Were you able to take any prior skills to contribute to your success in Digital Journalism?
When I started this class I did have a Flip Video and digital camera of my own; and had used them before. I also had taken a video production class that helped me a little bit on certain projects. I have been taking pictures my whole life and have had a freelance photography business since I was 18, so the camera stuff was right up my alley. The Flip Camera however was a different story. I had only used it to take funny videos of my friends and family and I so I did not know technique that was involved to create a news story. The found that you need to record audio separately because otherwise it will sound like crap! Which I'm sure some of you learned as well. The biggest issue I had was with the new software, I had used movie maker before but never Audacity. I had used different programs in my video production class so some of these things were foreign to me.
A big thing I learned from this class is that even though you think you know a lot about a topic, you can always learn more. As a photographer I am always learning new things and improving my craft. And I think this class was the same way. Even when I thought I got the audio recorder down, I learned more things to do with it. And when I thought I knew all there was to know about Movie Maker, I found out how to use different audio and video techniques. So I am very happy I had some skills prior to this class; but I am even happier to say that it made me realize I can always learn more.
I didn't really have any experience with a lot of the things we dealt with in this class. I am a public relations major and journalism minor so most of the things I was always doing was writing. I never really was the one behind the camera shooting footage.
ReplyDeleteIt was a new experience for me to use Audacity as well. I think a lot of the class was a learn-as-you-go situation. I definitely got better with each project.
I agree that it was definitely a learning along the way thing. If you want to learn more and do even more projects like this I'd recommend taking the video production class they offer here!
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky you had that type of previous experience! I have had some photography experience but that's it. I wrote for the Royal Purple this semester and I thought that was a major help with interviewing and finding stories. We had to learn a lot in this class, but you're right. We can always learn more.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that this class would have been easier for me if I had more of a background with filming equipment and editing software, either from a previous class or from an in-class demonstration/walk-through. I did manage to get decent grades on my projects having just figured out what I needed to do and how to do it on my own but I know that I would have been able to get much better grades if I had a better understanding of different tricks and settings I could use both with the actual equipment as well as with the editing software that was made available to me. I think that the students in the class who did have this sort of background had an advantage in the class overall.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the projects themselves are concerned, by the end of the semester I found it easier to work with Audacity than with Windows Movie Maker, which is not how it was at the beginning of the semester when I found Audacity very daunting. Also, I am anxious to see what grade I received on my slideshow because this, photography, is the one are of this class that I actually had some background in prior to the start of this semester. Throughout high school, I not only worked for the newspaper and took my own photos, but was also greatly involved in the yearbook staff and became quite familiar behind a camera. The last project, needless to say, was definitely my favorite of the entire semester.
I think I was able to take my print journalism skills and apply them here. Just in terms of setting up interviews, preparing questions,and engaging the interviewee - that's something that's key regardless of which aspect of journalism you're going into. Everything else was all brand new to me. But arranging interviews and all that helped a lot.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.uww.edu/cervenkanj02/
I agree with Andrew! Previous experience in photography would have helped with the last project :)
ReplyDeleteHopefully this class helped you learn more about video and audio production too! It's all about continuous learning in both PR and photography.