The Changing Landscape of the News Business

While acknowledging that the traditional newspaper is rapidly vanishing, Desert Sun Executive Editor Greg Burton (left) told students Wednesday morning that "The core of this business will be the story. It was that way fifty years ago, and it will be that way 50 years from now."

Burton and Desert Sun digital reporter Brian Indrelunas (middle) were dialoguing with Matt Hamilton's journalism students about social media intersecting with traditional reporting and the opportunity and responsibility reporters hold in their hand.

"Our industry has really changed in the last decade," Burton said. "When I was a young reporter 10 or 15 years ago, we came into a news room and it wasn't wired like this," he said, pointing to banks of networked computers. "We sat down and talked about the news that was going on and set our timing for our deadlines for the monstrosity of a printing press out back. Everybody was focused on the getting the best story to put on the spools of paper that would be printed and delivered by the next morning at 6 a.m.

"Today, if you are waiting for that 6 a.m. paper on your doorstep to get your information, you're the last one to know what is going on."

Indrelunas is one example of a modern newsgatherer, spending some his time scouring Facebook and Twitter and other social media for trending stories.

"Instead of waiting for a 20-inch story to be written, processed, and edited 15 times, sometimes we only need a headline on our web site. And as we get details, we can keep expanding that story all day."

Burton called Inderlunas "the new model of what our industry has become."

The Desert Sun web site gets 200,000 hits daily.

Filmmakers in the Classroom Series Begins at CCHS

Playwright John Steppling (right) and Education Outreach Director Ken Jacobson kicked off the Filmmakers in the Classroom series in Matt Hamilton's Digital Storytelling Class at Cathedral City High School Friday morning.

As Steppling explained at the beginning of class, one of the purposes of the series is to help the students develop a critical vocabulary and learn how to analyze a film. "Art tends to ask questions," Steppling said in his introduction. "You don't have to answer those questions. The most important questions are those that can't be answered."

Digital Storytelling is just one course offered in the Digital Arts Technology Academy at CCHS.

After watching the opening of "The Killers," Steppling and Jacobson engaged the students in discussion of what they observed. "Film is a pervasive, ubiquitous art form, an all pervasive medium and an important one" Steppling said. "You add up all the hours of narrative, thousands of hours, and it's hard to create something that stands out from the tsunami of film of film."

The idea for this series, which will occur twice a month, resulted from a meeting Hamilton, Jacobson and Steppling set up during the summer.

"The Palm Springs Film Festival is interested in engaging the future filmmakers in our community, and my students are excited to have people who have been intimately involved in film share their experiences and expertise," said Hamilton

Project Runway Packs Them In; Night Four of the El Paseo Fashion Show

Fashion and television collided in a colorful splash of fun and style Wednesday night at the El Paseo Fashion Show.

With the Real Housewives of Orange County sitting ringside and American Idol finalist Kimberly Locke providing the vocals, Project Runway designers Michael Costello, Mondo Guerra and Christopher Collins delighted the standing room only crowd at the big white tent on the corner of Larkspur and El Paseo.

Thursday night the show continues with the Fashion Institute of Design and merchandising (FIDM) Debut 2011. Doors open at 7 p.m. The show begins at 8 p.m.

The photo above was taken by Digital Arts Technology Academy student Arlene Arellano.

DATA Students Provide Total Coverage of El Paseo Fashion Show

Digital Arts Technology Academy (DATA) students at Cathedral City High School are documenting this week's Fashion Week on El Paseo. Sunday evening's show was themed the Best of Saks Fifth Avenue. Monday night the tent opens at 7 p.m for the 8 p.m. show entitled Fashion Runway Bar. The photo at left was taken by DATA senior Spencer McQuin.

Cathedral City High School photojournalist Spencer McQuinn is creating the runway graphics for the Fashion Week El Paseo Runway Bar. The senior student in the Digital Arts Technology Academy at CCHS spent Monday afternoon shooting images of Christina De Musee's acrylic on canvas art work and then sat down with Palm Springs Life Magazine Fashion Editor Susan Stein to pair the store names with the artwork. At left is an example of his work.

McQuinn is a student in Matt Hamilton's Digital Storytelling Class at Cathedral City High School.

Fashion week is March 20-28.

DATA Students Shoot Stills For EA Video

DATA photojournalists Spencer McQuinn, Gabe Jiminez, and Matt Aguilar recently conducted a photo shoot with current WBO World Light Welterweight Champion Tim Bradley for the Entertainment Arts (EA) boxing video game.

Bradley will next fight July 27 at the Agua Caliente Casino against Marcos Rene Maidana. Bradley, a Cathedral City High School graduate, is 25-0 with 11 knockouts. Maidana of Argentina is 28-1 with 27 knockouts.

EA is the world's leading independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for personal computers and advanced entertainment systems such as the PlayStation®2 Computer Entertainment System, the PlayStation®, Xbox? video game console from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube? and the Game Boy® Advance. Since its inception, EA has garnered more than 700 awards for outstanding software in the U.S. and Europe

DATA Students Create Public Service Announcement for SafeHouse of the Desert

Jessica Gerrell, Olivia Reynolds, Flora Lopez and Arin Wall, all students in Matt Hamilton and David Vogel's Digital Storytelling Class at Cathedral City High School, shot and produced a public service announcement for Safe House of the Desert.

"I'm going to use their video to educate and promote SafeHouse locally at different schools " said Angela Kinley, SafeHouse Youth Development Coordinator. "I'm very happy with the video. Our goal is to help youth, and having students in DATA make this PSA is full circle for me: youth involvement for youth outreach for a youth shelter is a perfect fit "

PSA for SafeHouse of the Desert from Matt Hamilton on Vimeo.

Day Two, Frank Bogert Memorial Rodeo, Palm Springs, March 13, 2010

DATA students captured day two of the Palm Springs Wild WestFest and Frank Bogert Memorial PRCA Rodeo March 13, 2010. At left is a photo taken by DATA student Gabe Jiminez during the saddle bronc-riding event.

The rodeo, which is sold out, ends on Sunday.

Below you can view some video highlights of the rodeo shot by DATA students in Matt Hamilton's Digital Storytelling Class at Cathedral City High School.

DATA STUDENTS PRODUCE REALITY SHOW SIZZLE REEL

Students in Matt Hamilton's Digital Storytelling Class at Cathedral City High School recently finished shooting a sizzle reel for Healing Horses founders Marcia Levine and Gabriele Lawrence who are hoping to turn their everyday challenges into a reality television show. Levine said that Melissa Rivers is interested in producing the reality show based on the reel put together by the DATA students who started shooting footage in November and finished the editing in February of 2010.

Healing Horses Sizzle Reel from Matt Hamilton on Vimeo.

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Q&A with Kimjongilia Executive Director and Producer

Cathedral City High School digital storyteller Laura Padilla interviewed "Kimjongilia" executive producer James Egan and director N.C. Heikin Feb. 12, 2010 in Palm Springs. Padilla is a student in Mr. Hamilton's Digital Storytelling Class at CCHS.

"This film is about the human rights crisis in North Korea, which, in my opinion, is the worst on the planet," said Heikin. "It's always important to defend our fellow human beings and help them get out of the horrible trouble they are in. After watching this documentary, most people say 'I had no idea that was going on.'"

Egan said this was a breakthrough film in documentaries. "People are startled by the dance and the music that Heiken brings to this production," he said. "Because of her background as a dancer, singer and artist, she has created a documentary that is not only a call to action, but also a beautiful artistic palette that hasn't been seen before in documentary filmmaking."