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.

SEMESTER PROJECTS

This semester I really enjoyed creating infographics, designing personal logos, as well as creating a powerpoint on a graphic design movement or person. One of my personal favorite projects was creating an infographic. For my infographic, I chose to create it over the varsity cross country team because this year the varsity girls qualified as a team for state. For this project, I used a simple blue color scheme and included several graphics that related to the sport. This project took around 2 weeks to completely create and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. On this project it was difficult to come up with a layout that I liked that would be organized and relative to the topic. However, from this project I learned how to create graphics to represent certain topics or ideas. All my feedback on this project was positive. Lot's of students in my class enjoyed my graphics as well as color and typeface selection. 


Another project I really enjoyed was creating a personal logo.  In this project I got to design a logo that would most represent my brand. Since I am very interested in hand lettering I decided to add a cursive L into my design. I chose an L along with my last name to represent who I am as a designer. The fun design of a decorative L really adds a creative style to my brand. I also have a patch version of my logo that uses the word designs to explain what occupation my logo represents. I tried not to use sharp edges and shapes because I wanted my logo to be more friendly and in a creative style. I also have a darker color scheme to balance the very smooth and creative graphics. This project didn't take that much time and was around 5 days max. It was really hard for me to come up with an idea for my logo, but I am happy with the way it turned out. If I was able to have more time on this project, I would probably have perfected the L more and created some ways my logo can be used in branding. As a class we didn't review each others logos, so I didn't receive much feedback on my design. Overall, being able to create a logo was really enjoyable because I got to come up with my own ideas in a less structured step by step procedure.

By far, my favorite project was the powerpoint project.  In this project I got to design a powerpoint in adobe illustrator about a specific graphic design movement. For this project, I got to research Swiss Design. The first part of this project was creating a 2 page essay on this movement. Although, the research wasn't that fun, it really helped create a more interesting powerpoint.  Swiss Design is most known for its bright colors and geometric designs along with sans serif fonts. I was able to incorporate that style into my powerpoint by developing a blue and purple color scheme as well as a combination of two sans serif fonts. This project took around two weeks to complete and involved a lot of time at home. Since I wanted to create a tittle slide for each idea, it took a long time for me to make it match the color scheme as well as the overall aesthetic of the powerpoint. I tried to make each slide contain a geometric style along with bold fonts with clean designs. A few challenges I faced was having to come up with new ideas. It was sometimes hard for me find new ways to add graphics and find new ways to use the same color scheme. I definitely learned a lot as a designer through this project. I not only learned about Swiss Design, I also learned who to create a simple clean aesthetic along with a strong color scheme. This project definitely challenged my creativity because of all the different slides I had to make with new designs on each. Overall, this project was very enjoyable because there wasn't many limitations on what you could do as a designer. The project was very open to any ideas you had and you were able to use your creativity to create a design that you liked.

This semester in graphic design, we also used behance to post our projects. I have really enjoyed using behance to publish my work to the world. I also really enjoy being able to design a theme for each project I post.



Throughout, this semester my graphic design skills have definitely improved. I now have a larger understanding of using adobe photoshop and illustrator. My portfolio in graphic design has also really expanded. My blog posts have begun to be more visually interesting as well as my Behance page.

TIME IN CLASS

In class I spend my time very well. With my very busy schedule, I try to make sure I can get as much of my graphics designed in class so that I won't have too much to do at home. Even though I try to get most of my projects done in class, I usually end up spending several hours designing again at home. I am fortunate to have adobe illustrator and photoshop on my computer and this has really helped me design more projects outside of class. In some projects, I have finished early in class and have had free time to design extra credit projects such as the swinging monkey project. I have really enjoyed the extra credit projects because they are another way I can expand my understanding of illustrator.




With the skills I have learned in graphic design I have also been able to help with graphics for my friends and family with any extra free time. For my brothers robotics team, I helped design their informative posters for their signs. I have also been able to help other friends choose good fonts and graphics for their school projects.







STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES 
Throughout this semester, I really developed my skills in photoshop as well as in adobe illustrator. I have always been familiar with the adobe tools in photoshop and now I understand how almost all of them work. By creating the collage of the girl near the beginning of the year, I learned how to make layers and expand backgrounds. This project helped me become very skilled at removing marks or objects from backgrounds by using content aware fill as well as the patch tool. I have also gained several strengths in adobe illustrator. Illustrator has always been my favorite program and now I can easily use the pen tool to trace images or to create unique shapes. I am also very strong at creating color schemes and designs that work together and are simple, clean, and organized.

However, there are a few areas I could use improvement. The pathfinder tool is still a skill I have yet to master. The pathfinder in Adobe Illustrator allows you to rearrange overlapping shapes to create new outlines and designs. This tool is very helpful in graphic design but it does take some time to master. I was able to get more practice with this tool in my powerpoint, but I will continue to practice with the pathfinder tool throughout the rest of this school year.


SEMESTER SUMMARY 

For my second feature story, I interviewed Bessie Bauman for Student Council to describe the blood drive that takes place three times a year at Olathe Northwest. The blood drive at ONW is one of the most successful in the state of Kansas. In my narrative lead, I thought it would be important to include this fact to explain how much ONW advertises this event and how STUCO is looking for even more students to break the previous record of 316 pints of blood. My narrative lead impacted my work because it describes the ultimate goal of the video, to inspire more students to donate and make the blood drive even more successful.

Although my videos general focus was on the blood drive, I also wanted to have interviews from students involved in the process and students who have donated. I chose Bessie Bauman, the student council president as my main interview because she helped organize this years blood drive. Bessie had an important role in organizing the event and the specific committees that helped make it possible. For my second interview I chose Andrew Ost who decided to donate for the first time this year. Having a student who has donated really helped the video because it showed why students have donated and not just that they should. It adds a more personal connection to the story. These two interviews complimented each other well because they described how the blood drive helps the school and the community and how anyone can donate.

Filming the video was a more difficult process since it was only one day. I had to miss class early in the day in order to film my interview and it definitely made the video more rushed. It was also hard for me to get enough b-roll of the blood drive since there was a lot I couldn't film. Editing the video was a lot smoother of a process. The interviews fit together nicely and it was very easy for my to organize my clips and put them together into a video.

The feedback I received from my class was mainly positive, but the one thing I needed to fix was my pan shots. I used quite a few pan shots because when I was filming I was mainly filming still objects and I wanted to make it more interesting. However, in the editing process I realized these clips did not work, but I didn't have another chance to collect b-roll so I had to work with the clips that I already had. I also talk really fast and I need to slow down in my voiceovers.

Altogether, this second feature story really taught me communication skills needed to find a person to interview and finding a time that would work. It was also a new experience in filming a one day event that made the video a little bit more challenging. Even thought there are still things I would change, I am happy with my end result and I have learned several skills I can take into the filming of my classes semester final.