My Journey of Discovery - Mastery Journal Chris Denny

I already knew there were things in the world I wanted to see and do. I didn't realize the importance of learning because I had such a difficult time trying to understand. As I have gotten older, age and experience have taught me to look and listen to what is possible. Wanting to make changes in my life shifted my thinking to expand on what I needed to do other than to just sit and coast. Today is day one of my journey of discovery, I want to be able to expose the lives of people around me and learn from them. My time at this school to explore the various means of how to reach out to people in the most effective ways possible. Using tools and talents others use to explore the digital age I will develop building blocks and shape them into a mental pyramid to help guide me on the way while learning the hurtles of what can and cannot be done so I don't lose my way or go to places I’m allowed to be. I love news programs like 60 Minutes or 48 Hours, the crews to that work bring those stories to television shows such a mastery of experience. The tools they use to research and investigate the stories we see are what I want to learn to use better. I want to take what I know as a filmmaker and build these into my arsenal of skills so I can have what I need to produce stories that will stand out to capture the eyes and ears of the world. In Junior high school, I was exposed to journalism through the only class that I had available to me. The class taught me about the basics of story building and marketing and publishing. Sadly, I only had the one class and I was never able to go back, but it was a seed that was planted that I’ve never forgotten and I want to use my mastery to take that seed and watch it grow in into something beautiful.

This is a Snowberry Clearwing, I took this wandering downtown during the summer of 2016 near my home. It's a source of inspiration for me because it's so unique and beautiful. for me. It's a one of a kind photo in my collection. I had never seen one before or since. If this little guy can survive and grow in the world we live in, so can I.

Grades seem to be going well, my first steps to my Master's Degree. How inspiring to know you're succeeding at something you're really want to accomplish. It's a good feeling!

Well, it's the end of month two, of my Master's program, I am starting to see which direction the program itself is starting to lead towards but it's a familiar destination I've been to before. It's the path I'm taking however that is different, though some of the same things still show up along the way.

At first, I thought maybe this would be the wrong class to take, but I find this is "right where I need to be" to coin a phrase from country music star Gary Allan. I find my expectations aren't being met but I guess that has a lot to do with my previous experiences and schooling already covering some of which I've already done here or have been doing for quite some time. I guess you'd call it "developing icing for the cake." I've already had a good idea of who my audience is, but the focusing of that lens has been helpful and my profile... A filmmaker interested in telling a story.

At fifty-five years old, a little late for my age but here I am anyway.

Developing trustworthiness, competence, and credibility aren't just journalist tools, they are the qualities of a person you would want to be, and be around. Isn't that something though many people have lost touch with... and many people crave? Documentarians and real journalists determined to tell the world as it is and not how others fantasize, are they a fading breed? There's always been a loud call or a battle cry for being an independent newsmaker going all the way back to the newspaper days, when they were king. The call sounds even today as large corporations and broadcasters set bias tones for their platform. Even the beloved "The Onion" the solider who raises satire as a grateful shield against the wall of social disregard and contempt, clashing against the protection it offers the rest of us and providing some relief from the oncoming storm. Only the strongest of these independents survive, the others get scooped up because there aren't enough advertising dollars to go around, but those independents are how we continue to claim legitimacy and stay in the fight for truthfulness and honest reporting. As an independent, currently. It's nice to walk your own path and speak as you think, instead of someone else's voice.

I can always be a better writer, the more I do it the better I get, I hope. I have great professors here at Full Sail University who will guide me if I stumble on a wall of words as I try to put them together. Also my website, one of billions like pages inside books at the largest library anyone could ever imagine. It's a record of my work that will last as long as I continue to pay for it. I am making new pages, full of my work from Full Sail as I walk the path of the Masters, like other students before me. https://photosbychrisdenny.com/filmandjournalism

My Capstone project plans: To document my wife's journey as she seeks treatment for her Parkinson's disease through High-intensity Focused Ultrasound at Norton's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. One of twenty-one hospitals in the U.S. who offer such a treatment and the only hospital in Kentucky. The treatment will focus ultrasound waves as she lays with a specialized helmet on an MRI machine. These waves will target a part of her brain responsible for the tremors she experiences and stop them or lessen the intensity of the shaking. We are on the journey to see if she will be able to qualify this amazing procedure! See more at: https://nortonhealthcare.com/services-and-conditions/neurosciences/treatments/hifu/

Class number three…

So one of the skills I wanted to focus on the most, one of the primary reasons I decided to take this course and pursue my Masters is to learn the art of interviewing. Every novel, news story, documentary film, and conversation is all about how to communicate with each other. It’s, in my opinion, the greatest tool humans possess, we make and break whole civilizations with it. In my case, it’s a tool to help me tell stories. I think one of the best people I’ve seen conduct an interview is William Shatner on his television show Shatner’s Raw Nerve. It was a one-on-one interview-style show that inspired me to want to produce documentaries. It was a complete story (or as complete as it was going to get) that I understood and was entertained by.

When I got to 3.3 in the LMS for this class, I looked forward to going over the documents for the class to see if there was anything new I could add to my list of skills I’d already picked up during film school. I think one of the most important PDFs in the class was about doing your research. You don’t have a story or a good interview without it, and it’s common sense. It’s the building blocks to creating your vision of what your narrative will be. These classes should get me there.

Learning Attribution is a skill that I have to keep straight in my head because they are so specific and forgettable if not used to it—something I will have to keep in mind and print out to keep at my desk. I’ve no doubt all new journalists struggle some to keep this straight. Photo credits are much the same, but I’ve never struggled with those, oddly enough.

I would call this class an actual beginning of learning what I wanted to know in order to craft my narratives for my film work. I admire the hard work filmmakers like Ken Burns, Ron Howard, Werner Hertzog, and a score of others too numerous to mention here. I feel like with the skills I learn in this program, I’ll be able to follow them. Legal Stuff is next…

Lawyer Up!

I am not a lawyer, I couldn’t get up in front of a judge and defend an inanimate object, the object would be found guilty if I was its attorney.

However, I’ve got to say that discussing law and the implications that it has was fun. I enjoyed the class quite a bit. I used to be in the Debate club when I was in high school and love to engage someone in an intellectual conversation. I found this class stimulating, on par with the rush I got with the Debate club, and learned a lot of things that I did not know, which was even more fun.

Most people take for granted the laws that we have in our country and barely take a look at them unless it has something to do with them specifically, and I am guilty of that as well. However, going over the Supreme Court like the New York Times Inc v Sullivan case in this course brought the light why things are the way they are when it comes to defamation, copyright, knowing about the differences between liable and slander, and why our consumer protection laws, were written as they are to protect ourselves and the goods we import and export every day.

I liked those assignments the most! I just didn’t have one favorite. I think anyone who is in the media business should have a pretty good idea of what defamation and slander are. So that way they know not what to do or what to say when publishing an article in a magazine, website, newspaper, blog, or making a video of some kind. Going through this course has certainly shown me that I better have my facts straight and watch what I say.

Being a filmmaker or a journalist, anyone who puts information out has to worry about their credibility with the public. That’s their paycheck, and it’s important to offer accurate information so you are not accused of spreading lies or false information because ultimately that’s damaging to you and to your viewers even though we seem to have a lot of it going around today. I feel that it will come back upon them in their future in not-so-good ways.

Research... Research... Research...

So, another great class with the same great instructor, Dr. Diaz! I was glad to get her back. It's people like her that set the example for great educators.

I like research, keeps the mind busy and I find out interesting facts along the way. The school has access to some great databases, the sad part is losing access once I am not longer a student…maybe alum though 🤔 I was able to produce some quality articles and have a really good interview. I wasn’t the greatest interviewer, but I will just have to do more to get better, that’s the idea right? Research takes patient and time and interest in what you’re doing. I found out a lot of fascinating stuff about Parkinson’s and Essential Tremor that I just didn’t know but was able to learn from it and write some pretty good articles because of it. I was also able to get a great interview from a research team in Florida working on open for software for people with Movement Disorders like Parkinson’s Disease called VisionMD. My website has really blossomed this month. I have put many, many hours of work into it to get it looking as it does now. https://www.ourworldinwordsandfilm.com I’m very happy with it and have been buying ad campaigns through WordPress to drive traffic to it, hoping to get word out about VisionMD https://www.visionmd.ai

Take your time and do your research, you can’t lose if you do.

So, the pdf instructions written up to do this mastery journal wants us to write about our expectations for this course. Having expectations can be damaging if you expect too much and don’t get what you hoped for. It leads to disappointment because you set yourself up to begin with in the first place. I had no expectations for this or any class, but I was certainly pleased with everything that has taken place and pleased with the progress I’ve made in my writing. I look forward to more of it, I had some great coaching from Dr. Diaz.

As for what content was most helpful, it’s the support you get from the staff and the great articles and videos provided going back to NMJ-510, It all fits together and curated for the student to learn and succeed in this course.

“Discussion of how the course content will help you as a journalist?” I always thought these kinds of questions were too obvious and redundant to ask. My answer to something like this is, “Well, what do you think? You wrote and designed this course. If your student succeeded, then pat yourself on the back because whatever you did worked! Congratulations!” I mean that sincerely too.

All of the homework assignments are steppingstones, and you learn and build skills as you complete each assignment. If you really try hard to learn everything you signed up for in this Master’s degree program, you’re going to win.

As far as Organization and Coherence, I’m sure Dr. Diaz will straighten everything out. It’s a great class with a great instructor and anyone truly interested in learning how to write will benefit from everything these classes from NMJ-510 on have to offer.

Ohhh….lay off using the A.I and learn how to write first, it will be really helpful if you do.