My Reflection of Com 210

The Com 210 course may have been one of my most favorite classes that I have taken while in college, and I truly mean that. I plan on going down an advertising or content creating career path, so this class has been exceptionally helpful and interesting to my field of study.

During the semester, my favorite projects were the graphic design project using Adobe Photoshop and the Adobe Premiere video project. Both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere are two programs I wish to excel with in the future so it was enjoyable for me to receive basic knowledge and skills of how to use these two programs. Also, I felt I was the most creative in both of these projects and received the most joy from creating these projects compared to the other two.

Throughout the course of the semester I learned many valuable skills which I will use in my future and career path. While reflecting on the course I realized that every unit taught me useful skills which I will use in my future and down my career path. I was taught how to create and edit photos and images using Adobe Photoshop which I will use for my own personal use and for my career since in the field of advertising I will be required to create media that will appeal to consumers. During the second unit of Com 210 I also learned how to create my own, personalized logo. This will be essential in my career path because logos are how consumers identify with a brand or company.

During the third and fourth unit of this course, I learned how to film, edit and export video and audio footage using Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere. In the future, I would like to have my own podcast, which makes having knowledge of using Adobe Audition very useful. For my career path, I plan on making video advertisements for businesses and organizations. The skills I learned from the Com 210 course will be extremely vital for my future down this path along with my own personal use in the future.

Maybe one of the most essential skills taught to me during this course was how to properly find content I could use without committing copyright infringement. With how accessible media is currently, it can be easy to copyright a piece of work unknowingly if you do not know the proper procedures and licensing involved with using media in your own work. Having more knowledge about license laws, like the creative commons license, will be extremely useful in my future of content creating.

Due to the limited time there is during a semester to learn information, there was little to nothing I was left wishing I had learn from the course. However, I do wish there was more time to practice the techniques and skills of each program to learn more mastery of Adobe. The Com 210 course achieved in me a desire to learn more about the Adobe programs and to continue practicing with each software.

If I ever was struggling with the Adobe programs and needed extra help, I could always go to YouTube. This was a great place to get more in depth tutorials of how to use each of the four programs used in the Com 210 course. Also, for my video project I wanted to add an instrumental soundtrack in the background of the video and Free Music Archive was a great place to download music that was free to use as by the Creative Common license.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Com 210 course. It provided me with many valuable skills I will use my future for personal uses and my career path.

The links to my outside sources can be found below:

https://freemusicarchive.org/

https://www.youtube.com/

 

Adobe Premiere Project (Final Draft)

For my Adobe Premiere project I created a short documentary in which the main subject of the video discusses his personal account of communal showers. I was inspired to create this film by the Netflix original show, American Vandal created by Jimmy Tatro, which is a comedic documentary. Casey Neistat’s video blogs were also a huge inspiration to me in the way I formatted my video.

While shooting my video footage, I used a tripod to stabilize my phone camera, and the Rule of Thirds to improve my visual composition of my video. I also made sure to be conscious of shooting enough footage, more than I needed, since I could use extra footage as B-Roll.

At the beginning of my design process, I first brainstormed a story I could portray in this project. Once I decided on a documentary about a personal account with communal showers, I then began creating the story board for my project. For me the project was only an outline to inspire me, because the outcome of my video was very different from the story board.

After completing my story board, I began shooting still shots of the communal shower and walkway to it. Keeping in my the 3×3 method, I filmed a variety of wide, medium and close-up shots of the showers to use as establishing shots in my project and to have a variety of B-Roll. I then filmed the interview between me, the narrator, and the main character of the video using two different cameras. I did this to get a variety of angles of the same interview and to get multiple quality talking head shots. I used the rule of thirds while I filmed my subject so the interview didn’t feel uncomfortable to the viewer.

After the interview, I filmed the cutaways of my main character in the shower experience the “odd” encounters. These were not filmed by me, but by a friend of mine, and were quite easy to film as anything could be used as out of the ordinary for this section of my project. After I filmed the ending scene of my project where my friend Sam Highsmith announces he loves group showers and gives the camera a smile.

Once I was satisfied with my footage, I uploaded all the film to my computer and put it into a project folder. Within this folder I created two more folders, imports and exports. All my film and audio would be put in the import folder.

From here, I began placing my video on segments on the story board. Because Adobe Premiere is nondestructive with its video editing, it was easy to get the exact shot from all of my footage. I primarily used the cut tool in Premiere to get the footage length I desired. Cutting and editing film footage in Adobe Premier is similar to cutting and editing audio footage in Adobe Audition and very simple for me to do.

When I was cutting and editing my film, I wanted to use a variety and shots and angles, and I didn’t want one shot to take up more than 10 seconds without changing to a different shot. To achieve this, I used a variety of cutaways during my interview seen and L-cuts to make the overall presentation of the video more visually appealing to the viewer.

Once I was satisfied with the video, I then began adding in the audio and background music. I first began my recording the narration in the opening scene. I recorded myself using my iPhone 7 and used the cut tool to place each section of the narration in line with each scene change. After the narration was in place, I then uploaded the instrumental. Upon uploading the instrumental, I realized I would have to adjust the audio volumes. During the narration, I made the instrumental volume significantly less and then turned up the volume so it was the main audio heard.

When both the audio and video were as I liked, I then began adding effects to finish my project. Adobe Premiere makes it very easy to add video and audio effects by simply dragging them on to the story board. For the video, I added multiple dissolve effects and fade to black effects as transitions for my video. For my audio, I used the constant gain effect and exponential fade for areas where I wanted the audio to be less or completely gone and areas where I wanted the audio to take over.

The last part for creating my video was adding the text at the beginning and end of my project. Doing this was fairly simple. To add the text, I simply used the text tool and clicked on the areas of the project I wanted them to be. I then added effects like I did with the video and audio. Once this was as I like, I then watched my project a couple times to review and make sure it was complete and then I exported the video to YouTube.

During the creation of my project, I experienced very little technical challenges. Anything I was having trouble with could be solved by reviewing the lessons provided in the Com 210 course or on YouTube. However, at first I was confused on how to add text to my video because I thought it would be more complexed to add, but I quickly realized how simple it was after watching informative videos on YouTube.

All the contents of this project were created by me except the instrumental track which can be found below.

Sources and Materials:

Soundtrack: Time’s Flying by Dlay. Retrieved from http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Downtempo/.

 

 

 

Adobe Premiere Project (Rough Draft)

For my Adobe Premiere project I decided to create a fake documentary in which I document a personal account about a person’s experiences with group showers. My project relates to my course topic because the overlying theme of my blog is communal/group showers, and my video illustrates a personal account to them.

I wanted my video to seem exaggerated and have a numerous effect to it. I was inspired by shows such as The Office and American Vandal and wanted to created my own documentary style video for my project. Casey Neistat’s vlog posts also inspired me which is why I believe my video has a vlog sense to it.

For my design process, I first began by brainstorming ideas I could do for the video. After narrowing down my topic, I then create a storyboard for my video. The storyboard ended up being a rough draft and more of guide for my project, as I did not follow it completely. It was, however, a great way to get my filming started.

After creating the storyboard, I then began the filming process. I made sure to film more than I needed. I took shots of the group shower, the walkway, and multiple interviews with my friends to give myself enough flexibility in the editing process. After all the filming I then gathered the audio files I needed and recorded my voice for the narration. All the filming and audio recording was done on my iPhone 7 with a little tri-pod.

Once I imported all my files to premier, I began editing. I started with by cutting bits and pieces of my video files and dragging them on the story board. I use the cut tool and drag tool to get the video files where I liked. Once the video was as I liked, I then began dragging on the audio files. I used the same procedure for the video files as the audio files.

Some of my audio was louder than I liked so I used the Audio Gain tool to adjust the volumes accordingly. After my audio and video was substantial for me I then began adding video affects and transitions. I primarily used the fade to black for my video transitions and exponential fade for my audio.

I experienced very little technical difficulties while creating my video. Anything I had trouble with I was able to resolve by looking up videos on YouTube or reviewing the tutorials.

All the materials used in the project were created by me except for the instrumental in the background at the beginning and ending of the video.

Soundtrack: Time’s Flying by Dlay. Retrieved from http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Downtempo/.

 

 

 

 

Raw Footage and Storyboard

Sample Storyboard: Communal Shower

Visual Elements	Audio Elements
0:00-0:05  (Opening Scene) Fade in. View of the walk way into the communal shower	Narrator Starts by asking a question regarding communal showers. Ex. “Communal Showers, What are they?” Music: Dramatic Instrumental or Elevator Music
0:06-0:10  Left side of the communal showers. This will help set the scene	Narrator continues with previous question. Music: Same as previous scene.
0:11-0:15 Right side of the communal showers. Allows the viewer to have a visual of the location.	Narrator asks another intriguing question: Ex. “Are they what people believe them to be?” Music: Same as previous scene, possibly intensifies.
0:16-0:20 A towel is placed on a hook leading into the communal shower.	Narrator: Some people believe in the contrary. Music: Music cuts.
0:21-0:25 Shower supplies are placed at the entrance.	Silence from both Narrator and Music.
0:26-0:30 Fade in on first interviewee from his shoulders up. Shower water is pouring on him. (Medium Close up shot)	Interviewee #1: “I love communal showers, they have changed my life.” Music: Trance instrumental. It will add a mystic sense to the visual.
0:31-0:40 Cut scene to second interviewee. Different shower head, but with water pouring on him. Interviewee is on the right side of the screen.	Interviewee #2: Describes his affection for communal showers and how they have positively changed his life. Music: Same as previous scene.
0:41-0:50 Fade into a completely different scene change. The area will be an office like area with one chair in the center and a tree on the left of the screen. The interviewer/narrator will walk into the shot and sit down.	Subject of the scene: He will discuss the positives of communal shower (w/ a humorous undertone). He will also present his personal story. Music: Same as before except the volume will be lessened.
0:51- 1:00 Different camera angle of the narrator. Close up shot from the shoulders up and to the subject’s left, camera’s right. Narrator will take a drink of coffee from a cup. This will add a more natural conversation to what the narrator is discussing.	Narrator: Continues his previous discussion and ends it. The ending will be a transition to communal showers. Music: Continues as previous stated
1:01- 1:05 Back to the group shower. This time all the shower heads will be on. Steam will fill the shower and most of the shot. Only silhouettes of bodies will be visible. A sponge will be thrown.	Narrator: Will state conclude what bother interviewee’s said. Music: The instrumental will be make the listener feel happy.
1:06-1:10 Camera will travel along the entry way and out the door. Once leaving the door the shot will fade out.	Narrator: Nothing will be said. Music: Same as previous scene. The volume will be turned up and then fade out as the visual fades.
1:11-1:20 Closing credits. Black background w/ white font. THE END.	As each credit appear, a smack sound will be played.