I have really enjoyed this class and I am confident in saying that this class will benefit me in the future. The most valuable skill I learned is the importance of virtual storytelling. I learned how to show my viewers what was happening and not just tell them. These days for a story to be engaging for an audience it has to include everything. Print just is not enough anymore and this class has really showed me that. I learned how to convey a message with video and not just my words. Going in to this year I thought about changing my major to print because I am not comfortable in front of the camera and no longer wish to be a news anchor. But, after talking with my advisor I realized that to be a successful journalist I needed to know how to do everything and that includes video. When I graduate I would like to market myself as a multimedia journalist and this class will help me do it. While, I am happy I no longer have to do stand ups or be in front of the camera, the experience this class give me was worth the personal discomfort. I am now able to proficiently film and edit stories, which I believe will only benefit me in the future. I learned that in order to make a good news story one cannot have a purely SOT driven story. I have to look for important detail and film things that will truly capture the audience’s attention. B-roll is very important to a story and that is an invaluable lesson. I also learned from this class how important it is to be clear about the point of your story. In my second package that profiled a young person. My beginning shot was Rikki walking out of the apartment. Something I thought was a clever idea at the time. After your critique I realized that the audience had no way of knowing that she was about to walk out of where she lived. For all they knew that could have been in the basement of a warehouse. It was not a nice shot to start my story with and I realized it was not clear about her whereabouts. In the future I hope to become a travel journalist and I am hoping my new filming skills will be beneficial to me for that.
Thank you Dr. Z