Video Editing

     Video editing equates to torture.  Editing can be a very big hassle and backing up everything and making sure that there are enough clips to be used in case of dropped shots and if something doesn't look quite right like audio issues or if lines are slurred.  I learned a lot about After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe Premiere.  After Effects and Premiere became my favorite editing software while Final Cut became sinister because I found out that the is a RAM program issue with it.  Especially transferring rendered large sequences from After Effects.  Final Cut Pro has a 10 MB RAM limit and most of the RAM is taken up be programming.  I stopped using Final Cut and got introduced to Premiere which is a very good application which I believe the COMMUNICATION department should start using more.  One thing I learned about After Effects is to make sure to click the audio button when rendering or audio will be lost.  Lesson learned.  Video editing becomes much easier to do with practice; however, it still takes a lot of time and there is a lot of possibilities for error so you need to be cautious.  I have learned how to edit pretty well but I know I could still learn a lot more, especially editing pictures, like editing the gamma rays. 

Greenscreening

     In my capstone, I wanted to utilize a green screen because a good green screen can increase the opportunities of a project.  While I was researching how to use a green screen and what are the important steps to make sure that a green screen can be used successfully, I learned quite a bit.  I learned that when you are working a green screen the most important things are lighting and the green screen itself.  A green screen needs to be well lit allowing little to know shadows and no wrinkles.  A clean tight green screen will allow editing to be easier and life will be less stressful.
     Onto the editing of a green screen.  Green screen editing is actually pretty easy after watching a few Youtube videos.  I really wanted to succeed with this green screen part of my capstone so I wanted to learn as much as I could through research.  The green screen I was using was not the best so the tips and tricks I learned to fix these issues were very important.  Using after effects, there are different effects like the lighting tools which tries to make the background all the same color making a more efficient way to put in layers for the green screen.  The learning how to use a green screen was very exciting for me and I would like to do more with this type of videoing editing. 

Capstone Filming

Capstone is more demanding than I thought; however, I feel like I am learning quite a bit in the areas that go along with my news program.  I did some research about what to do for a news program and this research made my life a lot easier.  The part I have realized is the hardest in this series is the stories that news reporters cover.  Getting good stories that are interesting are the hardest part, at least for me, and it is tough to make a boring story an interesting story.  I have learn quite a bit about cameras and camera angles too.  This is something I was very interested in after I filmed.  While filming I made sure that I got many different angles, if I could, and seeing which angles are more effective was very enlightening.  Depending what type of feeling you want to get out of your story you need to film a certain way and depending how you shoot a story can change the perspective of the story.  The other part of filming I noticed is the zooming in and out on characters or scenes.  If you do not move the camera smoothly and if you zoom in or out too quickly the shot will not be as good.  The filming aspect of this was very interesting too me and I learned a lot through experimentation. 

Capstone Appointments

Now that I have my idea perfected the work part has begun.  I am currently trying to set up appointments with community members and finding interesting events to go and get video clips from.  This is not the easiest tasks.  Setting up appointments are the most difficult part of this process and I am finding this out quickly.  I have appointments set up for next week, but on the downside it is next week.  I need to get in contact with Jason or Kevin for them to help me understand how to set up a make shift news studio preferably with green screen accessibility and software for green screen technologies.  Once I get all of these set up I can truly focus on the editing process where I should learn more about how to get a good quality program.

Capstone Change

This last week I changed up my capstone a little bit to make it more interesting to me and hopefully more interesting to my intended audience members.  I have changed my idea up slightly while keeping a similar project.  the only difference between what I was doing before and what I am doing now is the time limit and the differences in appearance.  I intend to make two 5 minute presentations with the same content and same script.  The only difference I am making is that the anchors/ reporters in one will be wearing more professional clothing or formal clothing and in the other it will be more informal/ street clothes.  Once I finish the filming I would present my two shows to one of Kevin's classes and see which one is more effective.  The next step will be to post my project onto Youtube.  the plan for the Youtube project would be to split screen the two presentation zooming into one and then the other increasing and decreasing volume and size depending on which is the feature at the time.  This will be a great way to show employers what I can do in a short time and that I can come up with good ideas.

capstone research

http://www.thecampuscommon.com/ebooks/aio/vp120/vp120_1.pdf

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/k/kiddv/ProductionTechniques.htm

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp004.htm

The most difficult process of my capstone is the preproduction.  I really want to try to find a new style to produce the news so that it is interesting for my audience.  This has been a difficult task, but I am researching a lot and here are some of the articles I have been reading getting a better sense of how I should produce and what I should be aware of when setting up a production of the news.

capstone week 3

Now that I have finished my final proposal I have started working on the production part of my capstone.  The one thing I want to experiment a little bit on my capstone is what ways works best to portray the news.  It would be really interesting to see if I can come up with a way to make the news more interesting and to see if there are certain ways to get a better reaction from the audience.  The other thing I am working on is the breakdown of the news program.  It is important that the news meets its needs time wise, so I have to make sure that I have each story match up with the allotted time.  The third thing I have been looking at this week is the organization of the environment and people in the news.  From the background to what the news anchors/ reporters do is what I would like to focus on because I feel like the news can be very boring so I have been doing some research and Kevin has given me some good information on certain producers I can look at that will help.  

Progression on Capstone

I have already met with my director about my Capstone project and he thinks that I have an interesting idea on doing a news program.  After the discussion I have chosen to create at first a 15 minute program or maybe two 15 minute programs for my project.  We also discussed that I could choose to produce the show anyway I wanted and that I should try to develop a show that is both entertaining and different from the common news shows that you see on television.  I will be studying and researching the best ways in which audiences enjoy watching programming and I would like to create a show that is engaging and interesting.  I will try to create stories that aren't boring or dull and portray these stories in different ways itself to see which ways of presenting stories are better than others.  Something that I will have to be cautious about is timing of the piece.  I have to make sure that I have enough stories to have fill in the time slot and I have to make sure that the program fills the allotted time. 

Capstone Ideas

It has been tough choosing a Capstone idea, but I think I have come up with something that will not only be challenging, but it should be fun to do and it should really help me in my career.  I am passionate about broadcasting whether it be television or radio and that is what type of job I would like to pursue once I graduate.  The idea I had for my Capstone is producing, editing, anchoring, and every other aspect behind a news show.  I was thinking about creating a half an hour show where I am involved with every part of the show.  I did an internship at a new station so I have some experience doing this kind of stuff, but I want to be able to be better at every aspect of a news station.  I will have to come up with an idea for my show, which I was thinking of Shepherdstown news specifically because I like this town and what goes on it.  I would like to do a wide variety of stories from sports to town issues.  Having a few months to do this will be nice because I am sure that there will be stories that come about.  Once I figure out which stories I will be doing it will be important for me to get B role for the stories and decide whether to do a VO or a VOSOT.  Another aspect I would like to do is create some commercials.  This will also be a challenge because I would like to make a commercial/s that is of high quality and something you would see on television.  So all in all I would be doing every thing for this news show and I hope it can be successful so I can use in my portfolio.