Self Reflection- Noah's Band-aid Project

 Noah's Band-aid Project was one of my favorite videos to film and edit. Although, there is no B-Roll, I believe this news package tells a story that really impacts the viewers. The reality is, is that cancer has affected most people in one way or another. This story that Victoria and I put together really shows others that people go through similar things in life and everyone has to overcome different obstacles.
  This project was very important to Victoria and I because we were attempting to get the whole school to participate and donate band-aids for Noah's band-aid drive. Not only was it important to tell the student body information about the drive, but it was also essential to inform the student body on why this drive is important for our community. I believe we got the information across and told Noah's story in a very sympathetic manner.
 Interviewing a parent who lost their child to cancer, is something neither Victoria and I have ever done. It was very difficult to prepare questions for this interview because we didn't know what Mr. Wilson was and wasn't willing to share. However, Victoria and I lucked out because Mr. Wilson was very open and shared all of Noah's story without us having to ask. In order to improve this package, Victoria and I could have made our pictures move, and we could have used more sound-bytes from Sarah Stroup. Overall, the process of making this video was very educating and enjoyable, and I believe it is one of our better news packages.

Technical Tutorial

   The technical tutorial I will be speaking about is the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is essential when interviewing a subject. Many cameras have a graph setting that can be turned on and off, if you are a beginner then it would be beneficial to turn this setting on. The picture below is what the graph on the camera screen should look like.

    

     Imagine breaking an image down into thirds both vertically and horizontally, so that the picture is divided into 9 parts, this is the main idea behind the rule of thirds. While interviewing someone you do not want to place the subject in the middle of the graph, instead place the subject on the right or left side. The eyes of the subject should be aligned with the highest horizontal line because having extra head space in an interview can often times be distracting and take the attention away from the subject.

      I believe that the rule of thirds should be the first skill everyone in the video/photography industry should learn.The concept is so simple yet so important. The rule of thirds makes the interview process look more natural because the subject being interviewed is not noticeably staring to one side of the camera while answering the questions, instead it looks like the subject is looking straight ahead because the camera is not centered on their face. The rule of thirds should be used whenever filming or editing a frame/picture. 

Professional Article Review

   Online written news articles often follow a video. The news that people care about will most likely be filmed and broadcasted for the world to see, so in order to have a successful news article it has to include more information than the video does. In my opinion, it is also important for articles to contain information and details that are only essential to the story because you don't want to bore the readers.  
   The article below caught my attention because it connected current news with history. This article covers a Navy admiral's speech at the 75th anniversary of Peal Harbor. Harry Harris stated "you can bet that men and women we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played". This article used quoted that were beneficial to the story,  and the author of this article stated what criticism Harris has received since the speech.  
     I think it is important that all students in Convergence Journalism class practice their writing skills more often. A written story should often tell additional information than the package tells. I believe the viewers of Raven Daily would read our stories after they watched the news package if it included additional information. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/us/navy-admiral-colin-kaepernick-speech-trnd/index.html

Professional Project Review

   As a student in the Convergence Journalism strand, I find it very beneficial to watch the news every morning. I am personally a fan of  NBC's Today show because it is an interactive news broadcast that covers the hard news, yet still has news packages that inspire others to do better. Not only does the news  make me more aware about issues in today's society, but it also allows me to see how professionals go beyond the 6 shot system, use stand-ups, and how they tell a story in order to impact the viewers.
    The news package linked below is a story I  watched on the Today Show before heading off to school one day. The package Matt Lauer put together really captured my attention because of Matt's passion and connection to the topic: Hand-Written Letters. Matt did not just create a news package, but he told the story of why hand-written letters are important to himself and the students in Detroit. I believe telling a story that you are passionate about is much more effective and has a bigger impact on the viewers.
    Reflecting on the 2 years I have been making news package for ONW Now, I can tell a tremendous difference between the packages I have been passionate about and the ones where I didn't care as much. After watching this story Matt Lauer created, I will focus on filming stories that I care about because that is when my best work comes out. My goal is to positively impact the students who watch ONW Now, and make them want to watch the show every week for the content we produce and broadcast.


http://www.today.com/video/checking-in-on-matt-lauer-s-team-up-with-shinola-to-benefit-school-826971203709

Nikki Budreau

Sessions with Kami- Logan Cantino

This package is a Sessions with Kami and it showcased Logan Cantino's musical ability. I was involved in filming this package. This package took a day to film. I wish I would have gotten more closeups because it gets boring to watch the same shot over and over throughout the whole package. There were some technical issues with the tripod because one of the legs was unstable. In the future I would have him preform multiple times and get different shots, and possibly a shot from the audiences point of view because I was also apart of the audience. 

Sessions with Kami- Kit Walters

This was Kami's sessions package with Kit Walters. The point of this story was to showcase Kit Walters talent of singing, and inform others on how she learned and how she improved her voice. I filmed, edited, and was in the audience of this video because Kami asked me to help. It took one day to film and one day to edit. I enjoyed the outcome; however, I wish we could have used the 6 shot system more when filming Kit sing. I learned that we should vary up the shots because it is more difficult to edit with not a variety of shots, and it gets boring for viewers to only look at extreme wide shots, wide shots, and medium shots.