Goals for Final Project & First Encounter

After conferencing with Sandy, we decided that my goals for last Monday would be to get in touch with Clyde of Clyde's Cupcakes, whether it be calling him or stopping by the shop. I decided to visit the store and introduce myself and let him know what my goals for this project are so that he has an idea of what to expect. I also did a little research about the cupcake craze and when it started (it actually started about a decade ago) and how the trend has grown among Americans.

Now that I've introduced myself, I've moved onto phase 2 where I'm trying to contact Clyde again to actually sit down with him and video tape our interview. Hopefully this will happen on Thursday of this week if all goes well. I also need to contact Wild Orchid Bakery to talk to someone there as well and see if they have the same type of responses about cupcake sales and the craze as Clyde does.

I'll keep you updated on how everything goes!

Sunday September 19th, 2010- 250 Word Profile That Never Got Posted!

For my first short multimedia soundslides project, I interviewed Karen Augustine who is the shift supervisor at the Gables Convenience store. This store is located in the on-campus apartments at UNH called the Gables. It carries almost everything: food, medicines, magazines, cleaning products, drinks, and even fresh made subs. I go to the store all the time to get breakfast foods and last minute items and I always see Karen there with a smile on her face so I thought she would be a great subject.

Karen has been working at UNH for 11 years now, with only 3 of them being at the Gables Convenience store. She does everything from working the cashier and stocking items to making subs, and specialty drinks. Because she is the shift supervisor, she also handles the hours and schedules of the student employees at GaCo. Karen loves working with the students here at UNH which is why she enjoys her job so much. Her children went to UNH which is how she got involved working here at the University. Every time I see her in the store she is always willing to help and her politeness is exceptional. Karen made for a great interviewee for this project!

Detailed Final Project Idea

For my final project in ENGL721, I'm going to take one of my original ideas I had and combine it with a more newsworthy idea. The original idea that I had was to interview and take pictures of the new cupcake bakery that opened this past spring in Exeter, NH. Unfortunately, my final project can't be all fun and games, so I need to have a more newsworthy aspect to this cupcake story.

To make this story more relevant to multimedia I added a twist to it. Originally, I thought it was newsworthy just because it opened within the last 6 months, but now I want to ask why. Why did Clyde (of Clyde's Cupcakes) want to open this bakery in Exeter, NH, a town of only 14,000 people? It seems quite "ballsy" of a man to open up a bakery selling cupcakes (each cupcake is $2.50!), cookies, and coffee in the economy that we are living in now, never mind opening it in a location where he might not get much business. I'm planning on asking him how he came up with the idea of cupcakes, and why he thought Exeter would be a good town to open up a shop since I've only seen cupcake stores in major cities like Washington D.C. and New York. I've been there a few times and every time I go there, I am the only customer in the tiny shop, but when I talked to the cashier over the summer, she said they get a surprisingly large amount of business, especially after the news of the new store was spread by an article in the Exeter News Letter.

Before I solidify this idea though, I need to find out if it is a solid and newsworthy story to report a 6 minute project on. Once I get the OK for this story idea, my next step is to call Clyde's Cupcakes and make sure I'll be able to get a good interview.

Final Project Ideas

I've come up with some ideas for my final project for this class, though I will continue to think of ideas as they come to me. What I've come up with so far is:

1. Talking to/Visiting/Watching the process of the people who work at Clyde's Cupcakes in Exeter, NH. Clyde's Cupcakes is a new bakery that opened last spring and sells cupcakes, brownies, cookies, rice krispie treats, and coffee. I am OBSESSED with cupcakes, so I feel like this would be a great idea for me to get to know the employees and even watch the baking process!

2. Watching and observing preschoolers in The Wright Start Preschool, located in Exeter, NH as well. This preschool is run by one professional teacher, and many student teachers that are in Exeter High School. I took part in this program when I was a junior in high school and since the kids are great subjects and I could get great audio, I feel as if this would be a fun project to do.

3. Interviewing/watching/partaking in my friend's zumba class in Manchester since she is a Zumba instructor. I think it would be interesting to ask her how she got into this and to take pictures and audio of the classes she teaches and things of that nature.

Tiffany is Always a Girl's Best Friend

Experiences With Still Photography

Multimedia class will not be my first experience with still photography. I've been taking pictures for years now, and I love being artistic with my photography. I take pictures whenever I go to a new place, or go on vacation. I traveled to South Africa four years ago and took over 500 pictures so I would never forget the trip.
I would love to take a photography class in the future because I love the freedom of taking a picture however I'd like, and taking it from whatever angle I think is good. I also love how subjective photography is and how the interpretation of the picture is all up to the person looking at it. I'm really looking forward to advancing my photography skills in this class and being able to couple it with audio and movement.

Introduction to Multimedia

Hey everyone,
First of all, I tried posting my favorite links on the side of my blog, but for some reason only my "audio" link shows up. Still working on that :P

As for multimedia, I'm very excited about what this course will teach me. I love photography, so I'm looking forward to being able to use that passion in class. Also, using computers mixed with designing is right up my alley so I hope that this will be my most fun class I have this semester. Considering my first assignment in class was to play with legos, I am definitely looking foward to what this class will have in store for me :P I'm a little nervous about using the new software because I hate getting frustrated with technology and not being able to figure something out so hopefully I will grasp how to use the new software fast.

I've done a little thinking about some story ideas for this class, but I'm not exactly sure what type of story I want to do yet. I'm really into fashion, travel, and girly things so my story will most likely be something of that nature.

Overall, I'm really excited about taking this class and learning how to combine my pictures with audio and using photoshop-type software to enhance my work :)