Golf Saving The Day

 This pandemic has been very difficult for all of us in many different ways. Some people lost their job, some people lost family members, and some people just hated being isolated the entire time. During all this chaos it is important to try to find some positives that came out of this. For me, that positive was golf. Golf courses were really the only thing open during this time so I was able so spend majority of my time at the course.

One of the biggest things I took away from this project was the difference between being a media creator and a media consumer. As a consumer, I ingest a lot of content so I feel like I miss a lot of the smaller details that the creator intentionally puts in there. As a creator, I realized how difficult even the seamlessly easy tasks were. Something as simple as picking the background music was surprisingly hard. Trying to make the whole project flow together took a lot of extra time and intense thinking. The little subtleties, that all good projects have, took majority of the time.

Another surprise that I experienced while creating this video was trying to have the same lighting for all of my shots. I took majority of my shots outside and when I put all the videos into imovie, I realized that the lighting was completely different in some shots. This wasn't necessarily my fault it was just that on some shots the sun would be behind the clouds and in some shots it wouldn't. This changing in light really messed up the rhythm and flow of video so I could not end up using some of the shots that I took.

For the actual shots that I took, I tried to use many different shots with many different backgrounds. I wanted to have a different back drop for each of the shots where I was hitting the golf ball. I wanted it to feel like the viewer was moving along the course with me.

Overall, this project gave me a new understanding just how difficult and time intensive it is to make a good quality video. It is really easy to sit back and watch other videos and critique them, but whenever you are the one creating the video it gets a lot harder to see the flaws. As I continued through the editing process I feel like I made progress and was slowly but surely getting better.

Family Will Always Come First

For my video project over the one positive outcome of the pandemic, I decided to create it based on the valuable time I was able to spend with my family. While the pandemic brought many negative aspects into the world, one thing that remained positive during my experience was the extra months I received with my family that I never would have gotten had the COVID pandemic never occurred.

As I was working on the video, I was surprised at how many details went into creating a video in order ensure it is enticing and not bland. By just adding some background music and working on some the photos I had in my rough draft, it made the video overall much more enjoyable. 

By being a media content producer, it made consider many different ideas. I first thought about who the audience would be for my video and tried to tailor different parts of the video towards their liking such as the pleasant audio song I chose. I also spend a decent amount of time editing my script for the video as not to make it boring or go on at times so that the audience would remain engaged. 

Because of the reasons above, being a media content producer can be very different than a media content consumer. Being a consumer entails understanding why you are consuming the media product (video in this case), and knowing how it can be of use to you, such as for enjoyment or knowledge.                                            f                                                                                                         I thought the pictures I chose in my final draft of the video ended up working out well, as my video focused on my enjoyment of the time I was able to spend with my family, and I hope those pictures expressed how much my family means to me. Additionally by working on the storyboard prior to creating the video, I was able to make the video with much more ease than I would've had I not created a storyboard.                                                                                                         c                                                                                                     As for what I could have done differently, I believe I could have extended the length of the video and gone into more detail about how I spend my time with my family. Although, I gave some brief descriptions of the time spent, more detail can always be added.     c                                                                                                         I believe that this positive aspect of the pandemic for me was also a positive aspect for many other people during these crazy times. I actually did a bit of research before first creating my video and found some of the main reasons why families were able to connect more closely during the pandemic. It mainly involved having more time for conversations. Overall, I would give almost anything for the pandemic to never happen, but it's important to look for the positive things that come out of the worst of situations; and in this case, it turned out to be a very valuable thing. 

Positives of Quarantine

This news project has been one of my favorite assignments I’ve done this semester. I really enjoyed the process of making this video. I had a good time creating this video and learning how to use iMovie. I also found the project to be easier than I was expecting. I was expecting to receive a lot of criticism on my project, but instead I got small suggestions on things to change.

While creating my first draft I was nervous about the outcome of my video and if it would come out the way I envisioned. After starting the project, I felt more confident that Could create the clips the way I wanted. One thing that I realized that helped me early on is writing a script. I tried doing the voice over without writing a script and I found it very difficult; I stumbled over my words and I kept using filler words such as “like” or “umm”. Once I made a script, I felt more comfortable speaking and finished majority of my voice overs in one take.

After my assignment was reviewed by my peers, I made slight changes to my video. Firstly, I added a title in the beginning of the video. I did this to prepare the audience for the media they are about to see. Without the title the audience wouldn’t know what the video is about until they started watching it. Another change I made was adding my name in the video. Relating it back to the first point, the audience would not know who I am since I never introduced myself in the video. Lastly I had to rerecord the last voice over because the audio was not good quality. After making these changes, I felt confident that I was turning in quality work.

The main thing I want to change is how I look in the shots. Personally, I wish that I looked more approachable and less stiff. I look at it now and Wished that I smiled and relaxed more. Another thing That I want to change is how I shot certain scenes. I think that some of the shots could be better. Though I want to make these changes to the assignment, I am satisfied with my work and what I turned in.

Overall, I think that this project was a great learning experience in seeing how news or video media is created. This assignment gives us a look into some of the things that need to be considered in video media such as camera angles, the script, visual aids (photos, clipart, etc.), and much more. I thoroughly enjoyed creating this type of media.

Improving Relationships

From making this video, I learned a lot about my life during the pandemic. From being sent home in March 2020, to now patiently waiting for updates from Trinity for fall 2021 semester plans, I was able to reflect on my life in ways I hadn't before. I was able to really think about the positives in my life even when things overall felt so negative. 

I was able to really learn about who I have been this past year. Seeing the clips of my family and friends helped me to see they are the ones who have guided me through all the negatives. I felt a lot of appreciation for them while creating this video. My life is very different now then it was at the beginning of the pandemic. I am so grateful for the positive relationships I was able to improve and build this year. 

Being on the producer side of video, my point of view was a lot more in depth. I filtered through a lot of clips that a consumer would never see. For me, that caused me to fall a lot deeper into the meaning of my video. I was able to look through all of my photos and videos from during the pandemic. The consumer only got short clips into my life, but I got a lot closer look at the positives I have and appreciate them. 

One thing I wish I could have done differently was the length of the video clips. Although I liked the amount of videos and way they flowed, I wish some clips were longer, to show the moments better. I struggled with this especially with clips of my family, because they were all pretty short and goofy clips. I no longer am permanently living with them and couldn't drive all the way home to get better clips, but I wish that was something I could have done. 

The video making process worked well for me. I hadn't created a video since high school so I was worried about refiguring out how to. The process of it went smoothly and I believe my editing was good. I luckily also remembered where to find non copyrighted music from a previous class I took. 

What fell short for me was how to change my video. On the critique day in class, I didn't really receive any explicit feedback. I felt lost and confused on how to change my video before the final submission. I only had my knowledge and viewpoint of the video to work off of, and I wish I had others.

Family Time is Such a Quality Time

This is my reflective essay about my short project video that I made in the class Media Texts. It was a good and fun project and I learned a lot from it. First of all I learned about Adobe Premiere Pro. I learned about how to make a video, I learned that though the covid pandemic has not been the most fun experience, I have had also such great times during it. The most important thing I learned and take away from this project is that Family is the most important thing in life. At least in my case.

First I will talk about how my experience was working with Adobe Premiere Pro. This was my first time working with Adobe Premiere Pro, however have I had a little bit of experience working on projects in other classes on making graphics and videos using Adobe Spark. Doing videos with Adobe Spark was a good experience but using Adobe Premiere Pro however abled me to do a video on a more professional level. There are so many things that you can do using Adobe Premiere Pro. Some things that I did for this project was to input pictures and videos into Adobe, record myself, and using pictures on the internet. Inputing all these files into Adobe worked really well and fast and it came out very nicely.

Secondly I learned that I have had so much fun during the covid pandemic and moments and times that I will always remember. For my video, I used pictures and videos from when covid started and all the way to when I came back to the Trinity from Iceland this January. There were so many pictures and videos that I had and it was very fun looking back at those memories. Converting the pictures and videos into Adobe worked really smoothly and fast. 

Thirdly I learned that family is the most important thing in life. I say that because those are the people who at least in my case are the closest to me and I enjoy most being around. When Trinity University´s campus closed I went back to Iceland. Spending almost the whole year of 2020 with my family was so fun and made me realise of how important it is to take care and be in good touch with your family. Without covid I wouldn´t have experienced these times with my family. So that time spending with my family was among the biggest positive things that I take away from this pandemic. 

I learned many things from doing this project. It was really fun making a video about a positive experience and including videos and pictures that bring back good memories. It was easy to follow the guidelines for the project and using Adobe. What suprised me was how good of a software Adobe is and how much you can work with it creating a very nice projects like this video. It worked really well to input all the pictures and videos from my phone into Adobe. The one thing that could have been gone better was that there were some pictures that didn´t fill the whole area of space when watching the video.

Good movies and videos that I have watched over my life time are good and successful because a lot of work has been put into the movie. It´s easy to be a media consumer watch a video and enjoy it. By being the producer and creating a video is a different story. I realised that there is a lot of work that needs to be put into it and a lot of small steps and technique that I used that made my video better and more creative. It was really fun making this video and being the producer but at the same it´s way more work being the producer than the consumer and more thought process needs to be put into the work. Working with Adobe Premiere Pro was a very good experience that I will most likely use in the future creating a good video. 

How Small Businesses Reinvented Themselves Creatively

The pandemic has been tough on all of us, that is no secret. Since last March I think a lot of people have spend more time than ever before on social media. During this time I realized that a lot of businesses reinvented themselves. I saw a boom in creativity in the videos and photos they posted and how they started interacting with their audiences online. I've always been attracted to content creation in social media, and this past year has shown me that there are many more ways to expand and grow a business through this channel, which is why I choose this theme to explore more in depth in my video. 

The main thing I learned after filming and editing the video was the impact that a simple decision for a shot can make when creating content. For example, once I finished filming and putting together the main narrative shots were I am featured talking, I knew something was missing. I watched some mini-documentaries on YouTube for inspiration and found that many included text on top of the main narrative to emphasize some points. Once I included some key words on these videos, the difference was clear. The video was now much more engaging as viewers had something to look at in addition to only listening to me talk.

For the planning of the video, I created a storyboard. It took me a really long time to finish the storyboard, but I think that's what made the filming and editing of the video so easy and not so time consuming. For the type of shots I choose, I looked at the article titled "The Basic Building Blocks- The Different Shot Type Families." For the video shots that featured me as a narrator, I choose the Medium Close Up shot because as the article states, "the audience is supposed to be watching the human face at this point in the framing so actions or objects in the surrounding environment hold little to no importance." I wanted special attention from the viewer during those shots because it included the most important points of the video, so this shot was ideal.

I am very content with the final product of this video project. However, that is not to say that there is nothing I would change about it. For instance, the fifth shot of the video features my phone scrolling through Instagram and the image looks a little blurred. When I recorded this video I was too focused on the posts I was clicking on Instagram, rather than the image itself which could be more focused. This way, the viewer would definitely feel more connected to the narration in the background that talks about what small businesses create on social media.

Moreover, after looking closely at the video I can see that some sound editing would have made it better. There are times that the narration does not match the images exactly. Sometimes it starts a few seconds before, or ends too soon. On the sixth shot for example, my narration about the product that the business Milk+T created during the pandemic, begins before the image of the product itself is shown. Although it sounds somewhat insignificant an edit like this, if the sound matches the images it makes it easier for the viewer to stay engaged.

Putting a whole video together from scratch is not that simple. Planning the video before you begin filming is extremely important and smart. To me, the editing process was hard, and attention to detail would have resulted in a better final product. However, after this process I know I am better equipped to analyze videos I see in the media better and smarter. 

Zoom University

For this project, Professor Liu instructed our class to create a two to three minute video regarding The One (Small) Positive Thing about the Pandemic Experience. In other words, we were required to think of one thing that we liked or had a positive experience on through the time we had to socially distance ourselves as well as attend classes, meetings, and events on the video conference platform of Zoom.

My goal was to create a video that not only was elegant and visually pleasing but also one that was relatable to the viewer. I understand that the pandemic was a serious situation, but I see how important it is to bring a positive attitude and make others feel good and laugh, therefore I wanted to make this video slightly comedic in the end. 

It is fascinating how different it feels to be a media content producer than that of a consumer due to the fact how I not only have the creative freedom to do anything but also because of how everything in the video has a purpose. This project allowed me to have a greater appreciation for media content producers and their works of art. 

Without a doubt, I had the most fun on this project due to my recently found interest in the way certain media texts are filmed. From the beginning of this project, I knew I wanted to draw inspiration from a list of film directors and producers I enjoy. I recently finished watching Zach Snyder’s Justice League on HBOMax and I thought the film, in terms of how it was filmed, was a masterpiece. Additionally, I paid homage to certain iconic films such as The Sopranos and Star Wars.  

I wanted to take Zack Snyder’s artistic choice to use a square frame for the video and implement that in my own project. The reason I did this is that I wanted the viewer to be focused only on the Zoom university student. Additionally, I used a noir filter in the video because the colors in my apartment are not only distracting but also unpleasant. With the combination of a black suit and tie, as well as the noir tint, I believe the film gave a sophisticated-like tone, similar to that of Zach Synder’s Justice League: Justice is Gray. The darkness due to the noir filter in the video also symbolized the hard situation of the pandemic, emitting a tone of sadness and loneliness as well. 

For the ending, I wanted a sharp cut to black the moment the Zoom university student broke the fourth wall and directly addressed the viewer. This is to build a feeling of a cliffhanger, hopefully leaving the viewer with the desire to see more. The decision to cut to black is a reference to the season finale of The Sopranos. Additionally, when it came to choosing how to present the credits, I wanted to also pay homage to the great George Lucas' Star Wars and their credits. 

What surprised me was how relatively quick the filming took place. What worked for me the best was combining different camera angles so that the viewer constantly is hooked to the video. What did not work for me was the fact that I did not do the overall outline until after I filmed the video. I kept my vision mostly in my head until I started filming, but if I had an outline beforehand, I would have been able to record the video faster and with better precision. Overall, I had a wonderful experience learnings the basic idea of what it is like to be a media content producer and I hope you can see what my positive thing about the pandemic experience was.

The Covid Education: Learning How to Wash Our Hands

My video project was about how we learned the proper way to wash our hands during the pandemic. I saw the video as being funny and  lighthearted, as well as being informative.

As consumers of videos, we forget how carefully thought out and contrived every moment is. Being a producer made me realize all the decision making that goes into the aspects of videos that just seem natural. 

One thing that requires more thought than I knew is choosing the types of shots. In the past, I have never really considered what the different shots in videos portrayed. I simply took them at face value.

However, in making the video, I had to make decisions about how close up the shots were, what they focused on, etc. From those decisions, I realized that I was trying to convey messages with the different shots.

For instance, in the opening scene, I have two people touching a refrigerator. I start with a wide shot to set the scene of what is happening.

I then switch to a more close up shot of a hand on the refrigerator handle. From just the initial scene of people using the refrigerator, the purpose of the scene might not be clear.

However, focusing on the hand makes it clear that the purpose of the scene has something to do with the act of touching the refrigerator handle. In this case, the small act of adding a shot narrowing in on the hand introduces the topic of handwashing in a way that would not be possible with just the initial shot.

Looking back on the video, the best part was the content, especially the writing, itself. The topic I chose had the potential to be very serious and even boring. Therefore, I made a concerted effort to make the video more light and comedic.

I came up with responses for the interview questions that were a little exaggerated and joking. I also had Cayden, the second person I interviewed, sing aloud while washing his hands. Not only did it convey how people should wash their hands, but it also made watching someone wash their hands more entertaining.

The majority of what I believe I could have done differently is on the editing side of the production process. I would have liked to do more editing, but computer work is not my strong suit.

For instance, I would have liked to have some transitions, but I did not end up adding any transitions because I was worried about time and messing up what I already had.

Additionally, I had some technical issues with my text slides. I would have like my slides to be full screen, but the best I could do was make the text legible. 

There might have also been an opportunity for some background music. However, I had a lot of speaking throughout, and I did not want the music and speaking to compete throughout the whole video. I think background music, while can be played throughout, is most effective when used for B roll, and I did not have any B roll without associated audio.

Not having background music affected the tone of the video. The background music is just one example of how I learned that every decision made in the video, even ones I might have changed, affects the storyline and tone of the video, whether the audience realizes it is happening or not.

The Sunny Side of COVID-19

With my video, “The Sunny Side of COVID-19”, I highlighted how many people took advantage of their new free time to be more active outdoors. I picked this topic because I was personally affected by COVID in this way. Before making my video, I had to alter my mindset towards the COVID-19 virus. Originally, all I could think about was the negative effects and how much I've missed out on this past year due to the pandemic. However, this assignment’s prompt forced me to reevaluate. After brainstorming, I was surprised at how many ideas I came up with but ended up going with the nature theme since I already had videos that fit this topic recorded this past summer.

After deciding on my topic, I created a storyboard that summarized my plan for the video. Before this assignment, I did not know this was a critical step in the process. Through this process, I have learned the importance of a variety of shots. In our class reading, The Basic Building Blocks-The Different Shot Type Families, the author explained how to use different shots and what effect they have on the viewer. I was able to use this information when deciding how I would film my beginning shots and interview clips.

While making this video, most of my time was spent editing clips together, rather than the actual filming like I first predicted. I already had many videos previously filmed over the course of the previous summer, however, cutting them all to an acceptable length was very time consuming. 

Surprisingly, my video editing skills improved quickly as I learned how to navigate through the iMovie software. One mentionable success I had was learning how to correctly record a voiceover, which was an essential task in my video. Using b-roll narration while other clips were playing in the foreground became increasingly important as I realized I could verbally describe how the videos connected with my message. 

I was also pleased with my use of many short clips rather than focusing on a few outdoor activities. Although each video was connected through the central theme of people getting active outdoors, there was a wide variety of activities, emphasizing the point that people were not all doing the same activities during the pandemic. With my use of videos involving a mixture of activities, I was glad to use classmates’ critiques in grouping together similar activities. This allowed for some structure within the larger project. 

While editing my video, I learned the impact and importance of music on generating an emotion on an audience. music can have on videos and films as in this case it generated important emotions. In my video, I chose to have the song Summertime Rain by Little North Fork playing in the background of the entire film. This choice created a warm and calm atmosphere. 

However, it was very difficult to film the interview parts of myself. Since my theme involved nature, I felt these clips needed to be filmed outside. Unfortunately, wind and other sounds associated with the outdoors, such as birds, planes, and lawnmowers, could not be excluded, forcing the audio during these clips to not be as clear. Another problem I found with these same clips, was that the person speaking, me, would mess up many times, forcing me to retake the videos tens of times, and hours of filming for five seconds worth of usable audio. As a consumer, I never realized how much time goes into making such a short video. 

After reviewing the final product, I wish I would’ve had more diversity in terms of shots. Most of my clips were filmed in a medium long shot angle. This is simply because it’s the most comfortable and natural distance to film when taping subjects that are moving or doing an activity, and most of my videos were not originally recorded for the purpose of this assignment. If I were to do this project again and with more time to film, I would diversify the angles of the shots to be included, allowing the entire project to have more variety. 

Overall, I enjoyed this project and I learned a lot about being a content creator. This process was very challenging but learning about the obstacles that come with producing a video has allowed me to have a new appreciation towards video editors. I was allowed to reflect on and alter my attitude towards the pandemic while expanding my skills and knowledge of video editing. Using my own videos of my friends and family truly made me realize how many memories the pandemic has brought myself and the people I love. 

The Efficiencies of Online Class During the Pandemic

For our short movie project I was tasked to create a small film that detailed a benefit that I have experienced during the pandemic. After some deliberation, I ended up choosing to create a film about the efficiencies of getting to class.

When deciding how I was going to best capture these efficiencies I thought it best to create a contrast between my experience of going to class in-person versus over zoom. This decision is what made up my framework for the majority of the short film. An example of this contrast is me hiking up Cardiac Hill trying to make it into my in-person class versus me walking to my computer to make it to the virtual class.

Throughout the process of creating the short film I realized some of the differences between being the movie producer and the consumer. The producer has to consider many important aspects when creating a visually appealing and impactful film such as camera angles and narrations. In comparison the consumer only has to find the film appealing. The goal of the consumer is not to worry about how to convey a message. It is merely to understand the film and hopefully absorb the message being conveyed.

While designing the short film one thing that surprised me was how difficult it was to find the right camera angle inorder to best capture the scenes and make their transitions smooth. It seems easy at first but creating a perfect scene requires prior planning and preparation as well as an understanding of how the different camera angles can affect the scene. Additionally, the producer has to consider the lighting and audio involved with the scene. Because I wanted my video to emit a positive mood I made sure to have all of my scenes well lit.

I thought that most of the transitions in the film worked well. My favorite was the transition of the car pulling out of the driveway as I rushed off to class and then cutting to the inside of the car as I pulled up to campus. On a similar note, I thought that the two sections of the video (going to class in person and over zoom) fused together quite well. By starting both sections with the wake up alarm in my bedroom the audience instantly knows where the scene is taking place and is able to experience the stark contrast between the two sections of the film.

One element that would have been a good addition to the film is a sound track. The problem that I kept running into was that the music was overpowering the narrations and comments that I made throughout the film. Because of this problem I decided to not include the soundtrack with the film.

The Real Covid-19 Essential: Family

 

When I first looked at this assignment, I did not think that it would be any different from videos I have made for past classes. However, I found that thinking as a true media producer was a lot harder than anything I had done before. 

In the past, I have never had to worry about making a storyboard before creating a video. The process of making the storyboard was more challenging than I thought it would be since I had to intentionally think out the vision for my video frame by frame. I found that I had trouble deciding where in my video it would be beneficial to have wide shots versus medium shots and close-ups. 

Even once I figured out where I wanted to use different kinds of shots, I had trouble coming up with the sequencing of my family photos. I mainly had trouble because I wanted to show as many photos of me and my family as possible without the video feeling too much like a slide-show. 

All of the trouble I encountered when thinking out the layout of my video showed me just how difficult it can be to produce media content. However, I also felt like all the planning that I did helped me be more organized when filming shots for my video and putting them together. 

Filming the actual shots that I used for my video were not hard, but I did have some trouble finding pre-existing photos and videos of my family to use for this project. Because of this, there are parts of my media video that did not turn out as well as I would have liked. 

At the beginning of the video, I have an introduction clip of me discussing some of the ways that the coronavirus has impacted my life. While this introduction clip is necessary, I feel like that I show myself talking for too long before cutting to some shots showing pictures of me and my family. 

In addition, I feel that some of my transitions are kind of awkward. An example of this is when I am showing some shots of photos of my family and then I cut to the video of me talking before cutting back to more photos. These transitions seem unnatural to me, and I had trouble trying to smooth them out. 

While I had some issues in my video, I felt that I did other parts of it well. For one, I chose music that I think goes with my video well as it is upbeat and positive while not being too distracting. I also think that the photos of my family that I chose are good ones as they display different moments of my family and I finding joy in spending time together. I especially like that I was able to find a place to put a video of my cat as my pets are also an important part of my family.

If I did this project again, I would definitely make some improvements on my video. For one, I would try and find more videos of my family hanging out rather than just photos. Too many photos makes a video like this duller, and I would like to make this video seem more engaging in the future. In the future, I would also cut down on the actual talking I do in this video as I am talking for almost the entire two minutes. This makes the video seem like there is too much information being presented in a short amount of time. 

The Simple Things

For many, quarantine from the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many positive effects. Some people attained better fitness, some formed greater relationships with loved ones, and some picked up new hobbies. For my video project, I focused on the new appreciation of attending your favorite social scenes.
 
To express this new-found appreciation for grabbing your favorite eats or drinks with family and friends, I wanted to recreate a food show episode. This type of media content is usually very upbeat that contains an introduction to a certain location, video shots of people enjoying food at restaurants, interviews with local people, and cool background music. I went around San Antonio and captured video of Downtown San Antonio and of the restaurant/ bar that I focused on for my video. At this location, I was able to obtain A-roll and B-roll as I captured video of lively crowds and personal interviews where locals shared their thoughts on the same new-found appreciation. For some of my aerial shots of San Antonio, I turned to YouTube and found great clips from drone video camera uploads. 
 
Recreating this type of media content, wasn’t so difficult as I have edited many videos in the past. The most difficult parts of video-making are obtaining the correct shots to create a story and selecting the correct soundtrack to not only set the mood but keep an audience’s attention. While filming, I made sure of obtaining close-ups, medium shots and long shots in order to create a more appealing plot that would not seem repetitive. For the soundtrack, it was difficult finding a royalty free track that was upbeat but in the rock genre. The rock genre was the only genre I believe fits in this style of video and any other genre would have seemed out of place. 
 
One thing I believe I could have done better was lighting. My thought was to create a night time video, but without the proper equipment many of the shots were dark. I tried to edit within the software to bring up the lighting and colors in the clips just enough for the audience to see what was being portrayed. However, this could have been better improved. 
 
I believe I achieved my goal of creating an upbeat video which conveyed the appreciation of being able to have a good time and good food with your loved ones. I feel that many of us took for granted how it felt to have good time outside of the home. These experiences can create many memories and new relationships and, at least for me, I will absolutely cherish it more. 

The Pandemics Impact on the Environment

Because I have previous video filming and editing experience from making youtube videos, this project served not as an eye-opening experience but rather a chance to practice and fine-tune my abilities. Nevertheless, there were still many important takeaways that I would like to share. 

One important takeaway that I had from this short video project was realizing the significant difference between the media content producer and consumer. More specifically, as a consumer, you are unaware of how much effort is required to be a successful video producer because you are convinced that it's an effortless task. However, as this project has helped show me, this assumption could not be any farther from the truth. 

Addressing what surprised me, one astonishing realization that I had was learning the significantly positive impact a rough and final cut can have. While on previous video projects of mine I only edited until every clip was combined into a sequence and the music and sound effects were added, for this one I chose to edit a rough cut and then continuously modify it until I was satisfied with the final product. 

A less significant surprise that I experienced was learning the difficulty of having consistent audio levels. More specifically, I originally wanted the max peaks for every audio clip to be around -6 decibels, but this turned out to be painstakingly hard to achieve because the denoise effect kept messed levels. While I eventually learned how to use the effect properly, it proved to be a major hassle throughout. 

Addressing what worked well with the video, I believe I effectively succeeded on all the grading criteria. More specifically, I reached the required video length, including all the basic elements and necessary content with adequate editing/visual/sound quality. Among these different elements, I was particularly satisfied with the cross-dissolve transitions I used because I felt they seamlessly blended the material without drawing unwanted attention. 

Another aspect that I think worked well as my explanation and analysis of the reduction in carbon emissions as a result of the pandemic. I combined information from reliable sources such as NBC to show that while emissions decreased significantly, they were lower than expected. From here, I made connections to the pandemic and suggested the implications of this surface-level study. 

However, there are several complaints that I would like to address about my video. Namely, several shots of me speaking to the camera were slightly out of focus. The reason why this happened is that I left the camera on manual focus from a previous project I was working on and forgot to turn reset it to automatic. To an ordinary viewer, the difference is not very noticeable, but to me, they are very aggravating and hard to view. 

As for things that could have been done differently, one area that I would have improved was the lack of shot variety in my b roll. Because I used the same highway shot and graphic animation twice throughout the video, this makes the video feel very repetitive and in turn less watchable. To resolve this issue, I would have filmed more close-up shots of cars to pair with the A roll and have designed a new graphic animation for the ‘connections to the pandemic’ section.

"Alone Time" in the Pandemic

 

The video project I created focused on the benefits of spending time alone. I felt that learning to be by myself was a very important and positive experience for me during the pandemic. But it was not simply being by myself that was positive, it was what I learned about myself and how it helped me academically that made it my positive experience during this pandemic. I was very excited to share my personal experience for this project because I feel that many other students can connect with me and understand being alone. 

I learned a lot from this project. I have never really worked with a storyboard or editing videos so this project was full of new experiences with me. I learned how to plan my camera shots, my script, and my video editing so that the whole project flowed smoothly. The storyboard was very important for me in planning and putting my video together. My personal laptop does not run very smoothly so I borrowed my friend's MacBook for this project. I was able to learn how to use iMovie properly and effectively as well because of this project.

Normally when I watch other people's videos I am able to point out issues and changes that need to be made. But for my own video that was very difficult for me to do. I had one of my friends look over the video a couple of times to make sure the video flowed nicely. I also figured out that it is a lot of work to be a content producer rather than a media consumer, especially with a video. Being the creator was difficult for me because this video was a multi-step process including a lot of new technology and programs I hadn't used before.

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy the video editing process was. I uploaded my audio clips but removed the video and overlapped that audio with new videos I took. The new videos were of me completing actions that were narrated over by my pre-recorded audio. I was also surprised with how helpful the storyboard process was, specifically when deciding what picture angle I would use: medium shot, close-up or long shot. I used the class reading on Shots Storyboard to help me figure out when and why I should use certain camera shots.

The class readings were very beneficial in the planning process for this project. In specific, the images on page 13 of the storyboard pdf shared in class helped me to understand what the different types of shots looked like. This allowed me to understand what my video would look like even before recording. Likewise, the example storyboard at the bottom of this source also helped me to see what information I should include in my personal storyboard before filming.

I think overall my video project worked very well. I think that my audio and picture quality during filming were clear for the viewer. I am not exactly the best person when it comes to speaking in front of a camera, but I tried my best. That being said I think some of the acting skills could be improved upon, as well as my interview skills. But, all in all I think my project was a success and clearly expresses my message on a positive experience during the pandemic.

Pandemic Positives: Spending Time With Family

 

I much enjoyed the thought experiment of focusing on one positive from the pandemic. Although it is important to acknowledge the gravity of COVID-19, it is still healthy to be grateful of the blessing we still have in our lives. 

My biggest pandemic positive was spending time with family. During pre-COVID times, I would spend the majority of my time focusing on school and work, and manage to stay connected with family through phone calls and visiting over breaks. However, due to quarantine, I lived at home and therefore got to participate in more family activities.

In my video, I not only discussed my experiences, but I also got a chance to interview several other Trinity students on their experience with spending time with family during the pandemic. My goal with this format was to mock what a news reporter might do while gaining other perspectives on the matter.

Throughout the filming and editing process, I gained a newfound respect for media producers.

Regarding the filming process, I learned the importance of using a variety of video shots to establish setting, ease transitions, and create aesthetic appeal. I managed to use a combination of long shots, medium shots, medium close-ups, close-ups, and big close-up shots.

On the other hand, the editing process made me appreciate how many moving parts go into a video. In my experience, this included an A and B-roll, transition effects, overlaying soundtracks, doctoring the audio, and splicing in sound track music.

In order to create smooth transitions between clips, I used a couple of strategies. First, I used longer shots between close-up shots in order to appropriately establish settings. Second, on the editing side, I used a variety of transition effects on premier pro including the cross-dissolve effect. Lastly, I was surprised to find how effective the sound track music was to the transitions. I used a soundtrack call Optimistic by Eric Godlow. By increasing the music between clips and while the subjects of my video were not talking, I believe that the music created a sense of flow. Thus, further improving the transitions.

However, one area that I could of improved on was the B roll. During the sections of the video that I filmed of myself and narrated, my B-roll included real life activities of me and my family. I wish I would have reciprocated the use of a B-roll while interviewing other Trinity students on their experiences. Maybe I could have asked them if they were comfortable sharing pictures of footage of with their families during the pandemic.

Kicked Off Campus: A Positive?

When deciding what to cover as a positive from the Covid-19 pandemic, only one thing came to mind: living off-campus. While there were many opportunities taken away as a result of the pandemic, the opportunity to live off-campus quickly became a highlight. The process of filming and conveying the true extent of the benefits of this opportunity, however, was a challenge.

I initially viewed living off-campus as a negative. The sudden difficulty of being told to find a new place to live was stressful and frustrating for not only Trinity students, but students across the country, as seen in the extensive news coverage. What resulted from this frustration was the ability to see the benefits of life as a student off-campus. 

Conveying this initial frustration and how I ultimately viewed living off-campus positively raised challenges but also provided the video a story-like structure. In particular, finding creative ways to convey some of the positives I felt, even if they were intangible or abstract, was the most challenging. While brainstorming, I quickly learned it would be better to focus on tangible aspects of living off-campus as they were easier to film and provided a more straightforward explanation.

These tangible benefits were the easiest portion of my video to convey, as the B-roll was straightforward and matched the narration. Aspects such as having a kitchen and having the freedom to be active when I wanted were paired with a B-roll of my kitchen and a local walking trail. Using a variety of shots in a montage format paired with matching narration worked the best, and allowed me to incorporate multiple aspects of a good video in a manner that supported my overall storyline. 

While the B-roll/narration format worked well in some aspects, it also presented some challenges. In particular, finding B-roll outside of what was being told in the narrative was the biggest challenge. The tangible benefits of living off-campus could be easily filmed, but only covered a small portion of my overall narrative. To counter this challenge, I used photographs that portrayed much of what I could not film for B-roll. If done again, eliminating photographs in favor of footage would be my focus.

Overall, this project gave me a small taste of how difficult it is to put together a strong, appealing video. As a consumer, it is easy to critique the videos of others. When making a video yourself, however, you quickly learn how difficult it is to create a video that comes close to the one critiqued.

Cat-watching during COVID

 
For my video, I chose to show my coping method for COVID, which was cat-watching. Cat-watching is pretty much self-explanatory, it's when you go outside and look for cats. Doing a video over my hobby helped me realize just how many cats there were outside just waiting to be stared at and bothered, and gave me a new appreciation for going outside, even in an urban environment.

In making this video, I have learned and grown to appreciate videomaking. I found it difficult to keep the camera steady at times, and collecting b-roll footage for my video at all was trying, as the subjects for my video do not respond to human language, and most would run away if I got too close. There is also the fact that cats operate on their own schedule, so I had to work to find them when they wanted to be found. This caused a mild amount of stress towards the deadline, as I was missing twenty seconds of footage and no cats were showing up. There is only one cat on my street that shows up with any regularity, and he only shows up long enough for me to get him lunchmeat. I couldn't do a video with half of the footage being of one cat, so I had to go out and explore further in my neighborhood. Most of the cats shown in the video were cats that I had never seen before, even having gone cat-watching several times before. I got lucky and got footage of other cats in other parts of my neighborhood, and even at my local grocery store. 

Getting b-roll footage for my video turned out to be the easy part of the videomaking process. Getting a-roll footage was surprisingly more difficult, as I wanted to use footage of past foster kittens that I had fostered with my family. Unfortunately, I had taken very few useable videos that weren't blurry, showed too much of my room, or were taken in portrait when all my other footage was in landscape. Fortunately, I was able to get some footage of the kittens my parents were currently fostering, so I was able to use that.

Another challenge was using the video editor. I wanted to use Adobe Premiere Pro initially, but I got an error message saying that I would need to install another driver to make that work, and being unsure what that meant, I decided to use the default video editor that came with my computer. The video editor was very basic, it had a timeline that I could place footage on, and the ability to add custom sounds, as well as some premade title cards to use, which turned out to be enough for my purposes. It was surprisingly difficult to set up my narration on the video, especially if I had added any footage to the video. All the audio clips were stacked on one timeline, and some sounds would lay on top of others, making certain audio files difficult to move around and set where I wanted them to be. 

Overall, I had fun with this project, even with its difficulties. I got to have fun doing my hobby, while also learning how to edit and create videos. 

A Plus of the Pandemic: Road Trips and the Outdoors

An extended spring break in March 2020 turned into a global pandemic that we are still living through today. COVID-19 disrupted life in many ways: graduation ceremonies canceled, indoor dining prohibited, and air travel discouraged. Through this difficult year, I made the decision to do college remotely. While I would have much rather been at Trinity for my first year, I was able to spend another year with my family and explore the outdoors of the Pacific Northwest and surrounding states.

To begin my video, I used the instrumental version of the song "Runaway" by Kanye West as subtle background audio behind the breaking news video clips reporting on COVID-19. Clips from Good Morning America, NBC News, and NBA on TNT were used to flashback to the first days of the pandemic, giving the video a nostalgic feeling. 

After the nostalgic opening to the video, more upbeat music begins, and a combination of A-roll and B-roll with voice-over (VO) runs through the remaining part of the video. The footage consists of mainly landscapes and scenery throughout Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and California, and I decided to add in a few shots of my family exploring the outdoors.

Reflecting back on the project, it was much more work than I anticipated. Initially, I only had a couple of shots for the video, but after editing, I realized my video was too short and I needed to be strategic in finding video clips and images from road trips last year to make the video a little longer. While I thought producing a video would be relatively simple, small things like finding transitions, choosing songs, adding subtitles, and choosing how to order shots in a video actually takes a lot of thought. 

Overall, I think the final cut of the video was successful. The opening video clips really created a feeling of suspense reflecting back to the unprecedented first days of the pandemic. As the video transitioned to the nature shots, I enjoyed bringing this footage into iMovie and reliving moments from the past year. In the video, drone footage I collected was used, and I think it worked very well. If I would've known about this project this past summer, my goal would have been to collect more drone footage, especially in Colorado with the snow, but I'm glad I was able to insert some clips from the drone in Oregon.

If I was to remake this video, I would add some more narration and make the video longer. Instead of focusing on multiple trips and events from the past year, I would focus on one trip, and make the video more like a "video blog" of my day-to-day life during a road trip. Additionally, I was forced to use some still photos in the video instead of solely video clips as I didn't collect enough video footage. 

While describing one positive thing from the pandemic was mainly a success, I would consider changing the few things I listed above if I was to remake it. Either way, creating this video was an extremely nostalgic experience and it helped me learn more about strong video production techniques.

Me, Myself, and Nature

For my video project I focused on how nature had a positive impact on my mental health and my overall happiness in quarantine. I expressed my greater appreciation of the outdoors and how that appreciation changed my perspective of nature overall. I got to bond with my dogs and build a better connection with them. I wanted to share my story to encourage others to spend more time outdoors and with their animals.

Making my video was definitely harder than I expected. I knew I had documented my quarantine pretty well through videos and pictures, so I thought the process would be easy to put together. That however was not the case. A video production is a lot more than just putting video's and pictures together. You must match scenery, lighting and video shots. One function that played an important role in my video production was video shots.

I learned about the importance of video shots and its role in conveying my story and creating a professional video. The storyboard  helped me to organize my ideas and create a process with different types of shots. I used a variety of medium shots, long shots, and close ups. I also made sure that all the scenery in my shots matched and transitioned cleanly.

For all of my scenery I made sure I matched all the wooded scenery together with any green scenery and to match the water scenery with blue and white hues in other scenes. This created smooth transactions and let my video have a great aesthetic that reflected the beauty of the outdoors. The Lighting also created a positive emotion association in my video.

The lighting in my video created a light happy hearted feeling associated with summer. I made sure every video was well light and had few shadows. The sunlight also created streaks that highlighted my main focus in each video.

Figuring out how to voice over and create a sound track was difficult. I wanted to engage with my viewers and create a personal video while keeping it professional. Voicing over the soundtrack created a professional sound and allowed me share my story with the listeners.

Overall I feel that my video did a good job of conveying my journey through quarantine. I hope my video inspired more people to go outside and really enjoy life. I also like how I was able to tell my life before and after quarantine. I enjoyed the whole process, especially having to watch countless YouTube videos on editing.

Becoming Healthier during a Pandemic

Working behind the camera and actually putting together shots for my news story opened my eyes to how much goes into producing a video project. While clearly the story is the most important thing, there are so many other things that need to be considered which I hadn't thought of prior to doing this project.

Lighting, camera angles, camera distance, how close the interviewee is holding the microphone to their mouth, how loud they are talking, and so much more were just a few of the things I had to monitor in creating this video. All of these considerations were new as I hadn't thought about any of this previously by just watching TV.

In coming up with an idea for a news segment I simply considered what news was being thrown at me the most during the pandemic: good hygiene. 

Hand sanitizer stations, wash hands signs, and other health and safety measures were posted everywhere I looked during the pandemic. To make this segment my own, I incorporated my own experiences relating to exercise during the pandemic that, like hygiene, fell under the broad bucket of health wellness. 

During quarantine, like many others, I picked up unhealthy habits from just sitting at home. After the first few weeks, I realized this needed to change and therefore improved my wellness by becoming more active. I quickly learned many others experienced this same thing which is why this section was included in my news segment.

Looking back on my project, I was very satisfied with the final product and how it came out. I particularly enjoyed the flow of the segments and the 'action shots' that played over both of my interviews. Ensuring these clips were of the person I was interviewing added credibility and made the watching experience more enjoyable.

I also was pleased with the interviewees I selected. Both Jalen and Mason were able to talk about the subject extensively, were clear in their delivery, and effective in presenting the message they were speaking on.

In picking these two people I had to consider which of my friends were good public speakers, social, and talkative. Working on this project thus revealed how careful producers must be in selecting who they interview. After all, a poor interview could ruin the entire segment no matter how good the subject or camera work is.

Despite this, there were some things I would have liked to do differently. 

First, adding background music to the intro and outro would have improved the product. On top of this, I could have compiled possibly two other interviews (one about hygiene and another about wellness) to shorten the length of each interview, while also giving a different perspective on the subject.

Overall, I was pleased with the product and greatly enjoyed putting the video together. Getting all the clips together, adding text and transitions, and cropping videos in Adobe Premiere Pro was fun and felt like I was piecing together a puzzle. Because of this, it made watching the end result very fulfilling and something I'd be happy to do again.

How the Covid-19 Pandemic Made Me Stronger

 Covid-19 made a major impact on the United States during a time that was supposed to be some of the best months of my life. While I am lucky that my family and friends have not been severely impacted by this horrible virus, it certainly had a negative effect on my mental health. 

In making this video, I wanted to document my experience with the mental side effects of life being flipped upside down and how I decided to live my life to the fullest again. 

Making this video was definitely a process of trial and error. After making and submitting my rough video, I decided that I wasn't happy with how it turned out or how it reflected my experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. After allowing myself to truly reflect on one good thing that came out of the pandemic, I realized that I couldn't discuss it without also focusing on some of the negatives.

My hope in creating this video was to allow the viewer to take a glimpse into my life and how I have been affected by Covid-19. I didn't want it to feel dishonest or overly positive. This was definitely my biggest challenge as I brainstormed and worked on the storyboard. 

When I initially thought about a documentary style video, I thought of the news and how they typically portray these stories. However, I realized that discussing something positive that came out of the pandemic needed to be more personal and focused more on the storytelling aspects. This is why I transitioned from an interview or news-style video to a personal documentary style. 

Something else I struggled with as the content producer was creating an assortment of A Roll and B Roll footage and using them both to effectively tell my story. For the A Roll footage, I chose to document myself waking up, getting ready for the day, and deciding to live my life to the fullest again. For the B Roll footage, I chose to use videos of myself or that I had taken depicting how I chose to enjoy life.

As I created my A Roll footage, I found it particularly difficult to utilize consistent lighting. However, I was happy with how I transitioned from blue, moody lighting to yellow, bright lighting after deciding to take my life back into my own hands.

I also wanted to ensure that I used a series of medium shots, long shots, and close ups, as described in our reading, "The Shot and How to Frame It." I found this challenging as all of the A Roll footage was shot by myself in my apartment. However, I feel I found creative ways to approach this challenge by placing the camera both near and far away from me. 

In conclusion, I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed creating this video. It felt good to open up about my experience with Covid-19 and how it made me stronger. While it was certainly a challenge, I enjoyed learning more about Adobe Premiere Pro through YouTube videos and various online resources. Overall, I am happy with how my final video turned out after starting fresh. 

Another Lesson in What not to-do: Making a Video About Sleeping.

When I first started on this video project, I can certainly say I had an idea of what I wanted to make: a video explaining how the time freed up by the pandemic, at the very least, helped people finally better their sleeping habits. After storyboarding this idea however, I immediately ran into a roadblock. While storyboarding a video to set its scenes in stone may help some, I frankly didn't get much use out of it as coming up with interesting scenes for a video about sleeping proved to be more difficult than initially considered, leading to a disappointingly basic storyboard. Additionally, whenever I did come up with a better idea for some scene in the video, I would have to rethink all subsequent scenes in the storyboard which proved to be more frustrating than I thought it would be. 

Even worse though was how my rethinking of how to structure the video proceeded well into gathering B-roll footage. This, in addition to the fact that I was admittedly way too shy with filming in public when gathering some of my footage, led me to commit one of the worst possible sins of filmmaking: not gathering enough B-roll. This failure to gather enough footage immediately turned what was supposed to be a visually varied and interesting video essay into me just talking into a camera for two minutes straight. 

In a misguided effort to resolve the lack of useful ideas for B-roll, I reworked my script so that it would follow a more broad premise about how the pandemic generally helped free up time for people, which would hopefully give me the creative freedom needed to gather interesting footage. In reality, all this change did was remove any real focus the script might have otherwise once had.  

Seeing as to how any and all efforts to improve my video were inevitably making it worse, I decided that it would be best to just stop thinking about how to improve the video and instead work with what I had. While I was initially pessimistic about how the resulting video would turn out, my attitude began to change when things slowly but surely came together in Premiere Pro. 

Sure, my resulting video was noticeably crummier than those of my contemporaries, but as far as last ditch efforts go I’d say this project turned out to be better than the sum of its parts. For example, while supplementing my lack of B-roll, I learned how to animate individual sections of still images so as to give them some much needed motion. Additionally, my vocal performance when reading the revised script proved to be more clear and confident than I expected, despite the poor audio quality and me having to look back at the script every three seconds. Overall, while my final product may have fallen short in many regards, I am proud of it regardless of this due to the important lessons in filmmaking it helped me learn. 

A Minor Setback for a Major Comeback

The process of creating this short video was more of an enjoyable learning experience for me rather than a typical college assignment. I used iMovie on my MacBook to construct my product which was completely new to me as it was the first time I had ever even opened the app. However, I found myself genuinely enjoying this process and assignment far more than any of our previous ones. 

Right off the bat, I had a few issues with the software as my imported videos and clips were not properly displaying the video during the editing process. After countless google searches in attempt to resolve the issue, I ended up figuring out myself that the cause of this issue was due to the type of importing I had used for each of these clips. I found that by airdropping the clips from my iPhone to my MacBook, it was causing the clips to not have video shown in iMovie, only the audio. To resolve this, I emailed the clips to myself from my iPhone and then opened and imported them to my MacBook from there. To my luck, it finally worked and I was able to learn something new!

Once I was able to successfully view all of my clips in iMovie, my editing process was ready to initiate. I never realized how many different transitions and audio/visual effects that were available to video editors. Playing around with many of them, I felt like a kid in a candy store. This part of the assignment is what I most enjoyed because as a consumer, you don’t really take these sorts of details into account. However, it is these details that make all the difference in the final product, and taking on the role of the media content producer illuminated that realization for me.

Collecting B-Roll was an easy part of the process for me due to the fact that I already had this film from when we were actually in our lockdown stages of quarantine. Every detail about my video is accurate as I sincerely committed my time during this period to improving my craft for the upcoming Spring soccer season. Evidently enough, it proved to be well worth the time as I have become a starter on our men’s soccer team and have helped us secure 1^st place in our conference entering the conference tournament this weekend. 

If I were to change anything relating to this assignment and how I went about the process of creating my short video, it would have been the software that I used to construct it. I wanted to use iMovie since I had never previously used it before and had it easily accessible to me through my MacBook. However, I would love the opportunity to recreate this video using Adobe Premiere Pro. I took an introductory AV class in high school where we spoke a bit about Premiere but never got to experience it firsthand. I can only imagine the vast range of special effects and tools that I would be able to utilize with this software now that I have experience in video editing!