Senior Reflection

Freshmen Year

When I first applied to e-Comm in eighth grade I came in knowing almost nothing about the four strands. What prompted me to join was my interest in photography. 

Technology

Freshmen year I was introduced to final cut pro, sketch up, and the beginnings of how to use a camera. Getting an introduction into these different forms of technology allowed me to get an understanding of what strand I wanted to join. It was difficult to learn animation due to our teacher not even knowing the program himself. That experience lead me to be unable to get me a true understanding of what animation was. 

Collaboration

Freshmen year we did many group project in order to get to know each other. One of the group projects  I remember most was a short action scene we had to film with classmates. As a group we had to come up with a script, film it, and edit it. Our final project was a group project where we had to come up with a product idea and present it to teachers and other students. My group came up with a chewable that could give you different super powers. We had to create a commercial and product design so we could present it to everyone. 

Communication

Communication was something that was a key element throughout. Our projects needed to communicate something to everyone. Working with groups also required us to communicate with everyone so we could work together and complete our projects. 

Project Mangagement

There were many projects freshmen year that had deadlines. Like any class we had due dates that had hard deadlines. These class projects required us to divide our work through x amount of days so that we would complete our project on time and not be rushed.  Most often I struggled with meeting the video deadlines because of how time consuming editing was. 

Leadership

Leadership was an important skill for group projects. Not every person wanted to have a strong role in the projects so one would need to take the lead. As the leader you  would have to organize and ensure everyone was doing their job. 

Senior Year

Throughout the past four years I have improved on my skills and made many friends. Sophomore year when I chose two focus strands I made friends with a girl in my web class and many people in my video class. Mr. Olson's class was one I always looked forward to. I enjoyed learning how to make and design websites on my own. My video class that year was a mess. Our original teacher, Mr. Alum, was fired so then we had a long term sub until a replacement was found. She did not know anything so we were not able to learn much more besides when Mrs. Morris came in to teach a couple times. In second semester Mr. Cooper came in as the new teacher. Second semester was a good time because he was a fun teacher and people in the class had a good connection. He has definitely been one of my favorite teachers here. Junior year I got my first piece of client work. I worked on it with another senior, Destane, where we filmed training videos for Johnson County Mental Health. The videos took about 16 hours to complete all of them. The woman we worked with, Christine, was nice and we did multiple videos with her and I did one for her my senior year.  Another client project was one for my friend's family friend who hosts a charity golf tournament every year for the past 13 years. This video was a highlight video for the tournament. This video took me about 12 hours to finish from filming to editing. This past semester I worked with them again to create another highlight video and he later asked me to make a video for his son who was having a cancer head shave party for his son who was starting chemotherapy. I also worked on a project for a woman who was creating a series about Kansas City and the best parts about it. The two videos I did for her were about homes on the market that her husband was selling. These videos were aimed to show people why that house and neighborhood would be a good fit. I finished the two videos, but she never responded to my emails after that so that was the end. She did pay me for my work which was nice.

Technology

In my junior year I began learning and using Adobe Premier to edit videos. This was a good experience for me because Premier is a more commonly used software in the industry instead of Final Cut Pro. It was a little hard getting used to the new layout of the system and the different shortcuts. After spending time on it, I began to enjoy the system more because it had more features and was not that different than Final Cut. I also learned more about lenses that year. I had a general knowledge about lenses, but that year I began to understand more about the reasoning for using them. It was difficult to remember the exact terminology for each part. 

Collaboration

Each year we did more collaboration for video projects because it is difficult to produce a video with only one person. The biggest collaboration was junior year making our feature film. Our class had to work together to create a script, film it, and edit it. We worked in groups to write the scripts which helped everyone get to know each other more and become closer. The many long filming days we had brought us closer together which helped getting through the days. Senior year we had two projects at the beginning of the year where we worked in small groups to create a PSA and short film For the PSA I had to take the lead to make sure we got it completed on time, which we did, but was rough. The short film was going well until we realized the script was too much for our time restraint and our conflicting schedules. Due to that we switched to my script and filmed it in two days and edited it in about 4 days. It definitely was not the best work and could have been better. 

Communication

Communication has been the same for working in groups all 4 years. Last year was essential for communicating our ideas, plans, and actions in a way that was respectful to other people and their ideas. This year the main communication I have dealt with is making sure actors knew their costumes and Brady told me what kind of vibe he was going for. It could have been better between Brady and I, so I had a clearer idea of what he wanted and to ensure we had the costumes each shoot day. Communicating with the actors went well, it was only a problem on my part making sure I had costumes ready by then and sent them with enough advance. Communicating with clients is important to make sure they get what they want and you clearly understand what you need to do. Working with the woman who wanted the home videos was difficult because her ideas were all over the place and never gave a clear idea of what she wanted and later she never responded. Christine was easy to work with because I knew her before and the man who directed it had a clear idea of what he wanted. 

Project Mangagement 

Working with a client last year made me grasp a better idea of why project management is important because they need the videos at a date, unlike school where you can get away with turning in something late. The feature film last year was evidence of our lack of management skills. We were fairly organized but getting the final edit completed was difficult. We did edit as we filmed, but only having about three editors made it difficult. The movie was produced in time but was late on our deadline for the theater. This year the PSA went well in terms of project management, but the short film did not. As earlier stated, the original script fell through due to compromising circumstances. Due to the late start we had to cram the filming into one afternoon and a couple hours at night another day. We were then rushed to edit the video in about 4 days which was not easy or a good idea to do so. The lack of time made the video not look that good when it could have been slightly better. 

Leadership

Last year the seniors mainly took the lead in the film and projects. They set a good example for us juniors to see a group of people who genuinely enjoyed each other and worked together well. This year I had to take the lead in both projects. The PSA went well enough I didn't mind it, but the short film stressed me out so I did not enjoy that roll. This year I was chosen to be the senior representative for senior show. I took the lead in creating the promotional video for senior show. It was stressful trying to complete the project in time when people were not submitting work and the other video person did not help at all even when I asked her to help. I did end up getting it finished on time, but not having a sufficient amount of time to plan made the planning stressful. 

Fini 

The past four years have gone well and surprisingly true, went by fast. These editing and video skills will help me in my future because with the modern world, many companies want someone who is able to communicate ideas through different media that can reach a wide range of audience on different platforms. While I did enjoy video, especially last year, I wish I was able to learn more about graphic design and web. I enjoyed web design and would have liked to learn more. Graphic design is something I became interested in the year and have found enjoyment in. While the years have been good, I'm ready to gtfo.