Counterpoint PA is going to be an approximately 20-minute newscast (hopefully weekly once it's all set up) that will be exclusively about Pennsylvania politics and its impact on the lives of Pennsylvanians. There will be plenty citing of sources but also plenty of progressive commentary. The goal is to get out important information in its relevant political context. I was motivated to work on this project because I was looking for something like it and found nothing.
Writing about PA politics here on Daily Kos and getting positive reactions from people who know how under-covered so many of these stories are by the supposedly legitimate news was probably the biggest factor in me having the confidence to do this.
Counterpoint PA will have three segments: PA Headlines (four short reports), The Breakdown (detailed look at a single issue, voter ID in the first edition), and Worst Pennsylvanians of the Week (fun homage to the Keith Olbermann segment). I'm planning on always having a full episode video and separate videos for The Breakdown, Worst Pennsylvanians of the Week, and each report in PA Headlines.
The finished version will be very similar to this, but it will start out with a better quality logo and short montage, and the full-screens will all be formatted the same way (and completed).
Please let me know what you think here on Daily Kos, on Twitter @ProgPatriotPA, or email me at progressivepatriotpa@gmail.com, I'm anxious to get some feedback.
Thu Jan 31, 2013 at 8:58 PM PT: I never finished editing the rest of what was going to be the first full installment of Counterpoint PA because even though I finished writing and filming it, the person who was supposed to be helping out with the graphics bailed on me.
I filmed this with a camera I borrowed that was really a snap-shot camera with video as an extra. I decided that when I pursue this project I want it to really be worth all the work, so right now I am saving up for an actual camcorder, and one with an external mic input, so next time I get a chance to try this, it's hopefully going to look and sound a whole lot better.
That still leaves the problem of producing the graphics for me to figure out, and I'm honestly not sure exactly what I'm going to do about that. The most advanced graphics program I can use is Paint, and I can't fit both the necessary video editing software and Photoshop on my laptop. If anyone out there with graphics skills would be interested in helping out with a project like this, please send me an email at the address above the orange squiggle.
If I haven't found any graphics help by the time I've saved up enough for the camera I have my eye on, I may just make rough graphics in Paint for the first few installments and advertise that I'm looking for graphics help in all the videos until someone responds.