Project one was my first experience with a real camera. Growing up I always used small, digital cameras to take video and edit my own homemade movies. I shadowed a video producer/editor during my internship this past summer, but I never was able to actually use the camera by myself. I was very nervous to do my very first package, but the best way to learn is to be thrown into a situation and learn from your own mistakes.
The most important skill that I learned is to be sure to know when the white balance is correct. It seems like this is something simple to do before each shot you film, however I learned from my own project that my white balance was off at times when I didn’t even realize it. I think the biggest thing is to make sure you have something that is large and truly white to white balance off of. We used a piece of paper, but with the rain it started to get a little damp and dirty, which probably messed up our white balance at a few spots on campus. I will be sure to use a clean, solid white surface to white balance for the next project.
The second skill I learned from Project One is to focus your shot in every single scene. There were times that we would focus our shot, then change our angle and assume that the focus would stay the same. However, when going through the footage when we finished, there was a clear difference between the shots we truly focused and the ones we just assumed were focused. Although the picture is clear enough to see what is going on, taking the short time to focus each shot makes your finished project look so much more professional.
Finally, after watching everyone’s presentations, the biggest thing I learned to tell a story is to be creative. Almost all of everyone’s projects had the same exact shots. Going forward in the future, there will be many times when you are required to document a story that so many other news outlets will be covering as well, so you have to learn how to stand out and make your package better than the rest. Instead of just getting a shot in front of Old Main, we could have gone to all sides of the building or we could’ve gone to a different part of campus to get a different angle. At the time I didn’t realize how simple our shots were, but after watching it back I really wish we could go back and find more creative angles to tell the story. There’s ways to tell the same story as others, but do it in a better, more creative and professional way. Although the technical skills of white balancing and focusing are crucial to tell a story, my biggest takeaway from this project is to really think outside the box and find creative angles to tell a story.
Overall, the first project was extremely eye-opening to all of the things I need to learn to better my skills with the camera and storytelling itself. I am very interested to see how my final project will turn out compared to my first one. I can tell that this class will teach me so much real-life experience and I am excited to take what I learned from Project One to Project Two!
