Between the bankruptcy filing of my daytime employer (the Tribune Media Company) and the brief incarceration of the Governor of Illinois, the winter has been “interesting.” Thankfully, I have had a number of assignments that have sufficiently distracted me.
US postal worker Archie Culbertson reads and sorts letters written to Santa Claus from some of Chicago’s neediest residents. From there, visitors to the post office may select a letter and try to fulfill a child’s wish.
In all of the 30 years that Mr. Culbertson has done this, he has never seen as many letters as this year. What’s more, many of the children aren’t asking for toys. Have a look.
One major emphasis of my class, “The Way to Backpack Journalism,” is audio. To me, learning how to capture quality and compelling audio is the first step in learning backpack journalism.
Visually, the “Santa and the economy” piece is rather dull. But, the audio is incredibly powerful. I have taken video and photographs of some terrible things, but for some reason this piece choked me up more than anything I have worked on.
Okay, for something much lighter, but also an example of the power of audio, here is a link to a video I recently completed about the topping off of the 92-story Trump Tower in Chicago.
The piece was completed with Photoshop, AfterEffects and Final Cut Pro. I pulled many of the audio clips using a handy dandy new program called Snapz Pro X, which allows you to record anything and everything that appears on your computer screen.
Enjoy the holidays everyone.
Christopher
