Week 4: RISE Self Evaluation

Week 4 Reflection: Professionalism & RISE Self-Evaluation

Week 4 Synthesis: Curating Through MCBS

Curating assets this month was quite a challenge. It is imperative to have the right assets to convey a certain emotion and feeling. During our final project, it was difficult to find great assets since our project was focused on a story about a father and daughter relationship through the years. We wanted to use our own photographs and we didn’t have the best quality photos. That being said, the age of the photos worked because it showed the lapse in time in our final project. 

In all our projects, I found that gathering assets was difficult as well. There is not that many available stock images online, and for this reason, I think they are worth keeping. What I’ve learned from this experience is that creating and curating your own digital assets is much more valuable that I once through. Having the freedom to capture what you want instead of searching for it online would make it simpler. I hope that my photography skills develop through this program in order to be able to capture impactful images.

The articles we read this week were quite interesting to me. I have worked in video production for over 10 years and in the years I’ve spent in this industry, I have been taught the complete opposite. In my line of work, it is better to have more digital assets than less. This may be due to the nature of the company I work for, since we tend to try to create more content than planned. I do know from experience that curating these hundreds and thousands of files has become a problem for my company and each day we struggle in trying to find a solution. I do agree with these authors in that one great photograph is more important than 10 that are mediocre but I also think sometimes it takes 10 attempts at a photograph to find the perfect one.

As technology evolves, hard drive space and cloud space becomes more inexpensive and accessible. I think that assets collected should be catalogued, compartmentalized, and the organization efforts streamlined. I also do believe that deleting certain assets because they aren’t being used can be dangerous as you may need it in the future.

Week 4 Reflection: Rise Peer Feedback

It’s very insightful to watch your digital story video and be able to see the similarities and differences in our career paths. I believe most online students in our program are adults looking for a second chance in life. Like you, I wanted to better myself and further my career. I can relate to wanting to do more with my life and move forward with a more lucrative and fulfilling journey. What really touched me is part of the reason you wanted to get a degree in MCBS was to give your daughters a better life. That touched me and made me empathetic to your journey. From that small statement, I am now personally invested in your career goals and will be a cheerleader from afar!

You mentioned you wanted to go back to school but you have interests in multiple things. What is it about Media Communications that made you realize that this was your passion? Going from nursing to aesthetician to media is so diverse! I find it fascinating that this was something that media is something that triggered your emotions and would love to know how you got there. Unlike you, I’ve always wanted to work in media and have worked in the industry for multiple years so I'm curious to hear about how you found this love for media. 

When it comes to your video, I think you chose great images to convey your script. I would work a bit at tweaking your vocal narration. It felt a bit choppy to me and the pauses between sentences was a bit dragged out. I’m not sure what program you used to cut the video, but maybe if you can, learn to move the photographs to give the story a bit more flow. Asides from that, I think that the images were a great representation of your piece.

The images in your piece represent your story quite well. I would use a full screen of these images to make the story more impactful. I also am now invested in your career path as I know that you’ve had multiple changes of heart when it comes to your goals. I am looking forward to seeing where this new career in Media Communications takes you and am excited to be sharing this journey with you! Although the reasons on how we got to this path are different, I feel like our goals are similar and hopefully we can collaborate in the near future!

Week 3 Project: Digital Storytelling with Mobile Apps Challenge

TEAM ROLES: 

Tracy Robertson - team leader / photographer / voiceover talent / video editor

Madi Curnutt - strategist / lead writer / documentarian

Stan Miller - documentarian / researcher / voiceover talent / audio engineer

For this project, we used multiple apps to collaborate. We used Google Drive to share assets, Adobe Spark Video to create a storyboard for our video, Adobe Premiere to edit, and Garage Band to record voiceovers. We started with using Google Hangouts to discuss and brainstorm our project. I love that we are all in three different cities yet are able to speak face to face about our ideas. Within a half hour, we had a solid idea, a production flow, and delegated responsibilities within our team. Within the next few days, we shared assets via Google Drive and were able to do so seamlessly.

My roles on the team were varied. I was team leader, making sure we had a schedule and organized our meetings. I edited the final video using Adobe Premiere and used my voice to contribute to the voiceover of our digital story. It was easy to come up with roles in our team since we had worked together before and knew our strengths. I was surprised and impressed at how quickly we figured out which roles to take. I am not a great writer and Madi quickly took on the role of writing our script. I am very organized and have more editing experience than my team, so I naturally took those roles. Stan, who I is quite the creative thinker, came up with the story and we collaborated on how to tell it. I was most proud of the fact that we organized ourselves early and had a plan early Monday evening. By Tuesday afternoon, we had a script, assets, and I started editing that early. I also am proud of the fact that all three of us are working professionals and had insanely busy weeks but were able to organize ourselves and come up with a great digital story by collaborating and having great time management.

This was definitely a challenge. I think the biggest challenge was working with people who aren’t in your same city. Personally, this was very challenging for me because I am traveling for work and my schedule is busier than usual. I didn't want to just turn in an assignment, I wanted to give it the time and quality it deserved. Fortunately for us, we all are driven and focused and were able to get the task done using tools like Google Drive where we were able to share assets and collaborate. I cannot imagine doing this project a decade ago when these tools were not accessible. Although it was a challenge, I am proud of our teamwork, our final product, and the story we were able to tell.

Week 3 Analysis: Businesses & Audiovisual Media / Curating 5

I analyzed three separate digital stories created by three different companies. These stories vary a lot but are effective because of their different brand identities. The first one I analyzed was Full Sail University’s video. This video is a successful recruitment tool for various reasons. It uses three company executives to tell a story; a story that focuses on the university’s mission to put technology into the hands of students, giving them the opportunity to be creative from day one. They also introduce a partnership with Apple, one of the most respected brands when it comes to innovation and creativity. This story is about what one would expect when coming to Full Sail, the respect a student gets from day one on campus to be a creative and a professional, and the empowerment they are given with the technology available to become the best media professional possible.

The Dollar Shave Club video is hilarious. It introduces a new product called One Wipe Charlies targeted towards men. I wouldn’t call this a story but I do think it works because it continues with the ridiculousness of their brand campaign. Their brand is known for the funny and engaging videos. It keeps the audience entertained and wanting to know what’s next. If there is a story, the story is about how One Wipe Charlies can help you when doing number 2, as their owner Mike so eloquently puts it. It’s engaging, hilarious, and almost silly which makes for a great story and promotes viewership.

The Science World video is simple – it is a video using two catchy songs that the employees of the museum lip sync to. The story is simple; it is of employees enjoying a day at the museum. This video is effective because it shows off the entire location and what it has to offer as well as fun and laid back employees. This is my least favorite of the three videos I analyzed, probably because I am not part of the audience they are targeting. If I was a mother with a couple toddlers at home, I would probably be drawn to this video as I would want to take my children somewhere fun and engaging. Although I don’t particularly like this video, I think it is successful in showing off the museum, what it has to offer, and how much fun the staff is.

I found it very interesting to analyze three different companies and their digital stories. Although I have my favorites, I think they were all quite successful in meeting their goals. The tone of each video is very different but works with each of their brand messaging and voice. If Dollar Shave Club suddenly came out with a serious video like Full Sail’s, it wouldn’t work. If Full Sail did something like The Science World Video, it might fail. These campaigns were successful as they really focused on their brand voice and their target audience.