In the article, "Drought has given one woman a new mission in life" Diana Marcum tells the story of the way Donna Johnson helped others throughout the drought in California. Donna Johnson a 72 year old, saw the need for water in families that could no longer supply themselves with water because of their wells drying up. The state saw no need to help these families, but Donna did. She collected donations of bottled water and whenever a family requested water, she was always open to help grant their request.

This article used strong quotations as well as outside reports and statistics to add facts behind their claims. Diana used quotations from Donna that had a strong impact on the article and what the paragraph was talking about. To help support the needs of the families without water, Diana used statistics from state reports to show how many wells have dried up as well as how much water is needed.

One of Diana's strengths was her ability to really describe the droughts situation in California. She used strong details and visual words to help the readers visualize how the drought has had an effect on California citizens. I did not notice any weaknesses in this article. The author did a good job at fully describing the story and using lots of detail.

The authors general conclusions was that even though the whole state was suffering under drought, one person was able to make a difference about the awful situation and find a way to help others. The main conclusion of this article I believe is important and was well thought through. The article is an inspiration to others to find ways to help others and that it doesn't matter who you are or where you live because we can all do something to help the community.

The evidence is very convincing because it uses statistics from other companies and well known businesses.

This article can apply to the way to write a feature story in video production. The feature story does a really good job with including a strong narrative lead. The story was very well written and provided a lot of facts and information that I should work to include in my feature stories that I can write in class.

Altogether, I thought this article was very well written and that it created a good story that incorporated several facts and strong quotations.

Check out the article:



Drought has given one woman a new mission in life 

In video class, after analyzing several feature stories I concluded what parts of a feature story are necessary to create a visually interesting video that also shares informative information about a chosen topic. One of the most important parts of a feature story is choosing an interesting topic. It is important to chose a topic that will have an interesting story as well as having enough facts or stories to make it informative. The next important part of the feature story is filming the video in good lighting. If the environment is too bright the person you are interviewing can be easy washed out by the lights, making the video have bad video quality. It is also important to film in a quite environment so that it is easy to hear the persons interview. Also, when you are filming the interview it is important to use the rule of thirds to align the person in the left or right third of the shot. Once you have filmed the video there are several important ways to edit the video. You want to make sure that you incorporate a strong voice over in the intro and throughout the whole feature story. You can use voiceovers as well as b-roll to transition between questions and answers. You want to try to not make any jump cuts in the editing process. It is also good to add b-roll throughout the video to make it more interesting. Altogether filming feature stories are very enjoyable, but you must make sure you find a good story, film the video in good lighting with good set up, as well as edit the video smoothly with strong voiceovers.

FEATURE STORY EXPERIENCE

This quarter in video production we filmed and edited a feature story video. I chose to create my video over the Electrathon team at Olathe Northwest. Once I created my video I wrote my first feature story. I have only really created videos before and it was a new experience to write a story

The first part in writing my feature story was creating a narrative lead. In the narrative lead I had to describe what was happening in the video with lots of detail. The purpose of the narrative lead is to draw the reader in and create a more interesting opening. The next part of a written feature story is describing the topic. Since I chose the Electrathon I gave background information on this topic and described what the team does. After introducing the club I described who I chose to interview and why.

In the feature story I used quotations from my interview to describe what the video was about. It's important to put the quotations in a new paragraph and saying who said it after the quote.

The final part of the feature story was creating a narrative ending. The narrative ending basically summarizes the purpose of the video and describes it more visually.

Altogether writing about a feature story was an interesting new experience. It was a little difficult to write the narrative lead but describing the content was pretty easy. I'm excited to continue and create feature stories throughout the semester and develop my skills in filming, editing, and writing.

FILMING EXPERIENCE


Laurie did an amazing job at answering the questions I asked but unfortunately I couldn't fit all of the information into the minute and a half limit. I had to shorten several responses but ultimately I believe my video ended up good. Having a female perspective on the Electrathon team really helped with the story. Interviewing Mr. Edmondson also worked out well because it showed how teachers are trying to get more woman involved and that its something that definitely needs more outreach.

Creating the script was pretty easy because Laurie did a good job in answering my questions in complete sentences. I also learned to film the voice over in several different clips for each section that needed a voiceover so that putting the video together would be easier. I was easily able to import the voice over and trim it to fit in perfectly with the rest of the video.

Shooting my video was a little bit difficult. It was hard to find time to come into the electrathon class and shoot. The first time I went into film the students were working on presentations and I couldn't get any footage of them actually working with the car. I came in to film another time and Mr. Edmondson was very nice about getting the students to work on the car for me and get some b-roll that I could use. For the actual interview footage I wish that I had filmed it in a more quite workspace and in a better location. I was pretty rushed on time and if I was to film it again I would go to a desk or classroom.

What I like about my finished video is that its about a topic that isn't very well known in the school. Lots of students know about the football team or the theater department but very few know about the activities that go on in the engineering academy. I have been around the engineering academy for a while with my dad but in the process of filming this video I learned new information about what actualy goes on with the electrathon team. I also think that having my video about woman getting involved in engineering is important. Most people don't want to get involved in engineering because its seen as a "guy" carrier. Its important to encourage other woman to try engineering and the best way to do that is by woman encouraging other woman.

MY FAVORITE 

After filming and writing a feature story I enjoyed filming and editing the video more. I don't enjoy writing that much but it was still an interesting experience to learn how to write a correct feature story. I really enjoy being able to use my creativity to show a story in a video. It is way more interesting for me to be able to interact with the person I am interviewing and to film where they are working. Altogether, I enjoyed filming the video feature story more. 

WATCH MY VIDEO

The first part of the project was creating a basic raccoon and making it unique. I was able to master the use of shapes to make objects and animals. Once I created the raccoon I added a turtle neck sweater with a texture as well as a hat and a Starbucks mug to relate to a fall theme. We then made leaves to add an even more fall environment.
                                                 Front:

The next part of the project involved creating a 4 x 6 postcard. We could choose any theme we wanted but I decided to continue with the fall theme. I also used handwritten lettering to add a more personal touch to the postcard. The raccoon is surrounded by pumpkins in a pumpkin patch with a darker sky.



Back:


Once we finished our postcard we created a layout and posted it in behance. I created a theme for my behance that involved a handwritten style font and a purple/pink color scheme. I learned how to layout projects in illustrator and then how to post them in Behance.

The video above explains how you can create a new bin in adobe premier. Bins can help you organize your clips into specific folders. These bins are very easy to make and rename.

The first step is to click the new bin button in the project panel. It looks like a folder and is in the bottom right corner. After you click this button a new bin will appear where you will be able to rename it how ever you would like to. You can choose to name it based off of location, who was filmed, or whatever you may like. Find a way of organizing that works best for you. By clicking on the bin to open it you can then use the key board shortcut command I to import clips. You can choose whatever clips you would like from anywhere on your computer to go into this bin. If you want to rename the video you can right click and choose rename. Once your clips are imported to premier you can begin the editing process.

One way to edit your clips is to drag the clip from the project panel to the source panel. In the source panel you can use the keyboard shortcut keys I and O to choose when the video will come in and out. Remember the phrase enter late leave early when deciding when people or objects should come into frame. You can then drag your clip to the editing panel on the bottom right of your screen. If you cut your video too short just drag the edge of the clip out to get a more precise edit.

Once you have found a way of organizing clips that works for you it will become easier to edit your videos a lot quicker.

For ONW 1 in 2,000 I interviewed Ryan Burnett. Ryan is a black belt at Ko martial arts and I was able to discover how he spent his summer. Taekwondo is one of Ryan's main activities and is something he is very passionate about. I learned the many other skills that come in to competing in Taekwondo such as being disciplined and having endurance to work hard to become better. Ryan spent many hours this summer learning forms and perfecting moves to be able to compete in a competition. At the competition this summer he did not place but last summer he placed first.

For this video I learned how to script a voice over for an interview. In previous projects I used voice overs but this was the first one I had to use when interviewing someone. It was fairly easy to write the voice over. I had to use questions to incorporate into my video because in the actual footage it had several jump cuts. I recorded my voice over on my phone which didn't have the best quality but it ended up sounding ok.

When shooting this video it was easy to find a location and begin shooting. I decided to film in the e-Communication pod so that it would look more professional. I had Ryan wear his uniform so that it would fit the theme of the interview. The lighting was also very good because it had a more blue tone compared to the lighting in the rest of the school. If I was to film this again however I would use more angles and more the camera to show more of the actual chair.

What I like most about my final video is the smoothness of the voice over and questions. When I filmed the interview Ryan said um.. a lot and I had to find a way to make the transitions more smooth. By summarizing the question with a voice over and showing footage from a Taekwondo competition it made the video a lot smoother and more professional.