As a 20-year-old woman, I have learned that communication will be a big part in my life. I have found that communication is everywhere in the world whether it be talking or showing through different types of media. The world we live in is used to visualizing everything through photographs and videos and although these two can stand alone, audio is also a big part of bringing the two to life.
Through this class, I have learned to better my skills in all three of those elements. When we first started the class, our first assignment was to interview a fellow classmate to find out more about them. I have always been fascinated in people’s stories so this was right up my alley. As we continued to receive projects, I found myself even more interested in each person I interviewed. I wanted to get all of the emotion I could out of them, I longed for a good quote. I could not wait to go back into the Mac Lab to edit the audio and video or photographs to make it perfect. I want other people to hear the stories and the quotes, see what I see. That is why media is so important, to bring other people to what you experienced. I think that is what this class did for me; it made me aware of what I needed to do to better communicate with the world.
Technologically, I learned how to better use the tools we all have to communicate the story we have to tell. Visually, I learned how to use point of view to bring a video together and make certain aspects more important than others. Interpersonally, it taught me how to interview more productively. I learned you get the best answers when you are just talking to someone, interviewing is a conversation between two people in which you are able to capture a persons true self and that is what I treasure the most, a true story with true feelings.
Reflection Essay for Media Production II Final
Scene on Campus: Battle of the Bands Winners Play Oyster Bake
St. Mary’s senior, Christopher Montemayor, is the drummer for LSS, the League of Super Studs. The LSS came together three weeks before St. Mary’s Battle of the Bands and practiced until they won a spot to perform at Fiesta Oyster Bake. Christopher sits down to talk about his love for music, the way the group came together, and his plans for the performance.
The Creative Door Opener
As a professor and naturally creative person, Kathe Lehman-Meyer explains her love for her job and her students in the interview above.
Audio 2 Project Analysis
“Practice makes perfect” has always been a quote that seems to follow me in everything I do. When I played soccer, practice makes perfect. When I sang in the choir, practicing the songs made perfect. When I first picked up a camera and started photography, practice made perfect. When we were given this interview project, I was ready to go into the life of someone who practiced something that I knew very little about. This is why I chose Sal Lievanos to teach me more about his life as a practicing tennis player.
Through this project, I gained skills on trying to make bad audio work. There were a lot of other sounds going on while I was recording audio of the guys playing tennis which made it very difficult to record. I did not have the power to ask the people driving around to stop; I had to work with it. It is not the perfect audio that I would hope for but I tried my best to incorporate it to the interview piece and make it sound good. If I were given the chance to improve it, I would maybe try to record the audio at night when there was less action on the streets going on. I was on a time crunch from being sick and the cold front was also a hurdle. Being from Texas makes it difficult to be in the cold for a long period of time and recording in the cold was a problem.
The most challenging part of the assignment was definitely the recording of audio at the tennis court. It was difficult trying to capture what I imagined when I was editing the interview in class. In total, I probably spent approximately three hours total completing this project. I am finding that audio editing is a strongpoint of mine and I enjoy doing it. I see it as a puzzle that I need to complete. I want everything to flow to perfection and that is what keeps me interested in these projects.
Painting With A Tennis Racket
Sal Lievanos is an artist as well as a tennis player who practices his hobbies to perfection and tells us how he does it.
Audio 1 Project Analysis
Interviewing people has always been one of my biggest interests. I can spend hours upon hours just getting to know someone, hear their stories, and analyze their sense of humor. All of these things interest me, so when I enrolled in Media Production 2 and found out we would be interviewing different people throughout the semester…I was beyond excited.
As I was working on the first audio project, I found my previous practice in Final Cut Pro very useful. One of the new skills I learned from the project is to really listen to every aspect of the audio. One “um” or long pause could definitely bring the audio down. My goal was to make it seem like it was one continuous audio, not sound completely chopped up like it was in reality.
If I were given a second chance on this assignment, I would definitely have asked my interviewee to answer the questions in complete sentences so I could have definite beginning and endings through each question I asked. I had to go through the interview several times and cut certain words and phrases to make a complete sentence, which was a bit more difficult.
The most challenging part of the assignment was deciding what parts of the interview I wanted to use. Everything my interviewee said was very interesting to me. I am a pack rat of sorts so it took a lot out of me to get rid of quality audio in the interview. To overcome this, I put myself in an outside listener’s position. I tried to figure out what I would like to find out about a person if I had never met them before. This helped me decide what parts were more important than others in the interview.
In total, I would say that I spent six hours total in perfecting this project from start to finish. I am very proud of the end product and hope to better my skills throughout the class.
Living, Loving, Giving, and Forgiving Endlessly
Analicia Perez is a photographer, avid runner, singer/songwriter, and so much more. See through the eyes of a photographer who is beautiful in more than one way.
The Class
(front left to back right)
Jasmine Garcia, Diana Garcia, Veronica Luna, Analicia Perez, Cimen Soy, Dania Pulido, Jerry Mendez, Sarah Mills, Austin W. Newton, and Stephen Guzman.
Flickr Photos
A Slice of Life 