Here is our newest video for digital journalism.

This is an interview with someone who has an amazing talent, Cy Thompson of the RWU Sailing Team. Cy is from the Virgin Islands and has been sailing for 16 years and has put a lot of effort into his talent and has been able to travel all over the world to compete. Thompson singlehandly won the ICSA- Laser Performance National Championship, along with the United States Youth Champsionships. He has competed in many races and his goal now is to win the ACC Championships and Team Race Nationals which he is working hard for.

For this assignment, we did not need a reporter, but a team effort as producer and camera (wo)man. We are continuing to learn how to work effectively without having all three of us there at one time.

During this assignment, some of the aspects of video that we focused on was capturing stimulating b-roll, lighting during the day, having to reshoot some interviews, and noise factors. This time, shooting outside, a cloudy, windy day originally made the shoot rather difficult. However, after reveiwing the footage that we did have, we made the decision to reshoot some of the interviews in order to improve the quality of our video this week. We think that it worked in our favor and that the video turned out the best that it could given the circumstances of us not being able to be together, the wind, and the horrible lighting on our cloudy day. We did recognize our mistakes and make an effort to fix them.

We also used a song in the background about sailing to make the video have more of an appealing effect. It worked out perfectly and we are very proud of the video that we produced this week.

Hope you like the video!
MLS News, Signing off!!! =)

RWU Girls Basketball: Season and Expectations

For our most recent story, MLS news covered the girls basketball team here at Roger Williams University. 

For this assignment our team experimented more with the use of Final Cut Pro. We went beyond lower thirds and added a musical introduction. 

We also tackled a lot of obstacles that we have encountered in the past. Our interview were in quiet places with visually stimulating backgrounds. Also, we chose to zoom in the camera while our interviewees were talking in order to get the best quality out of the shot.

Another obstacle that we tackled was lighting. The lighting was very good in all of our shots and we were able to get some great action shots of the girls practicing. 

We had to shoot indoors for part of the story because the basketball court was the main focus. Otherwise, all of our other shots are outside, just like Professor Scully wanted.

We learned more about working together while we aren't together. It was a group effort even though we all could not be together at the same time. Mike worked hard at the editing process trying to teach Lindsey and Shannon at the same time. Shannon stepped in as the reporter and was able to experience what it was like being in front of the camera versus behind it. Lindsey worked on the blog to keep it up to date. Unfortunately, all of our schedules are so completely different and we are not always able to work on our stories at the same time. Some weeks, other members of the team contribute a little more based on time and schedules, but we also make up for it within the following weeks.

We are very proud with our story this week. We've come along way since the first week of class and have made a conscious effort to correct our mistakes.

MLS news, signing off!!

Study Abroad at Roger Williams University

         Courtesy of RWU.edu
Getting better! This is the final edited video of our latest story for MLS news about the Study Abroad program at Roger Williams University. We have had a few weeks to work out all of our quirks and learn to how work with our atmosphere and our group. This week we took into account our wardrobe issues and shot most of the film within two days so we would have more time to edit the video. We learned that every outside noise can be heard and now we are looking for sounds that on the first day of class we just would have passed by. Now, our lighting, camera positioning, and schedules all seem to be on the right track.

We picked the issue of Study Abroad so that our video could be informative and show other students what opportunities they have, as well as personally finding out where our friends and classmates have been. We had to work with the study abroad office to set up interviews and everyone seemed to want to help out and inform their program. We did interviews with the Coordinator of study abroad, and 3 RWU students. One who went to Florence, another who is the ambassador of the program, and the last student who is getting ready to embark on his abroad journey in Scotland. We also shot B roll at the Academic Expo where the Study Abroad program had a table and could get visual stimulating film.

The last lesson we learned is to work with each others' s schedules and teach each other what we know about the editing process, camera filming, and even presence in an interview. We decided to put lower thirds into our videos so it would make it look more professional and appealing. We all have really gotten to know each other and each week the process has gotten a little easier.

MLS News Sailing Coverage

This is the final video of our coverage of the RWU Sailing team, which is currently ranked second in the nation. Working on this assignment opened our eyes to a lot of improvements that can be made for the future. We always have to make sure the microphone is attached to the camera the first time around. Lighting is always an issue, especially when shooting outside or near a window. We learned to always shoot in a quiet area, because no matter how far away we think the construction is, the mic will pick it up. We also learned that the reporter and the person being interviewed should angle themselves toward each other to face the camera.

Editing and assembling the video was a long process. It took about 2 hours to put together a 1 minute news clip. That just goes to show just how much work and detail goes into making a video like this. During the editing process, we played around and added lower 3rds, which are the name titles on the screen. We also cropped and zoomed in on the images to make them tighter and less busy in the background. That, plus adding effects, like the fade in and out, are just some of the tools we played around with while editing this video.

Another lesson that we learned is how to work together without all three of us actually being together. If one of us shot poor footage, the person editing it would pay for it. Even if all three of us aren't together, we all learned how to work together and work to benefit the team as a whole. Each person handled their roles great though!!