Final

This year has been a tough year overall being senior year and having college and other "bigger and better" things looming over my future. Within the classroom itself has not been an easy task either, especially with my individual time limit. The transition from Convergence Journalism to SID student has been challenging because I'm not used to doing stories specifically on sports. However I like working with the people I work with in SID because they have helped me better understand sports related stories and brought new ideas to the table.

Interviews:

Throughout the year I haven't really done any solo packages but I have helped on many other films. One of my favorite interviews was the collection of interviews for the football team. I liked working on this because it was such a large task. It was interesting to see what each senior football player had to say, but a challenge to find a way to intertwine and connect all their responses.

Individualism:

Although I am in a sports information class, I've enjoyed doing written stories about other things that interest me on my own time. Stories like my First Fridays and Things to love about where we live, reflect who I am and I enjoy spending my time outside of class doing them. My favorite aspect of my First Fridays story was the fact that I felt like the real deal. I interviewed employees and First Friday attendees on my phone while I came up with spur of the moment questions depending on what they were doing or how they connected with the event. It made me more confident working on stories where I don't really know the subjects, because most of the time I have pre-existing relationships with the people in my stories just by going to school with them. These projects have made me feel as if my individual story telling style is becoming more prominent.

Photography:

My most favorite aspect I have improved on this year is taking photographs. I started out learning the frustrating task to taking pictures of fast moving soccer players, but once I was able to get comfortable taking these photos it quickly became my favorite thing to do. I am currently undecided on a college for next year, but I have been looking into enrolling in journalism schools at my prospective universities. One of my key must haves is a course for photographic journalism. The euphoria obtained by capturing the perfect moment in a game or getting the perfect light has made me want to further my photography skills in the future and continue taking pictures for class this next semester.

Goals:

Next quarter one of my main goals would to do some solo stories for class instead of just helping others with theirs. Within the packages I will strive to make a more interesting story than just the necessary information. In the recent film we watched in class, the main guy talked about making the content of the story interesting and artful even though they were just supposed to make an informational piece. I believe I can make simple news/sports packages better by taking a little bit more time with setting up lighting and sequencing of shots to create a more visually appealing story instead of just having the basics.


A personal goal I have set is to make written posts more frequent. I feel I can do this at home much easier than this semester, for I will have a couple less classes that require more homework time. I want to make my written portfolio greater by the end of this year because I could quiet possibly see myself going into some form of Journalism in college.

Documentary Proposal

1. Working title: Meg

2. Ryley DeMaro, Jessie Payne & Ashley Couch

3. Our documentary is about a girl named Meg who has a learning disability and also manages the girls basketball team at Olathe Northwest. The main conflict in the story is her over coming her challenges and doing what she loves. We want the audience to feel inspired and understand that life has challenges and you can do anything you set your mind to.

4. Meg: Meg is a freshman at ONW who has joined the girls basketball team. She has a learning disability and is the main subject in our documentary. We have yet to interview her and learn more about the exact details of her life.

Meg's mom: She is Meg's mom.

Meg's brother: Bo is a junior at Olathe Northwest. He and Meg have grown really close over the years.

Branstrom: The head basketball coach.

5. Meg has to over come her challenges and learn how to be part of the varsity basketball team in their season.

6. Act I:
Introduction. Brief descriptions of Meg from her family's point of view. Some B-roll of her in school as opening shots.
Act II:
Branstrom can describe her roll on the team. Family could talk about how she's wanted to play basketball. Climax= Sitting on bench during game.
Act III:
Meg's life from her point of view. Start asking about how she wanted to play basketball- how she felt about sitting on the bench.

7. Meg will be happy and feel a part of the team. She will hopefully feel like she is fitting in. This should make the audience feel inspired and have positive vibes.

Digital Innovation and Future of Storytelling

1.

In the article the impact of technology is discussed and how it has transformed the media and storytelling industry. This includes how technology changes the way we see things and experience the world.

2.

The author argues that the new technologies have a drastic impact on storytelling, for example, the Google Glass which makes events like concerts and pro sporting games easier to share and experience.  The authors strength is providing many examples of different innovative mediums. However, the author should have expanded more on the background and how these transformed throughout the years. The general conclusion the author provides is the vast power of these technologies and how they will continue to shape the way media is developed.

3.

The author supports his main points throughout the article. It continues to strengthen the argument throughout by stating how the consumers are more in power of the media which is a huge change of what media used to consist of. From this article I will take to never underestimate the power of the media and look for more ways (different mediums) to share information. The article was fairly easy to understand.

4.

I thought it was interesting. I never really thought about all the different ways we have today I get information and entertainment from... Netflix, Twitter, Youtube, through E-mail, televised email, films. It has been entirely reconstructed from what media used too look like.


The article can be found here.

Tips for an Awesome Interview

Completing an interview isn't always such an easy task. These five tips will help an interview go over smoothly.

1. Research about your interviewee and the topic. For example if you are interviewing a football player, research the team, stats, positions or things specific to the individual. You don't want to make yourself look like you don't know what you are talking about.

2.   Prepare your set before the interviewee arrives. Make sure your set, lighting, supplies and camera                               are all ready to go. It's awkward for the interviewee to stand and watch you set up.

3. During the interview it is okay to deviate from your pre made questions list. If you think of any additional questions as you go, just ask it. Any clarifying questions may be helpful for you to develop the story.

4. Make sure you always always always have the interviewee restate the question. Even if this means stopping the interview to re-ask the question. The video will sound better if they restate the question.

5. Make sure the interviewee feels comfortable in the interview. Having a chair on set will help. Ask some basic warm up questions before asking about a touchy subject. Making the interview feel like a conversation will make them less nervous overall.

BONUS TIP

Wait a couple seconds after they answer the question. This will be easier to edit if the sound bites are easily identified. Interrupting the interviewee (besides from being rude) makes it harder to edit.

EXTRA BONUS TIP

Let the interviewee read the pre made questions before you ask them, this way they have some idea of what the interview is about and how to respond to the questions. If not their answers might be shorter and more choppy than if they have background information.

The Best of 2014

Dr. Poss' Ice Bucket Challenge was all shot and edited in the same day. I didn't shoot the footage but I was able to put the package together in about forty minutes with the help of Ryley DeMaro and Jessie Payne. The video was a response to RFC's challenge to Dr. Poss.

We had a wide variety of shots to choose from which helped the composition of the package. The overall concept of the video also made it very popular. It was hard to edit with a lack of B-roll so the end result turned out pretty well.

Next time I would add different angles and line up the shots more. It was challenging to do with the small amount of footage, so next time if possible I would try to gather more film to use.

For homecoming week Olathe Northwest put on their first annual parade. Again with this package I was not the one who filmed the footage, however I edited with the assistance of Jessie Payne.

Again with this package there were a variety of shots to choose from thanks to the three fellow journalists who filmed the parade. The interviews throughout the package worked really well to tie everything together.

If I had the chance to redo this edit I would make the package tie more together with a constant audio component like the fight song and maybe add more shots.




I have not completed many individual videos, however I have helped edit and shoot interviews for other packages like the feature on Cameron Gueldner and the football hype video. This year I've been able to expand my photography skills by taking pictures for the fall media guide and shooting the varsity boys soccer team. Below are some of my favorite pictures I have taken so far this season.

I have been able to use these pictures to use writing stories about the team. 

http://www.onwravens.net/ravendaily/?p=14726

Below are the photos I took that were used in the fall media guide.