Owen Roberts

Owen Roberts September 19th, 2008

Course description

Agricultural Communications I (EDRD 3050)

Fall 2009

Department of Rural Extension Studies, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development

Class meets Mondays, 7-10 p.m. in Rozanski 108.

Instructor: Owen Roberts owen@uoguelph.ca

519-824-4120 Ext. 58278

Room 437E University Centre, 107 Johnston Hall

Office hours: By appointment

Class announcements will be posted on the listserv AGCOMNET. Class members are subscribed through their uoguelph.ca email accounts, the University of Guelph’s officially recognized email system. Check your uoguelph.ca email daily for official University of Guelph announcements.

What is agricultural communications?

As a field of teaching, research and practice, agricultural communications seeks to support and improve human interaction and decision making related to agriculture, broadly defined. With special traditions and strengths in journalism and mass communications, it partners with other social sciences, including school-based interests of agricultural education and non-formal education endeavours, such as extension services. Communication interests range across all levels, settings and means of communicating – intrapersonal, interpersonal, group and mass. Agricultural interests include all subject areas related to the complex global enterprises of food, feed, fibre, bio-based energy, genomics, natural resources management and rural development. Agricultural dimensions also span all participants in, and stages of, the food enterprise of societies, from agricultural research, policies, finance and production to food safety and security, consumption, nutrition and health and human well-being. The concept of agricultural knowledge management serves as the framework for an integrated, comprehensive research agenda in agricultural communications.

(source: National Research Agenda, Agricultural Education and Communication , page 9)

(http://www.aaaeonline.org/files/researchagenda_shortlores.pdf)

About Agricultural Communications I (EDRD 3050)

This course focuses on developing an understanding and ability to apply practical and effective agricultural communication techniques through regular writing exercises and related activities, such as public speaking. Special emphasis is given to issues important to the agri-food sector, as communicated in general interest media and farm publications, which students will be expected to read throughout the semester.

The cornerstone of this course is flexibility. Course content and delivery will reflect the realities of the agricultural news and communication business – one reality being that priorities change. Students will carry out timely assignments, particularly citizen journalism and speech preparation for the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture (http://www.cysa-joca.ca/english/) competition.

Recommended resources:

1. Canadian Press Stylebook (http://www.thecanadianpress.com/books.aspx?id=182)

2. Oxford Concise Dictionary (www.askoxford.com)

3. Online Writing Laboratory at Purdue University (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/)

Recommended reading and viewing:

1. The Globe and Mail (www.theglobeandmail.com)

2. The Toronto Star (www.thestar.ca)

3. Ontario Farmer (www.ontariofarmer.com)

4. Better Farming (http://www.betterfarming.com/homepage)

5. Guelph Mercury (www.guelphmercury.com)

6. CBC radio and television (www.cbc.ca)

7. SPARK*AIR videos on farms.com (www.farms.com)

Help for better writing:

Writing Services at U of G Library (http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/assistance/writing_services//)

Course format and evaluation

This course has three assignments and one assessment.

Video assignment: 40 per cent

Speech writing and delivery: 25 per cent

Citizen journalism: 30 per cent

Instructor’s overall assessment: 5 per cent

Total: 100 per cent

No final exam is scheduled.

Assignments

Assignment 1 — Video assignment (40 per cent): In conjunction with the University of Guelph’s Department of  Plant Agriculture, students will work in assigned teams of two to develop two-minute videos designed to stimulate high-school students’ interest in studying plant science at the University of Guelph. The initiative will reflect the “wow” factor inherent in the diversity of plant life, and in the excitement of modern developments in plants — breeding, biotechnology, human health aspects, etc. The science in the videos will be based on University of Guelph research. The subject of the video will be Ontario plant varieties; the research will illustrate imaginative ways the plants are being used or further developed.  Researchers will be asked to cooperate in as timely a fashion as possible with agricultural communications students for script development and video recording.  In class, students will choose from a selection of topics, and make their own interview arrangements with researchers. Video equipment will be borrowed from the Office of Research SPARK program. Sign-out will be coordinated through SPARK co-op student Vanessa Perkins, vperkins@uoguelph.ca, Room 437 University Centre.

Marking scheme:

Script: 10 per cent

First cut: 10 per cent

Final cut: 20 per cent

Assignment 2 — Speech writing and delivery (25 per cent): Students will work independently on a speech 5-7 minutes in length. Students with the top six speeches in the class will take part in the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture competition at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto on  Saturday, November 7, 2009. Students will choose from these five topics, which are established by the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture organizing committee:

• Behind the scenes: The unsung heroes of Canadian agriculture
• Changes I would make as the Federal Minister of Agriculture for a day
• How Canadian agriculture is being affected by the global economic downturn
• Why I want to make my career in agriculture
• Farming the future: Taking agriculture into the 21st century

Marking scheme:

Content – 13 per cent

Delivery – 12 per cent (including two per cent for introductions and thank yous)

This marking scheme mirrors the 50/50 marking scheme used by judges in the national competition. See rules (including thanking and introducing requirements) at http://www.cysa-joca.ca/english/rules.php

Assignment 3 — Citizen journalism (30 per cent): Students will use the blogging platform WordPress (access at www.wordpress.com) to create a blog designed to promote discussion on agricultural topics. Students are to approach this assignment as citizen journalists, and regard the blogs as a medium for raising relevant agri-food news and issues. Twelve 250-word entries – one per week – are required. Use Canadian Press style for entries.

Marking scheme:

Content – 24 per cent (12 entries, 2 per cent each) based on newsworthiness, originality, spelling and grammar.

Links – 6 per cent (12 links; .5 per cent each)

Instructor’s overall assessment (5 per cent): Assessment criteria include attitude, curiosity, participation, questioning guest lecturers, quality of comments during news/issues review, initiative, news sense and participation in Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow club (www.canact.ca).

Suggested resources

Speeches:

1. Learn from the best: Tips from Toastmasters.

http://208.179.211.4/MainMenuCategories/FreeResources/NeedHelpGivingaSpeech/TipsTechniques.aspx

2. Twelve rapid-fire tips for better speeches.

http://www.shakethatbrain.com/stb-damn%20good%20speech.html

3. A video on using your voice effectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OclPRzUaeE

4. Tips for introducing and thanking speakers.

http://www.helendyrkacz.com/helenstips.html

Citizen journalism:

1. A primer on citizen journalism from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

2. An excellent column on the merits of blogging versus column writing.

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2007/01/i_feel_so_lazy_.html

3. A lengthy YouTube tutorial on WordPress by an independent blogger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU&feature=related

4. What makes a good blog?

http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/19/good-blogs

Video production:

1. Editing instructions…

Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ghjxcJ0Nxo

Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=327kI2fVHZg

2. Instructions:

Video editing instructions:

To upload video from camera to Final Cut Express:

-plug in grey cord from front of camera to USB (under keyboard or on back of computer)

-turn camera on (open viewer) and click round button on camera to choose “playback on PC”

-“Everio HDD” and “No Name” will show up on desktop – you are ready to go

-open iMovie then click camera button on left hand side near middle

-when import from camera window opens choose “Uncheck all” at bottom

-find your clips and check them

-click “Import checked”

-Create New Event (or if you already have saved some clips then choose Add to existing event and find yours on the dropdown menu), name your event and be SURE that it’s being saved under Lacie (at the very top). Click Import

-Wait for all clips to Import, once complete click ok on the pop up box and then close iMovie

-Eject camera (drag Everio HDD and No Name to trash can) then turn off camera and ask someone to plug it in to charge

-Open Final Cut Express (rainbow eyeball icon) and either open your project if you’ve started or start a new project (it  may not open with a fresh project so then choose fileà new project)

-File à Import à Files à Lacie à iMovie events à find your video files à click the first one you want to import, press shift and then click the last one you want to import à click Choose

(if you want to choose just a few clips that are scattered then press command and click them individually)

-then all the clips will show up in your project – then SAVE: file à save project as.. à save to “Ag Comm Class” folder under Lacie (name it the same thing as you named the imovie event

The editing process:

-drag clips into viewer to watch and clip where you want to

-to play video press play button or space bar

-press ‘i’ button for where you want your clip to start and ‘o’ for where you want your clip to end

-set the yellow timeline placer where you want the clip to go

-drag clip from viewer into viewer to the right, make sure OVERWRITE (red) is highlighted

-“Change setting to match the clip settings?” box pops up: choose Yes.

-to fill in space with exactly the right length of clip press ‘i’ and ‘o’ on timeline where you want the clip to go, drag desired clip into view and press ‘i’ for where you want it to start DON’T CHOOSE ‘O’ because the ‘o’ of the timeline will determine when the clip will end. Then drag it to “overwrite”

-this is a dragging program too so you can highlight clips and drag them where they need to go in the timeline

To drag in just the audio or just the video:

-do the same process for selecting clip and selecting where you want it to start and end

-place yellow timeline bar where you want it to come in

-if you want just audio for voiceovers: click on the v1 tab on the far left hand side of the timeline to disconnect it then drag your clip to overwrite and only the audio will drop in. Be sure to connect v1 again so you can drop in video again

-if you want to just drop in video: disconnect a1 and a2 tabs on the far left side of the timeline and do the same thing, only video will drop in (remember to reconnect)

To turn up audio:

-double click on the green part of the clip (the audio part) and it will show up in the viewer

-use the “Level” bar to turn up or down the volume

-it will automatically apply to the clip so that’s all you need to do

To add text:

-click the A button at the bottom of the viewer and choose Textà Lower 3^rd

-a white screen will appear in the viewer, go to Control at the top of the viewer

-fill in the blanks with your information (be consistent with your font, size and colour choices)

-for Background choose Solid, set Opacity to about 80 and choose white for colour

-go back to Video at top

-move v1 to 2^nd video track

-place yellow timeline bar where you want the text to drop it then drag to overwrite

-shorten if you need to and put in fade in fade out at start and end

Transitions:

-highlight middle of two clips you want to connect with a transition by clicking on it

-effects à video transitions à dissolve à cross dissolve

-for beginning and end of video and text overlays choose à fade in fade out dissolve

-to get rid of transition: right click on mouse, choose Cut

Tools:

-Snapping tool: ßà(right corner above timeline): when green it is selected which means the clip you are dragging will snap to the other clip – a lot easier to drag clips around

-Linked selection tool (looks like a peanut right beside snapping tool): when selected (green) it means that when you click the audio of one clip, the video will highlight as well – it keeps them as one clip (if you just want to select or move either the video or audio alone then deselect that)

-Razor blade (along tool bar on far right side):  select with mouse and you can use to cut clips up to eliminate parts you don’t want or to turn up audio at one part but not the other, etc. Be sure to always reselect the cursor tool (at top of tool bar) after done with razor tool

Tricks:

-to skip quickly from clip to clip in the timeline: press the comma/quotation mark button to go forwards and press the colon/semicolon button to go backwards.

-to know it is the start or end of the clip look for the whitish L shape in the bottom left (for start) or right (for end) corner of the clip on the far right hand viewer

-to move through a clip one frame at a time, use the arrows ß and à

-to add video or audio tracks, right click the top of the track above v1 or below a1 and a2 and choose “add track”

-if bright green or red shows up above the timeline then go to Sequence à Render All à Both and it will render your audio and video.

-to shorten or lengthen a transition once it’s in the timeline, double click on it and it will show up in the viewer – it’s easier to change it up there

-command + Z = undo

When the video is finally done:

-make sure none of the clips are selected

-SAVE PROJECT  (file à save project)

-go to Fileà Export à Using Quciktime Conversion

-Save it to LACIE à Ag Comm Class

-Name it the same thing you named it every other time

-Format: MPEG4 (if putting it on youtube, if you’re handing it in on a disk then save it as Windows Media file)

-Use: Broadband: Medium

-Press Save

-It will export which takes a few minutes depending on length of video

-when it’s done you’ll be able to find it in the Ag Comm Class folder (Finderà Lacieà Ag Comm Class)

3. Things to remember while filming

Liz Snyder

You won’t know the mistakes you’ve made until you’re editing….and then it may be too late!  Here are some tips to help you avoid editing room stress.

1)      Always bring a tripod, and use it! It’s easy to carry, and set up, and it can make the difference between a professional looking video, and one that looks shaky, unsteady and unprofessional.

2)      Pay close attention to where you are filming. There are many things to keep in mind:

-          The location should be applicable to the topic of your video, (if you are talking about plants, having a concrete background to an interview doesn’t make sense.)

-          When you’re brainstorming appropriate settings, think of a couple, just incase the weather, or a surprise event does not permit you to film there.

-          Remember that not only is the setting supposed to be suitable for the topic, but you should try to help your film audience re-live the footage. Before pressing record, look at what is in frame, and make sure that all the important aspects of the background (the garden, the tree, the building sign) are in frame.

3)      Pay attention to the composition of your frame.

-          Do NOT chop off heads, and do not film too much space above heads

-          Pay attention to what is behind the subject (make sure there are no poles appearing to come out of the subjects head)

-          Don’t have phantom limbs- (a random arm holding a mic coming into the frame from nowhere.) Instead, either have the interviewer (and his/her arm) completely out of frame, or include them while still ensuring the main viewing point is the researcher

-          Do NOT have too much unimportant space (the sky, the floor) also; the subject’s whole body does not need to be in frame

-          Follow the “Rule of Thirds.” Imagine that the frame is split with 3 lines horizontally and vertically. Studies have shown that viewers focus on things where these imaginary lines intersect. So, put important aspects of the shot a third of the way down, or a third of the way in from the left etc.

4)      Remember to pay close attention to naturally occurring elements that can ruin an otherwise perfect shot:

-watch out for shadows or too much light

-block out the wind (without creating shadows)

- make sure that the lighting is BEHIND the camera and ON the subject, if it is behind the subject, s/he will be in shadow, and the light will be directly into the lens

5)      Play close attention to eye-contact

-          INSIST that the person being interviewed is making eye contact with the interviewer (whether s/he be in or out of frame) and NEVER looking at the camera

-          Make sure that the person being interviewed is not one-eyed ie the framing is right

-          When you are doing a standup (intro/extro/etc.) look directly at the camera, with constant eye contact (do not look away/ down etc.)

6)      Your 2-minute video should have at least 12 frames in it, each no more than 10 seconds long. You will not have a lengthy clip of someone talking, or people doing something – in general, anything over 20 seconds is WAY too long.  Break it up with voice overs and still shots, or b-roll, but don’t jump around too much.

7)      “B-roll” is supplementary footage, that enhances, or helps tell the story being told (if a researcher is talking about pollination, include some footage or a photo that shows this.) It is also particularly helpful when you need to cut something out of the video, and you don’t want to make a sloppy transition back into it.

**Rule of thumb: get too much b-roll. You never know what will look best when everything is run together, so try filming the same thing from different angles, with different zooms and pans (but remember: constant movement will probably look too busy, but none may get repetitive and dull. Also, slow zooming and panning is nicer than fast and jolty) Also, make sure the movement of the pan or zoom ends and you hold the shot for second or two.

-B-roll shots in threes: this mimics our real-world experience of moving around and turning our head (ex: if your showing someone doing some weeding, show from far away, then close up, then over their shoulder.)

8)      When editing, “cutting tight” is important. This means only including the most important elements of the video (2 minutes can disappear quickly.) This may mean cutting out pauses in dialogue, which can be done by including some b-roll (don’t be afraid to cut back to the same person, in a different angle, this is the beauty of using b-roll)

9)      Plan ahead. You may think it will be easier and faster to just “wing-it” once you have the camera in hand, but in reality, the process will go much more smoothly if you have your filming planned out. Things you didn’t think of always pop up, which will give you enough to deal with “on set.” You don’t want to waste your time with the camera, or with the researcher.

10)  What not to wear:

-          Don’t wear any clothing with tight patterns or pin stripes.

-          Avoid clothing with large patterns or geometric shapes. The audience will watch your clothes instead of you.

-          Avoid wearing black, white, or red.

-          Avoid flashy jewelry – it reflects light.

-          Avoid jangly jewelry – it reflects light and makes noise that will be picked up by your microphone (this applies whether you are on TV or not).

11)  Stand Ups:

A “stand up” is when the reporter is on camera, talking directly to the audience through the camera.  In the Plants that Rock format, you will be doing three standups.

1. Scene-setting stand-up — establishes the reporter’s presence at the scene, which adds credibility to the report .  For “plants that rock,” this will likely also be a demonstration (or interactive) stand-up, one that demonstrates a point in the story, using props or the natural setting.
2. Bridge stand-up — bridges the gap or makes a transition between two different ideas in a story, or incorporates information you don’t have video to cover.
3. Extro — summarizes or wraps up the story, maybe talks about what’s to come in the future.

Content:

-          Try for an element in the story that won’t change, not a fact that may need updating.

-          Look for a relevant fact in the story you can highlight with your stand-up, or an important element you don’t have video for, or may find it difficult to get video for.

Other important ideas for successful stand-ups:

-          The setting/background should be pertinent to the story and immediately recognizable, or referenced, as such.

-          Try to do the stand-up without notes.

-          Set the shot up, and count to three before you start talking, and then let the camera roll for three seconds after the reporter has stopped talking.  This gives you breathing space when editing.

* * *

When the course concludes, students will be able to:

1. Write and deliver a 5-7 minute speech on an important agricultural topic.

2. Script and deliver a two-minute video news item.

3. Create a blog and engage in citizen journalism on relevant agricultural issues and topics.

4. Articulate an understanding of major trends in the agri-food sector.

5. Demonstrate an understanding of Canadian Press style.

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Week 1 September 14	Course introduction; discuss assignments, assign blog creation exercise
Week 2 September 21	1. Public speaking workshop with representative for Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture competition 2. Review blogs
Week 3 September 28	1. Agrologist in Residence communications presentation (7 p.m.) 2. Public speaking exercise with Town and Gown Toastmasters Club representative (8 p.m.); determine speaking order for in-class speak-off
Week 4 October 5	In-class speak-offs for Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture competition
Week 5 October 12	Thanksgiving – class cancelled
Week 6 October 19	Video workshop – PLANTS THAT ROCK: Choosing teams, topics and introduction to shooting video
Week 7 October 26	Video workshop – writing scripts and shooting video
Week 8 November 2	Video workshop – shooting video
Week 9 November  9	Scripts due…1 p.m.
Week 10 November 16	Editing workshop
Week 11 November 23	First cut due…1 p.m.
Week 12 November 30	Final cut due…1 p.m. Course evaluation, review

PLUS…DECEMBER 3, 7 P.M.: PLANTS THAT ROCK! PREMIERS

My expectations

1. You’ll come to class and contribute.
2. You’ll meet deadlines.
3. You’ll learn new skills.
4. You’ll listen when I talk, and I’ll listen when you talk.
5. You’ll consider enrolling in REXT 4060 (Agricultural Communications II) in the winter.

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