Junior Year Reflection Semester One

What I've Learned

Junior year has been a huge step for me and I have learned probably more in this one semester than I did in ecomm the past two years. Previous years in ecomm I did not know how to work the camera or how to work Final Cut Pro but I have learned a lot and grown in many ways. I learned the six shot system, the twenty one questions you ask for an interview and the different preferences on the camera. There are still plenty of ways I could grow in in ecomm so I have lots of goals for the upcoming time I have in this class. One goal is to learn how to work the camera perfectly and how to write better blogs.

Six Shot System

The six shot system is a way to incorporate sequencing into your stories. There is the extra wide, wide, medium, close up, extreme close up, and over the shoulder. I think that this is very useful when you need more B-roll and can not find anymore. For example, I did a story on MaryAnn Traxler and how she auditioned for American Idol. With the auditions being in Hollywood there is only so much B-roll you can get so we went into her class and filmed her working in class using the six shot system. 

Twenty One Questions

Twenty One Questions is a list of what kind of questions to use for an interview. Mr. Allam gave us a sheet at the beginning of the year for what to ask. During our first project it was very helpful because I had only conducted one interview and it was sophomore year when were assigned to do a news package and looking back on it, it was very bad. I feel like my interviews are usually my best work because I have good questions and with good questions you can get good answers.

Camera Settings

Last year, even though we were taught how to work a camera and all the basics of it, I still really did not know much. I still do not know that much but I have learned a ton compared to last year. This year we learned how to white balance it and the zebra settings and color balance and things all along those lines. I feel like I can actually use the camera and make shots look pretty unlike last year or my freshman year when I filmed a lot in front of windows.

Goals

One of my main goals is that I learn how to properly work the camera in every way. Like I just said I have learned a lot but I still have a lot more to learn. I want to be able to put a camera on the tripod without any help. It's kind of embarrassing that I still can't but I have always had trouble with it. I want to learn how to make sure the audio is perfect without having to take forever on figuring out what is wrong, I will just know the problem and how to fix it and not have to ask for help.

My other goal is to learn how to write a better blog. We did have the opportunity to revise our old blogs and I did not take up that offer. I want to start out the new year with a more positive outlook on writing blogs because I used to really hate it. It honestly is not that bad but I did not put much effort into it. My goal is to get better grades on my blogs next semester and next year.

To Wrap it Up

All and all, I have learned a lot this year in convergence journalism class. I am really happy I decided on this strand of ecomm because I like it a lot. Although, I have learned a lot I still have plenty more to learn and I propose to learn a lot of it next semester. I'm determined to get a better grade in the class and have more fun, too.

           

Ryan Devers feature story

I really enjoyed this package for many reasons. I had seen Ryan Devers doing magic tricks at lunch during my sophomore year, and then when talking to my counselor about story ideas she told me that he also is training to be a third degree black belt in taekwondoe. Ryan was excited to be a character for our story so he had really good answers to our questions for him. Something we did well was we went to his taekwandoe studio to get B-roll. We had plenty of shots of him kicking things over and breaking things so when we had jump cuts or something like that we did not have any troubles finding anything to cover things up. His studio was super welcoming for me and Isabel to come film so it made it easy to get B-roll. We also used the two camera interview while interviewing him preforming magic tricks so we would have a variety of shots. It was hard to find the right kind of shots of him doing magic tricks because in some shots you could see the trick and how he was doing it so that was one of our few problems. But, overall we had a good character and a good story.

German exchange students

I feel that this project was some of my better work. This project was extremely fun and interesting to do. I tried a lot harder on this package because I found it interesting. Something I did well was I got a lot of B-roll. We had plenty of options to choose from when we needed it most. Our interview set up was also good. Something I would have changed was have more questions for the interview, although we had a lot of characters for our interviews, we only had about ten questions each. Most of the German students were not as fluent in English as we were hoping so some of their answers were not exactly what we were looking for. Our interview with Frau Watts was probably our best part. We had a lot of good answers from her and she basically narrated the story for us. We also did a good job getting it done in time. We needed to finish it in a week so that the Germans students could see it before they left. Overall, I feel as if this was one of my better projects.

6 Shot System

When filming a story or documentary, or filming anything at all, you should always remember to use the six shot system. The six shots include; extra wide, wide, medium, close up of hands, close up of face and over the shoulder.

Extra Wide
An extra wide shot is filmed with the camera on a tripod. Extra wide is used for landscape shots and maybe a shot of a bunch of people. An example could be a shot of the gym during a pep assembly. It is an establishing shot. Extra wide isn't used for much.

Wide
A wide shot is filmed with the camera on a tripod. It is used to film a shot of a person from their head to their toes. It is establishing your main character.

Medium
A medium shot is probably one of the most common shots used.  A medium shot is used during interviews. It is of the characters face from their chest up. You should use rule of thirds with this shot.

Close up of Hands
A close up of hands is used during filming b-roll. You can film this shot without a tripod. This close up of hands shot is used for switching shots; you wait for something interesting to happen with their hands to change shots

Close up of Face
A close up of face is used for b-roll. You can also film this shot without a tripod. You use this for filming an intense shot.

Over the Shoulder
An over the shoulder shot is used during b-roll. You use a tripod during this shot. This shot is good because when it's used it looks like it is from your characters point of view.

Interpersonal Skills Class Trunk or Treat

Interpersonal Skills Trunk or Treat

Something I think we did well was our shots, we had a lot of variety of shots in this package. We used the six shot system pretty well and it will teach me to continue to use it. We had a good interview, our character wanted to be a character so it ended up really well. Mrs. Reiter had lots of good answers.

Something we did not do well was the interview with Audrey Ash,she had a good answer, but we were not using a tripod so it looked really shaky. We definitely should have used a tripod for B-Roll because some of our shots for it are shaky. Our microphone also was not working correctly so our interviews with the students did not sound as good as they could've.

Overall, I think this package was a success and very informational.

Indi Cowie

Which was your favorite version?
I personally liked the web #2 story better. I liked it better because it wasn't too long or too short, the first one was too short in my opinion. It left us with a lot of unanswered questions. The second one was very informational and showed some of her home life and that always gets the viewers interested.

Discuss 3 elements the videos have in common.
Both of the videos talk about Indi Cowie and how she became interested. They both have an interview with just Indi. They both showcase Indi preforming the same kind of tricks.

Discuss 3 elements that are different about the two videos.
I think there are more differences than similarities. The second one goes way into her personal life and interviews her parents and shows her little sister while the first one doesn't. The first one is much shorter than the second. The second one films inside of her house while the first one is filmed in some place showcasing her skills.

What is the difference between web videos and TV?
The difference is web videos are not live. TV is always more up to date than online.

What elements can you emulate in your own work?
I can learn to use 2 cameras for interviews. I can learn to get all kinds of different shots, and use ones that are not used as much, like the birds eye view and the worms eye view. Both of those were used in the second film (web #2) I watched.

21 Questions

Brody Wasell (junior)

1. Where are you from? Seattle, Washington
2. Why do you like Olathe Northwest? Everyone's friendly and welcoming
3. Why did you move here? To play hockey
4. How long have you been playing hockey? 13 years (3 years old)
5. What made you get involved? Runs in the family
6. Where all have you lived to play hockey? Seattle, Texas, Canada and Kansas
7. Who inspires you most? His older brother
8. Who have you met that has inspired you alone the way? Definitely his teammates
9. What is the biggest struggle you've had? Moving away from new friends so much
10. What do you hope to accomplish? Definitely hopes to play in college and see where it takes him
11. What have you learned from hockey? From moving so much he's learned to appreciate everything
12. What advice do you have for aspiring hockey players? Make the commitment if you want to play
13. What is your biggest hopes and dreams for hockey? To play pro

Homecoming Proposals ONWNOW package

The scope of this project was more of a fun package more than serious. I picked this package because i've always thought it's interesting to see different ways of how people get asked.



The first thing I did was we put on the ONW NOW show a week before to tweet your homecoming proposal pictures to #ONWHC so that we would have all of the pictures to use. We put all the pictures into final cut pro and we picked the best ones to use people to interview. We put all the pictures together and put the peoples interviews over their picture so it was like a slideshow.



I learned that it was harder than I thought it was going to be. I thought it would be super easy because it was just putting pictures together but you had to time it so they weren't too long and too short. I had to time the music so when it was quieter the interviews would go.



Something I would do differently is put more time into my interviews. The set up was really rushed so they ended up being not that great and looked bad. I had the microphone hooked up but the audio also could have been better and louder.



The thing I'll use again is I'll know how to make background music quieter in certain spots so that you can hear interviews. I think overall my project was not terrible, there are some things I could have done better but like I said, overall it was a good project.

MaryAnn Traxler American Idol

What went well and what you'd do differently?



Something that went well was our interview, I think we had really good questions, and MaryAnn had really good answers. The clips from when she was younger were good for our story in my opinion.



Something I would do differently is I would try to get more b-roll, we only had two days to do it so we had to use what we had. I would have made sure the audio was loud enough so we wouldn't have to copy it before we interviewed.

Reflection on package

What went well? What did you learn? What could you do different next time?

Something that went well with my package was that the class was eager to be interviewed and filmed. Our main subject, Rachida, was very open with her answers so we were able to get a lot out of her and were able to have valuable information for our package.

Something I learned was a lot about Algeria, where Rachida is from. We learned things like how the schooling there was. We even learned some things about Morocco because of her friend we interviewed. We learned about some different kinds of foods that are from Algeria.

Something I can do differently for next time is plan out what b-roll to get. This time we only had an idea of what b-roll to get so we kind of just winged it so it didn't go very well. Since we didn't have all the b-roll we had to go and reshoot a lot. I would check to make sure the audio is working because our first interview had to be redone because we couldn't hear Rachida.

Connor's audio story by Kami Gibson

Reflection on audio story



What did you learn?

I learned about the six shot system and the 180 rule about staying on the same side of a person in pictures or interviews or b roll to not confuse the viewer. I learned new tricks in final cut pro.



What will you apply to your next project?

I'll apply all the new things we learned. I think what I'll apply most is some of the quick things to do in final cut pro and different ways to do things or edit things in it.

Reflection on audio story

What did you learn?
I learned about the six shot system and the 180 rule about staying on the same side of a person in pictures or interviews or b roll to not confuse the viewer. I learned new tricks in final cut pro.

What will you apply to your next project?
I'll apply all the new things we learned. I think what I'll apply most is some of the quick things to do in final cut pro and different ways to do things or edit things in it.

1. one personal goal
2. goal for this class
3. a goal for your role in ecomm


1. My personal goal in ecomm is to understand how to work the camera better. Last year I kind of slacked off and just let everyone else do it. This year I am going to have to do more on my own so I want to be able to work the camera and know all about it with no help from anyone else. I have the general idea down, I'll just need more practice.

2. I think the goal for this class should be that we should all learn to work as a team. I think there could be some tension because so far the class is kind of split into two groups, the front and the back of the room. I know everyone in here and I definitely think we can break the barrier and work professionally.

3. My goal for my role in e-comm is to do more outside of school work and go to more extra curricular events like the e-comm festival. Last year I did the bare minimum and barely slid by. I'm determined that this year I will try harder and become more dedicated and become a bigger part of the program. I want to be able to advertise how much I love e-comm, I want to be able to show it, not just say it.