Spot news/celebrity birthday

Spot News/Celebrity Birthday Assignment

If you happen upon some spot news -- an accident, fire, crime scene, cat being rescued in tree -- anything unpredictable an "on the scene" as it happens or right afterward, your task is to cover the scene as a photojournalist. Snap lots of photos.

You'll hand in your best two electronically.

Get enough information from the police or whoever else is on the scene to write your captions. Sometimes you'll need to ask who is in charge to get the relevant info.

If you happen to cover more than one spot news event, use your best one for this assignment and anything else you can use for your five News Event assignments.
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Since coming across a piece of spot news isn't guaranteed, you'll have the option to create a photo illustration (this is separate from our illustration assignment that we'll have later).

Your newspaper is doing a story about the birthday of a celebrity. Actually, a dead celebrity. Your task is to illustrate their last birthday. You'll want to recreate the scene as it might look in your head and what would make sense to the reader; it doesn't have to be historically accurate.

You could use a celebrity or politician/leader from any era, but you'll want to pick one that people will immediately recognize based on what props you include in the scene. Maybe the person has a memorable silhouette you could try to recreate on a wall.
Some ideas:
Charlie Chaplin
Marilyn Monroe
James Dean
Jimi Hendrix
Marlon Brando
Princess Di
Napoleon
Elvis
Einstein
Lincoln
Shakespeare
Mr. Rogers

You don't have to include someone in the shot, but if you do, use lighting, composition, or selective focus to obscure the person's face. Since it's a photo illustration, you can use whatever effects you need to in photoshop. Using the studio is optional, but you need to reserve an hour for it if you do.

Grading breakdown (25 points)
Technical proficiency (focus, exposure, composition): 10 points
Newsworthiness (for spot news) or creativity (celebrity birthday): 10 points
Caption(s): 5 points

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For our first one-on-one meeting in the next week or two, please bring either your first News Event photos (or ideas for what you might want to do) and ideas for this assignment. Also, bring any photography or photoshop questions you might have!
If you'd like a refresher for using Bridge or Photoshop, you can also bring some photos on a memory card or USB stick (RAW format is best) and we'll do a quick tutorial.