4/1/2014 MMS Newspaper Online with Video Review

I looked at 9news.com a news station based in Colorado. The website over all is very professional looking and easy to navigate. The web designer very clearly knows what a good website looks and feels like to use and access. The subjects vary from all kinds of topics, most are interesting to the average person interested in learning some new facts. The kind of news that leaves me disinterested is economic articles with lots of numbers and drawn out information. This website provides interesting news that all seems to be worth looking at, there is no uninteresting, filler news. I found this website equally interesting to iReport. My one complaint is, it looks as if their video is simply clips pulled from a newscast on television.

Beer in Vermont - Slideshow Story- 3/20/2014

Vermont brings tourist from all over the Northeastern Region just for its skiing during the winter months, and gorgeous green mountains for hiking, and all sorts of outdoor activities in the summer. The mountain scenery attracts all sorts of people, to a region that would otherwise go overlooked if it weren’t for its gorgeous natural offerings. 

Vermont is a secret beer hub for the northeast. If it weren't for chance, and personal recommendations I never would have discovered this to be true. I had never heard of the Alchemist Brewery in Waterbury, VT till my friend last year, told me a bit about it and the extreme quality of their brewing. Much like the local mountain Burke,  the average person residing in say Massachusetts or Connecticut would have never known of the mountain, if they had never heard of it by word of mouth from a personally satisfied customer. This same concept is why the small, and large breweries in Vermont have become so successful on a national and international level. 

The trend of popularity in sampling craft, or any high quality unique beer is booming across America, microbreweries are pumping out all the fresh beer its fans can enjoy. The Alchemist Brewery in Waterbury, VT only distributes their product to an extremely limited number of sellers.The low amount of distribution contributed to is elitism. I have met fans of the Alchemist Heady Topper spanning from as far as Bangor, ME to Hartford, CT, and those are not the only fans. The Heady Topper is rated the number one beer in the entire world by Beeradvocate.com, which is quiet an impressive feat for what was once a small Vermont brewery. 

Iv’e got Ryan Behling here with my, who is a fan of local vermont beers and a senior at lyndon state college in the sustainability studies. Youve tried the heady topper, does it live up to the raitngs? “

Personal testaments of satisfied  customers were a great assistance in expanding the horizons of Hill Farmstead Brewery. There is no experience in the world, like getting a fresh foamy beer right off the tap at a brewery. In Vermont, this has become an especially important experience for a number of distributors such as Hill Farmstead Brewery in Morrisville VT. Similar to the Alchemist Brewery, tourists come from all over New England just to  get a taste of Hill Farmstead. Unlike the Alchemist, who ships their cans to a few limited retail locations, Hill Farmstead Brewery is the location to purchase their product at. This extremely limited distribution of beer made it extremely successful, of course along with its stunning quality and taste. Hill Farmstead only fills growlers and sells their beer, freshly packaged at their location at their Morrisville store. The lines for the brewery are out the door when it opens, and it can take up to and hour and a half to get through the line of filling growlers. If you brew it, they will come. 

Beer fanatics love the fact that the only way you can acquire some of these brews  it is to take the adventure to Vermont. These beer tourists are bringing valuable tax dollars to Vermont with every trip they take and every Hill Farmstead growler they purchase. Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead Brewery said in an interview recently with Vanity Fair that the world has “ moved into this phase of what’s been called “person-centered civil religion,” where people start to find meaning and value in different things in their lives. Maybe it’s football and the New England Patriots are “God,” or maybe it’s boutique beers. It’s an age where people are spending their dollars in such a way that it also has the potential to bring meaning back into their lives.”  Beer really does bring people with a passion for its quality together, and when the quality is in Vermont, that is where the people will go. Customers looking for a great product, and a beautiful outdoor adventure  know just where to drive, up to their favorite Vermont Breweries.

Credits

Photos: Joe Schlee

Audio : Joe Schlee/ Jake Reardon

Interview: Joe Schlee/ Ryan Behling

Editing : Jake Reardon

MMS Soundslides 3/20/14

3/18/14 Slideshow Summary

My audio slideshow is going to be a concert review done through photos and audio. I will be using songs freely licensed by the band for public use in this format, along with the narrations of myself and Jake. I will be organizing the slideshows photographic order, while Jake will work on the narrational element of the show. This slideshow is directed at anyone interested in live music in the Northeast Kingdom, there is no specific age range or gender target. Jacob and I will both be intertwining narration of which there is a sample below.

"The crowd was receiving the raw energy from the band and throwing it right back at them through furious dancing and jumping. The ping-pong effect of the band and the crowd feeding back and forth created a show unlike any other seen yet on a weekday. After the Disco Biscuits’ recent run just a week ago at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, with a capacity ten times the size of the Fairfield’s Stage One it was amazing to see Conspirators stage presence. Marc Brownstein played his heart out, and it was clear that it did not matter if the crowd was two hundred or two thousand, he was going to make sure he left the venue in awe of the performance. This intimate performance setting was the perfect storm as they unleashed all their energy while ripping through the rest of the first set’s “Dynasty>Orch Theme>Struts>Legalize It> Oname Wa”. "

The text behind the photos will accompany them well and draw the viewer into the audio slideshow.

MMS Homework 3/11/2014 Slideshow- Photo Gallery Review

Photo Gallery/ Two Slideshows with Audio

Photo Gallery 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/slideshow/indonesia-volcano-erupts-22328341/image-22328524

The photo gallery above is one of a volcano that erupted in Indonesia. In a disaster situation like this, photographs are a good venue for bringing the reality of the subject to the public. It is easy to feel detached from the story while simply reading text, so the photos with captions next to them really help to bring the seriousness of the situation in your face. 

Two Slideshows

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/ed_shneidmanff_ss,0,3414993.htmlstory#axzz2vbNi6xRw

In the first slideshow above an older man narrates about death. The elderly man compares his decaying backyard statue to the decay he sees himself in his own physical existence. The photos really pop out of the slideshow, and present themselves individually more so in this audio slideshow than the previous photo gallery.  The elderly man is a doctor who specialized in death, and was quite aware of his declining health. At first glance, the audio slideshow stuck out much more than the photo gallery. 

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/audioslideshow/2014/feb/23/photography-scotland-hebrides

In the second slideshow, which also contained audio, I was less impressed. The second slideshow was done in a fashion that I would compare to  a program on the history channel. Photos are presented with music of the time accompanying the photos with appropriate narration behind. The story is that of an old time family in the 1800’s and their everyday lifestyle. The photos are not very interesting, and neither was the story, so if the music had been a more upbeat I would have been more engaged. In the end though however, an audio slideshow was much more interactive than the plain photo gallery with text.