Juno's mad skills

Sat, 15 May 2010 16:54:02 -0500

Check out Juno’s diligent fetching. She’s getting better and better.

What Can I Do?

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 09:14:01 -0500

What is it that we do to honor and remember veterans? We celebrate Veterans Day, sure, but what is it that honors veterans? Many people go the commercialized route, putting yellow ribbon decals on their car, plastering “I support the troops” stickers on their bumpers. I guess that works but its more than that. This video is aimed to help people realize what our veterans do and how really simple it can be, if they’re willing, to honor our veterans. It is aimed at the younger generations who don’t know about the sacrifices the servicemen and women went through during the World Wars, and the Vietnam and Korean wars. Sure, they know about the Iraq conflict, and maybe Desert Storm, but do they support the troops regardless of whether or not they support the decisions of our leaders? This video will steer them, along with the others who just don’t know what they can do, in the right direction.
To reach the college audience, I felt it was important to reach individuals. I chose video clips of servicemen and women’s faces as often as I could to give the video a personable feel. People of different race and gender were shown serving or country. One thing I didn’t do well enough was portray women although this was not from lack of trying, there simply was just not as much footage of women serving as there was men. Another thing which there was less of was Iraq footage. This was partially intended. Many people have strong feelings towards Iraq, especially younger generations, and I didn’t want those emotions getting in the way of the message which was to honor those who serve. I wanted to try to show men and women serving in the early years, then portray some of them as older veterans and mix in men and women of today at college age to show that some of their fellow students are veterans themselves. College is about learning who you are and speaking out for causes and exercising your rights, but I wanted to educate them to appreciate those rights and understand what’s sacrificed for them.
The editing used was intended to keep the audience’s attention. I didn’t want to put text on the screen because it has that presentation feel and college age kids don’t want to be lectured. Instead, I used footage of persons writing and supplemented it with footage of myself writing out the three points. I sped the writing up to keep their short attention spans glued to the screen. Most of the video clips were short, no more than 2 seconds, just long enough to understand them, then on to the next clip.
The audio was tough to steer towards the college age. It was older music, but classic songs. New, hipper music didn’t really flow with the message I was sending. So, the audio was chosen to coincide with the older 1950’s -70’s footage, but still makes sense with the more recent video clips. Like the short video clips, I used about one minute audio sequences to keep the audience together while not allowing them to get bored.
This video was to show college students that honoring veterans isn’t something just for their parents. It shows that they can honor veterans by appreciating their college life, studying hard to make the best of themselves and not taking it for granted. When they see a veteran they don’t know, they will have the thought to go up and say, “thanks.” Nothing else is needed and it really means so much to the former and current men and women of the military. The next time they hear the national anthem, played before every Texas football game, maybe the students will take 45 seconds, remove their hats, place their hands on their hearts, and stop talking with their friends to think about those who serve and have served their country. And maybe, if they look close enough, they will notice the yellow ribbon on the back of the Longhorn players football helmets, who run out of the tunnel with the American flag, signifying their remembrance of veterans for which the stadium is named.

Opening Introductions...

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:21:53 -0500

SOB1

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:41:23 -0500

Get a sneak peek at the first episode of the SOB season due out later this fall. Shawn and Burke go road trippin and its sure to make you laugh.

SOB

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:24:54 -0500

The Shawn or Burke Show. Coming everywhere this fall!!

Shawn Fogarty

Juno's mad skills

What Can I Do?

Opening Introductions...

SOB1

SOB