Music Video

This was a music video that our group made. I don't own anything. All copyrights are to Eminem and the Album. Curtain Call: The Hits

Past, Present, and Future Website

Past Present Future 

I made a website in Dreamweaver about the things I have done in the past, the present, and will do in the future. In this website I used rollover images with different types of layer effects with a background and a 3D effect for content. 

Below are the pages of the site they all used different types of divs. The part with the rollover images were in the div called top and the content all went into a div of inner bottom and into another div called bottom. All the content went to the black screen that I created in Photoshop using different layer effects like drop shadow. They also used scroll bars to get all the content which only used pretty much in the past page because there was a lot of content.

Process

Starting the website wasn't easy at all. First I had to make a background and the black screen with the different pieces of the rollovers and that took a while to get it just right but I had to add a whole bunch of different layers and layer effects with the bevel and emboss and each one had its own layer so I made about 8 layers because I also had to copy the finished one. When setting up the website I used the div called wrap and that kept everything in that certain div. The one problem was I was trying to make the top div but it kept sending it to the bottom so I had to call that bottom and re-create the top div. Making all the divs were probably the hardest part

Challenges and What I learned

Some challenges I had were just starting the website and also placing all the rollover images in with their effects,  but I found out that it seemed to not like the scripts weren't working correctly but also getting the effects to work were a pain and I had to start over in putting them in because the functions were all messed up. I also learned how to put in scroll bars and they aren't hard, it just takes a while but overall this was very stressful but I made it to a success.

Tornado Alley Website

Tornado Alley Website

Scope

This was a website I made about Tornado Alley and what the causes are. I mainly made this website because I was interested in this topic and wanted to share how it can affect those who live in the area and to know when you can expect a tornado. 

Process

First I had to come up with a topic that I was interested in to talk about in my website. To start out I couldn't think of anything but I eventually thought of weather and I knew I liked watching Tornado Chasing on the Weather Channel so that's what I decided to do my topic on. This wasn't very easy to make at all. I basically started from scratch and filling in the code of Dreamweaver with a basic two column layout which was probably the easiest part but adding all the content and divs were very complicated if you didn't do it right. I didn't mess up so bad but it was hard to make the links to the other pages and that got very funky at times. Towards the end my links weren't all working so i had to go back and make sure every page was correct, so I did the same thing 25 times. 

What I Learned Along The Way

What I learned along the way was how to make the divs become more of the website by using them for my whole website and knowing exactly what to put for CSS Styles to make it look good. I also learned that you have to plan out what you need to do each day to get your project in on time and not fall behind or then you'll rush to just get it done and not spend time on making it look amazing.

What I Would Do The Same/Different

What I would do the same is working on content out of school or anything I can in case I fall behind. What I would do differently is to know more of what I can do on my own time so then I don't have to ask for help and learn and get better.

Conclusions

This project was fun and it will help me draw experiences in case someone needs a website on their topic or trying to advertise their product and I hope to keep getting better. Click the link below to visit my website and all the other projects I have done.

http://eravensonline.net/students/506rma20/final%20semester%201%20project/tornadohome.html

Explore A/V Semester Reflection

Explore A/V

This semester I am in a class in the E-Communications Program at Olathe Northwest High School called Exploring Audio and Video (Explore A/V). During the semester we had many projects we had to do involving a new concept we had to learn along the way. Some projects that were assigned were about an interesting story about someone at our school, our schools blood drive, a procedure video about how to do something at Olathe Northwest, and a news broadcast.

Problems along the way

Whenever you have a plan of what you want to accomplish, doesn't it seem that it never goes exactly the way you want it? Well that's exactly true for these projects we created. First we had to plan out what we were going to film and how we were going to do it. The problem is working around after school and with other activities you do outside of school because our projects are due at a specific date, and also getting the right shots towards your topic and getting enough. I've had that experience before when I didn't get enough footage and my video wasn't very well done and I wished that I got more, so always get more footage then you think you do. Also during our blood drive project we couldn't use tripods to hold our cameras, so we had to hold them ourselves, and many of us were very shaky so all the footage wasn't very good and we only had 10 minutes to get everything we needed including 2 interviews. I didn't like that none of us got much footage but in the end we shared footage with each other and it made it a lot better.

Evaluation

With all the projects we did, a lot of the ideas were stellar on paper, but when we went to do it live, it didn't work out the way we thought it would. The hardest project was probably the news broadcast because we were in a team of about 10-11 people and we all had to come up with a theme and decide on who's doing each part of the broadcast and each of us would pair up and do a news package to go into the broadcast. What really didn't work out was no one agreed with each other on ideas, so we mostly had votes, and that seemed to do the trick on getting everything in on time. Overall, in a partner project, you and your partner have to communicate a lot on what works best to work together. 

Learning and Action Plan

What I learned this semester so far is how to work better with a partner, hold the camera steadier, and write better scripts. What I will do better next semester is work better on editing faster and focus more on what I need to do. What I hope to learn is how to do broadcasts better and get a glimpse of how they will run because I am highly considering of doing mostly broadcasting next year. Below are some of the projects I have done this year

The Bloody Friday the 13th

Scope of the project

Last Friday Olathe Northwest hosted it's semi-annual blood drive and I got a first look of the school's blood drive by getting footage of what goes on inside and take that footage and make a project out of it. The main idea of this project was to cover the blood drive and to see how it all works and to see how many take part in their school spirit.

Process

My process was first I had to plan out what my angle was going to be (Ex: Teacher/student that was giving blood, STUCO member or a phlebotomist) and then I would come up with questions to ask the person I'm planning on using for story. When I got inside to where the blood drive was held, right from the start is very difficult because of so many people into one room with a lot of tables and machines so it was very hard to film great shots as well as keep the camera steady because we didn't have tripods to use and I only had 10 minutes to get what I wanted including interviews. When I was all done filming what I got, which wasn't very much at all, I started writing my script and doing voice overs, and then after I finished writing, it was time to put it all together to edit. For editing this time, the project had to be either EXACTLY 45 seconds, 1 minute or 90 seconds long. But it was very hard because not many people had enough shots so some of us combined footage to make it for us to have more footage to choose from.

What did I learn?

What I learned along the way was it was very hard to do a story about something that is live and you only have one shot, so if you don't have a plan, you're not going to get amazing shots. Also I learned how to sequence the shots that I kept better, and I made a few minor tweaks in Final Cut Pro and
it looked a whole lot more intriguing to viewer's standpoint.

What I would do differently/same

What I would do differently next time is plan more ahead if I did something like this again even though it was my first time doing it. So I would make sure I have back-up plans as well because you cannot expect your plan to be perfect, so you have to be ready for anything. What I would do the same is keep writing my scripts the way they are because they seem to be flowing very smoothly with all of my videos and they make you wonder what's coming next.

Conclusions

This experience was a good one because it's like a news story, you only have one shot to get it right and this will help with other news stories in the future. Overall this was a fun video to do and I hope I keep learning as much as I can to master my skills.

ONW NOW Story

ONW NOW Story

Scope

This is a story about Roan Stanley, a sophomore at ONW who moved from Memphis, TN who hopes to fit in very well in a new school. The general idea of this story was to show how students like Roan can have their ups and downs while moving but can still have fun and get involved.

Process

How I started was I first interviewed Roan and his mom about what got them thinking about moving and then I went and filmed Roan of what he does everyday.  Then I wrote a script of how the voice overs would play out in the video. Finally I put it all together in Final Cut Pro and put the video with the voice overs into one video.

Things I learned was you definitely need more B-Roll then you think you need cause you can never have to much B-Roll. Also I learned how to focus the camera better and make sure it doesn't go out of focus which also can sometimes be the camera's fault.

What I would do differently/same

What I would do differently next time is get the interviewer to express more in their answers and like I said earlier DEFINITELY MORE B-ROLL! What I would do the same is keep writing the scripts the way I do because they seem to flow very well in all of my videos. 

Experiences/Conclusions

This was a good experience especially because of the time spent and how long it takes to make it.  In conclusion, this video was a fun won to make and hopefully I make more

Professional Article Review on Vultures or Reporters?

Last Thursday, there was a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR and a gunman opened fired leaving 9 people dead and 7 others wounded before he shot and killed himself. One student at the college began live tweeting that there was somebody shooting on campus. Right away reporters and TV producers from different news casts started to request interviews from the girl and she described the requests as "Absolute Human Vultures".

The author of this article is arguing that the reporters going out of their way just to get information about a story. Jason Silverstein, a breaking news reporter for the New York Daily says that "It's our job. And it's a job that needs to be done regardless of some tweets calling you a scumbag." What Silverstein is saying is that reporters have to get information somehow to do their job, even if it gets in people's business a lot of the time. This article has many strengths including how they used many sources opinions to get both sides of what it takes to get information and if they are getting in the way. Weaknesses would be transitions and words that start each paragraph like in the beginning the article said "So it was Thursday". They should just leave the word so out. Overall it was a good story to read about.

There could be a whole lot of ways to reword a lot of the article but the author did support the main argument and didn't get sidetracked a whole lot. The evidence isn't totally convincing but it made you think both ways and not just one side.  The writer did a very good job of getting a point across without expressing their opinion, but what I didn't understand was when someone tweeted "sickening" I don't know who they are talking about at that point.

In conclusion, the article was a sad story but it was very informational in the long run.

Article Source: Vultures' or reporters?