Anne with an "e"

After the filming process is over the editing process begins. Editing is the process of putting all of the clips, music, type, and graphics together into one package.  This part is where the magic happens!   I like to say editing is like learning how to ride a bike. It takes some time to get the hang of it and somethings might go wrong, but once you learn how to do it you can hop back into the software and you are off! Obviously, all software is different so it can be like having to adjust from a road bike to a mountain bike.   For my past video projects, I used iMovie and Final Cut Pro. For this project, we were tasked with using Adobe Premier Pro. Trying to use APP felt like I was learning to learn how to speak a whole new language. Both are non-linear editing programs which was a gift, but everything is different places and nothing felt intuitive about using the program. I think if I had longer to practice with it and some time to work with it by myself.  I think ...

This class has had a major focus on video production. We have learned how to storyboard, how to set up a shot, how to evaluate lighting, how to mic for sound, and how to edit. We have been really fortunate to have access to multiple types of video equipment from our phones to lighting kits to Lav mics to a fancy 4k video camera.   I had worked on video projects before this class, so I understood the basics of how to set up a shot and light it and stuff, but that was all supervised. For this class, my professor ran us through how to use the equipment and then sent us off on our own. I am not going to lie; it was a little nerve-racking. This camera is so nice and expensive it was like being allowed to test drive a Ferrari without a customer service representative.   It was quite amazing being able to run out with the camera set up the tripod and shoot things like the college’s front fountain and the Raleigh skyline. There were a few not so good shots and it was HOT out, but over...

It is amazing to me how sound works. It can travel through the air around us so fast and we can hear it almost instantly. Alexander Graham Bell found a way to harness that and created the telephone. Around that same time, James Edward Maceo West took that same technology to create the microphone.   One of my favorite movies is Singin’ in the Rain . It is about a film studio transitioning from silent films to films with sound. The microphones that the company uses are the size of my face. It was hilarious watching them trying to disguise her microphone with a flower on her dress because she couldn’t manage to speak loud enough to for the microphone hidden in a plant next to her.   Now microphones are smaller than my thumb and have no cords. They are now more powerful than the microphones of yesteryears. There is also new technology to dampen natural sound or only pick up specific sounds. Editing software can now isolate specific parts of an audio file to get a background noise ...

Since the 1950s video has grown to be not only a source of entertainment but also a way for people to share their lives. I remember having the bookshelves of VHS tapes and having to be careful when handling them so we didn’t mess up the film strips and the fateful day we accidentally pulled the film out and couldn’t get it to work right ever again. Then we moved to DVDs that had everything stored on a disk that you had to be careful to not get too scratched and now everything is digital! As long as you have Wi-Fi you can watch videos until your heart’s content.   With the rise of YouTube, sharing video has become easier than ever. You can watch a YouTube video on how to make a YouTube video. People have moved from writing blogs to filming “vlogs” (video blogs). Video is a way for people to share more than just words. Video you see color, mannerisms, and hear the tone of the person’s voice. Video actually shows people what the world is like outside of their bubble. How do you like t...

Photography is something that was once a thing that only a few could afford to do, is now more accessible than ever.  Smartphone cameras have come so far to the point now where I take more pictures on my iPhone than I do on my DSLR. I love my DSLR and it still goes places with me, but I always have my phone in my pocket. Let’s be honest an iPhone is way easier to carry around than a DSLR. Now with Portrait mode, my photos look like I have spent hours planning and editing a photo when in reality it took me a few seconds to set up the shot and just had to take the picture.   Portrait mode is meant to show up-close shots with shallow depths. It creates the effect of a soft blurred effect around the subject that is in focus.  The fact that I can do this on my phone blows my mind. The other photo mode that blows my mind is night mode. I upgraded to the iPhone 11 from an iPhone 6 and I was so excited for night and portrait modes. Night mode combines a low shutter speed with the...

It’s about to get graphic………. Get your mind out of the gutter, we are talking about computer graphics. Graphics add a different element to web-based content. They can be used to break up a bunch of text or illustrate a point that is being made in a presentation.   Graphics have come so far, even in the last ten to fifteen years. I went back and was watching an old show that came off so pixeled. I think it was still filmed on film verse current shows that are now filmed on digital.  If you want to go back even further to the 1950s when some of the greatest movie musicals were created. These movies have this fuzziness to them that is charming, but very dated. At that time the fact that they could do such amazing graphics was HUGE! Now that would be considered a bad shot and would probably be reshot.   One of my favorite graphics is GIF. GIFs are 3-second animated graphics. They can be clips from movies or tv shows, animated words, emojis that are wiggling or crying.  T...

Font! You cannot have digital media without it. What font we use can say a lot about us or what we are trying to say. Some fonts come off as serious and professional (shout out to you Times New Roman). Other fonts might make more sense on a princess tea party invitation (classic Curlz MT) and then there are the ones that look more like hieroglyphics than actual letters.   There is a lot that goes into creating a font. You have the amount of contrast; a low contrast font is typically thicker than high contrast.  There is a serif and sans serif. A serif is the little “feet” that pop up on the ends of letters. A font with serifs is Times New Romans. Sans serifs mean that there are no little “feet”. This blog is using a sans serif font.   Fonts are no longer just black and white. They can be enlarged, filled, and just generally changed with a double click of the mouse. Last semester I took a graphic design class and that focused on the adobe suite. One of my favorite things I...

YA’LL this one was ROUGH! This chapter was on coding, I have never tried coding or even really thought I would go into computer science in general (sorry mom and dad). So, trying to read this chapter was like trying to read something in another language. I feel so out of my depth.   So, code is the language that is used to create web pages. It is like a screenplay for a movie. The code has actual content like articles, pictures, videos, etc. It also has all the steps mapped out for you. It describes everything in the way a script would. It includes things like what color a tab is, which articles are linked to which web page.   I know that we would not have computers or really any tech without code. I salute those who can understand, interpret, and contribute to it. Maybe one day I’ll come back to this chapter and take more time to dive deeper into this whole coding thing.   Do you code? Are you #girlthatcodes? Do you even care about coding? Let me know in the comments bel...

This chapter was surprisingly interesting.  I was worried when I saw that it was all about web interface design after I found the page design chapter boring,  I mentioned in a past post that my parents both work in tech so growing up I heard a lot of these terms and it was nice to learn what they meant. UI and UX were thrown around back and forth between my parents quite frequently even now. UI stands for User Interface which is the physical interaction that a person has with their tech. UX stands for User Experience, that is the overall experience someone has using their tech.  This covers things like how long it takes something to load, how easy it was to find information, is it appealing to look at.   One of the other things that were brought up in this chapter single verse multi-touch interfaces. Their first example was a Nintendo DS. This gave me all the nostalgia; I still have my metallic pink DS Lite which is getting close to 15-years-old and is still working ...

Ok, I am going to be really honest this chapter was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring. I understand that there are a lot of people that have spent a lot of time studying and moving things around to figure out the way websites and other page layouts look.  Don’t get me wrong one of my favorite parts of this summer’s course has been creating flyers and a letter for our client but reading about it wasn’t quite as fun.   One of the things that stood out to me was how much math was involved.   I can’t exactly say I am surprised because all of these mediums have specific measurements (pages and screens). When I am designing a flyer or letterhead or whatever I am not focused on the number aspect I am just focused on what looks good.  For me, it is making sure that the text is readable. So that means having the info in small paragraphs, bullets, or columns. I like to make sure that the rows are not too close together. I would say 1.5 spacing. It takes up more space, but it ...

Visual communication  is like gift wrap. You are taking the content you are given and adding some pizzazz! (side note: pizzazz does not get used enough!)   There are a time and a place for a white paper with everything typed in Times New Roman font, but for most things, there is room for fun and a change in the way you present the work.     Visual Communication is great at drawing people into information. You can easily post a black piece of paper that says “bake sale from 1-3 on Thursday” the likely hood of people actually noticing it and going to read it are very slim.  By adding some color, fun font, and a picture of a cupcake or banana bread you can catch the eye of a passer-by.   What is your favorite type of visual communication? Let me know in the comments below!   ~Anne with an "e" 

Creating things for other people can be a blessing and a curse. I love being able to use my talents to help other people, but it can be hard to understand what people want. Sometimes a client does not have a real vision or knowledge of what they want, and it can be like trying to coax a little sprout out of the dirt. On the other side of that, there can be people that will give a plethora of information and ideas. Trying to find a direction to go is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.   After the informational meeting outlining can be really helpful to understand how to proceed. Outlining can be in the form of a storyboard. A storyboard is when you draw (or if your me, you label) each shot on a piece of paper before you go to shoot the scenes.  In past videos, I have created almost like a recipe. These videos were guides on how to make things, so it made sense to have a “what you need section” then a “step by step guide” and then the “final shots”.   Once you have...

As the daughter of tech people, I have grown up around computers my entire life. I remember going to work with my parents and stepping into the processing rooms. It felt like I was stepping into a Zenon movie. There were towers of hardware looming over me and the screens had binary scrolling through. Everything was pristine and shiny, and we were not allowed to touch anything (honestly that was a good call).  I used to walk through the room so carefully and wouldn’t bring anything that was messy. The memories are so clear.   My family had a desktop at home that we all used until the late 2000s. My parents slowly both got laptops and pagers and then blackberries and then the work and cell phones merged into the same phone. Our family’s tech consumption grew during the 2010s. We went from having a desktop and a few laptops for everyone to have a laptop for each person, smartphones, and tablets. During this time, I was the first person in my family to own a MacBook. When it came ...

Media is ever-evolving, just when you think you have a handle on Instagram's algorithm or how your college's learning platform works something change. As a millennial, I am considered a digital native. I grew up using email and learning how to research internet databases. I have grown alongside social media, with each one teaching me something new about life and other people.  This chapter explored where media started and how it has evolved.    Multimedia is a combination of animation, audio, graphics, text, and audio specifically in the form of a digital channel or device. These days Multimedia is EVERYWHERE! It is in our homes, at our work, even some of our billboards; you are consuming multimedia right now!  When I think of the word “multimedia” the word “project” is usually attached to it.  I did a lot of multimedia projects from middle school to present day! Like no joke I am working on one for a class right now. I think one of the things that makes multime...