My favorite projects this semester were the Graphic Design Project and Logo Project. I consider myself to be a visual learner, so I really enjoyed the visual design projects. I also liked how there was a lot of creative freedom with those projects. 

I learned a lot of valuable skills from this class. I feel comfortable in my ability to use Adobe software programs. This class also taught me how to manage my time efficiently. Since the majority of the course work is completed outside of class it was my responsibility to keep track of due dates and assignments. Finally, the peer critique assignments taught me to both offer and accept constructive criticism. This skill will benefit me far into the future. 

I am double majoring in multimedia journalism and political science. I hope to pursue a career in political communication or reporting. I think being familiar with audition and premiere will be very beneficial in the field of journalism because I will likely have to create audio and video stories. The time management skills I gained from this course will also be very beneficial in whatever career path I go down.   

I don’t feel that there is a skill I didn’t learn in the class that I wish I did. This course went above and beyond my expectations in terms of learning how to use various Adobe software programs. 

Prior to this class I did not have a lot of experience with Adobe programs, so I often found myself looking up instructional videos in addition to the tutorial videos provided. Whenever I needed to use a tool that wasn’t explained in a tutorial video I just looked it up on the Internet. However, I found the tutorials to be extremely helpful and they taught me most of what I needed to know in order to complete my final assignments. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this course. I had a lot of fun creating content and I really liked how much creative freedom was included in the course.

For my final video story, I created a video featuring a yoga instructor at Washington State University, Joanne Greene. Joanne is one of my favorite yoga instructors and she has been very influential in my own yoga journey, which is why I decided to feature her teaching a mindful yoga class. I filmed establishing shots of the yoga studio and a yoga mat for the start of the video. My peers suggested that I slow down the initial establishing shot, so I made that edit. My peers also suggested that I add background music. I added music at the beginning and end of the video. I also used audio transitions to fade the audio track in and out. I adjusted the shot of the second clip of Joanne teaching, so it was a close up shot. I wanted to add more variety in the shots. I increased the volume of Joanne speaking to make her voice clearer and easier to understand. I added ending titles to the video as well, so it didn’t end so abruptly.

Overall, I really enjoyed creating and editing my video story. The feedback I received from my peers was very helpful and brought things to my attention that I did not see before. The most challenging part of this assignment was figuring out how transition smoothly from clip to clip. In order to solve this problem, I added the dip to black transition between each clip. It took a while to figure out which transition looked the best.

I’m glad I was able to showcase the teaching style of Joanne. She is someone who has been very important to my own yoga journey. My yoga journey is so much larger than myself, which is why I wanted to feature someone else in this video story.

Works Cited

https://freesound.org/people/FoolBoyMedia/sounds/349676/

FoolBoyMedia- “Peaceful Break”

Creative Commons License

For my video story I decided to create a video showcasing a yoga instructor demonstrating and teaching a class a half sun salutation sequence. This relates to the topic of “My Yoga Journey” because it showcases one of my favorite instructors, Joanne Greene. I have taken many of her classes and really enjoy her teaching style. I wanted to showcase this style in the video story. I interviewed Joanne for my audio story as well, so I thought having her in my video story would make my multimedia projects for the semester more cohesive. I originally thought of using myself as the subject of the video, but I wanted to have control over my camera angles and footage. I also made a point to get my footage during the yoga class because I wanted the video story to be natural and authentic. 

When shooting, I made sure to get an establishing shot of the yoga studio and a yoga mat to use at the beginning of the video. When editing I used the dip to black effect frequently to make the transitions between shots smooth and not so abrupt. I decided to keep a consistent wide shot throughout the video so the viewer could see the entire sequence. When editing I ran into the most difficulties with transitions. A lot of the transitions between clips were very harsh and abrupt. In order to solve this problem I added several title sequences against a black screen and added the dip to black effect between clips to make the transitions more seamless. I really enjoyed the process of shooting and editing this video story. I am glad that I was able to showcase the teaching style style of an experienced yoga instructor in a natural environment. I am looking forward to feedback from peers!

For my final audio story I was inspired by one of my yoga instructors, Joanne Greene. I decided to interview her about why yoga is important to her. I thought this would add some diversity to my multimedia projects, so all of my projects are not just centered around my own yoga journey. I wanted to use the audio story project as a way to acknowledge other people who play an important role in my journey. The feedback I received from my peers was very helpful. The primary suggestions were that I add some background music and some sort of concluding narrative. I decided to add some background music to the beginning and end of my audio story. I used the fade tools to fade the audio in and out to make for a more seamless end project. I also chose calming background music so it would fit with the theme of yoga. 

I also recorded an ending narration so the story didn’t conclude so abruptly. After the narration I added the background music back in. The final edits I made were adjusting the volume levels on the various tracks to make sure they were all consistent. I also used the razer tool to cut out unnecessary pauses within the interview. Overall, I found adjusting the volume levels to be the most difficult part of this assignment. I had to listen to the tracks over and over again to make sure one wasn’t too much louder than the rest. 

I really enjoyed completing this assignment. It was fun to be able to interview Joanne and learn a little bit more about why yoga is important to her. I was also very pleased with the feedback I received on my rough draft. I think the edits I made improved the overall project immensely.  

Works Cited

https://freesound.org/people/Andrewkn/sounds/455855/

Andrewkn- “Wandering”

Creative Commons License

For my audio story project I decided to create a story where I interviewed one of my yoga instructors here at Washington State University. I decided to interview Joanne Greene because she is an experienced yoga instructor and I have been taking classes from her for several semesters now. For my interview with her I asked why the practice of yoga was important to her life. The second element of my audio story was a narration of myself providing background information on the audio story and introducing Joanne to listeners. I think this audio story ties into my overall theme of “My Yoga Journey” because it brings in the perspective of someone who is more experienced with yoga. I did not want all of my projects to be centered around myself, so I thought this was a good opportunity to introduce another voice.  

I used the microphone on my phone to record the interview with Joanne. I made sure to hold the microphone close to where she was speaking and recorded the interview in an area with minimal background noise. Once I imported the footage into Audition, I edited the track to eliminate my own voice asking the question, as well as several pauses in the footage. I also used my phone’s microphone to record my own narration. When I imported this footage into Audition I found that the volumes varied significantly between the two tracks. I had to lower the volume on the narration track and raise the volume on the interview track to make them sound more seamless. I also experimented with the placements of the tracks to allow for a natural pause between the narration and interview track. I look forward to receiving feedback from my peers on my draft audio story and editing it for the final version! 

For my audio story I interviewed a yoga instructor, Joanne Greene, about why the practice of yoga is important to her.

SoundCloud Profile: https://soundcloud.com/kathryn-jones-794267874