Uh. Finals are here once again! It's that magical time of year where many GPAs crash and students turn into zombies. As a sophomore, I have found that the amount of stress during this time seems to rise as you get closer and closer to graduation (seems so far away). This year especially has been difficult to keep head high when my face is buried underneath a few dozen textbooks. So, this month, I decided to use what little knowledge I've seemed to gather and attempt to help those who feel like I do every year around April through May. My main goal for the video was to help people, and even try to throw in some comedy here and there. Things that I feel went well with this video is the information, its a good how-to. Also, I like the brevity and laid back nature of it, I'm pretty sure High school students don't want to be lectured. Some things that I know should have been better was creating more variety in my shot choices. I had many medium shots, which made it look a bit more amateur. However, I'm still happy with the turn out of this lighthearted piece.
This semester, I was, once again, given the great opportunity to do some work outside of the classroom. As a part of our broadcast program at ladue, we have a show called Ladue Schools Today. This show is partnered with the Higher Education Channel here in St. Louis. This is a wonderful way for students to be involved in something bigger than the school. Hectv contacted us for a unique experiance; they wanted the students in our broadcast program to help host a show they broadcast live over the internet called HECTV Live. The topic of this show was weather forecasting. When I was given the opportunity to go down to the Fox 2 station and interview Chris Higgins on this topic, i was totally up for it! The studio tour was great and it was a great way for me to work on my on air skills. Things that I feel were improved from this experience was my on air presence, I (eventually) looked comfortable in front of the camera! With not much "telling what to do" by my teacher, I was able to further develop thinking and storytelling skills in front of and behind the camera. Seeing the show air was really cool for me because it gave a glimpse of how far I have come in one year and I can only imagine what I will be doing two years from now as a graduated senior! I can't wait to work HECTV and Fox2 again!
I can't wait to play, inform, perform.
Those six simple words seem to sum up quite a bit of who I am. The words I can't wait shows the anticipation of whats to come, Im always looking at whats next and how can I get to those really high goals of informing the world, playing my music, and performing for the fun of it! Those are just three of the things in life that I really can't see myself not doing. I made this video as a final for my broadcast class, however, it didn't feel like a final. This assignment was extremely unique! it was to create a six word story and attach those six words to six creative, distinct, and relevant shots. I found this challenge really interesting! In this short video I wanted to play with creative angles and different video techniques like transitions and coming in and out of focus. Im very proud of this video and I think it tells a story and who I am with unique shots and a fitting music choice! One thing that I feel I learned from this experience was to never "settle" in a video if it can be better (and everything can get better). My teacher helped me get the last two shots and It's ten billion times better than three days ago when I thought it was done! This year has been an amazing year for broadcast!! we have had some amazing experiences and some really talented seniors that I look up to fully! It seems to be getting better from here and I absolutely can't wait for my Junior year!! All year I've wanted to learn how to make a commentary, so it was not surprising that I jumped at the opportunity for an online broadcast. For the month of march, ladue got the opportunity to connect with a school in California to make an online newscast. Our theme was academic honesty and morality. I enjoyed the experiance a lot In that I was able to see different styles of broadcasting and what a similar program to ours looks and feels like. This commentary I feel hits close with teenagers; this was my target audience. Editing the commentary was fairly simple and painless. Some feedback from previous commentaries included maybe adding a pop of color in the background instea of the predictable white. I like the color chosen and felt that it did well in setting the tone of the peice. One thing I could have changed I feel we're some of the cuts I made. Some were too short and took away from what I was saying. Besides that, I enjoyed learning something new.
I was very greatful to have the opportunity to go to the channel 5 KSDK studio an create a Psa for the Komen race for the cure!! A few ladue students teamed up with students from gateway high school in St.Louis to brainstorm ideas for a Psa and pitch it to the KSDK sponsors. Jane Nelson and I were chosen for the winning idea! Going and seeing the video come to life in a professional atmosphere was a wonderful experiance. I love how the video turned out and it's simple yet tells a cute story. The people at KSDK were very inviting and supportive and I can't wait for next year!!
In February I chose to take on the amazing challenge of creating a new, catchy intro for our schools monthly broadcast. I teamed up with the wonderfully creative Nina Bochinni! The intro was inspired by the super bowl halftime intro. I loved the idea of doing a stop motion type of thing! We went through the school taking probably hundreds upon hundreds of photos of students, events, and capturing the crazy amount of school spirit ladue holds. This video was especially fun to create because it was unlike anything I've ever made before. I used a cannon T2i for it and probably fell in love with the camera! It's cinematic feel makes me want to make more professional looking videos! Editing this video was a challenge all it's own. We had to learn to work with many shots most spanning less than a frame! This challenged me to find creative ways to apply sequencing and storytelling in a really short amount of time! I enjoy the energy of this video and can't wait for more like it!
In December of 2012, The nation was shook by a devistating school shooting in newtown connecticut. This was the most recent shooting of a series of heart wrenching stories. However, the thing that surprised me was the emense impact that had on thousands of schools across the nation. Even though our school is hundreds of miles from the shootings, the impact hit close to home for Ladue high school. New security measures marks a new age in education and safety of a school. I watched as old, rusty locks became replaced with a buzzer system and new safety officers. My coverage in the video I made did a good job at capturing the mixed feelings from not o ly students, but administrators. Something though I would like to work on is transitions. Between ideas and expanding my storytelling to a captivate an Audince. I feel making this video, My eyes were opened to the great consideration and work our school facility and admin goes through every day. Thank you all!
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AuthorLillian Donahue Archives
April 2015
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