EXPLORING VIDEO PRODUCTION REFLECTION

PROJECTS
This semester I created a variety of videos that focused on convergence journalism that ranged from feature stories to news stories to intro videos.  I really enjoyed creating all of the projects, but there were a few that were my favorite.



Olathe Northwest: 1 in 2,000
One of the earliest projects I created was ONW 1 in 2,000. This video focused on explaining the story of one student at Olathe Northwest and what they do that is unique. I chose to interview Ryan Burnett on his taekwondo lessons that he completes and teaches to other students at Ko martial arts. This video took around two weeks to complete and was mainly completed during the seventh hour class period. I learned a lot of skills through this video. I learned how to create titles and more efficiently edit videos in premier pro. I received mainly good feedback on this project, but if I did this project again I would add more interesting shots and a stronger voiceover. Overall, I was very happy with this video since it was one of my first news stories I had ever made.



Electrathon Feature Story
Another video I created this semester was a feature story over Laurie Gilson, a Senior and leader in the Electrathon team. This feature story project focused on interviewing a specific student involved in a club or activity at Olathe Northwest. This video was a lot different from the first because I had to communicate with students and teachers to find someone to interview. I really learned communication skills through this project as well as how to film effective b-roll. The main challenge with filming this video was the location of the interview. There wasn't a good location to film in the Engineering Academy hallway and Laurie didn't have enough time to travel to a different classroom.  If I was to film this again, I would definitely find a better location that would be more interesting and have less back ground noise.  Overall this video was also very enjoyable to make and it taught me how to find students to interview.



Blood Drive Feature Story
The next video we made was a feature story on a club or event at Olathe Northwest. I chose to interview Bessie Bauman, student councils president, on how the blood drive is run and how it effects the community. For this video we had a little over a week to film and edit and it was stressful to complete the project on time. I had only one day to film my video and it was challenging to get enough shots because of the privacy of patients donating blood. I also didn't film enough stable shots and had a lot of pans that created a very busy video. If I was to re-film this video I would shoot more b-roll and close ups.



Raven Remarks: Holiday Edition
The final project we completed in video production was an episode of ONW now. For this video Ryan and I decided to create a news story over ugly sweater day by asking students and teachers questions on the holiday season. This video was done in around 2 weeks and we only had one day to film the video. We ran into a few problems with audio in this project because we used the microphones for the first time.  Because the hallways were so busy, it was difficult to hear students and at the same time the microphone wasn't plugged in correctly and only picked up a little of the audio. This video, however did teach me a lot of skills. It was a really different style of video because I had to go into the halls and ask students questions. It really taught me communication skills because at times it can be intimidating to ask people questions but I learned how to effectively. Overall, I really enjoyed filming this video and would definitely want to do similar videos in the future.

TIME IN CLASS
In class I use my time very productively. I always make sure I focus on completing my video on time and that it is to the best of my ability. Sometimes, I finish early and I use that time to explore graphic design projects or going through my video and finding tiny mistakes to fix. I also spent a lot of time throughout this semester filming and editing videos outside of class. I filmed the majority of the school b-roll outside of class as well as editing on my computer. Most of my projects are edited at school and perfected at home. I also do a lot of other projects outside of class. I am on the media team on 1710 FIRST robotics at Olathe Northwest and I spend the majority of my week filming video and taking pictures of the team. I also volunteer at a variety of robotics events. I took pictures and film for the Engineering Academy open house as well as photography and video at the FIRST Lego League competition hosted at Olathe Northwest. I also love photography and use any free time to take pictures of my friends and family. I spend a lot of time editing pictures of my dog as well as my sister and sharing them on my flickr page. Photography has taught me a lot of video skills such as angles and editing that I can take into entertainment next semester.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
I think one of my strengths is time management. Although I am very busy with other clubs and activities, I always spend time editing at home to make sure all my videos are completed on time. However, I am still learning how to take good b-roll and how to make sure the audio is working every time.

SUMMARY
This semester I really enjoyed the freedom on certain projects to choose who I wanted to interview and how I wanted to tell the story. It was also really exiting to learn how to make an episode of ONW Now and to see how the whole class has improved in our videos.

If I could change something about this semester it would be the location of my videos. I now know how to choose good lighting and location and that is something I wish my videos consisted of at the beginning of the semester.

Overall this semester has really shown me how interesting other strands of video are. Although I know for sure I want to go into entertainment, it was cool to see what goes on behind every episode of ONW now and how the feature and news stories are used.

Next semester, I hope to take the skills I have learned about filming and editing and incorporate those skills into the entertainment projects I make next semester. I am really exited to create short films as well as music videos and I think it will be very exiting to see how much more I can develop as a journalist and director throughout the next year.