99 Seconds Of Change
In this project we had to choose a modern day issue that we were concerned about. At first I had no clue what I wanted to research. There were too many modern issues to choose from! But then I started thinking about animals that were endangered or extinct because of humans (basically all of them) and I knew that my favorite animal, the tiger, was endangered. I was and still am concerned about the imminent extinction of the tiger species. So my modern day issue was "Save The Tigers!".
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After I'd chosen my topic I had to do some research. All that I knew before starting this part of the project was that:
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After I finished my Tiger Fact Sheet I was ready to write my Formal Persuasive Business Letter. The copy to the right was my sixth draft, my final. I wrote my business letter to the Consulate General of India in San Francisco. I expressed my concern for the tigers and that I thought more needed to be done to preserve their species. I know that not much can be done by sending one little letter but it felt good to send. I also learned how to write a business letter to possible future employers.
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After the business letter aspect of the project was finished, I partnered up with my classmate and best friend, Rebecca. This was the part of the project where we decided whose modern day issue to go with. Whichever issue was chosen would be turned into a two-collumn script and finally made into a 99 second long persuasive video that would be posted on youtube. Rebecca's issue was the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which was the issue we decided to base our project off of. I thought it would make a better video because the message would be easier for our potential audience to receive and execute.
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My project was now based on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I felt really comfortable with this topic because I had a lot of knowledge on the subject all ready so it was easier for me to jump right in. Rebecca and I spent hours upon hours revising our 2 column script. We started with five pages that when recorded, were four and a half minutes long. At most our voiceover was allowed to be 99 seconds. So we went back to the drawing board and after many frustrating attempts we finally got the voiceover to the acceptable limit. Sure, my voice may sound a bit fast on the video but we didn't want to cut out all of the awesome facts everyone needs to know.
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When we finished our script SOMEONE had to record. After a lot of arguing and pleading I ended up recording our voiceover while Rebecca stood outside of our "studio" and watched. It took us over 25 attempts to finally get the voiceover we wanted, edited and perfectly polished. When we listened to the final cut I swear we jumped for joy. Recording your voice may not seem difficult, but it can be VERY frustrating.
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Once the voiceover was done we could finally start working on the images we wanted to put in our video! This was one of the best and most difficult parts of the project. It is no secret that I am not a Photoshop master, and having to find and edit close to 100 photos might have freaked me out. But thank goodness for Rebecca, because she actually knew how to use Photoshop. While I wrote a lot of the two column script and did the voiceover, she helped me get better at Photoshop and picked up my slack. I really appreciate her help in this project. In the photo to the left we had just made the picture transparent and made it a compatible JPEG.
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The picture below is a snapshot of the software we used to make our video, Final Cut Pro on the Mac. I had never used Final Cut Pro before and was really excited to learn how. I loved working on the video, although it was difficult it was by far my favorite part of the entire project. I had so much fun moving things around and cutting things that didn't match our voiceover. It was also really fun choosing where I wanted specific pictures to go. Although our two column script is supposed to have everything planned out on it, we went beyond the limit of that script. Rebecca and I mainly used the two column script for the audio and a basic idea of what kind of photos we wanted to use.
FINALLY!!! After all of our tears and hard work we finally finished the video! Below is our video on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If you want to learn some awesome facts go watch it! And please go to youtube and like it! Thanks so much!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC890FjRSg8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC890FjRSg8
Reflection
The most valuable thing I learned from this project in the Multimedia aspect was Final Cut Pro. After so much time spent editing my video I feel very confident in my Final Cut Pro abilities. I never knew how to edit videos before this project and this is definitely a skill that I can use in the future. Whether it is for another project here at High Tech High International or for a future job, it will be a really helpful skill to have.
This entire project was a success for me and my partner, Rebecca. We worked off of each others strengths and weaknesses. Our final product is proof of how well we worked together. I worked mostly on our two-column script, the voiceover, and the final video. Let me tell you, recording your voice is not at all easy as it sounds. I had to delete and start over so many times that I lost track. Because if you do one little thing wrong you have to go back and redo it. But I'm glad for the experience that came with recording and editing. Rebecca was absolutely amazing at editing ALL of our photos in Photoshop. We had close to 100 photos, and she edited almost every single one. I'm very grateful for all of her help in that part of the project where I felt I was lacking in skill.
If I were to give advice to anyone doing this project it would be to give yourself plenty of time. This project takes a lot of time, especially on the actual video portion. So managing your time wisely is very important, especially after I saw some kids in my class still working on their projects weeks after it was due. If you spend your time wisely this project will be really fun and educational, if not, it will be stressful and probably make you cry on more than one occasion.
My teachers were really helpful in this project. Especially my multimedia teacher, Chris. I asked him so many questions (most of the time just randomly blurted out) and he answered every single one. He helped me with Photoshop and voice editing. Sure, I wasn't the happiest camper when he told me my voiceover had to be slower. But in the end I'm grateful he told me to redo it, because it made our video just that much more awesome.
Honestly, I didn't run into any problems that my partner and I couldn't handle. My teacher also gave us plenty of time and opportunities to get our work done, often time staying in at lunch and after school to help us. So really, my teachers were very supportive in this project.
This entire project was a success for me and my partner, Rebecca. We worked off of each others strengths and weaknesses. Our final product is proof of how well we worked together. I worked mostly on our two-column script, the voiceover, and the final video. Let me tell you, recording your voice is not at all easy as it sounds. I had to delete and start over so many times that I lost track. Because if you do one little thing wrong you have to go back and redo it. But I'm glad for the experience that came with recording and editing. Rebecca was absolutely amazing at editing ALL of our photos in Photoshop. We had close to 100 photos, and she edited almost every single one. I'm very grateful for all of her help in that part of the project where I felt I was lacking in skill.
If I were to give advice to anyone doing this project it would be to give yourself plenty of time. This project takes a lot of time, especially on the actual video portion. So managing your time wisely is very important, especially after I saw some kids in my class still working on their projects weeks after it was due. If you spend your time wisely this project will be really fun and educational, if not, it will be stressful and probably make you cry on more than one occasion.
My teachers were really helpful in this project. Especially my multimedia teacher, Chris. I asked him so many questions (most of the time just randomly blurted out) and he answered every single one. He helped me with Photoshop and voice editing. Sure, I wasn't the happiest camper when he told me my voiceover had to be slower. But in the end I'm grateful he told me to redo it, because it made our video just that much more awesome.
Honestly, I didn't run into any problems that my partner and I couldn't handle. My teacher also gave us plenty of time and opportunities to get our work done, often time staying in at lunch and after school to help us. So really, my teachers were very supportive in this project.