I feel very lucky to have been able to take this course. I felt that I really learned a lot and am able to do more than I ever expected. I can now edit, use a camera, and be able to write scripts that are well done. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and believe that the skills I learned will genuinely be useful for the real world as well as the rest of my time in college. I learned a lot more than three skills during this course but the ones that stood out the most were to think visually, finding people to interview, and how to use the cameras.
Thinking visually was one of the first lessons that we had ever learned during this course but it definitely stuck with me the most. I really enjoyed seeing that lesson come to fruition. We learned that visual messages stick with people much longer than a written message would. That definitely proved to be true many times throughout the semester. I think that showing instead of telling is a very critical part of the packages we did. The stories were a lot better when you could see what we were talking about instead of just talking about them.
We also learned how to find people to interview and how to interview them. This is not an easy skill, nor is it one that comes naturally. We had to come up with questions and really get into detail about people we did not know. It was fun and exciting at the end of every interview because we ended up learning so much from those random people. My favorite interview was with one of the ladies at the farmers market. She was so genuine and passionate about her job and we were so passionate about this class that it felt more like a conversation and less like an interview.
The last thing that I felt really was important was how to use the cameras. As a broadcast journalism major, I never really know if I want to be in front of the cameras or behind them. However, being able to say that I am sufficient in using a professional camera is a skill a lot of amatuer journalists do not know. When we could not figure out why our camera was so bright and the colors were so off, I knew exactly what buttons to press to fix it. This was very exciting for me because I was overwhelmed by the cameras at first and was very excited to have figured them out.
I really enjoyed this course and obviously more than three things stuck with me, but these were the concepts I felt I learned the most proficiently. I am thankful and excited to use these skills in the real world.