The laws & institutions that are insensitive to or cause of fatherlessness can do more to address violent outcomes than all the mental health programs and gun laws on the planet.
What Representing Men in Divorce Taught Me About Fatherhood
The Crisis of Fatherless Shooters
Mike Lee Wonders If ‘Fatherlessness’ Is Behind Mass Shootings
Buy a $50 mic/recorder and learn how to use it
Terrible sounding audio will destroy an otherwise amazing video.
On-camera (built-in) microphones are almost always too far from the subjects
you’re recording and end up “hearing” too much environmental noise and “room
bounce” reverberating throughout a speech. For the kind of up-close presence heard
from radio & television presenters, you’ll need your microphone set a few inches
from the mouth. Because it’s just not that feasible to hold your camera 3-10
inches from subjects’ mouths, I recommend lavalier and handheld microphones
priced between $30 and $50 as a starting point. Budget mic reviews are plastered
all over the internet, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble identifying a few
suitable candidates for your purpose. Also, use headphones (or earbuds if you
must) to identify & mitigate wind noise and other audio problems in real
time (rather than struggling to correct them in post).
Avoid the zoom!
Video is all about steady, well framed shots. Zooming in and
out is frustrating for the viewer, and zoom generally amplifies jittery effects
of camera movement. Use zoom very sparingly, erring on the side of not using it
at all! It’s nearly always better to stand closer to your subjects than to compensate
for distant shots with zoom. Even with great image stabilization the results
are often not as good as being closer. Of course, there are exceptions, but
consider getting some tight shots after the main shoot. It’s fine to supplement
your package with a few close-ups that can be stitched into the package as
b-roll.
Hold shots steady; don't pan or bounce around scene
excessively
It’s instinctive to point the camera where you’re looking,
but it makes for annoying movement for the audience. When you frame a great
shot that helps tell a story, allow your viewer to take in the composition. Us
photographers might be hyper-active, but that should not inform our shooting
style because it’ll drive people crazy!
Use a tripod, stick or stabilizer
Cellphones – or mobiles – make great camcorders, but
the form factor is hard to keep steady; it takes purposeful effort to tuck
elbows and stand very still, particularly if you’re multi-tasking. Using neck
straps, selfie sticks, monopods and tripods will help you produce stable scenes,
like having a third hand.
One final thought before I leave you to your work. I’ve
noticed that too much space between the top of the frame and the top of a
subject’s head makes them appear sinking or downing in the frame, and leaves
little or no room for lower thirds – or titles. Try framing so that the
tops of subjects’ heads are at, or near, the top of the frame.
Now go out there and practice shooting the kind of footage
you enjoy watching & crafting into beautiful stories!
Upcoming article ideas:
One great reason for buying higher resolution cameras than
your final packages will be affords you more flexibility to pan & zoom in
post.
Cheap gear generally can’t handle challenging environments
and make for cheap looking videos, but if you can control the circumstances by using
a solid tripod, ideal lighting and external audio devices, you might be able to
overcome some the weaknesses of discount equipment.
Money is the root of all evil and the same can be said about a new cryptocurrency-driven economy. Bitcoin and its ilk are being leveraged to undermine the dollar, along with the full faith and credit of the United States government, effectively sliding wealth quietly out from under unsuspecting capitalists. But at the end of the day all forms of money are just stand-ins for privilege, which is the boiled-down meaning of wealth and greed.
The privileged class makes policy as it always had, and keeps the dangerous class -- those who might threaten to dethrone them -- with less stature and standing.
If the the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve lose the ability to affect monetary policy, then the power to regulate the economy, for the current players, at least, will evaporate.
As we were reminded in 2007, speculative markets have a jaw-dropping impact on the economy, but have long been the domain of fund owners, stockholders and trading agents, to the exclusion of the workforce -- those who actually produce wealth through the making of goods & services -- and the consumer market, which is drawn from and supported by the former.
We are seeing a fluid shift in influencers who hold the lion's share of power and privilege on our soil and across the earth. I predict the total collapse of the US dollar as the measure of wealth and privilege on a global scale. But they are the sham power brokers; the only reason they have any real power is through smoke and mirrors.
Since before the turn of the century, speculative markets have been glamourized to the extent that it was commonplace for grocery store clerks, cops and factory workers to trade stocks and bonds as a means to improve their situations. And through frugal, thoughtful investments many did ... right up until the fall of 1929, the period when paper wealth disintegrated.
But this lesson in smart money has been lost to history through a terrible education system that either mischaracterized or misunderstood the Wall Street Crash.
My suggestion to working folks is to run fast from cryptocurrency and blockchain-based instruments and focus on using your earnings to maintain material needs. I have said many ways that true wealth is owning property and possessing means, knowledge and skill as consideration for goods and services.
If you're one of the lucky ones who's ignorance is bliss, and you don't concern yourself with the prospects of the US Dollar as a going concern, then let me caution you away from the facts:
Sgt. Larry Becton approached the man and accused him of "aimlessly walking around" and insisted that he provide ID.
"Do you live over here," Becton asked. "It's not an option. Right now you're being detained ... for suspicious activity," the officer said.
"I will take you to the station and get your ID," Becton repeated.
The suspect, who asked to remain anonymous, asked, "Is this because I flicked you off?"
As Becton demanded the man stand up, presenting his handcuffs, said, "I'm going to put you in handcuffs right now. Go ahead and resist if you want to." He then reached into the man's pocket and fished out his wallet. "For future reference, young man, you don't disrespect the police like that" the police sergeant said.
Sgt. Becton eventually released the individuals he had detained without any charges.
But there's so much more to the story. The militants in the van were actually Minneapolis police officers who were enforcing a nighttime curfew in the days after the George Floyd murder, committed by officers of the same police force. For daring to defend himself, police arrested Stallings for attempted murder and assault -- charges which prosecutors had the nerve to pursue. But thankfully jury sided with the victim and acquitted him.
Police will tell you that they used "less-lethal" bullets, but in video footage recently released by Stallings' attorney, distinguishing rubber from lead is nearly impossible.
In a story published by The Associated Press, rubber bullets used in this attack on protesters and the working press, were referred to as "nonlethal," but tell that to the 53 people who were killed by them, or the 300 hundred left permanently disabled, between 1990 and 2017. Police routinely use "less-lethal" measures, like firing taser hooks and rubber bullets, as punishment for daring not to capitulate to their power and authority.
To be clear, the blackouts are the direct result of a deliberate choice.
Viewers and advertisers are made to suffer.
The rhetoric you see is often along the lines of "(insert name cable or satellite provider) is taking away your access to your favorite (network) programming," as though the it's all the provider's fault. But here's the truth.
Broadcasters always have the option of carriage on cable & satellite systems
The FCC instructs broadcast television station owners to assert carriage election status every 3 years. Their choices are either Consent Agreement or Must-Carry. If the station elects for Must-Carry status, the cable & satellite providers are forced by the FCC to carry that station on the channel lineups.
On the other hand, TV stations are also allowed to force cable & satellite providers to enter into costly consent agreements or be denied permission to retransmit those TV signals. This is where the breakdowns occur.
Why did the FCC make this rule in the first place?
The Communications Act of 1934 forced broadcasters who used programming of other broadcasters to get permission (or consent) from the program originators. That makes sense from an intellectual property standpoint, but back then there were no television stations, nor any multi-channel programming aggregators. However, in 1992 the FCC decided to extend this requirement to cable and satellite systems who were actually providing a valuable service to broadcasters by vastly improving picture quality.
Initially large community antennas would pick up TV stations and carry broadcasts the last mile to the home by a hardwired cable connection. These were capable of receiving better signals than the typical rooftop & rabbit-ear antennas.
In any case, maximizing availability of television signals across all platforms is clearly in the domain of Public Interest, a foundational axiom flouted by the government since the commission was created by Congress. Maximum carriage of TV also benefits the industries advertisers by maximizing the reach of their commercial messaging.
The blacking-out of TV stations to wide swaths of cable & satellite subscribers is counter-intuitive; broadcasters deliberately diminish their audience size.
So there you have it. The next time to hear a local television station whining that cable & satellite systems are the ones denying their views access to their favorite programming, you can confidently call BS!
I'm old. I bought a lot of software before my 30-year-old son was 10 and I still use most of it.
I bought programs. That's what we called apps back then. They were discounted because I'm too cheap to pay full price. I have Paintshop Pro Anniversary Edition for less than $100. Cool Edit 2000 was another bargain at $99.95.
One of my newer programs is MS Office 2013 and that was offered through an employee purchase program for $19.95. Before that I was using Office 2003. Today I noticed a popup notification on my Windows 10 machine that said "We recommend Editor." I had to google that. "Editor" turns out to be a spell & grammar checker.
I think I'll pass, though. They want to charge me by the month for the privilege of keeping it at the ready, and I figured out that if I keep it for 9 years, like I have Office 2013, it'll cost me $754.92. I'm way too cheap for that!
