As the semester is coming to an end, I would like to take a moment and reflect on my time in Com 210. This class has been challenging, but I have learned so much. During my time at WSU, this has been the most difficult class for me. 

During my coursework, my favorite project was using Adobe Audition. I really enjoy listening to the radio and podcasts. It was fun to create my own. I thought it was satisfying editing voices, and adding sounds. I appreciated that students were able to choose their own topics for the semester. This made me feel more passionate and connected to my projects.

In my future, I could see myself working in politics. This class has taught aspects that could help me in the future. I might design a campaign ad, edit a promotional video, or be in an interview setting. Our world is evolving rapidly with technology. It is important to understand these computer programs in order to be applicable in the professional world. 

I felt like I became comfortable with Adobe programs throughout the semester. In order to improve my skills, the course might add other programs from different companies. 

During the course, I learned a lot about copyright. I found many websites that were royalty-free or public domain. I never realized how serious copyright is. I will go forward in my life understanding the importance of this.  

Overall, my experience in Com 210 was positive. It was difficult for me to not have a scheduled class time. I felt like there was a huge learning curve with each program used. This class took a lot of time and patience. I produced multiple projects that I’m proud of and will treasure. It got me out of my comfort zone and made more confident with computer programs. I never understood how much time and effort goes into digital media. 

Thank you for following my blog this semester!

I’m proud to present my final draft for my Adobe Premiere project! For this project, I wanted to focus on my friend Kelley. My topic has focused on my career goals, but for my last project I wanted to focus on someone else’s. Kelley is a very motivated individual who has been highly successful in her time as an undergraduate. She has held many internships, volunteers regularly, and has been heavily involved in our sorority of Alpha Chi Omega. She is currently finishing her term as our president. 

I wanted this video to give a sneak peek into Kelley’s daily routine. This makes the viewer feel connected to Kelley’s life. I recorded shots of her home, pictures of her and her friends, and an interview with her in her room. I used the rule of thirds when shooting the interview. I also experimented with different angles of shots. 

I began first by giving Kelley an introduction. This shows the purpose and background behind the video. During the interview, I asked Kelley, “What are your career goals?” Also, “How has being president helped you for your future?” The video shows her responding to my questions, and the viewer can understand how Kelley talks and interacts with people.

In Adobe, I began revising my rough draft. I decided to add background music and lowered the decibels. I raised the sound of Kelley’s voice so the two sounds weren’t competing. I made sure the music faded in and out appropriately. I added transitions to each shot, and also put in title slides. These title slides made it easy for the viewer to understand the structure of the video. There were multiple shots and sounds to this video which made it interesting and cohesive for the viewer. 

My peer’s critiques were very helpful in completing my final draft. Much of the feedback consisted of adding more sounds and different shots. The only troubles I came across was during the editing process. I had forgotten about the different tools over Thanksgiving break. I had to go back to previous tutorials to remind myself where to find them. 

Overall, I’m very proud of my project. I was really excited to show this to Kelley. She was super thankful that I made this video. 

Kelley Phelan consented to this project and filming. I used this sound from freesound.org. All other materials are my own.

I present my rough draft for my Adobe Premiere project! I decided to interview my dear friend Kelley for this project. My topic focuses on my career goals, and for my last project I decided to focus on someone else’s. Kelley is a very motivated individual who has been highly successful in her time as an undergraduate. She has held multiple internships, spends her time volunteering, and has been heavily involved in our sorority of Alpha Chi Omega. She is finishing up her term as our president.

 I wanted this video to highlight aspects of her life. Also to give it an interview feel. I began recording the outside of the sorority. This symbolizes her time volunteering and working within our chapter. I then interviewed her asking her many questions. I asked her, “What are your career goals?” Also, “How has being president helped you for your future?” These videos show her responding to my questions, and the viewer can understand how Kelley talks and interacts with people. In my final draft I want to implement more shots of her doing her daily routine. 

In Adobe I began by putting all of my videos in and arranging them. I added title slides and transitions. I thought it would be a good idea to have the questions written out. I also clipped shots from my sorority. This gives the viewer imagery of where Kelley lives. The only struggles I came across was using an HP instead of a Mac. Some of the buttons were in different places.

For my final I think I will add background music. I will add more shots of her daily life. Also, I will better edit the video of Kelley talking. 

All sources are my own. Kelley Phelan consented to this project. 

Kelley’s Career Goal and Life

I’m proud to present my final project using Adobe Audition. This process has taught me about interviewing and using Audition. I began this project by brainstorming how I could encompass my topic into an audio story.  I started to think about people in my life who share similar interests with me. I idolize my friend Emma Taylor, so I asked if I could interview her. She is successful, intelligent, and cares about the world around her. I knew she would have a good story relating to my topic of politics. My second interviewee, Arka Bagchi interns with me at Student Legal Services. I was very intrigued about his political experiences because we routinely converse during our shifts. 

I really enjoy listening to podcasts, so I was excited to make one of my own. I wanted to incorporate a sense of an interview. This might include a personal anecdote or reflection of their life. I thought of open-ended questions that might probe good responses. I’ve listened to many podcasts before, so I had an understanding of the techniques and setups they use on their interviewee. I decided to introduce Emma and Arka to give the listener background information about who they are. The questions and responses tell a story about when both interviewees cared about politics, and how they expressed that. It gives the listener an inspirational look into their lives. Interviewing two people also gives different perspectives and answers to one simple question. 

I asked Emma to meet up with me in our student union building. Beforehand, I told her to start thinking of times she engaged with politics. Once we met up, I recorded my questions and her responses on my IPhone. Arka and I recorded during our office hours, and I followed the same formula. Emma’s recording has more background noise than Arka’s. I think it is good to have distinction between interviews to show there is variation. 

For my rough draft, I inputted all of the files into Audition. I put the files in correct order. After, I edited out all of the blank pauses, and filler words such as “um.” This cut the recording down by 30 seconds. I used the razor tool to perform this action. I adjusted the sound, and in some parts made fade-ins and fade-outs. I lowered the decibels on Emma’s recordings, so the background noise was less distracting. However, I still had difficulties because I underestimated how even the faintest sound can still be picked up by recordings. I had trouble uploading my rough draft on Sound Cloud, which for my final draft will not be an issue. 

After receiving feedback, I decided to revise my draft. Originally, I only had Emma’s portion. Adding Arka’s gave the story more depth and information. Also, due to feedback, I added the sound of trumpets. This can be commonly heard in political radio/news, and I wanted to imitate that. In total, I used four different sounds. These sounds were all edited and put in a cohesive recording. 

When editing my final draft, I used many tools to clean up the audio. I raised Emma’s voice because at times her voice was faint and quiet. I also attempted to make the volume the same throughout. This was a challenge because many of my recordings took place at different times and places. Overall, I became very familiar with the tools of Adobe Audition. 

References-

Free Sound 

I present my rough draft for Audio Story Assignment. I began by brainstorming how I could encompass my topic into an audio story. I started to think about people in my life who share similar interests with me. I idolize my friend Emma Taylor so I asked if I could interview her. She is successful, intelligent, and cares about the world around her. I knew she would have a good story relating to my topic of politics.

I wanted to incorporate a sense of an interview. This might include a personal anecdote or reflection of her life. I thought of open-ended questions that might probe good responses. I’ve listened to many podcasts before, so I had an understanding of the techniques and setups they use on their interviewee. I decided to introduce Emma to give the listener background information about who she is. The questions and responses tell a story about when Emma cared about politics, and why she did what she did. It gives the listener an inspirational look into her life. 

I asked Emma to meet up with me in our student union building. Beforehand, I told her to start thinking of times she engaged with politics. Once we met up, I recorded my questions and her responses on my IPhone. Next, I inputted all of the files into Audition. I put the files in correct order. After, I edited out all of the blank pauses, and filler words such as “um.” This cut the recording down by 30 seconds. I adjusted the sound, and in some parts made fade-ins and fade-outs. 

However, the background noise began to be an issue. I underestimated how loud even the faintest sound can be. I try adjusting it by lowering the decibels, but the listener can still hear it. This makes it distracting with the constant background muffles. All sources are my own. 

I will be conducting an interview about a time someone has cared about politics.

• <a href="http://<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/697883062&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true">http://
• <a href="http://<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/697883110&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true">http://
• <a href="http://<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/697883104&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true">http://
• <a href="http://<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/697883062&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true">http://

I’m proud to announce my final draft of the logo project. I wanted this to be used as a poster to encourage voters to elect more women. I’m passionate about women in politics, because one day I hope to be one. Throughout my process, I thought of logos that would portray this topic. There are many recognizable symbols encouraging voters. These symbols would go along with patriotic colors, and writing that stands out to the viewer. 

My sources of inspiration came from many places around WSU. In the WSU’s student union building, there are lots of motivational posters mobilizing voters. Their color schemes and fonts gave me ideas for my project. These posters share a lot of characteristics with campaign ads. All of these had to harness patriotism and American ideals. 

The ‘girl power’ portion of my logo had changed a lot through my process. This is a common saying that encourages women empowerment. At first, I wanted to use feminine colors that are recognized throughout society. In my sorority, there are a lot of pro-woman posters that have characteristics I was trying to use. Yet, these soft, girly colors did not mesh with the strong colors of America. I decided to revise this portion by changing the ‘girl-power’ to red and white. This provided more unity to my logo. 

The font used for the ‘girl-power,’ is suppose to represent an army symbol. This shows that women are tough and strong, and can do anything men can do. I combined these two texts in order for the viewer to understand both aspects. How voting is important to America, but also to encourage more women to be elected. I tried to incorporate balance in my logo. This was done by making the font centered, and adequate space in between the two.

My process for the rough draft began by first typing the words and adjusting the size. Since it is scalable, it didn’t really matter what size I placed the font at. Then, I changed the fonts depending on what fit my theme. I added a banner which came with some troubles. I had to re-anchor some points because Illustrator would not let me shape the rectangle. I finally made the banner and colored it accordingly. I played around with different effects on the ‘vote’ text. I settled with rounding the corners on the ‘v’ in order to make it look like a check mark. I set the letters closer together as well. With the star tool creator, I made four stars that reflect each other. I think this goes along with the patriotic theme because stars are important to the American political culture. Then, I used the same color palette as the texts to color the stars.

After I received feedback from my peers and TA, it was time to revise my rough draft. Most of the feedback consistent of the coloring. My pink ‘girl-power’ did not blend with the patriotic colors. Also, I had a lot of white space in my logo, which made it look empty. There was a recommendation that I add an outline a woman figure to embody my message. Other small house-keeping items were mentioned in order to make my final draft perfect. 

When revising in Illustrator, I started by changing the background to the dark blue. This filled in the white space, and tied together my logo. I changed the color of the banner to white, and adjusted the colors of the different lettering as well. In order to make the ‘girl-power’ stand out, I adjusted the outline stroke to two points. The top of the ‘v’ for vote was not even. Therefore, I used the white arrow to individually adjust each point. My final revision was tracing an outline of a woman’s profile. After I traced I moved the outline to the front and filled in the color and outline.