the responsiveness of the NEW PEOPLE made me really excited. I was ready to do my video but wait… there were way too many things that I wanted to focus on. Final week was on the way too. Lacking of sleep and tiredness were definitely something that got in the way because besides working on my final video or other final projects related, I also had several final exams. I literally freaked out and my friends said if I can handle them.

My biggest obstacle will lie on my time management. I was quite a stress person and thus, when I stressed, I cannot get things done. I was so busy figuring out how to manage my time while keeping my sanity. Balancing school and fun is definitely not easy. Someone actually said students do not live from day-to-day but from deadline-to-deadline. I thought it’s pretty funny but when I experienced it myself, believe me, it’s not funny at all. My suggestion (although it sounds easy): don’t be stressed because you’ll not get things done if you can’t think.

One of the reasons why I chose the NEW PEOPLE was because it’s located in the neighborhood that I covered for my reporting class. Besides doing this business story, I also worked on another article for my reporting class so I figured, probably it’ll increase my time efficiency but wrong… I’ll suggest students who will take this class next semester to choose a business that is closed to their home.

I also suggest if students pick a small business that does not require a lot of permissions before starting recording or taking pictures. Although Beth has been a great help and a wonderful person, she still needs permissions from the vendors and also the owner of the business. It does take time to get an approval. At one point, I attended an event at the NEW PEOPLE and I forgot to mention about doing my reporting on that day to Beth. So… I just spent my time there, be a good guest and actually not doing any of the works that I should be doing. I wasn’t sure if I can shoot a video but I did take pictures because some other people were taking pictures before me and the staff did not bother them. I was just a bit disappointed with myself for not planning things before hand.

Also, with small business, you have time flexibility. You can say, “I’ll come sometime at noon this week.” With the NEW PEOPLE, I have to have someone to accompany me when I took pictures and Beth was definitely a busy person with tight schedule. It was really nice of her to make time for me.

Next thing that I have a problem with is the sound. I did my recording on the cafe shop because that’s where the main entrance of the building is. However, if you ever ordered drip coffee at the Blue Bottle Coffee, you’ll know how noisy the coffee-maker machine is. That’s what I experienced and Beth was a soft-spoken person so it’s kind of hard to try to get a good clear sound while the machine kept on making “taraattatataa” sounds like a train. I’ll ban drip coffee maker machine from my next video. Drip coffee is awesome but avoid it when you’re doing your video is the only suggestion I can think of! Probably hanging out a lot at that place will help. You’ll naturally get an idea of what works and what’s not. I confessed if I didn’t spend enough time at the NEW PEOPLE’s cafe so I totally miscalculated the noise of the coffee-maker machine.

It’s important to have a good time management and know your subject really well before you actually doing your recording because with a big business like the NEW PEOPLE, chance to do a re-shoot is small when you screwed up. If you have to do a re-shoot, you have another permission and that will take some time. It can’t be instant. It’s not instant especially when it’s the holiday season (read: shopping season).

Why (NEW) PEOPLE?

I chose to do a story on NEW PEOPLE at Jtown. NEW PEOPLE is a relatively new business in Jtown that’s opened around the end of summer this year. Unlike many other businesses in Jtown, the NEW PEOPLE focused more on the youth aspects of Japanese culture. It focused on something new (like the name of the store) and fresh. The building itself is a building with a lot of glasses and accented with a little bit of red. It’s really modern and chic.

The store has a theater, a cafe, a gift store, a clothing store and an art gallery. And you may ask so what’s so special about it, then?

First, the NEW PEOPLE’s theater screened anime and other Japanese movies. There’s also Theatre Kabuki at Jtown but it leans more towards Americans and Asian American movies in general recently.

Second, the movie theater designed was really cool and dominated with yellow and orange chairs with neon like lights on the right and left side of the theater and also on the ceiling above.

Moreover, I like the details in the building. There are pictures near the bathroom door and near the staircases. All of that are drawn by the artists who exhibited their arts in the art gallery on the top floor. There is also a unique Xmas tree on the cafe that is made out of toys.

Small mocha from Blue Bottle Coffee and matcha cookies

Third, the food is awesome. The popcorn that they have there has a strong Japanese character in its option of flavors. They have curry, wasabi and Japanese seven spice JPOP-corn. They also have awesome matcha (green tea) cookies. Along with that, the NEW PEOPLE combined it with organic coffee called Blue Bottle Coffee… hm… the mocha is really delicious.

Fourth, the fashion floor is truly one-of-a kind in San Francisco. Pink dresses with layers of ruffles and ribbons filled the stores along with gothic clothing that are dominated with black-white colors. They also have moss ring in here which I adore so much for its high degree of originality and green concept.

I can ramble on for hours about why I think the NEW PEOPLE is such a good topic to blog on so I’ll just go on with my last reason to sum up everything: the NEW PEOPLE is unique and new. For a journalism student like me, I’ll always try to find these two key-points on doing my reporting. And that is when the NEW PEOPLE pops-up in my mind.

I will shoot the video with colorful objects at the background because many times, people forget about the importance of colors to catch and keep your audience’s attention away. The interview will be mostly done with the staffs who worked there because I want to know about the story behind the NEW PEOPLE: their concept, their popular items, etc…