Wrap-up Blog Post

My favorite project during this semester was the Photoshop graphic collage. I really enjoyed this project because it allowed me to portray who I was and what I find beautiful. We were given so much freedom with this assignment and I feel as though my creativity was shown in my final collage. I was also very excited about learning how to use Photoshop because I believe it is an important tool used in the world of communication.

I believe I will indefinitely use Photoshop in my future and possibly Illustrator and Premiere. I am unsure of what career path I will take in the communication industry but all of these programs are widely used. Knowing that I have these skills gives me an advantage when applying to jobs. Although I am still undecided I can see myself working in advertisement, public relations, or production.

This class did help influence my decision in what I would like to do in communication. I feel as though I was given a look at what an advertisement career would hold and it interested me. I admire how advertisement is a serious job but allows room for creativity and art.

I am unsure of what other skills I could have learned outside of the Adobe Programs. However, I wish the course would have spent more time with Photoshop. Photoshop is a valuable skill to have within the communication industry and I feel as though I only saw the surface of the program. Another assignment with Photoshop would have allowed me to utilize the program after becoming comfortable with it through the tutorials and graphic collage project. I also felt as though Illustrator was briefly introduced and then over with. I had a very hard time with the tutorials and after hours of hard work felt as though my products were mediocre. I was very confused when using illustrator and without the step-by-step tutorials I would have been lost. With Illustrator I wish I had been taught how to construct images within a timely manner and how to make a satisfactory product.

Concerning outside websites, I did not find any websites outside of the class material. I never searched outside the class material for help because I believed all I needed was provided on the course website.

Final Video Story

Com 210 Video Final Storyboard
Time	Video/Photo	Audio
	Pine tree Title: Winter in Pullman	“Let Her Go” by NonCopyrightSounds via SoundCloud
00:00:08:22	Students walking by Murrow Title: First Snow
00:00:14:23	Decorations on Alpha Delta Pi
00:00:25:20	Blue Snowflake
00:00:27:21	White Snowflake
00:00:30:29	Stockings in entry way Title: Alpha Delta Pi Christmas
00:00:38:18	Christmas tree panning up
00:00:46:24	Christmas tree close up
00:00:54:19	Feet in snow
00:01:00:22	Hand in snow
00:01:04:16	Tree in sky Credits: Created By Regan Donaldson, “Let Her Go” From SoundCloud user NonCopyrightSounds

Non-copyrighted music found at:

My final video project is a montage-styled collection showing winter in Pullman. The title states “Winter in Pullman” and from there I have subtitles that narrate what the video is showing. The subtitles include “First Snow” and “Alpha Delta Pi Christmas.” After the title and subtitles I list the credits and cite the music in my last video clip. The credits read as “Created by Regan Donaldson” and “’Let Her Go’ From SoundCloud User NonCopyrightSounds.” After receiving the feedback from my peers I realized that I had a story but needed to create a better storyline. In order to fix this issue I added the subtitles to guide the clips into a story of winter in Pullman. Once I added the subtitles I found that just two titles made a big difference for the storyline. I also added music that I found on SoundCloud from a user that has non-copyrighted songs on their profile. The user is NonCopyrightSounds and had a few tracks I could choose from. I found that the song “Let Her Go” fit with my piece the best because of its calm tone. The profile states “music for all youtube users under creative commons license.” Other feedback that I received from my peers was that I needed to improve my transitions. To improve my transitions I added the film dissolve effect between almost every clip. I understand that this is not much variety for my transitions but I wanted to keep my video simplistic and found that the film dissolve effect fit the best with my video. I also added effects to my titles such as the additive dissolve video effect and the film dissolve effect again. I found that by also adding effects to my titles improved the transitions for when the titles, subtitles, and credits appeared. Overall I wanted my project to be a simple, montage-styled video that showed the variety of winter celebrations on campus and at my sorority house. I believe I was able to achieve this and am pleased with my final outcome. Although I have struggled with Adobe Premiere, I was able to learn how to effectively navigate the program by utilizing the necessary tools.

Video RD

When the class was assigned this project I immediately knew I wanted to do a video with scenery. I filmed shots around Pullman after the first major snow fall and in my sorority house which has recently been decorated for Christmas. Since winter break is coming up I decided to use these shots and title my video “Winter in Pullman.” After reviewing the footage I collected I decided to create a montage-style video project. I really like the look of montage and have used it in past experiences. I have eleven separate video files used within my project. I decided to begin my project with the image of a pine tree covered in snow. Although this is a montage I have somewhat of a timeline and story behind the order of the shots. I continued my video by showing students walking past Murrow and then made a transition to my sorority house. I believe by showing a general area of campus before my sorority house allows for a smoother transition. I then have multiple shots of the decorations within Alpha Delta Pi to show our celebration of winter and preparation for Christmas. I then moved back outside to wrap things up and ended the video with another tree video and credits. I added the title “Winter in Pullman” at the very beginning of the first clip to establish the storyline. I did the same for the credits at the end of the video. I used the razor tool to cut out little bits of the video I did not see necessary. I plan to do this as well after I receive feedback next Tuesday. I also have left the audio on mute because I am having trouble finding music that works well with my video. I will be searching for music in the mean time.

Com 210 Video Storyboard 1
Time	Video/Photo	Audio
	Pine tree Title: Winter in Pullman	Christmas music still yet to be determined
00:00:08:22	Students walking by Murrow
00:00:14:23	Decorations on Alpha Delta Pi
00:00:25:20	Blue Snowflake
00:00:27:21	White Snowflake
00:00:30:29	Stockings in entry way
00:00:38:18	Christmas tree panning up
00:00:46:24	Christmas tree close up
00:00:54:19	Feet in snow
00:01:00:22	Hand in snow
00:01:04:16	Tree in sky Credits: Created By Regan Donaldson

Premiere Tutorials

 

Raw Video Footage

Final Audio

After my rough draft and taking into account the feedback I received, I believe I did well on my final audio story. Upon reviewing my feedback I decided to cut out all of the “umms” and moments of silence out of my interview to improve the flow of my story. I realized that I had this issue mainly with my interview with Jane and utilized the razor tool to make my footage seem more professional. I also used the fade in and fade out tools to improve the flow of my story as well. I had a difficult time deciding what to do with the footage I had of my interview with Caroline. Unfortunately only the small portion I used is what I could interpret out of our interview and make it apply to my story line. In the end for my final I decided to keep the small portion I had in my rough draft because it added to my story and although it may had been short it still had worth. An obvious difference within my rough draft and final draft is that I added a concluding segment so the last part of my story was not just the end of Jane’s interview. I find that this makes my piece seem more professional and brought the entire story together. I did say in my self critique that I would add music to my piece but when it came to creating my final piece I decided not to. I do not like the thought of music being added to such a short story and to an interview. I find that it distracts from the content and believe that it is not appropriate for my project and seemed unfitting. Overall I believe I did a decent job and was able to overcome the intimidation of this project. I inserted the link to my soundcloud account since it was taking forever to process. It is titled Final Audio.

Audio RD

I first was unsure what I would interview people about for my audio story. I did not want to make the interview seem self-centered since my blog theme is “about me.” I am a proud student of Washington State University and I finally realized that I share that with almost every student here on campus. I decided to interview two of my close friends, Caroline and Jane, who are are both in my sorority and are a year above me. I interviewed Caroline first and focused mainly on what she likes about Washington State University and asked her if she is happy to be a student here. Then I interviewed my friend Jane and asked her more about her degree, her aspirations, and why she applied to Washington State University. I think I was able to cover all the bases I was hoping to when putting together this audio story. I made an overall introduction to my project, my interview with Caroline, and my interview with Jane. Since I have a Window computer I used the sound recorder application to record all of my introductions. For the interviews I used my Iphone voice memo application because it was able to capture two voices better than the sound recorder. I imported the interviews and introduction into my multitrack document and pieced my audio story together accordingly. The tools I mainly utilized were the razor tool to cut out blank spaces and “ums” to make transitions smoother. I also used the fade in and fade out tool to also smooth the transitions. I did not put a song behind my interview at this point because I am still unclear about where to find a song that is not copyrighted and didn’t want to get my heart set on a song that I could potentially not be able to end up using.

Raw Footage Interview

Audition Tutorials

There are two different codes embedded because I uploaded the 4 files in groups of 2 on separate days.

Logo Final

To capture a balanced, peaceful tone I used a mandala as my logo. Mandalas symbolize inner-peace which is something I am always striving for. I am very passionate about being true to myself which I think shows a great deal about who I am as an individual. My favorite color is purple which is why I incorporated several different shades of purple within my logo. To complement the purples in my piece I used shades of blue. The most important tool to creating my logo was the ellipses tool. I used the ellipses tool numerous times to create all of the circles, ovals, and arches found in the mandala. I made different groups of circles and was able to layer them all together by using the group object tool. What allowed me to actually layer the different groups of circles was the arrange option that let me send groups to the back. After layering all of the groups together I grouped everything together. I have made some obvious changes from my rough draft version. In the center of my logo you can see my initials “RRD.” My full name is Regan Raschko Donaldson and by incorporating my initials I have personalized my piece. I decided to use a cursive font because I felt as though using a plain font would take away from the elaborate design I worked really hard on. Secondly, I added gradients to each of the circles that make up the mandala. I did this by using the color guide to select a similar color to the original and then created a gradient for each group from there. I believe by doing this I made my image less flat and added a good deal of depth. Lastly, I decided to enlarge my image. My art board is 400 x 400 pixels which was the minimum size for the assignment. I made my mandala bigger by stretching it out so the tips of the circles almost reached the edge of the art board. Overall I believe I have improved my original image a lot and am proud of myself for what I was able to create.