There's A First Time For Everything.

The iMovie project was an interesting experience because it caused quite a bit of meltdown and frustration on my end. It was also a multitude of firsts for me; I have never shot videos with intentions to create a message out of it, nor am I familiar with iMovie and making/editing films in the program. Overall, I feel the message I wanted to convey through my project was successfully interpreted and I am proud of the outcome despite all of the issues along the way.

Before I began shooting for the project, I sat down and made a list of what it means to me to be a Buffalo State communications student. Sleepless nights, LOTS of coffee, textbooks upon textbooks, constantly keeping up to date on current news issues, social media, and typing, typing, typing! Once I had my list gathered I started to think how I could represent these things so that the viewer knew my message was that being a BSC communications student is no cake walk, but instead very, very stressful. I found a way to do that through the self-portraits, the music, and the video effects used in the movie.

Shooting was complicated at first because of having to adjust lighting and where I was shooting something in order to make the shot usable and better looking than just shot in a few seconds. I also have never filmed anything with the intention of making it movie worthy so I had to develop my shots so they would look well in my project and represent a message.

My next issue was how to transfer my video files from my Surface tablet to a Mac computer. At first, I tried to send them via an email attachment but that would not work. Next, I tried to transfer them via an adapter but those were too expensive. Finally, I was able to figure out how to transfer the files onto a flash drive and upload them to a Mac laptop to edit them through iMovie.

Once my files were transferred I had to learn how to operate iMovie, it is a program I was never familiar with. Once I watched a tutorial and I realized it was similar to Windows Movie Maker, I was able to navigate much better. I wanted my movie to have a dream quality to it, so when I was picking out my effects I used a lot of the Romantic and Old-Fashioned filters. Also, I slowed down many of the frames to depict the feeling of dragging on or drawn out time. Having to add in audio was helpful because the audio I used for my project I felt enhanced the feeling I was trying to develop in my project.

Throughout the entire creation and development process I continued to go back to how the viewer would see this movie. I knew the points I wanted to get across but would the viewer understand that as well? That was a continuous thought in the back of my mind.

The most awkward part of filming had to be filming myself for the project. I was not comfortable with being in front of the camera and I also felt very awkward acting a part. But when I placed it in the film it helped develop the message I wanted to portray which made me feel less self-conscious.

The iMovie project was very stressful and probably aged me about 5 years but I feel confident with what I created and I feel this project was a great learning experience in developing videos and creating videos that portray something that needs to be interpreted through something other than print or photographs. Creating a video allowed me to steer the viewer into any direction I wished them to be in. With a photograph the audience can infer what is happening, what the message tone is, and what the author is trying to portray. I feel this project was a good learning experience to show that what you make is 100% up to the creator and really allowed me to step out of my comfort zone by forcing me to make a short clip that portrays a meaningful message. Anyone would be able to throw movie clips together but to make them have meaning and allow the reader to grasp that by watching it made me feel proud of my project.

I feel that if I had more time and resources I could have really enhanced the quality of the video, but as far as first takes go I would say mine was pretty successful!

Long Days, Longer Nights

 

This short film exudes my depiction of what it means to be a BSC Public Communications student. Long days turn into long sleepless nights, a plethora of strict deadlines, a lot of keeping up to date on current media issues and news, and quite a bit of stress on top of that. Despite showing the negative side, I find my major to be rewarding and I know I want to carry on with this for the rest of my life.

Navigating My Way Through WikiHow World.

Developing my wiki page from the beginning steps of creating the information that I would include in the end result of my complete and coded page was a stressful process. Going into the project I did not prepare myself for the level of complexity that was involved. I felt this way because looking at other wiki pages, the layouts and material looked simplistic in their nature and reassured me that I could execute one with ease. I was not prepared for how complicated coding a page would be but I feel that despite having no prior knowledge on how to code a wiki page I was able to make something interesting and inviting for people to read.

Starting at the beginning of my wiki journey, it was hard to find a topic someone hadn’t already made a page on. This part of the project required some soul searching into my talents and abilities, but I was satisfied with my choice to do my project on how to make pastelillos because I was well versed on the subject and had years of experience making them. As I began to map out how I wanted my page to look in the eyes of the viewer, I started with the easiest portion of the project and that was formulating my list of ingredients and writing out the steps of each part of the recipe. This part was also a little challenging because when you are cooking something you don’t realize all the small steps you do that are a part of a bigger step. When I was writing the recipe for my wiki page I used my personal experience with what tastes the best as well as how I was taught by my grandmother and incorporated a few ingredients from each version.

 

Once I had finished with the ingredients section and formulating the steps to complete the recipe, I began to think how I wanted to introduce the viewers to the topic of pastelillos and why the article was even a relevant one for them to be reading. I sought inspiration through blogs and food websites that had similar dishes and were inspired by a Hispanic flare. Starting the introduction I wanted to introduce the readers with a definition to what exactly pastelillos are because I am sure many people coming across my wiki page won’t even know what they are. I also wanted to include a background on the recipe, where it came from and variations found in other countries. To entice the reader to put in the effort to make pastelillos I thought including the benefits of making them, being they are fast and very easy while also being tasty. Lastly, I was aware there are varying versions of ingredients as well as twists on the traditional recipe so I wanted to let the reader explore making whichever version suited them. I did not struggle too much with the writing portion and I feel I gave the reader many aspects to find interesting on a topic they may not have any prior knowledge about.

The next step I took to improve my outline was to make the recipe myself to obtain the 5 original pictures we needed. This was beneficial to me because I was able to follow the exact instructions I had written and could fix or add to a step that I felt needed to be elaborated or explained better.

 

Lastly, I started with the frustrating and tedious process of coding my wiki page. I’m going to be honest when I say that despite reading all of the supplementary material and watching videos on coding wikis, I was still beyond confused on how to code. I also feel that wikiHow in general is not the easiest website to navigate when you have never had to use it. I started my coding journey by uploading my typed outline into the advanced editor on wikiHow and started to make my necessary changes so that it would look how I wanted it to once it was published. The biggest struggle for me was grasping the use of the # to create step numbers. Frustration was an understatement and I’m almost positive I gained a renewed appreciation for computer programmers because I felt like I was never going to grasp a simple coding of a wiki page. This website was a great resource during the struggle of coding my page. I saved every draft and previewed around probably 30 versions of my draft because I wanted to see what needed to be fixed. This was without a doubt the section of the project that I struggled with the most and still didn’t feel completely satisfied with the final outcome of it when I was submitting it.

Overall, the wiki assignment was helpful in teaching how implementing and designing a web page should not be underestimated or deemed easy because it is anything but. I had fun creating something of my own that I can find on the internet, something I am the creator of. I could have used more guidance with coding but for not knowing anything about coding and having to teach myself I feel I executed the project as well as I could have hoped for.