(This post is for Marisse, who sent me the invite at 12am but didn’t go to Coffee Write; and for Angel, who hit me because I told her I’m going to Coffee Write but I apparently didn’t tell her I was talking. Some things have been omitted/added because my memory is bad, and I didn’t include the typical UP chummy lines. I’m pretty sure I said more stuff. )
Sinabi kanina na this is Coffee Write’s 5th year. Sa batch namin ito noon nagsimula. Our guest noong first sem was Niccolo Cosme, fashion photographer who became well known for his Project Headshot, then then-Playboy editor Misha Lecaros for the 2nd sem. Namigay siya noon ng Playboy copies, but I’m sorry wala akong maipamimigay ngayon kasi wala namang print ang GMA News Online. Pero kung taga-Playboy ako, mamimigay din ako ng copies.
Lagi ko itong kinukwento. UAAP Cheerdance Competition 2008. Kaka-announce lang na panalo ang UP, back to back. Na-drain ang battery ng camera ko. May camera ang phone ko, and I took a shot.
Dapat tayong matuto na gamitin ang gadgets na bigay sa atin ng teknolohiya. Mapa-DSLR man iyan o mobile, makakatulong ang pag-shoot sa storytelling.
I won’t be talking about sports writing. Magkukwentuhan tayo about sports reporting, dahil multimedia na ang iniikutan nating mundo ngayon.
Kung sa palagay ninyo college lang ang may pakialam sa UAAP, magugulat kayo na napakaraming followers nito. Let’s look at our livescoring at GMA News Online of the UAAP men’s basketball finals between Ateneo and UST. 26k shares. You can watch TV or follow it on Twitter. But now, you can follow a game on a simple page. Finals game 2 happened on a Thursday, and for those who can’t watch TV or naguguluhan sa clutter ng Twitter, may paraan na ngayon para maayos na maipaabot sa mga fans ang balita, in this case, ang play-by-play at outcome ng isang basketball game.
Let me show you one more photo. UAAP football. Batisla-Ong of UST strikes Tuazon of Ateneo, and gets a red card for it. A few games later, he helps the team make the finals, only to be beaten by us.
Here’s another series of photos, this time for my old website Fullcourtfresh.com. It’s a photo story of a whole football game, where Ateneo keeper is caught on camera reacting to audience’ taunts, reacting to a yellow card, and eventually being sent off with a red card by hitting UP booter Boiboi Fernandez, who became a National Team U23 candidate, sa neck.
Sometimes storytelling is better with images.
When Cheche Lazaro received the Gawad Plaridel, she said that convergence is this generation’s buzzword. This means that we practitioners should not just think about writing our stories, or pointing our cameras, or simply recording our interviewees. Umiinog ang mundo natin sa mga kwentong hitik sa visuals na sinasamahan ng text. Pwede ang video, pero hindi lahat ay may capability sa editing. Pero nariyan ang mga litrato.
Pero may problema ang sports sa video reporting. Madalas, naka-lock sa mga TV station ang video coverage ng games tulad ng UAAP sa ABS-CBN at PBA and UFL sa TV5.
How do we cope with this challenge? Through photos.
Pero bago muna iyan, share ko lang na for some reason, laging malakas ang stories about UP. For example, yung pillbox na sumabog sa AS recently? Malakas siya. Yung Facebook group na Overheard in UP (na actually Taga UPD Ka Kung pala. Sorry!), malakas din yung story na iyon. This goes to show na malakas ang kapit ng school spirit sa mga students at alumni ng UP. Hindi lang ng UP, kundi ng Ateneo, La Salle, at UST… FEU… UE… others…
Kaya pagdating sa sports, asahan ninyong maraming nakatutok diyan. At para mas angkop sa panahon ang reportage, mainam na may photos.
Narito ang slideshow namin ng recent UAAP Cheerdance competition. More than 6k views. Hindi na sapat sa panahon ngayon na text lang ang iniisip natin. Isang bagay lang ang gusto kong makuha ninyo mula sa mga sinasabi ko: Start shooting, mapa-video or photo. Think visually, dahil maraming bagay ang hindi kayang mailarawan ng salita na kayang-kayang makunan sa isang pitik.
I’m pretty sure I talked about cameras and writing about sports that you actually played in real life and not in video games and Phil Younghusband and David Beckham and flipped a coin at the start of the talk and this stream is getting too long but I can’t really remember everything. There’s a Q&A too, which I wanted to get started with so I cut my talk short. Well, Marisse and Angel, you can always go next time, if there’s a next time 😛