This year has been filled with lots of learning, trial and error, and experience. I have been taught so many things that I will be able to use constantly throughout the rest of my career in the Broadcast field. I am definitely going to use the things I've learned and the things I have struggled with into consideration for how to handle the years to come.
In the Technical aspect of the eCommunication guarantees, I have inherited many tips and new skills that will definitely be useful for the future. I have learned how to create lower thirds in After Effects then how to import them into a clip. Also, I have been able to understand and control the sound during a show.
Collaboration and communication came hand in hand this year when I had to be able to work with everyone in the class at once. Being able to communicate effectively with the rest of your team in order to ensure all stories were done was a major key to a successful show. While there were some issues throughout the year with people not doing their stories, I always had my story done on time no matter when it was assigned to me. For example, there was a story assigned to a partner and I recently where we had to get an interview with someone all the way from a nursing home, do another interview at the school, get voiceovers and lower thirds, then put it all together in one day. By effectively planning and communicating about how we wanted to assess the situation, we were able to finish the story within a 20 minute time frame.
Project management goes along with the example above as well in that being able to handle a short time frame story requires lots of thinking about how you're going to get it all done in time. Especially taking into consideration the interviews, finding b-roll, writing out voiceovers, then putting it all together. There were points in which I could've improved my project management or time management in general, specifically if I didn't have an actual story to do.
I don't think I took any particular leadership this year, especially considering I was only a junior. However, I am hoping to become a positive role model for the upcoming juniors next year and to be able to help them in becoming better journalists/videographers/hosts/etc. I hope to leave an impact on them considering the seniors this year didn't converse much with the juniors (besides Gabel, Val, and Luke whom I am so thankful for).
I think this year as brought out my many strengths and weaknesses that will help me in the year to come. I am generally good at getting my stories done on time and done well. However, I didn't always take story opportunities nor was I always as productive as I could've been during class time.
If I were to change anything in the class, I would have a little more structure, discipline, and no class discrimination. The seniors and juniors didn't bond very much which kind of made it hard for us to learn from them and make it easy to ask for help. Also, if discipline is introduced at the beginning of the year, then people wouldn't leave early on a daily basis *cough cough* seniors *cough cough*. The structure could help with assigning stories/jobs for productions/make production meetings more efficient and productive.
However, overall I am so grateful for this year and am looking forward to finishing out my final year at ONW strong in the Convergence program.
