News Story Reflection 4

http://abcnews.go.com/US/dallas-cowboys-including-owner-jerry-jones-link-arms/story?id=50091397

This news story was a follow up on the controversy about players protesting during the National Anthem.  It focused on the Dallas Cowboys and how their owner Jerry Jones kneeled with them before the anthem was played. They did this to refute Donald Trumps criticism of those who don't "respect" this nation and it's National Anthem.

Throughout the package, it has the anchor talking with pictures and videos of the players during the National Anthem. Then, it was Jones' Press Secretary trying to clarify that they weren't doing it in spite of Trump, they were just banding together as a team and a family.

One thing the reporter did well was that they didn't just get pictures of the event, they actually got live footage that included more than just one clip.  They also got an interview with someone besides the subject of the story to get a different view point.

News Story Reflection 1

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/29/us/ohio-school-incident/index.html

Recently in an Ohio high school, there was a student shooting killing 2 different kids. 4 students total were injured and one more was put into custody after he opened fire in the school cafeteria.

One thing that the reporter did well was that they got more than one interview: one with a victim/bystander and one with a family member.  They had very detailed answers that connected back to the reporters' story.  Their voice overs matched up with the soundbytes of the interviews very well.
Something they could've done better was that they could've gotten a larger variety of shots.  While they weren't there at the actual scene and couldn't get footage of the incident at the actual moment it happened, they could've tried to go into the school and get footage of the halls or talk to teachers, etc.

Junior Year Final Reflection

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.

Technical Tutorial- How to Do Lower 3rds

In order to begin the process of making lower thirds, you need to be logged into the server with the username: tv and password: a1w@ves.  After that, go into the ONW Now graphics folder and select the lower thirds file set to open in after effects.  Make sure you drag that file onto your desktop beforehand because you want your own version.

Once the file is open, it will say things are missing; dismiss those and select OK for them all.  Then, double click the v@-Lower-Thirds.png and open the v2-Lower-Thirds.png file.

You then need to select the line in the bottom "Comp 1" area that says "Add Name Here" then go to the actual Lower Thirds and type whatever your subjects name is.  Do the same thing with the line "Add Destination Here".

After you've gotten all the information inserted that you need, you need to file-export-add to render queue.  Make sure it says RGB + Alpha before you OK it. Save it where you'll remember it. Once you have it exported, select the blue "Render" button.  You'll hear a "bing" and then just close out of After Effects (DO NOT save the file) and you're done!

Personal Project Review-Health Expo

This was a video about the ONW Health Expo held by the P.E. Department with help from the Foods Department.  During this event, students enrolled in any weights, physical education, or team activities class had the privilege of learning how make healthy decisions throughout life.  I chose this video because I personally believe this was one of my better videos (done with Gabby Thomas as well) out of the ones I've done this semester.

At the beginning of this project, Gabby and I created questions for our interviewees to answer that would help us create our story.  During actual filming we had 50 minutes to film B-Roll and get interviews which was a little stressful but worked out alright in the end.  Our plan for getting B-Roll was just to make sure we got plenty of variety with wide, close-up, and medium shots.  We also wanted to be sure that all shots we used were interesting and that something was always happening within those shots so the viewers wouldn't get bored.

While this video was one of our better ones footage wise, I believe the set up of the actual video could've been put together better.  During our first interview, it went from interview to B-Roll then back to interview and on and on.  I would've liked to have made the B-Roll shots longer and same with the interview so it wouldn't have seemed so repetitive. Also, because I'm so short, it's hard to get the person we're interviewing on eye level, especially when you're in the moment.  In the future I will make sure to have them be in the correct Rule of Thirds and also at eye level with the camera so it doesn't look as though they are looking down on the camera.

Overall however, I am very proud of this video and all the videos that I have done (with Gabby on some) and am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish next semester in Convergence.

Professional Article Review-Grease Live!

Last year, NBC put on a live version of the classic movie Grease.  Many famous dancers, actors, and singers came together and created a live interpretation of the original.  While there was a lot that came straight from the movie, there were also scenes and songs included that were made specifically for the live show.  This article went through everything good and bad that happened in Grease Live.

The author of this article believed that the show was slow at the beginning but quickened in pace and got "better and better as it went along".  They gave credibility to the director of the live performance saying that he was able to keep the show interesting yet true to the original.  They also pin pointed specific scenes and songs within the musical such as "Freddy My Love", and "Greased Lightning".  I believe this writer did a good job of incorporating specific examples and talking about almost all the characters/actors individually giving each one their deserved spotlight.

While the article addressed the negatives of the show, it never truly offered a solution for them or gave specific reasoning as to why those certain incidents weren't ideal.  However, the overall composition of this article was very well put together and the author did a very good job at convincing the reader to agree with them and also including specifics about Grease Live!

Professional Project Review- ABC News

This news story was over a girl named Savannah Fulkerson who lives with Erythropoietic Porphyria- a disease which causes her skin to burn when exposed to the sun. Whenever she goes into the sunlight, a pain comes over her that is so unbearable that it brings tears to her eyes.  Ever since she was 4 years old, this medical mystery has taken over Savannah's life. Abbie Boudreau from ABC news goes inside to see what it's like to live a life without sunlight.

Throughout this news package there were interviews, home footage, and present day b-roll.  They did interviews with 3 different people which gave a lot of different perspectives such as Savannah, her mother, and a professional dermatologist.  It helped to tell Savannah's story from different point of views and also informed people more about her illness and what the symptoms and effects are.

While there are many things that went well in this package, there were also some things that could've been improved. I would've liked to see more insight of what actually happens on the inside of someone's body when they have this illness.  Also, it would've been interesting to see what hobbies Savannah enjoys/is able to do even with her illness.  Overall, however, I believe this news package was a well put together and thorough story.