Final Project Log

This final week, I had contributed to the video team by making final revisions to our video sequence as well as editing audio. Suzanna and I had met early Friday morning and cleaned-up/ perfected the video sequence. That day, we had added landscape shots and volunteer interviews to the sequence as well. Before class on Thursday, I met up with Suzanna and Brad to edit the text and audio. Lastly, we added the credits. Overall, with the help of Amanda and Robyn, we have learned quite a lot. I feel if anything, the only problem was that there were some discrepancies between the client liaisons and video editor’s decisions, yet all were soon sorted out by negotiation. In the end, the video clip came out great. Us, amateurs on this project, were rather surprised at the exceptional turnout.

As for social media, the team had already created everything for the “How to..” guide for the client. I had simply stayed active on all social-networking accounts.

I’m very glad we had the opportunity to try out BaseCamp. Not only can I now incorporate using it on my resume, I feel it was a great experience. It enables a very user-friendly workplace where members can remain up-to-date on various projects.  Though at times, ALL of the updates did get somewhat overwhelming, BaseCamp does an excellent job of organizing them.

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June 6, 2010

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Project Report: Week Nine

This week the video team had focused on the logging and editing of the footage. After categorizing the footage into specific clip genres, it was then put in order according to the storyboard. In terms of my individual input, I logged most of the footage on Friday. I ran into a minute problem when doing so. After logging the footage, I had noticed that there were some existing clips of which were randomly placed in specified bins. For some reason, I was not able to drag them out and put them into a their appropriate bin. So, there may have been a few clips that seemed to be out of place, yet we made do with this minor obstacle. On Tuesday, I edited some of the existing edited footage as well as put together a piece for the credits at the end. I had also pulled clips of which my team members requested; we plan to incorporate them into the existing edited footage this evening in class.  And yes of course, I had run into a problem, as it seems I always do, after editing that evening; the edited file of which I kept working on and SAVING could not be found. Technicians have helped search for it and I’m hoping that one of the files they had found is the one I had edited yet I will not know until this evening. Tonight we also plan on incorporating some audio along with Brad’s voiceover. I’m excited to see how the audio is added to the visual.

Other than keeping active on City Farm’s social-networking sites and putting up my Facebook tabs finally; I cannot say I have done much of anything else this week for the team. I did see that one of my group members had put together a portion of the “How to…” for the client yet I was not sure if we were undergoing this task or leaving it for next year’s NMS students. I plan to get in touch with them on BaseCamp or simply speak to them tonight in regards to taking a portion of the “How to…” that has not yet been assigned or done.

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May 27, 2010

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Project Report: Week Eight

As part of the Social Media team for City Farm, I have remained active on social media accounts (updated statuses, posted comments, etc.) I, along with the rest of team, am updating the Facebook tabs once again in order to properly meet the art directors and project managers expectations. We have edited our Facebook fonts, colors, and other stylistic features for the sake of consistency. Although I as well as other members of the team have taken the graphic design class last quarter, we are having issues incorporating the burlap backgrounds to our tabs. The dilema is that although we have made the backgrounds of images transparent in PhotoShop, the backgrounds are still appearing in Illustrator. So basically, we have placed the burlap background within our tabs yet we have white chunks around our images. I’ve tried searching for answers on the internet yet no go; I plan to speak to members of the Signage Team in regards to solving this.

The video team has finished capturing footage; we are finally ready to log/edit. I can’t say I’ve done much for the video team this week. I feel somewhat out of the loop since I was not able to shoot with them due to my work schedule. If we need any extra footage, I have volunteered to be the person to go ahead and film any necessary shots back on the farm. We will finish logging in class tonight and if necessary I will log the rest tomorrow morning-afternoon. I am excited to start editing. The main obstacle we are facing here is that many of us are novices in regards to Final Cut Pro; we do hope to gain enough basic knowledge and skill to fulfill editing demands.

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May 20, 2010

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Project Report: Week Seven

Being a part of the Social Media team as well as the Video Team, I see great progress. In terms of the social media division, we are all syncing our styling/fonts of our FaceBook tab mock-ups with each others to maintain consistency throughout the page. In order to keep the accounts active, I have continued to update statuses/comment on social-networking. As for our goals this week, we will be creating a “social media maintenance” guide for the client, polishing our tab mock-ups after group critiques, and organizing a client “social media maintenance” training.

As much as I wanted to film on site at City Farm this Wed., the weather conditions did not permit us to do so. On the other hand, we have decided to generate script ideas in order to better incorporate the client’s needs. I have put together some concepts of which we can consider using in our script. In class, we plan to finalize our script and start editing full-throttle. In addition, we will also plan for our final film session which will be this Friday.

Everything is going according as planned. An apparent struggle is that the client has specific demands of which we are forced to meet. With some thought, I’m sure we will be able to overcome this obstacle. As for external resources needed, we hope to have Final Cut Pro experts assist our team and atleast get us started with editing in class.

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May 13, 2010

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Project Report: Week Six

Being a part of the City Farm Social Media and Video Team, I see that things are going smoothly thus far. In terms of the social media portion, I along with the rest of the team have been active on both City Farm’s Facebook and Twitter accounts (updating statuses, commenting, etc.). We have also created mock-ups of flyers that we will be using as tabs on City Farm’s Facebook fan page. I have constructed the flyer promoting the “Green Box” that City Farm offers; it is a kit for individuals who would like to start growing a vegetable garden of their own at home. We plan on having the client review our tabs as well as other aspects of social media this week. In addition, we will be organizing a social media training for the client so City Farm can remain up-to-date on all accounts.

As for the Video team, we were given some additional details of which the client wanted to incorporate and emphasize within the video. So this week, we have brainstormed more ideas in correlation with the storyboards/scripts in order to meet the clients demands. In class, we started to learn the very basics of Final Cut Pro and uploaded any City Farm footage that had accumulated. We plan to go on site and shoot more based on our storyboard. We are also hoping to catch Andy on film sometime in the next few days; we would like him to very briefly greet viewers and introduce them to the farm. It seems as if we will have enough footage this week to get started with editing this Thursday.

If I were to point out a problem, it would have to be the slight one of students having various busy schedules and not always being able to meet at times outside of class. I have missed a couple Saturday shootings hence I work on the weekends, yet I am hoping to be able to shoot this Wednesday.

The only outside resources we may need at this point is a Final Cut Pro expert of which can give us the run-down and simply get us started with the program.

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May 11, 2010

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Project Report: Week Five

I am part of the video team for City Farm. Initially as I was assigned to do so, I had researched content for the “How to” section of the video. Especially since I had missed class last week, I thoroughly reviewed details posted on the discussion board. I have noticed that the video’s angle has changed. After learning that City Farm already had someone working on their informational video for the public, my group has decided to produce an introductory/explanatory video geared toward the volunteers. I was assigned to create a “Code of Conduct” concept for the volunteer video. So for class today, I have prepared some content as well as a script to depict that portion.

In regards to our progress, it seems as if the ball has started rolling. Communication with the client and amongst ourselves is going well. On my behalf, I am curious to hear more specific details about the video today in class. Hopefully, our main goal for next week will be getting started with the production part of the video. In terms of resources needed, we need a camera, video creating/editing software (FinalCut), and perhaps a couple video editing experts to show a few of us the basics of how to get started.

As a side note, I have left the St. Joseph group’s logo/graphic team. Since there is a conflict of group schedules, I have decided to focus on the video for City Farm hence I already am comfortable with PhotoShop and would like to learn video.  I am very open to becoming a floater though. If anyone needs help with PhotoShop or an extra hand in any department, I’d be more than happy to help as long as group schedules do not clash.

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April 29, 2010

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Signs and Meanings

“…signs as meanings are individual.”  -Gunther Kress

Meanings are defined according to our socially and culturally shaped worlds…

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April 15, 2010

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Multimodality: Gunther Kress

After much stress over delayed delivery, I have just received the Multimodality book. My apologies, I am still in the process of completing the reading. I will revisit this post to edit as soon as I get caught up.

Thus far, I am uncertain whether it would be due to the fact of being pressed on time with the reading, Kress’s writing style, his organization of thought, or simply me, but I found parts of the reading difficult to grasp, at least initially. To be honest, I am a firm believer in “less is more” and that clear thought leads to clear writing. Personally I feel Kress is at times unnecessarily excessive in his writing and explanations, yet I am intrigued by his down-to-earth examples. From pinpointing semiotics in traffic signs to science classroom exercises, Kress uses simplistic references to more clearly present his perspectives. The importance and necessity of semiotics/text & image is depicted within various actual and metaphoric instances within his book.

In the early portions of Multimodality, Kress puts emphasis on the fact that signs/communication (semiotics) are shared amongst various languages and societies yet they are framed by each individual culture. What briskly came to mind are signs for restrooms; no matter what country one is in the restroom symbols are yet easily recognizable. Then again, although a handshake might seem to be a proper form of greeting in many parts of the world, in some countries it is referred to as an insult due to cultural framing.

Within Kress’s ethical approach, he mentions that communication is shaped by social and economical aspects as well as power-driven and authoritative frames. These frames, as we all know, are diminishing on the web. Kress brings up the concepts of generation Y not minding about authenticity, authority, copyright laws, etc. With the Web 2.0 bottom-up feel, mash-up of mediums and works are common; creatives lending and borrowing work has become a trend.

To be continued..

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April 8, 2010

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