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!!
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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!
Every semester final, the broadcast teacher, Don Goble, gives us a wacky prompt to grab reigns and be as creative a humanly possible. This semester his prompt was three one minute music tracks. We had to tell a story in only 60 seconds with one of the three music choices. I chose the second clip; it is upbeat, cute, and SIMPLE . I asked my little brother who is in middle school (he is still young enough to be cute) to be the main guy. I knew that I also needed two girls. No problem because Patrick (my brother) is practically always swarmed with them. We went through 3 or 4 of his friends who bailed on our plans before getting Lane (main girl) and Elizabeth (friend). They were so sweet and did a great job. While shooting IT WAS 19 DEGREES OUTSIDE!! and we were racing the sun to get good shots and finish before we froze to death. I love the turnout of the video! A really good thing about it is that this cute story will appeal to any audience, young or old, and hopefully leave the watcher feeling good.
Ladue High School hosts the Special Olympics volleyball tournament each year. It is led almost entirely of freshmen. They have freshmen leaders and buddies that play and cheer on the players. It is a great way for the students to get involved with the community and help other people. Also, it allows them to create leadership skills. I wanted to focus on why it is only freshmen and how it effects the players to have a friend/peer as their buddies. My storytelling in the video was good I thought. I love the last few shots also. But, for some of it i didn't use a tripod....WRONG IDEA. Many shots came out shaky and jolting. we got the opportunity to grade our own project this time and i took off like 10% because I feel that by now, stupid mistakes should end. Im proud of the message it tells, and I'm exited to (in my next news story) have clear shots and hit it out of the ballpark!!
The broadcast team went to San Antonio for a national journalism convention!! The group was fun to travel with and put up with my travel adhd (self diagnosed). we spent the 5 day weekend with hundreds of journalism students in; broadcast, print, magazine, advertising, and photography! our team, however, was there to work. We were chosen to be the main team for live broadcasting and coverage of the event! I think it was so fun going and working. This had so much freedom to find stories and just run with them! I saw it as a glimpse into what I could do if i didn't actually have to go to other classes like math and science. To spend that time actually doing something that i enjoy! BUT no... i need to graduate. :( I hosted the monthly newscast with sammy shanker. I pushed her out of her bubble and she made a phenomenal walking stand up! (personally, the more interesting you make your introduction to the story, the more inclined the watcher is to not flip the channel) During the convention, many collages set up a booth and had a TON of information, papers, and alumni ready to talk. I promise you I almost spent most of the day in that ballroom. I REALLY want to visit collages so this was a great way to see strong journalism schools. Many of them that I looked at were: Baylor, USC, Mizzou (of course), and ITHICA. San Antonio was amazing; with so much culture and history! I visited the Alamo and walked the river walk. I can't wait for next year in Boston!!!! Many schools have homecoming parades. However, Ladue hasn't had one in over 15 years! Thats why this year's parade was such a treat! It was the 60th anniversary of the school, and I loved the idea of celebrating with a parade and homecoming. This month I wanted to do a story on a trip to Atlanta by the strolling strings. But, it didn't work out. I already had the video from the parade and thought it would be great on our monthly newscast. I loved shooting because of the energy, but it was also really hard because of the shaking of the float I was on. This video is so far, my favorite "news type" coverage. I liked the fact that i could not only tell the story of the parade, but i could also tell the GSA's story. The GSA has been an active group in Ladue for a long time and I liked being able to cover them.
This video was my first personal profile. Hank Mann is a sophomore at my school and he has really made an impact on this community. He, from a young age, has been educating people about disabilities awareness and has become a spokes person for cerebral palsy. He also has gone above and beyond what many students here at Ladue has done and has created a Shakespeare club. Personally I cant even read it well. So I congratulate him on his ability to knock out Romeo and Juliet in a few days. This video however, didn't tell his story like I had hoped. I need to work on being able to intrigue the watcher and tell why he is different. I need to be able to do that with video just like I just did with writing.
Recently Ladue High has been getting some St. Louis local news attention because of a student bullying tradition. Every year a list gets posted of Junior girls by senior boys; saying why they are sluts or failures and what they did. Ironically this is around the same time that my PSA got posted about bullying. SO Fox 2 news wanted to put me in one of their Ladue stories. Of course I couldn't refuse an interview about my video! My hope for it was that it could not only bring some life to a really dry story, but it can also put Ladue in a brighter light. That bulling is not the majority and that I do believe that we can change it by the time my grade hits senior year. On another note.... the camera they used was huge and i still can't stop geeking out about how someday I will be able to do national stories and be interviewing people and EEKKKK
Among our journalism programs at Ladue. We have an online newspaper called the Panorama. This video was made solely for the online story of the Japanese Festival at The Missouri Botanical Gardens. So it got no grade and was meant to be a short view of the event. It was fun to shoot because I ended up meeting up with a few friends from school and also got to enjoy the activities. It was also difficult because there were a lot of people and it was my first event coverage. I think this video tells the story well with only one interview. It does its purpose in creating a multimedia story, where print and broadcast can come together! (finally)
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AuthorLillian Donahue Archives
April 2015
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