Music Video

The first project I completed this semester was a music video. For this video, my group used the Taylor Swift song, Everything Has Changed. In order to fit the overall mood of the video, my group worked on establishing a strong warm aesthetic and used the 6 shot system to add variety to the film.

This project took around a month to storyboard, location scout, and film. The first step in this process was choosing a song and actors. I was very set on using the Taylor Swift song Everything Has Changed because I knew it would be an interesting song to show a story through. Next, my group worked on casting actors that we could find similar look alike kids to. Eventually, we found 4 actors that would work perfectly with the video. Once casting was set we began to film. Our group used a wide variety of locations to tell a story. Since we had to travel a lot to film, it took around 5-6 days of filming to get all of the footage. After filming was complete, our group began the editing process. Editing took around a week and I was very happy with the way the video turned out.

There were several challenges I faced in the production of this video. One main challenge was finding days to film. Everyone in our group had very busy schedules and it was very difficult to find days we could all film together. Also, we had a hard time figuring out how to edit this video. Everyone had a different perspective on how we should edit the video and it ended up with us all editing our own individual videos.

I learned several new skills through this project. Mostly I learned that everyone has a different perspective and vision when it comes to video production and that you need to work with everyones ideas in order to produce a successful video. Our group struggled with accurately communicating ideas and after the competition of this video, I now know ways I can work as an individual leader to make filming and editing easier for everyone. I also learned how much I really enjoyed filming music videos. Going into entertainment video I knew I wanted to make short films and movies in my future. However, now that I've made a music video, i've really begun to love this side of video. I now have plans to film 2 music videos this summer and I hope to use the skills I learned from this video into the production of new music videos.

Some feedback my group received was to use a tripod. My group didn't use a tripod for the majority of the shots and it was very obvious in the final video. The stabilization software can only do so much to stabilize and it is really important to use a tripod when possible.

If I was to do this video again, I would use a tripod as well as more variety in the shots. We had lots of shaky footage and shots that where from similar locations. I think if we used more close ups and establishing shots the video would look a lot more professional. Another thing I would change would be my production role. I want to get behind the camera more so that I can get specific shots that I vision.

Overall, I really enjoyed creating this music video and am very proud of the way it turned out. This was the first music video I've ever produced and I hope that I am able to continually make more music videos throughout the next few years. This project helped establish my love for music videos and I have learned several new skills through this video that I can carry into entertainment video next year.

High School Musical 3 Trailer

The next project we completed this semester was a recreation of a high school movie trailer. For this video, we had to recreate each scene shot for shot. My group decided to do the High School Musical 3 trailer because we knew we would enjoy the challenge of a more complicated trailer that included lots of dancing and audio.

This video took around one month to produce as well. We spent around a week and a half planning for the video and location scouting. We had to screenshot every scene from the trailer which took a while but was very helpful in the shoot. We also had to spend a while choosing a cast. Because High School musical had such district characters with personalities, we had to find people who would fit the same personalities. We also had to do a lot of choreography and planning before filming. The actual shoot went really well and we got most of our filming done within 2 days. After we finished filming, we began editing. Editing was fairly easy since we just had to recreate what was already done in the original video.

There were several challenges I faced in the production of this video. First off, it was very hard to organize what shots we needed to film. Since lots of our shots took place in similar locations it was hard to know where we needed to set up the camera. Secondlly, it was also fairly difficult to teach the choreography. The original trailer had very short clips of people dancing and it was difficult to see what dances took place in them

In the process of this video I learned several new skills. I mainly learned the skill of time management. Since this video took a lot of time to organize a filming day and to find a day when all actors where available, I had to really make sure every day we could film on was successful. Our group really had to maximize the time we had together to guarantee that our video got done on time.

Our group received feedback on audio levels and specific shots. We had some problems getting good audio since we filmed in several loud locations. Lot's of our shots also didn't accurately match the original video and we could have done a better job at redoing shots until they matched.

If I could change anything, I would use more props and costumes. We tried our best in our limited time to match wardrobe with characters but it defiantly could have been matched better.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed filming this video and I had a really great time working with the cast and crew of this video. The High School Musical trailer was a good choice in recreation because we were able to find actors who really fit the role and where open to acting. I am not totally happy with the final product, but I think it shows a lot of hard work as well as room for improvement in the next years.

Terror-Dactyle Short Film

The last video we made was a short film. For this project we were assigned groups which was really cool because it gave me the opportunity to work with a new group of people. For this short film, it needed to be anywhere from 5-10 min. Initially, everyone in our group wrote their own short film treatment and script and then we chose which one we wanted to produce. My group chose Evan Mayo's script originally titled The West Woods. We really enjoyed how humorous and creepy we could make the video and decided to create that film.

This video took a little over a month to create. Creating a short film was a very long process. We first selected the script by Mayo and revised it a lot to add more humor and thrill. We wanted to make the video as cliche and funny as possible. We eventually renamed it Terror-Dactyle because we made our bad guy wear a terrordactyl costume.  We then had to cast 4 actors that fit with 4 different personalities in the script. Finally, we decided to film at Evan's house and we were ready to begin shooting. We worked a lot in this production with wardrobe and props. We decorated the basement in a lot of halloween costumes and tried to make it look as creepy as possible. The filming went very well since all of our actors were able to embody the personalities we gave them. Lots of the humor was improved and it made the footage a lot more natural.

A few challenges we faced was with lighting and plot. When we began filming it was very bright out, but by the time we got to the ending scenes it was very dark. We had trouble with getting good lighting and we had to use our phone flashlights a lot. We also had a hard time trying to show the ending of the video and the overall conclusion is a little bit rushed.

Throughout this production, I learned the importance of managing in class time. Since I was working with a new group of people, I had to work on communication. We also had a lot to get done before we could begin filming and we had to make sure everyday we were working on something productive in class. Our successful pre planning really helped make the filming days go smoothly.

Our video received very positive feedback. Lot's of students thought our video was very funny and was a different style of video compared to all the serious short films that were produced.

If I could change anything about this video, it would be the ending. The ending was very rushed and confusing and if I had the opportunity to redo anything it would be to add more transitioning shots at the end.

Overall, I really like the final product my group produced. The funny dialogue, props, and sound effects really contributed to the videos overall mood and made it more enjoyable.

Time In Class

Throughout this semester I have efficiently used my time in class. Since every project is team based, the time we get together in class is very important. Because I have such a busy schedule and so does everyone else, the time I was in class really helped make sure every project was completed on time.

At times, I finished projects early and I had extra time. When this happened I helped give feedback to other groups videos and researched new skills I can apply to my own videos.

Outside of class I do a lot to help enhance my work. Outside of class I use Pinterest and youtube to research other ways to edit videos and ways to make my videos better. I am also on Team 1710 on the media team. Being on 1710 really helped enhance my work by giving me more experience in editing videos in short amounts of time.

Strengths

One of my biggest strength is project management. Through everything I am involved in, I always make sure I give as much time as needed to video so that my projects can be completed on time. I really strive to make sure all my work is done to the best of my ability and that I am proud of all of it.

Another strength I have is collaboration. I can work well with everyone and being in a new group for the short film really helped me develop this strength even more.

Weakness

One weakness I have is communication. There have been several times I have had to be absent in class because of doctors appointments and track meets. When I am absent I need to work more on communicating with individuals on where I am and how I can make up my assignments from when I am gone.

Summary

High School Musical 3 Trailer Recreation 

Project

Process

Lessons Learned

Changes

Keep the Same

Experiences

Conclusion

Overall Project

For this project we created a music video to the song of our choice. In a group, we chose a song, location, and style of editing. Our goal of this video was to create a professional style music video that is similar to the original song production. My group chose to create a music video to Taylor Swifts song Everything Has Changed.

Process

To create this music video, it took several days of planning as well as filming. We began by coming up with a general concept. Taylor Swifts actual music video had a feature on two young kids who fall in love. I thought the music video would be better if it had a transition between two young kids that would start as friends and slowly be in a relationship years later. After we had a general concept my group began storyboarding and creating a general layout on how we wanted the video to look. We then began making a beat sheet so that we can match scenes with certain times and words. After we had the entire video storyboarded and our actors casted we determined a location. We decided on having a warm aesthetic so we determined several locations that would match the warm tone. We began filming with the kids and shot on a playground. We then filmed the majority of the videos shots with the older couple. We filmed at a park, the ONW library, POUR coffeehouse, and the country club plaza. After all the filming was done it was time to begin editing. To edit I organized all the clips in final cut based on location. This really helped with editing because it helped me sequence the shots a lot better. Editing took quite a while and I asked several people on advice in order to prefect it.

Skills Learned

Throughout the production of this video I learned several new concepts. I've learned a lot about planning videos and determining locations. I also learned the importance of using a tripod and using a steady hand. Lots of the shots taken of motion without a tripod were vary shaky and stabilization in premier could only do so much to fix it. I also learned the importance of using bins in editing. Without bins my editing process would have taken a lot longer than it already did.

I also learned several collaboration skills. I learned how to plan events based on other peoples schedules. I also was in a fairly large group and that helped me learn the importance of project management and making sure everyone is doing their part to get the project done.

Changes

There are a lot of things I would do differently if I was to do this project again. Having a large group was fun, but overall it was a lot of work to get the video filming planned. It was also hard to determine rolls for everyone. I would also like to be behind the camera more instead of just directing. I filmed a few of the shots and was very happy with them and I wished I was able to film more steady shots.

Keep the Same

If I was to do another music video I would definitely keep a few things. I really liked the process of editing I used as well as the locations of filming. Having good locations really helped with the overall videos mood and made it look a lot more professional.

Conclusions

From this video I learned the importance of collaboration and technical skills. I have learned a lot about filming that I can use throughout the next semester to enhance my videos. Overall, I really enjoyed creating this project and working with the people in the process. This video has really shown me my passion for music videos and I hope that I can work to make my videos a lot better in the future.

Music Video:

Taylor Swift-We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
In this music video it uses lots of creative shots and different costumes to create a very fun and lighthearted video that was filmed in one take.

Video Style: 

Throughout the video Taylor Swift is the one singing to the music and really illustrates the words she is saying. She also transitions from a variety of locations that make the video a lot more interesting.
 The shots are all very different and contain different outfits and locations.
The transitions are all very smooth and coordinated and make the video a lot more unique and energetic.

StoryLine: 

Taylor Swifts song is telling the story of her previous relationship and her goal of ending it and moving on. The music video really illustrates how she feels in the situation and how she is ready to move on and be more free and happy in the variety of upbeat dance scenes throughout the music video. The story is being told through scenes she has with her ex in situations where they may be arguing or just not quite getting along illustrating the need for an ended relationship. They are contrasted with fun dance scenes that lighten the mood of the video.

Application: 

Review:

The director did a very good job in making this a one take video that transitioned well. The many different locations really work well together and make the video very exciting. I also really like how Taylor Swift is singing the words to the song and is illustrating them well to make it look more realistic.  I didn't really like however how the band was a group of animals and I think it really doesn't fit with the overall mood of the music video. I think that it would have been best if the director just had a normal band playing.

Conclusions:

In conclusion, I really liked this music video because of its very fun mood and how it is a one take video. Just like all Taylor Swifts music videos, this one really shows Taylors ability to sing as well as to preform. The use of bright colors and fun wardrobe creates a very interesting video that is very different from other celebrities and makes her stand out as unique.

Overall her music video has over 400,000,000 views since it was published in 2012 and has remained a popular song for teenagers and adults everywhere.

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.