UPDATE: (Dec. 19, 2012) I just posted the final cut of my video. It took a few rounds of editing and work-shopping, so I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it. And a special thanks to Dawn Lavigne and the Heaney family of Staten Island, who were beyond accommodating even while trying to get their lives back in order.

ORIGINAL POST: I’m taking a class on web video production at Columbia J-School that began only a few weeks before Superstorm Sandy came into town and really messed things up for a lot of people. I headed out to see the wreckage myself a week later in Staten Island’s Midland Beach, where the body count was the highest. I got there maybe a week after the storm did its damage. I took an express bus from downtown Manhattan to Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island and I walked down the road to an intermediate school that doubled as a clothing distribution center. I saw military-style helicopters hover overhead and FEMA trucks barrel down Midland Avenue. I met Mike Heaney outside his gutted one-story bungalow, which he shared with his mother. Mike and his mom now belong to the thousands of New Yorkers displaced by the storm. They’ve been staying with Mike’s sister in a condo in New Dorp along with other relatives. I’m going to follow them through the rebuilding process, with all its red tape and frustrations, and document it here:

https://rebuilding-midland-beach.jux.com/

I’ll post more updates on this site, but the entire project will be up on that site. — JM

7:55 pm  •  16 November 2012

Back in August, my classmates and I had to put together an audio slideshow. It was the final assignment in a month-long multimedia “boot camp” for M.S. students at Columbia J-School. As luck would have it, Jaime Chisolm and Michelle Dailey, a couple from Phoenix, Ariz., were kind enough to let us document their big day in New York City. This is the result.

4:49 pm  •  27 October 2012

Peter Sedano, the 32-year-old manager of the Heavy Metal Bike Shop, let me hang out at his business on Third Avenue in East Harlem two weeks ago and take some photos for a multimedia workshop at school. His father opened the shop about 25 years ago, and Sedano fixes bikes on the spot as opposed to making customers come back in a few days. That leads to a hectic workday, especially when Sedano opens the shop by himself. Check out the full-screen mode for complete captions.

11:08 am  •  27 August 2012