BROADCAST JOURNALISM
In addition to the multimedia elements incorporated in each of my stories, I have taken on some larger multimedia projects. Verde is not a broadcast publication but we do incorporate various video elements in our coverage as we hope to offer diverse and engaging material to our audience. I joined Verde with very little videography experience and I wasn't really expecting that to change. But I got involved with journalism because I wanted to do the unexpected. At the end of my freshman year I was trying decide whether I should continue in the art pathway as I had intended or take Beginning Journalism. At the end of the day, I chose journalism because I wanted to step out of my comfort zone into new experiences and a place of growth. So when the opportunity arose for me to get involved with multimedia in a new way, I jumped in and at the end of my junior year I organized my own video and audio reliant story. On top of my own work in this field, I support our digital editors in helping people think through a broadcast and multimedia lens. Oftentimes I'll suggest to a story that rather than adding a sidebar or an additional text section, they use their interview footage to create a video to accompany their article.
VERDE VLOGS: SOCIAL DISTANCING
APRIL 1, 2020
As part of our Verde Vlogs series to capture the day to day of student life in quarantine, I filmed clips of my day on April 1, 2020. In addition to recording my time beekeeping with my mom at the Ohlone farm, I reflected on the news of the day from a local to national level and discussed my personal concerns and experiences regarding the virus.
This project gave me the opportunity to explore videography as a means of storytelling and provided experience both behind the camera and in front. I had to think carefully about lighting, framing and sound quality and made sure to film various clips to add diversity to the visuals so it wasn't just me talking throughout.
VIDEO AND AUDIO EDITING
My COVID-19 map multimedia project wasn't exclusively focused on broadcast journalism but it did teach me a lot about editing as I put together audio and video packages of interviews which were then embedded in the map.
After listening through the full interview I made an outline of the most logical structure and noted down sections where I could potentially cut. I also wanted to try and get the most interesting material up front to engross the listener so I had to think carefully about organization. Audio allowed more flexibility since I didn't have to worry about jumps in the image which I worked to avoid in the video form. The cutting process was a major challenge as many of the interviews were 20 or 30 minutes long and we wanted them to be a more digestible length of around five minutes. To make this work I often tried to cut out the more general experiences and hone in on what made their story stand out.
I used Adobe Premiere Rush to cut out sections and rearrange where necessary. Overall we wanted to preserve the feeling of a natural conversation so I didn't add in extra effects or overlaid images. But I did add music in the background to add another layer of auditory interest. For the video interviews, I added in the Verde intro and outro which we use to build a more professional brand and a credits slide at the end of each video. Across videos I made sure to use the same credits and title page format to create a cohesive style across the project. I also added in introductory slides at the beginning of each video interview to introduce the interviewee and interviewer as well as the relationship between them as we asked people to sit down with friends and family and we wanted to be clear about that dynamic.
Overall, I learned a lot about the challenges unique to audiovisual storytelling and improved my skills in this realm. The videos here are a collection of the interviews I edited.