Rose e-Communication Blog

5 Guarantees  Technical Skills In e-Comm I have learned many technical skills of filmmaking. The program has taught me how to use a camera and other equipment, and how to use editing software. This is extremely beneficial for me, as I am going to study these areas in college. I have a solid understanding of these skills before going to college which will help me a lot. I faced a few struggles along the way, but that is simply part of learning. You can't learn without making mistakes.  Communication In e-Comm I learned how big of a role communications has in life. Being apart of a team requires communication from each person for the maximum outcome. When I was apart of projects with a group that had bad communication, the final product was never as good. It will continue to be one of the most important skills to have throughout the rest of my life. Collaboration In e-Comm I have learned collaboration skills I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else. I learned about the spe...

 Film Reel    My film reel is 2 minutes long, which keeps it pretty concise. It represents me as a creator and how I want to portray myself. I brand my films as care-free and showing the beauty in the little things. I used my best and favorite shots to compile this reel. I have clips from every project I've worked on, which makes it very diverse. I brand myself with my cinematography, which I am hoping to improve. I choose to brand myself with cinematography because it is what I am most passionate about. I think the look of a film is very important and can enhance a film very much.  Some things I will do differently next time include cutting out even more shots that I don't think fully show my skill as a cinematographer. I also am wanting to enhance it with more shots and a wider range of shots and genres. I also want to work on finding a song thats not as repetitive and boring, which is difficult when searching for royalty free music. Overall I am happy with the ...

 For my groups commercial, we chose to do Peace Tea. We really loved the vibes that their brand gives off and the colors of their products. We really wanted our commercial to be a fun time with good vibes. We decided the best way to approach this was a montage approach, with no dialog. Because of this, our script is just a description of scenes. After deciding our roles-I was DP, Sam was director and editor, DJ was art director, and Nick was production designer-we started by making a mood board to show how we wanted to convey the tea. The next step was finishing our script, then the story boards. Then we secured our actors, found a day that worked for all of us, and made a call sheet.  From being DP on this project, it helped me learn about product placement shots, and made me realize how difficult it is to film in a car. The hardest part of our filming day was filming the car shots. It was difficult to keep the shots steady. It was also hard to shoot out the window, because t...

For this film reel, I wanted to capture happiness and laughter. I wanted it to overall be a feel good video. For all projects in my film reel, I was the director of photography. Cinematography best represents my brand because I'm very focused on the visual appeal of each shot. I am a perfectionist which helps me to always get the right focus, alignment, and balance.  All of the shots in this reel are my best shots. The yellow tones of the lighting help with the happy feel I was trying to convey. For the song, I wanted something that was upbeat and fun to work with the rest giving it good vibes. I tried to only use shots that fit together seamlessly. So I chose the ones most similar in color and style.  Next time, I will try to add more variety of what my shots contain. I will try to implement close ups of objects so it's not all people, and work on doing projects with other people to get a variety of different people in my film reel. I will definitely keep the feel ...

I chose to review the music video for bury a friend by Billie Eilish. The music video is about the "monster under your bed". The song is written from her perspective as if she is the monster. In this music video, they do an amazing job of giving a scary tone with lighting and costuming. The use of darkness and harsh white light and strobes conveys a very cold and aggressive feeling, which we learned about from Brady. I really admire the use of close ups to show emotion, and that is something I would apply to my own work. The variety of shots and angles is very appealing to the eye. They also did a very good job of editing to the music and creating shots that fit the different sounds like the bass, etc. All in all, this is probably my favorite music video I've seen. I think it does an incredible job conveying what it is meant to, and is very visually appealing.

Camera Assignment 1 This project was to get experience with the cameras we use in eComm. We were able to choose what we wanted to do for our project. My group chose to do a music video to a cover of New Light by John Mayer. We had a few weeks in total to complete this project including pre-production, production, and post production. Some challenges we faced were getting days to film that we were all free, so we had to do all of our filming in two days, and we struggled with getting our filming done before dark. I learned how to adjust the camera to accommodate the natural lighting we had, and how to make the video have a complete different mood with the use of lights and gels. Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. Commercial This project we were instructed to make a commercial either 15, 30, or 60 seconds. My group chose to go with 30 seconds, because many commercials are that length and we felt that would suit our product the best. It took about 3-4 weeks in total...

Infographic The infographic project was to create an infographic on a topic of your choice. I chose to do chocolate, because who doesn't love chocolate? This project took about 2-3 weeks to complete. It began with research on our topic. Once we had our research compiled, we began sketching our graphics for the project. After making a final sketch of our infographic, it was time to begin creating out graphics in illustrator. Once we were finished with the graphics, we put them together to make the final product. Some challenges I faced were finding a good layout that flowed, and creating graphics that all matched the theme of the infographic. Some new skills I learned were how to distort a circle, and how to trace with the curved pen tool. Feedback I was given was that my dripping font was too difficult to read and didn't fit the tone of the rest. So, I changed it to a different font that was simpler and easier to read. Overall, I am very happy with how the final product turne...

Short Film This project was our final project this year. We were assigned to create a short film from start to finish. We began with making a longline and synopsis. Next, we turned that into a treatment. After having a meeting with the teacher to discuss our ideas and build on them, we made a few revisions. We then pitched our treatment to the class. After everyone pitched their ideas, we had an online voting process. We established directors for each of the winning pieces, and then there was choice in which piece you wanted to go into. Once we had our groups established, we began the storyboarding process. We split up to work on the mood board, costuming, storyboard, and script. Finishing that, it was time to get to filming. Filming took two separate days outside of class, and a few more in class. For this project, I was the actor. I found it very challenging to portray emotion with our piece not having dialog. I really had to work to express fear and confusion. I've never don...

Pre-Production To begin this project, we were given our groups, and our trailer we would recreate. My group consisted of Annabelle, Greyson, Drew S, John, and I. Our movie trailer we were given to recreate was Clueless. We started by making a storyboard with screenshot of each frame, with the lines the characters said during that frame. After that, we scheduled our filming days.  Production We finished our filming with 3 separate days. We did majority of our filming at the school. The only shots we took outside of school were the shots at price chopper for the restaurant scene, and the car shots. We encountered a problem when we took the car scene because the light coming in from the window was really over exposed and we couldn't get the white balance to work to fix it. The other obstacle we had was that we didn't use mics, so for the return scene in particular, the audio isn't as good as it could be. Other than that it went really well. Our actress for Cher was g...

Music Video Our project in video was to create a music video to a song of our choice. The pre production process was very long and tedious. We had to come up with a storyboard for the video first. Then we had to figure out casting and costumes. Lastly, it was time to establish filming locations and dates. While filming, we were tight on time, so we had to do most of it in one day. Nonetheless, we persevered through and stayed focused so we could get it done well. On the first day of filming, we did the scenes at the park, coffee place, and grocery store. On our second day, we did the filming at Annabelle's house. After that, we had to edit. We made the flashback clips a white tone to show that they were in the past. At first we struggled with deciding on what transitions to use to go into the pictures. We finally decided on one we liked and continued the process. We had to cut the music because the original is almost 5 minutes long. While filming, we faced some obstacles b...

Pre-Production I decided to use my dance team picture for my project because dance is such a prominent part of my life. So, once I had the picture, I had to bring it into photoshop to posterize it. This simply made the shadows more apparent so I could trace them easier later. Then I created a project in illustrator with two art boards. I filled one with the original, and one with the posterized picture in a 50% opacity. Production While working on this project, I din't know the best way to go about it, or the oder that would work best. I ended up jumping around a lot because I would get board of working on certain areas. I kept each section as its own layer for organization purposes. I found it most difficult to create the eyes, and the hair. I eventually got to a place I was a little more happy with with the hair, but I think the tones could be better. The hardest part was getting the tones of the skin and hair to look right.  Post-Production Overall, I am pleased with ...

Pre-Production To start this project, I found 10 quotes that I liked. A lot of the ones I chose were song lyrics from my favorite songs. I also found some inspirational quotes online to use. Once I had them all chosen, I narrowed it down to my top favorite 4. Then, I headed to illustrator to make them come to life. Production When starting my quotes, I used black and white so I could focus all my attention on the layout. I downloaded a bunch of different fonts to use from dafont.com. It was hard to find fonts that matched the mood of the quote and the other fonts I had. For example, Thin fonts look good with other thin fonts, and thick with thick. It took a lot of time to find the perfect layout and fonts for each one. Once I had them how I liked them, I made the colored version. For some of them, I didn't know how to implement color into them. I made it work, and switched one of my quotes out. Post-Production/Final Project Overall, I am happy with how my quotes turned...

ONW Procedures This project was to explain a procedure at school. My group chose to show how to report bullying. It took about two weeks in total. We spent a lot of time story boarding and preparing, a couple days to film, and a few more days editing. This was our first project with using cameras, so it was challenging to get used to them, and figure out everything hands-on with the cameras. Alas, it was a good learning experience to get to know the cameras better. I also learned how important lighting is, and how it establishes the mood for a scene. Some feedback I was given was to fix the cut at the end where Olivia is walking, and I tried too, but I couldn't get the shots to line up right. I didn't change much from the original video, just fixing a couple cuts. I am pretty happy with this video, but the lighting and settings on the camera at the beginning don't look very good, so I will change that next time. ONW 1 in 2000 This project was to do an interv...

Panorama This was our panorama project. It took about a week and a half to complete. Some challenges I faced in creating it were finding the right layout that looked the best, and getting all the pictures to blend seamlessly. Along the way, I learned how to use the eraser tool with different opacities to layer and blend pictures. I also learned how to adjust the brightness of pictures to have them match. I didn't really make any changes from my original idea. Overall, I am really happy with how it turned out. Infographic This was our infographic project. It took about 4 weeks in all to complete. The process included lots of brainstorming and sketches to prepare. When creating this, it was challenging to find a layout that flowed continuously and kept with the theme. Along the way, I learned how to use the pen and pen curve tools. I also learned how to download and install a new font and incorporate it into my design. Compared to my original idea, I didn't chan...

At Olathe Northwest, we produce a weekly news story called ONW Now. It catches up the students on everything they need to know. For this project, we had to create our version of ONW Now. We were assigned groups, and our groups each got a Feature story, News story, Sports story, or word from the halls. In a good news brodcast, the segments can't be too long and drag out, or the viewer will get bored. before it moves on. It also must have facts and they must be made sure they are true, so that the viewers are getting the correct information. During the live recording process, it was really interesting to see how the people controlling in the booth make everything come together. There is a lot of pressure on them to get the timing right, for a seamless brodcast. It was cool how they could press a button and switch cameras and pre recorded segments. It was also interesting to see how they had some troubles with the audio with the anchors mics. 

Overview For this project, we were assigned to make a news feature story about something going on currently with students at ONW. My group consisted of Cade, Holly, and Andrew. We decided to do our video on United Sound. United sound is a club that gives ONWs special education students a chance to be a part of the band. This story is inspirational because it show students volunteering their time to help. It also gives exposure to the club so it'll be more known, and more people can join. Filming While we were filming, our focus was on the instruments, and their natural sound. We had to go in after school to film, because thats when they practice. We went in to film the first time, and we had no audio. So, we had to re film our b-roll for natural sound. Other than that, the filming process went very smoothly.  Editing Because we had to re-film our b-roll, I had very little time to edit my video. I did what I had time for, and turned in what I had. I fond it diffic...

United Sound Performs at Band Concert What is United Sound? United sound is a program that allows students who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity, to be involved in a band. Each student has a mentor or two assigned to them to teach them the instrument they choose. They practice after school. It’s a fun club that allows the kids to make friends, and learn an instrument. They’ve been practicing very hard in preparation for this year’s christmas concert. On December 6, 2018 is the annual Christmas concert. You will see performances from all of the ONW bands, finishing it off with a special performance from United Sound. They’ll perform songs such as sleigh-ride and jingle bells. Make sure you come out and support them this Thursday! The Process of Writing a News Story I started the process of writing this news story by making sure I knew the facts. I made sure that I was correct with all the information I used. I liked being able to make an event into a story ...

In graphic design, we created watercolor transfer prints. Here's how we did it.  First, we chose our favorite project from the year so far, and opened it in Adobe Photoshop. We cropped it to be a bit smaller, and made a black and white copy. This is just so we would have two to chose from, whichever you preferred in the end. Next, we printed them out and cut them so they would have a rim of blank paper about half an inch thick all the way around your project. Then, we took a sheet of watercolor paper, tore it in half, and watercolored them how we saw fit. Once the watercolors dried, we took our picture and spread a thick layer of mod podge onto the ink. You should just barely be able to see your picture through the mod podge. Leave the blank rim around the picture clean, don't coat it so you can hold it. Place the picture, mod podge side down, onto the watercolor. Spread it around and flatten it out a little; does not have to be precise, just starting you off. Next, take...

Overview In the eCommunications video production strand, our most recent project was an interview. For this project, we got to choose if we wanted to be directors. Everyone who wanted to be one volunteered, and then they got to pick who was on their team. I was in a team with Kensie Likes, Annabelle Glasscock, and Holly McCormick was our Director. We went through the process starting with deciding the topic we wanted to focus on. After brainstorming many ideas, we chose to interview Brooke about when she passed out at homecoming pictures. We wrote out about 20 questions we wanted to ask her, and then thought it would be helpful if we had a witness be interviewed too. We chose Alex Pauli, Brooke's date, to give us his point of view. So, we wrote about 15 questions similar to Brooke's, regarding the same topics. Then, we filmed and edited our interviews. Shooting The process of filming our interviews was actually much more difficult than expected. We had to make sure tha...

Relief Process Relief printing is the process of cutting or etching a surface so that the leftover surface is what is printed. You can use a barren with your hand, usually done with very thin paper. The printing is done on a plywood block. The grain will change how black the black areas appear. 1) Tone your wood block with a jet black wash 2) Use an aid to transfer the drawing 3) Decide on where you want white or black line imagery 4) Roll ink onto the block 5) Place the block on the press 6) Pass it through transferring the ink to paper Intaglio Process A printing process where the image area is below a flat surface of your printing plate. There are several options including dry point and etching. Dry point moves the metal and creates a burr where the ink is held. Etching involves a much longer process of preparation of the plate to create a trough the ink will sit in.  1) Prepare the plate for printing 2) Wipe the plate with ink 3) Remove exce...