Semester Final

Semester Final

What I did this Semester

This semester I completed a variety of projects in my graphic design class. The projects I completed this semester would be 11x17 poster, typography  5x5 artboards, combination marks, business card, letterhead, and envelopes. 

11x17 Poster

The first project of the semester is my 11x17 Bauhaus Poster. The project took around two to three weeks. Some challenges I faced while creating this project was I lost all my skills with the software Adobe Illustrator. This project was assigned to the class after retiring from spring break, which caused to to forget a lot of the software. Along the way I learned more about the Bauhaus Movement (a historical movement in the graphic design world that revolutionized the arts today). Some positive feedback I remember getting for this project was nice use of colors, I really like how clean your design is, and how it represents the movement perfectly. Some constructive feedback I got was some of the information on the poster is too small. What I changed on my finished product was the information I made it bigger and organized it a different way to give important information some hierarchy. My overall opinion about the project is it was okay it wasn't really my best work I have created but this project does show one thing. It shoes how much my skills have improved, which is what I would want to see, considering this project was in the beginning of the semester. 

Typography 5x5 Artboards

This is the second project of the semester and it was 5x5 typography artboards. This project took around three to four weeks to complete because we had to start with sketches, then create it on Adobe Illustrator, then make a black and white version, followed by color scheme versions, then lastly we got to create our finished products. To the right I have my finished products which would be my best version of each inspirational quotes I created for the whole process. Some challenges I faced when creating these projects was finding the correct fonts needed for the quote. At first I couldn't really find fonts that worked together, or I just couldn't find fonts that looked good and fit the quote itself, which took me a long time to find fonts that satisfied me. Along the way I learned about color schemes and what colors work best together. This was the first time the class was required to use color schemes, which really helped me in the future as most of my recent projects dealt with color schemes. Some constructive feedback I was given for this project was some of the fonts are hard to read due to the picot backgrounds, the font needs to be aligned better, and lastly one photo was a little stretched. Some postive feedback I received was the quotes really fit you and describe what personality you have, great back story to why you selected the quotes and the photos, and nice color schemes.  After receiving my feedback I only changed one thing, which was how my text was aligned on one of the artbaords. My overall opinion  on this project was I really enjoyed doing this project because it was one I could make a personal connection on. Furthermore the project was just fun to do and I consider it one of the best projects I've done this year. 

Company Rebrand 

The company rebrand as a whole would include combination mark, business card, letterhead, envelope, and rebrand display. This whole project I would say took around a month to a month and a half because of how many parts were included in each part.

Combination Mark

The first step to the whole company rebrand was creating combination marks. It all started with sketches of 30 symbols, 15 word marks, and 6 final combination marks. the combination marks alone took around 2 weeks to complete as we first had to do research about the company and design a logo that really fit the company. Some challenges I faced while completing this mini step in a huge project is ideas. After a while I couldn't come up with any ideas about creating more symbols, word marks. after a while they all just started to look the same and had little variety. Along the way I learned nothing really about graphic design other than how hard it is to create an original logo no one has used. For this project there was really no feedback given as the work was not shown to classmates. There was nothing to really change with this project since we got no feed back and it was just sketches. I have no opinion on this project as it was not really important. 

Business Card

This project was the second part to our company rebrand. The scope of the project was to create a business card with our company logo. This project took around 25 minutes to create which equivocates to around half a class period. I really didn't face any challenges when completing this project as it was pretty simple to complete and didn't require much work or creativity. When doing this project the only thing I learned was how big a business card was. Some constructive feedback I received for this project was don't use a different combination mark for the front and back as it might confuse the viewer. I received no positive feedback for my business card. I did not change anything on this project as I felt nothing needed to be changed. Overall I really enjoyed this project as it was simple and didn't require much thought or work to be done. 

Letterhead

This project was the third/ fourth step in creating or company rebrand. This is the letterhead I created for my company rebrand. This project took me around 25 minutes which again is around  half a class period. Again, I faced no challenges when completing this project as it was pretty simple and all I had to do was follow directions. Along the way I learned what a letterhead looks like and how big a letterhead should be. Some constructive feedback I received for this project was remove the second combination mark, and lastly make the information about the company bigger. Some positive feedback I received was I like both the combination marks being there as it adds variety, and I like how you used the second combination mark on the front and how it is faded. I changed nothing on this project as I was satisfied with my work and I don't care what others think. So I did what I thought looked best and what makes me happy.  My overall opinion of the project is this was easy to complete. 

Envelope

The envelope is located flesh right in the bottom corner. This project was to create a envelope both front and back for my company rebrand. This project took me around 5-10 minutes to complete. Some challenges I faced when completing this project was I did not know what a enveloped look like which cause me to have to redo my whole project. Along the way I learned what an envelope should look like and the correct dimensions of one. Some positive feedback I received is nice accent color used on the flap. Some constructive feedback I received was make the information about the company bigger. When I received this feedback I did end up changing the information size so it would become legible. Overall, I really like the whole company rebrand project as it was fun, and allowed creativity as we had little guide lines.

How I Used My Class Time

I have used my class time really efficiently. When I was in class I got to work and didn't mess around at all as I wanted to finish my projects as fast as possible. In the times that I finished early/ thought I was done I stayed on task by collaborating with students about their projects and helping them along the way and building strong relationships by doing so. When Mrs. Smith my (Boss) assigned me an eight hour project and when it only took me seven to enhance my projects by asking students for feedback and if they had good feedback that I agreed with I would change the issue, which in return made my projects better. What I did outside of class to enhance my graphic design skills was one doodle on my netbooks when I was suppose to be focusing on other subjects or working on homework. Furthermore, I enhanced my graphic design skills by creating personal logos and doing other work that increased my tech logical skills in graphic design. In terms of what I did outside of class to enhance my work is I did absolutely nothing. I could have came in to improve stuff but i didn't because I had more important stuff to do outside of class. 

Strengths as a Graphic Designer

I do not have any strengths as a graphic designer as I'm pretty weak in this area of eComm. But one strength I do have is I turn in my work in on time. This is a good skill not only for eComm but for the rest of life as an employer does not want a lazy worker. 

Areas of Improvement

EVERYTHING. I suck at graphic design, which is why I'm quitting it. 

Summary

What I loved most about this semester is the classmates I had. I came into this class thinking I was going to hate every second of this class for the whole year, but it quickly became my favorite because of the loving environment Mrs.Smith created. What I would change about this semester is adding more detail to my projects as most of them were pretty plain. What I am going to learn from this semester and school year is I am not gifted in graphic design and in my future career of eComm I need to focus on SID. One goal I want to set for next school has nothing to really do with this class but is to get a unweighted GPA of 4.0 and a weighted GPA of 4.4. Final thoughts is I really loved this class because of everyone in the class they really made my school year better.

 

Semester Reflection (Final) - Video

Projects

Feature Story Number One 

This project is  my first feature story I produced in video class. The video is about my friend who overcame anorexia to become a bodybuilder. This project took me one week to film one week to edit and one day to complete the revisions on the video. Some challenges I faced when producing this video was having time to film my clients as we both had very busy schedules. Another challenge I faced while creating this video was I was still fairly new to the editing software and it took me awhile to learn the software efficiently and it really slowed down the process. Along the way I learned plenty of things. One important thing I learned was how to use Adobe Premiere. The next big thing i learned was how to adjust radio and make everything glow nicely together. The last new thing I learned while producing this assignment was how to manage the camera and make sure that the NAT noise is on so one can pick up audio. Some feedback I was given for this assignment was mostly positive. Some positive comments that were said were "the use of the six shot system was nice", "you had great NAT noise", "The interview question were great and the people getting interviewed provided great responses", "great voiceover". As always constructive advice is always need so here are some negative comments I received "too much background noise during the interviews", and "the pictures did not fill the entire screen". When I got to make revisions to make my video better the first thing I changed was Making the interviews louder to block out some of the background noise. Another aspect that I changed in the video was putting their names in the video so people knew who the interview was. Overall I really enjoyed doing this project from the editing to the filming. Every aspect of creating a feature story is fun and is one of the most enjoyable assignments I received during first semester. In terms of this project for the video being my first feature story i was extremely proud of how it turned out. In this video there was some aspects I needed to improve and as the class move forward and learned new things my video became a lot better and are produced to the best of my ability.

ONW Now Video

This project was a video I produced for the sophomore ONW Now production. This video took me 50 minutes to film put a voiceover together and edit the film. Some challenges I faced when creating this video was my partner was gone for a week leaving me a day to edit film and create a voiceover for the project. Another challenge I had was blocking out a squeak that was in all of the clips I shot and I had to balance all the audio so the audience cannot hear the unpleasant sound. Along the way I learned never to do a group project because more than likely I will have to do all the work and be rushed to make a quality video. I have not been given any feedback for this video yet. However, I personally think this is the best video I have produced. Even though I had 50 minutes to create a film for my final this is great quality and I am very proud of what I've created. I have not changed anything yet but if i had a chance to make revisions I would edit the title of the interviewee names to make a more fitting and quality title. My My overall opinion of this project is I love this video. I woke really hard on this video and put all my effort into reading a quality video.

Use of Class Time 

I used my class time very efficiently. I was always working hard in this class and not a second went by where I wasn't working hard. I had every assignment turned in on time and always produced great quality work. When I had finished early or thought I finished early I stayed Productive by doing plenty of other activities. One thing I would do if I finished early was ask my fellow peers who also finished early to critique my video. Having done this if anything needed to be changed I could go back and do so with plenty of time to spare. Another thing I did to stay productive if I finished early was I was constantly updating my blog with fresh content that I had just created. The last thing I did to stay productive when I finished early was help my fellow peers with their videos. Outside of class I put in a lot of work. I was constantly coming in to re-edit videos. Or I was coming in during lunch to finish up videos and get ahead of everyone else. Another thing I did out of class was keeping my blogs updated with my latest work. To better myself as a production student i participated in plenty of out of school filming such as being a sideline reporter, being an ONW Now Gameday host, and I filmed plenty of sports games. All of these extra hours I spent out of class doing this work really helped become a better speaker, writer, and film maker. 

Strengths 

As an employee I have three huge strengths that I pride myself on. My first strength and my biggest strength is I am a very hard worker. My second strength as an employee is I never give up on assignment or anything in life. I always find a way to push through and finish what I started. My last strength as an employee is I am a perfectionist. This could also be viewed as a weakness also as I will not continue with an assignment unless everything looks perfect at that very moments. However, this is a strength for me as people will know I product quality work and I produce the best work. As a video producer I have three main strengths I pride myself on. My first strength is my ability to create quality content in little amounts of time. I was able to show this skill off yesterday when I had 50 minutes to create a video from scratch with no help even though I was suppose to have a partner. My second strength as a student in video class is my understanding of the editing software. My third strength as a video production student is I can write a really good blog post. I am able to maximize my strengths by working hard, staying on task, and not letting anything get in my way of creating a quality video.

Areas of Improvement 

An area of improvement that really brought me down this year is my collaboration skills. In the beginning of the year I talked to much to my fellow classmates and really hurt their progress. However as the year went on however I fixed this problem and no longer is it an issue for me or my peers. To fix this problem I just brought headphones to class and only listened to music instead of distracting them with my voice. Other than this small issue in the begging of the year I have no where to improve. I am glad i fixed this problem as ever since I have me and my peers work became a whole lot better and we are ahead of the curve.

Summary

I loved plenty of things this semester. One thing I loved was the classmates I sit by. My classmates really made me enjoy this class and made me look forward to coming to this class everyday. Another thing I really enjoyed was creating the feature stories. Feature stories are fun to make and allow me to film what I am interested in. What I would change about this class is not having to do group projects. I was assigned a group project for our last assignment which was the most important assignment and my partner did absolutely nothing. In the future if we do have to do group assignments I hope to get assigned a good partner who will actually do something for the project except stare at the screen. What I am going to take away from this semester of graphic design is in order to succeed in life one needs to work hard. Next semester I have one goal. The goal I am setting for myself does not just apply in Video Production class but applies to life and that goal is to be the best at everything I do in life. I have no final thoughts. 

Feature Story 2

Feature Story 2

Concept

I had plenty of concepts behind my second feature story. One concept behind my video was to showcase the athletic ability of the Olathe Northwest high school wrestlers. Another concept I had in mind when creating my video was to highlight how hard it is to be good at wrestling on and off the mat. From practice to eating correctly i really wanted to showcase the challenges top tier wrestlers go through. The last concept I had in mind when creating my second feature story was to highlight two varsity wrestlers Brady Pellman and Jake Herl. 

Narrative Lead

The narrative lead I put in my video was the sound of the Olathe Northwest wrestling team warming up by performing a light jog around the map. It affected my video by setting the mood for the video that it was going to be about wrestling. It also helped my video by viewers understand the concept of the video before it even started. 

Who I Interviewed

I interviewed two varsity wrestlers at Olathe Northwest. The wrestlers names are Brady Pellman and Jake Herl. The two interviewees complemented eachother nicely and provided great responses and gave the video an exciting aspect. The two interviewees also complemented eachother becuase they both agreed on most questions which allowed me being the editor to combine the clips as one.

Experience editing and Filming

I edited this video using Adobe Premiere Pro. Editing video is the least fun of most of my projects as i don't really consider myself to be that great. So the editing for this video is quite average nothing that special. The filming portion for this project was quite fun as filming is my favorite part of every project. When filming i tried to get the six shot system and apply the one thirds rule in the interview. I did however mess up on my filming as all the clips are blurry. 

Feedback

The feedback I got from my class was mostly negative as this is what they said 

• Videos were blurry
• Did not have a conclusion to the video
• Interview was washed out
• Too much background noise on some of the clips
• Not enough B-Roll
• Some clips did not fit the mood
• Abrupt ending

The only positive feed back I got was from my teacher to which she said 

• The video highlighted the athletes and the sport well
• Good questions and interviews 
• Good voiceover

This was all the feed back I received for my video.

Conclusion

If i could make any changes with my video I would make two substantial changes. One would be having a voiceover at the end of the video to address the last question and not have to video end so abrupt. The last change would be Making sure that when I film i make sure that i am getting clear and quality footage. Overall this was a fun assignment as I like shooting feature story and like the journalism side of video.  I look forward to doing more projects like this in the future.
 

What Makes a Good Feature Story

Best Feature Story For Sophomore Video Production

What Makes a Good Feature Story 

Concept

The first part to making a great feature story is having a great concept that will keep the audience interested in the video. When the class was first creating a feature story for this assignment our teacher stressed having a great concept and even stated "Having a good concept will lead you to having a good video." Without a great concept no one wants to spend the time to watch the video. Some other great feature stories besides the video above that have great concepts that the class used as examples when creating our own would be about a mom who wore 26 different shirts when running a mile, a teacher who has had a long lasting influence on his students, and a man who drives a semi across the nation to save dogs. All these video have one thing in common they all have a great concept that kept the audience interested and wanting to continue watching the video. 

Good Interview

Another crucial part to having a great feature story that people want to watch is having a good interview and a well shot interview. If the people getting interviewed do not give great responses the video will suck. In the video above both the people getting interviewed do a great job of answering the questions asked and give the view a reason to continue to watch the video. As for how the interview is shot it is important to get the interview shot in the environment that you are making a video about. It would not make sense to make a video about a teacher who has influenced her students greatly and shoot it at a prison. This video above does a good job of showing the environment that the video is about in her interview. Another good part to having a good interview is having good lighting.

Feature Story Experince

Reflection 

Concept for the Video

The concept for the video was to explain the story of a student at ONW who does something exiting outside of school. For my video the concept was to explain how my friend Griffen Allen overcame anorexia to become a teen bodybuilder. The message I wanted to get across with this video is that with handwork and dedication it is possible to accomplish anything in life. I also hope that this video inspires some to go out and accomplish their goals in life and feel proud of themselves. 

Narrative Lead

The narrative lead in my video i feel is very strong and is one of the best parts of my video. The narrative lead affected my video by making it a lot stronger. The lead also helps the audience get interested in the video and keeps them watching the video and not getting bored. Without the narrative lead i feel like m video would be missing an important piece and the video wouldn't be ass good and it would be boring. 

Who I Interviewed 

I interviewed ONW sophomore Griffen Allen and Mill Valley senior Sterling Franzwa. They complimented each other very well in my personal opinion. They flow really well together as they are best friends and have been working out together for years. I feel like even though they don't state this directly in  the video the vibe between the two can be felt through the video and you can really feel how proud Sterling is of Griffen. Another way they complemented each other is both there responses are heart warming and both flow together nicely. 

Creating the Voiceover 

When creating the voiceover I found the process to be fairly easy and pretty fun to make. The only struggle I had when making the voiceover was it was hard to get the voiceover to flow with interview clips. Other than that i feel the voiceover made the video a lot stronger and better overall. 

Feature Story Process

The writing process for a feature story is quite challenging. The most challenging part of the written feature story is coming up with a great introduction that hooks the reader into reading more. After  I came up with a good way to describe the intro to my video in written form the rest was simple. The rest of the written feature story consist of my voiceover in the video and Griffin's responses to the question i asked him in the interview. The last challenging process of the written feature story is the conclusion / ending. The hard part of the conclusion was finding a way to connect the ending to the intro without repeating the introduction. 

Emotion Towards the Feature Story

Writing the feature story was quite fun in my opinion. While it was a challenging process I had a lot of fun transforming my video into word form. The whole feature story process from creating the video, doing the voiceover, editing the video, and writing the feature story was really fun and enjoyable.

Written Feature Story

You can hear Sterling Franzwa getting his workout partner Griffin Allen pumped up for a set of 80-pound dumbbell incline bench. The first few reps go up as smooth as butter, but by the time Griffin gets to his fifth rep he starts to show sign of struggle. Sterling yells some motivating words at Griffin and is able to get him to push up 7 more reps. As soon as Griffin gets done with his set he drops the dumbbells on the floor and everyone in the gym could hear a loud bang.

Many students spend their time outside of school doing a variety of activities such as playing sports, doing homework, or hanging out with friends. Griffin Allen on the other hand spends his time outside of school dedicating his life to bodybuilding. Griffin explains his emotional story of how he overcame anorexia to become a teen bodybuilder. Griffin stated, “Well the emotional part I’d say from being really scrawny to putting on some weight and muscle you know I just feel better about myself less insecure. The best part physically of it is working out putting on muscle getting into shape. One it just gives me the since that I can accomplish anything.” Griffin has had a lot of supporters throughout his amazing transformation. When I interviewed his workout partner Sterling Franzwa about what he thinks of Griffin’s transformation this is what he said.

“Griffin being my best friend transforming himself to the biggest and best version of himself makes me want to do the same for my body.” When I asked Griffin if he could give any advice to those who want to be like him this is what he said. “Anyone who’s trying to put on some weight and muscle eat, eat, eat, a lot. Another important piece of advice is work hard, lift heavy with good form and get sleep. Griffin said sleep is the most important part to building muscle and letting the body recover.”

I think everyone can learn something from Griffin Allen and his journey of how he became a bodybuilder. Even if one’s goal is not to get big or care about the gym you can take away his work ethic. He has dedicated his life to something he loves and you can do the same.