Liberty City is like Paris to Me Screening

Well interesting experience today. Myself, Latoya, Stephanie and Estrella attended the screening of "Liberty City is like Paris to me" at the Miami Film Festival. I do have to say I worked really hard to try and organize the event for all to attend and was disappointed on the turnout. I understand that we all can't be anywhere but about half of our staff was did not bother to respond no that they were not attending...Moving along...The overall turnout at the theater was pretty descent. However since it was a short film it was also screened along with another film, "Spam Allstars: Fuacata! Hard to tell which of the two drew the bigger crowd. Both directors were there and were available not only before but after the film. Bruce Weber the director of "Liberty City is Like Paris to me" did seem to have more followers waiting for a moment of his time. We were among those. And finally just before he walked out to jump into his limo that awaiting him in front of the Tower Theater on Calle Ocho in the heart of Little Havana, Estrella and I got a moment of his time. It was a brief encounter, but for me painted a better picture of the envision he had with the creation of the short film. It still has me a bit perplexed. I won't give many more details yet, don't want to spoil our piece to be published. But reactions from our guests from Liberty City varied I believe and I certainly have my own. In fact I am still molling over what I really think about it. Perhaps my initial reaction wasn't a hundred percent fair. However we are all entitled to our opinion, and for me it did not paint a clear picture of what life in Liberty City is like. I do appreciate the film in its attempt to show the beauty in the culture that does exists among this community and for tempting others not to fear Liberty City.

Well definitely a good issue addressed in class was: how do you write an article together? Obviously it has been done before and quite successfully. Woodward and Bernstein, need I say more. I can only aspire to be as good and have such an impact with my reporting some day. But let us go back to baby steps here. It is quite difficult when you are still finding your own way as a reporter to then have to find a harmony with another person that can translate onto paper in telling a story together. 

Well now we are getting down to the nitty, gritty part of Journalism, every writers least favorite part of the writing and publishing process: EDITING!! Indeed even as a high-schooler I learned the wrath of the bleeding red pen. Our editor was so notorious for bleeding over copy that she was forced to switch to purple or green pens, in hopes she won't terrify students as much. But well we aren't in high school anymore and we are not just studetns anymore. We are REPORTERS, lets leave the student behind in the classroom. Scary for some, exciting I think. I learned a long time ago you have to have tough hide if you want to be a writer of any kind. There is always room for improvememt and well god knows I have a lot to learn. There are those times when you feel very studpid though watching your work being torn to shredds or re-written. Watching someone else in the hot seat, while makes you glad its not you, can't help but feel their pain. A lot of errors become obvious when public scrunity is involved. Well back to work on my re-write for my seat in heat is coming.

First trip to the NFL YET Center...Me and Latoya, my partner in crime for this assignment, were yet able to find the director of the center. Busy man the week of the Super Bowl, understandable but very frustrating. We refused to leave without information and did a little exploring around and before long found several staff members of various parts of the center willing to talk to us and tell us about what they do....One big thing I discovered, the usefulness of business cards or something to not only allow people who are willing and wanting to assist to contact you but give you a little creditability so you don't look like two girls just wandering around a community center. But I think we made it work, once we explained to people are motives for the most part they were willing to share. We actually had the supervisor of the computer lab quite excited about our project and providing helping information about the community around but I think will be an excellent source for future events and happenings.

Beginnings

Well new year, new beginnings and believe it or not my very first blog. This course Print News Reporting is providing a great deal of firsts for me and everyone around me I believe. I registered late for this class and when I did, I did not know how unique this section would. Of course Prof. Reisner I knew would provide an interesting challenge. Creating our own publication was way beyond my expectaions and is an opportunity that I believe we have all been waiting for and are all anxiously jumping at. Of course things seem to be falling into place for our class beginning with the warm welcome we received by community leaders at Jumbo's to our recent partnership with the South Florida Times. How far will this go? That question is one that will remain unanswered as this is the ulitmate work in progress. I hope this project is something that will continue with us beyond the time frame of this semester and possibly set an example of possiblities for this course in the future.Well here goes nothing, stayed tuned, I believe it will be a fun ride.