Semester 1 reflection

Projects

ONW Procedures

For this project we chose of of the procedures at our school such as the dress code rules or lunch rules. My group chose to duplicate a school fire drill, to educate students on what to do in a fire drill. We were allowed about a week in class, but like many other projects I had to come in outside of class to make sure I got the project done in time. In this project, since it was one of the first projects we completed this year so I struggled a little with just the basic editing tools. Along the way, I familiarized myself with how to play multiple roles in a collaborative situation when necessary. My biggest critique with this video was the audio. I think the main reason the audio was so bad was I tried too much. For example, I Had background music, but because it was a fire drill video I overlaid a fire alarm sound effect over the music so the sounds clashed majorly.

Advanced Feature Story

Our group found Brady Slavens, who is a senior at Olathe Northwest High School and has played baseball his whole life. He is graduating in December, and is headed to Wichita State to play baseball in college. First, we wrote our interview questions, and then picked through them to see which questions would create the most cohesive story and show the most important pieces of Brady's story. When it came time to film our interview, we had a camera that wasn't operating properly, so we had to postpone our filming time. What we didn't expect however, was that the next week, our subject wasn't available to be interviewed, further complicating the filming process. In the meantime, we decided to do as much as possible before getting the interview, such as writing potential voiceover scripts for different questions we might use. Once we were able to get the interview footage, I had a few minor technical difficulties like the frame not fitting the screen but these were easily fixable.

For this particular project, we didn't have very specific roles that affected the process that 
much so we all just worked together to get done what needed to be done. Once I finally 
started editing, there weren't that many technical errors so the main issue was getting the 
project finished in time after the problems we had experienced with the filming process.
The project management probably could have been better just from the perspective that I 
finished the assignment late, but considering our camera difficulties, we did fairly well for 
time. Something that could have been improved for the future would be communication 
skills, because another major issue we had that negatively affected our time schedule was 
that our interview subject wasn't available for about a week after our first filming

attempt, and we had to reschedule which we didn't plan for. I approached this story differently
than the last one by considering the principles of feature 

news, incorporating a delayed lead, as well as being more conscious of how the story 
affected the viewer and what I wanted the main concepts to be. Next time, I will make sure 
that everyone communicated and was on the same page. I also want to be able to adapt to
certain situations more easily and not let an obstacle throw off the whole project so much. 
In general, I am proud of how this project turned out, and I liked that I felt more prepared 
going into this project, regarding the expectations and understanding what

a feature story is supposed to be like.

Ect.

Time Management

I used my time well in class;if I was rushed, I worked hard to keep my work quality up, if I had extra time, I worked on other stuff I might have not finished or double checked the details, like consistent audio, lighting or stability of clips. If I happened to run out of time, I would make sure to stay caught up with upcoming projects but still put in time outside of class to get everything done.

Strengths/Weaknesses

My biggest strength is story writing, and I maximize this strength by always contributing to and leading the story boarding, planning, and writing processes. I most need to improve the practicality of my goals, because sometimes I think I am too ambitious with my goals for the time allowed.

ONW Now

For our final project this semester, we created our own version of a news show. each group in my class had a piece to make which would all be compiled into one show. My group had the Word From The Halls segment. Our team decided that the theme of the questions we would be asking would be High School Musical. I think that this made the segment more relatable and interesting to the audience, which for this project would be fellow students also in high school. The first task to accomplish was to write our questions for the interviews. Since we were all familiar with this subject, the pre-production process was fairly easy. Once we were prepared, we went to the halls during lunch, so we could get four to five interviews for our segment of the show. I contributed to the writing of the questions for our interviews and when it came time to film I mostly managed the camera and made sure that everything was set up correctly like the audio and camera settings. When we started editing , I began to learn about more tools and abilities of the editing software we use. For example, I learned another way to use a graphic in Adobe Premiere as well as an easier way to adjust the audio of a clip. I had to miss a day of class, so I first made sure that it wasn't going to be a big problem and then let my team know that I was going to be gone. Then I asked my group if there was anything else I could do while I was gone or when I got back to help out.
I approached this assignment with a greater sense of urgency because we had to finish all of our individual pieces by a certain deadline for them to be put in the news show. Next time, I am doing a project like this, I will write more questions and interview less people so there would be more variety in the video. Now, I have more experience filming in public and with lots of other audio nearby. This will improve my next project because I now know more techniques with microphones and testing audio. I enjoyed this project because there was a specific task, but the topic was very open ended so there was still creative freedom. I also enjoyed creating this video because it is the more light-hearted, comedy based part of the news show which made it very fun to write, film, and edit.

Summary

My favorite thing I did this semester was the mock ONW Now because I like the added pressure and
the realisticwork environment. Next project, I will think further ahead in the process so I can be prepared for

possible problems and how the video will work together. This semester, I learned how to efficiently deal

with problems in the creating process. Next year, I want to stay on top of things, and not turn in any projects

late, or as few as possible.