Pig births

Well, here’s the link to my video of a 600-pound pig giving birth. See the previous post for more details about the story.

 

Tonight the Douglas County Fair continues with a concert by Kellie Pickler. I’m covering the concert and will be putting together yet another video for the Web. I should have it posted Saturday afternoon!

Farrowing at the Fair

It’s still fair week here in Douglas County. This afternoon I interviewed a magician for a story I have running Monday. Photographer Jon Austria and I were headed back to the newsroom when Jon received a phone call. Another reporter, Cara Pallone, was on the line, telling Jon that a 600-pound pig was farrowing (or giving birth) to a litter of piglets at the fair.

Cara left the newsroom and headed to the fair, and since Jon needed to get to the fair in a hurry, I said I would go along and take some video footage (yay for TWO video projects in three days).

Point-and-shoot camera in hand, I hopped on top of a bucket and hovered over the 15-year-old girl who was helping her pig farrow. I waited, perched on my bucket, for a good 45 minutes before the girl’s dad told her that she would need to help the pig deliver the piglet by sticking her hand in the birth canal and removing it. 

I filmed — mouth agape — as the girl reached further and further before feeling a tail and carefully removing the piglet. It was the first live birth I had ever seen — animal or human. 

After the stuck piggie was removed, Aqua (the 600-pound pig) farrowed a new piglet every 15 minutes.

After about two hours of barnyard fun, the three of us left the fair and headed to the newsroom. This time before leaving the fair, I made sure to capture some B-roll footage of squealing pigs and a poster that read “Sow and piglets.” I spent a couple hours editing clips and pulled together a video of a pig giving birth (wow, never thought I would say that).

The story (written by Cara) and the video will be live on the site tomorrow, and as soon as it’s ready, I’ll be posting the link here so make sure to check it out.

Fair week continues through Saturday, so who knows what will pop up next.

Inaugural video project

This week is fair week in Douglas County.

It’s easily the biggest thing to hit Roseburg and the surrounding areas in the 10 months I’ve been working for The News-Review. Douglas County folks are serious about their fair.

I scanned the fair schedule, and one performer caught my eye instantly — Tammy Harris Barton, hypnotist.

I’ll be the first to admit, though, I was skeptical. I wasn’t quite sure if I believed that Mrs. Harris Barton could hypnotize people without them exaggerating their actions and playing along. I figured the show would provide an interesting sights-and-sounds story, though, so I signed up to cover it.

I also thought the show would make for an interesting video for our Web site. Now, I learned how to edit video using Final Cut Pro while at Poynter and have played with a video camera from time to time, but I had never stepped up to the plate and decided I was going to smoosh it all together for a video project — until Tuesday.

I went to the show Tuesday night, equipped with my notebook and pen and a point-and-shoot camera for video recording.

Trying to operate a camera and still write some of my own notes proved to be tricky, but I managed. I ran into another speed bump when my first memory card filled up, then my back-up card as well. Luckily for me, I asked our photographer to bring a few extra cards — just in case. I went through four memory cards and still could have used more. (Lesson learned: change the camera’s settings to extend the available time on the card).

I managed to talk to most of the hypnotized folks for my written story, and grabbed Tammy Harris Barton afterward to answer a few questions on camera. 

In the end — after several hours of writing and video editing — I came out with two pieces of work that I can be proud to show. Of course, I’m my own biggest critic and found several things I would do differently for the video given the chance (i.e. improve transitions, more B-roll sound, etc.) but still learned a ton.

I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and (finally) applied some of the video knowledge I gained at Poynter, and I plan to incorporate video into my assignments more often now that the intimidating “first time” is past.

In the meantime, if you want to check out my inaugural video project, here’s the link.