Hey Everyone! On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we had our third STN practice of the school year. To review, I am on the Convention Recap team with Kaycee. In this competition, we have the whole convention to create a video that recaps and tells the story of it. For this week's constructive response, we are asked to reflect on the third practice, how it went; what worked, what didn't, and what needs to be improved. I think the practice went well. Though we had some technical things to work on, we followed one specific team but there's always room for improvement.
In this practice, Mr. M asked us to do something different. In the first and second practice Kaycee and I did a recap about the whole practice, observing all of the teams and their progress. However, in this practice, Mr. M asked us to follow one specific team, instead of everyone. Kaycee and I chose to follow the anchoring team, which consists of Kallen, Taylor, and Napua. Since the anchoring team does two rounds of practices, Kaycee and I thought it would be best to follow their team. We decided that we should use interviews and have them tell us about their experience so far. We conducted a total of three interviews, one with each team member. They all had great answers, and Kaycee and I could conclude an overarching theme which was teamwork. They all mentioned how important cooperation with your team members is, which I totally agree. That's another thing that I thought worked, the connection between Kaycee and I. I think we work well together; we don't argue and we help each other out. We cooperate well, which is a very essential necessity. We decided to base the video around that theme, because even if it is a recap video, it still needs to tell a story. We also did a better job of thinking more creatively. Kaycee used the Osmo while I got shots with the Slider. We decided it would be cool if we had two shots that uniquely transitioned into eachother. If you've read last week's reflective response, I went over some slider techniques. On the practice, I put those techniques to use. I learned that the slider could be transformed to get shots that would be taken on a dolly or a jib. I set up this shot using the slider where it showed the team working and then descended into a white box. Then Kaycee shot footage on the Osmo going from the white library shelf up to the team working on the desktops. It was a really fun process to shoot, and see how it looked put together. I think we did a good job following just one specific team, and I think that conducting interviews was a good route to go.
Even so, Kaycee and I did have some obstacles and setbacks. While we were filming with the DSLR, we kept running out of battery! We used a T2i, and only had one spare battery pack, not including the one inside the camera. The two packs drained pretty quickly, and I think we had to use one or two more. At the actual convention, we have the whole convention, three days, to film. This experience tells us that we have to bring more battery packs, and keep them on us so that we don't have to stop filming, go back to the room, and then go back down. Although minor, the battery situation has made me realize how we should prepare for the actual convention. Another obstacle we had was with the Osmo. Shortly after the practice started, we had some difficulties with the connection between the Osmo and Kaycee's phone. The Osmo gives off a wifi signal, which we could see appear on her phone. However, it wouldn't connect, therefore, we couldn't shoot anything with the Osmo. We compromised, and took turns shooting with the DSLR while the other person looked for music and started the voice overs. A few hours later we tried connecting with the Osmo again, and it worked! I don't know how, or why it stopped working in the first place, but thankfully it did. After filming, we started editing, leading onto what we aim to improve on next practice...
I think out of all the practices, this practice we spent the most time filming. Kaycee edited while I shot more footage, and recorded a voice over. We spent so much time shooting, that we really cut it close to the deadline. We exported at 1:58, two minutes before the deadline at 2 o'clock! When we exported, we didn't watch it over, because we felt that we didn't have enough time. We managed to submit it on time, but with more editing time we definitely could have made it better. At some parts in the video, the music we had overpowered the interview sound bytes, making it harder to listen to what they were trying to say. Also a minor thing that occurred in the third and second practice was that we forgot to use fade transitions on the lower thirds since we were rushing. However, one main thing in particular that we have to work on is the voice overs. In this third practice, we only created one voice over, and that was it. I think it worked okay with the soundbytes from the interviews, but definitely in the actual convention we will need more thoughtful voiceovers. While the practice was successful, there are still some things that we need to work on.
To conclude, I think Kaycee and I did a good job, but there are some things we could improve on. I think definitely we have improved from our very first initial STN practice, which is great. I enjoy being on the Convention Recap team, it's really fun having the freedom to be so creative. I am very excited for STN, and I think having practices has made me more prepared. For the Crazy Eights competition, I'd like to be on the News Magazine team. Well, that is it for this week's constructive response! Thanks for reading! Bye!
In this practice, Mr. M asked us to do something different. In the first and second practice Kaycee and I did a recap about the whole practice, observing all of the teams and their progress. However, in this practice, Mr. M asked us to follow one specific team, instead of everyone. Kaycee and I chose to follow the anchoring team, which consists of Kallen, Taylor, and Napua. Since the anchoring team does two rounds of practices, Kaycee and I thought it would be best to follow their team. We decided that we should use interviews and have them tell us about their experience so far. We conducted a total of three interviews, one with each team member. They all had great answers, and Kaycee and I could conclude an overarching theme which was teamwork. They all mentioned how important cooperation with your team members is, which I totally agree. That's another thing that I thought worked, the connection between Kaycee and I. I think we work well together; we don't argue and we help each other out. We cooperate well, which is a very essential necessity. We decided to base the video around that theme, because even if it is a recap video, it still needs to tell a story. We also did a better job of thinking more creatively. Kaycee used the Osmo while I got shots with the Slider. We decided it would be cool if we had two shots that uniquely transitioned into eachother. If you've read last week's reflective response, I went over some slider techniques. On the practice, I put those techniques to use. I learned that the slider could be transformed to get shots that would be taken on a dolly or a jib. I set up this shot using the slider where it showed the team working and then descended into a white box. Then Kaycee shot footage on the Osmo going from the white library shelf up to the team working on the desktops. It was a really fun process to shoot, and see how it looked put together. I think we did a good job following just one specific team, and I think that conducting interviews was a good route to go.
Even so, Kaycee and I did have some obstacles and setbacks. While we were filming with the DSLR, we kept running out of battery! We used a T2i, and only had one spare battery pack, not including the one inside the camera. The two packs drained pretty quickly, and I think we had to use one or two more. At the actual convention, we have the whole convention, three days, to film. This experience tells us that we have to bring more battery packs, and keep them on us so that we don't have to stop filming, go back to the room, and then go back down. Although minor, the battery situation has made me realize how we should prepare for the actual convention. Another obstacle we had was with the Osmo. Shortly after the practice started, we had some difficulties with the connection between the Osmo and Kaycee's phone. The Osmo gives off a wifi signal, which we could see appear on her phone. However, it wouldn't connect, therefore, we couldn't shoot anything with the Osmo. We compromised, and took turns shooting with the DSLR while the other person looked for music and started the voice overs. A few hours later we tried connecting with the Osmo again, and it worked! I don't know how, or why it stopped working in the first place, but thankfully it did. After filming, we started editing, leading onto what we aim to improve on next practice...
I think out of all the practices, this practice we spent the most time filming. Kaycee edited while I shot more footage, and recorded a voice over. We spent so much time shooting, that we really cut it close to the deadline. We exported at 1:58, two minutes before the deadline at 2 o'clock! When we exported, we didn't watch it over, because we felt that we didn't have enough time. We managed to submit it on time, but with more editing time we definitely could have made it better. At some parts in the video, the music we had overpowered the interview sound bytes, making it harder to listen to what they were trying to say. Also a minor thing that occurred in the third and second practice was that we forgot to use fade transitions on the lower thirds since we were rushing. However, one main thing in particular that we have to work on is the voice overs. In this third practice, we only created one voice over, and that was it. I think it worked okay with the soundbytes from the interviews, but definitely in the actual convention we will need more thoughtful voiceovers. While the practice was successful, there are still some things that we need to work on.
To conclude, I think Kaycee and I did a good job, but there are some things we could improve on. I think definitely we have improved from our very first initial STN practice, which is great. I enjoy being on the Convention Recap team, it's really fun having the freedom to be so creative. I am very excited for STN, and I think having practices has made me more prepared. For the Crazy Eights competition, I'd like to be on the News Magazine team. Well, that is it for this week's constructive response! Thanks for reading! Bye!
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