Written News Story

"Recently at ONW, students received laptops from the District. The laptops are Dell, but mostly Microsoft-based. These laptops are planned to last for a couple years so students need to take good care of them. The school hopes the students will be more successful with these laptops."

The way I wrote my news story was based on what I already knew from getting the laptops. The teachers and tech administrates gave students advice and "how-to"s on taking care of laptops and making sure students are safe and secure.

What I like about writing a news story is being able to have some freedom with how to present information. There are many types of leads News Anchors use to get the audience's attention. For example, on lead an be what a person said in an interview and build the story based on that beginning. Another lead is a Staccato lead. This lead is usually three short sentences to create action and interest. An example of this is if the story was about baseball; "The ball is pitched, the clink of the bat, coaches yelling "Run"".

I still need to work on making the story "bigger". I need to work on stretching the story out a little more to fill up more of the video portion of the project.

I would still try to keep the story short and concise, making sure I get the point across. Stories should be short and concise with room for what the interviewee said, however, it can't be too short.

I would still interview my principal at my school, but try to get the interview done earlier. My team had a difficukt time trying to set yup a time to interview the principal.

I will try to be concise and to the point on my next project when it comes to writing one, but making it a bit longer too than what I have.

In he end, writing news stories isn't my cup of tea, but has helped me get to the point in a lot of my work.

Advanced Feature Piece

For this Video project, my group decided to interview Mr. Johns, the new Web Design teacher in the e-Comm program. Our story was based on his experience so far at ONW and how he ended up where he was now.

In pre-production, our team had a harder time finding a subject for our story. The person my team was originally going to interview didn't want to be interviewed, so we decided to interview Mr. Johns. For scripting, I wrote down the questions to ask during the interview. I came up with a good portion of them, if not, majority. As for assigning roles, I quickly volunteered to work the camera because I haven't had a chance to work it yet. During class time,  Mr. Johns as kind enough for us to film B-roll. I made sure to record a lot of random clips of Mr. Johns and the class. Apparently, I was too good at my job at filming B-roll due to the fact that the file with all clips wouldn't upload to the class server. Editing was a struggle due to the realization that no audio was recorded including our ten minute interview and natural sound.

I found a way around the failed recorded audio and suggested to my team to record a voice over for the entire project.

Putting together the clips and sequencing it all was fairly easy. I got that part done quickly.

My approach to this project compared to the last interview I did was make sure I recorded enough B-roll because I felt like in my last project, my team didn't have enough.

What I would do differently would be make sure to make sure the audio is recording and maybe not record as much as I did, but still a good variety of B-roll.

This experience was more interesting because of all the various shots I tried to get. It did, in my opinion, made the final product more interesting and satisfying to finish.

Overall, this project and some bumps here and there, but, in the end, turned out just fine.

Watercolor Transfer Printing Process and Experience

This project was based on a printing process we learned earlier in graphic design class where you transfer an image to a different piece of material. This process is called a Transfer Print.

     1. For this, we used watercolor paper, used watercolors on the paper similar to the colors in the image we chose and let it dry.

     2. Then, we used Mod Podge on the image we chose and put it on the watercolor paper with the paint already dry.

     3. Next was using a Squeegee, which is a tool used to get rid of air bubbles in the image when glued onto the watercolor paper.

     4. After gluing, we let the image dry to the watercolor paper.

     5. After everything was dry, we used water to get rid of the excess paper on the image to reveal the ink from the image. The image was still present, but it looked as though it was printed onto the watercolor paper.

The project was easy and fun. Although, there were some days where I would forget to stop working on my Adobe Illustrator project and work on the Printing Process project. I think I did a good job, this being my first time. I did do two of them because my teacher said if we decided to do two, the best one would be graded. I also did two because the two images I chose I thought were the best-photoshopped projects I've done.

One thing I will do better next time is making sure I don't rub too hard on the image because, as it is obvious, some of the ink was rubbed away during the water process (step 5). I think Alien Man was better compared to my fox/forest one because less ink is missing and is cleaner. I would also recolor the watercolor part due to how faded the background looks.

I would use the sane images if I did this project again just because I think they're my best work and I really like them compared to my other projects.

Feature Story

This project was to do a feature story like on news channels. My group decided to interview a student at my school due to the clubs and activities he did.

My group and I came up with twenty-one questions to ask. These questions built on each other, which means the questions weren't "yes/no" questions. I came up with some questions as well as my group members. We originally were going to film in the library, and we did, but we forgot to turn on the microphone that was in the camera, which is a Panasonic AC90 camera, so we had no audio. So many groups made the same mistake my group did, so we were all given an extra filming day. By the time we filmed again, with the microphone turned on, we couldn't use the library anymore, and found another space. After filming was done, it was time to edit. We all used Adobe Premier Pro. I asked the student we interviewed if he had any footage of the clubs/activities he was in. He gave us the clips and used them as B-roll.

For editing, I divided the film we had from the interview based on the club mentioned in the question. I had to delete majority of the footage from the interview because the video had to be one minute thirty seconds maximum. Throughout the process, I learned how to "color code" clips so I knew which clip was which. I changed the colors frequently so I wasn't bored with the colors I originally chose. This kept me organized throughout the process. I did edit the audio levels so everything was clear and even. I also added transitions to enhance the project and to hide very little mistakes. I also added lower thirds text at the beginning so the audience knew what or who was on screen.



If I could redo this project, I wouldn't mostly because I'm not interested in convergence journalism, or news stories based video, I did have fun with this project, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I would add more voiceover, but I'm not good at writing scripts for this kind of video work. I would also fix the way we filmed the interview. The camera angle wasn't straight at all throughout filming, so I had to fix that too.

I would still interview the same person, film in the same space, and use the same editing software and clips if I had to to this project again.


 

For my next project, I will make sure that the camera angle is straight, and that the built-in microphone is on so audio is captured. I will also make sure to add more voice over and write a better voice-over script.

Overall, this project was interesting. It was fun, but not my cup of tea. Editing was bit more difficult than any other project I've worked on for Video. This project was a learning process, and well worth the time.

Printing Processes

What are the Printing Processes?

The three main printing processes are Relief, Intaglio and Lithography. These processes all include a transfer of ink from a certain surface to paper. All of them have a different process which I will explain in detail. 

Relief

use a block of wood or a piece of linoleum

Use tools similar to a woodcutter would if working on wood 

Tone the block with Indian ink wash or wash of a jet black film. This works on linoleum but isn't necessary

Use Iron Oxide or Carbon paper transfer that has your design already on prepared

Transfer the image

Decide on if you want to use White line, which reveals the image through thin white lines, or Black Line, which is removing majority of the wood to reveal the image. A balance of boh is usually used.

Roll ink onto the block

Place in Press

If done by hand, use a baren, which is a tool used to transfer the ink from the block to paper, ad apply gentle pressure all over the paper on the block.  

 carefully pull the paper off of the block and check to make sure the image transferred.

Intaglio

prepare plate  by cleaning it

apply a ground to the plate which acts as a nonacid 

smoke the plate by placing it upside down

scratch away the ground to reveal the metal

etch the plate for fifteen minutes

submerge plate in a bath/pan of acid

clean the plate again

wipe the plate with ink 

hand-wipe the edges 

put chalk on your hands and brush over the surface

set on press

use a dampened sheet of paper

print.

Lithography

use a lithographic stone like limestone to draw on

use Lithographic materials/pencils/crayon to draw on stone

remove grease with sandpaper or razorblades if needed

Once drawing is finished, use gum arabic and rub all over stone

Use rosin and Talc to establish drawing

Apply acidified gum arabic  or TAPEM

apply more gum arabic

use cheesecloth to buff in 

use lithotine 

use aphaltem

apply water to clean

rub ink with an ink roller over the image

apply dampend paper

press. 

repeat adding ink to stone and press four to six times. 

Which one would I do?

I'd do lithography because I don't know much about wood or metal and I think stone would be a similar surface to paper since I draw a lot. I think these processes have some influence in contemporary design. 

ONW Procedures

     Over the past couple of weeks, I worked with a team to film a "how to" video related to our school. For example, how to use the lunch line, how to get into the school if you're late, dress code etc. My group decided to do "how to use the elevator". At my school, if yo are injured, and can't walk up the stairs, you can get a key from the nurse that grants you access to the elevator. We talked to the nurse to see if she was okay with lending us a key and if we could film. She said it was okay, and so we began. All my team members had the same basic idea for what we should film and do for our video. I had a pair of crutches and an ankle brace that fit me at home that I brought to school to use as props. I played the injured person in the video, and another person on my team played the person helping me. For editing, we all used Adobe Premiere Pro which is fantastic for editing and putting together videos. In the end, I think I did a good job with my video. Our camera was having technical difficulties at first, but we got a new one, and all is good. I would fix the white balance in some shots and well as leveling the shots by using the tripod. I would also reshoot the scene coming out of the elevator because one of our members decided it'd be funny if he was in the shot, but we were running out of time to film due to camera issues, so we just used what we had. All in all, this project was fun and I would do it again in the future if given the chance.

Multi-Exposure Panorama

   

     Going to Paris, France was one of the best trips I've ever had. The culture, language, food, architecture, people, and geography are all things I love. The photos I used in this collage were from the second level of the Eiffel Tower. 

     It was on a Sunday. Toby and my grandpa decided to visit Sainte-Chapelle, which is the most beautiful cathedral in my opinion. Then, we walked around a bit to visit the Luxemburg Garden, which is bigger than huge, and got some gelato at the best gelato place in Paris, Amorino. 

     We then decided to visit the Eiffel tower, and my grandpa and I got in line to climb up the stairs to the second level. We had to take two little breaks to catch our breath due to the amount of stairs there were.  When we reached the first level, we looked out at the view, but there was a fence blocking some of the scenery. 

     My grandpa and I continued up the stairs and finally reached the second level. There were hundreds of tourists looking out at the beautiful view of Paris. I was fortunate enough to capture some photos. The view was amazing! It reminded me of that scene of Ratatouille where Remy sees the beautiful view of Paris. 

      A few months later, school starts and I'm in Graphic Design. I've finished many projects and side projects and our ext project has to be a collage of photos we've taken. I decided to use the photos from the Eiffel tower because of the beautiful view. I did edit the original photos to give it more of an "old-timey" feel. I started putting it together by lining up the photos with the Seine river and go from there. I used the eraser tool probably one hundred times as well as many layer masks. Overall, I think I did Paris justice in capturing it's beauty and essence.