At the beginning of the semester, I had a feeling that I would be learning a lot from Comm 465. The only relevant experience I had that would be of help to me in this course were some basic editing skills and some experience in front of the camera thanks to previous internships. Other than that, pretty much everything we learned this semester was brand new to me.
I had absolutely no knowledge of how to use a professional camera, or even a tripod for that matter, so learning how to use the camera was the first challenge I faced. I was thankful that we were allowed to work with partners especially since my partner was a lot more knowledgeable than me when it came to working the camera. The one-day camera workshop didn’t help me much and it wasn’t until the most recent project, P4, that I felt comfortable in my camera skills. Although many of the frustrations I had with the camera this semester were annoying, I was able to learn through trial and error.
While learning to operate the camera was definitely a necessity, I think that the most important thing I learned in this class is the importance of humanizing stories. I never realized why some news stories have stood out to me over the years more than others, but it turns out that the best stories are ones that the audience can identify with and relate to. This opened my eyes to the fact that there is no better way to captivate the audience’s attention than to tell your story from a humanized angle. Finding the right interview subjects, thinking creatively, asking narrow and specific questions, including sequence shots, and getting a wide variety of wide angle, close-up, and varied shots all add to the story tremendously. This visual storytelling of showing, while also telling through narration and SOTs, allows the audience to be dually engaged, and allows them to get as much from the story as possible.
I also learned the importance of being creative. Whether thinking of a story idea, using a creative stand-up, thinking outside of the box when shooting b-roll, or taking a creative risk with your script, a story can really stand out and be a lot more impressive if you are resourceful and innovative with your video package.
All of the videos we watched in class including multiple creative stand-ups by reporters, the story of the elephant and dog being friends, and even the story of the Asian guest who was turned away from an ‘Airbnb’ solely because of her race – allowed me to fully understand the impact that creativity and a humanized angle have on a story and therefore on viewers.
I am confident that, thanks to the skills I’ve learned in this class, I will be a much better journalist and storyteller. I think that these skills will carry over and help me to be successful in CCR, future internships, as well as my entire journalistic career.