Audio/Visual Project

The audio/visual project was made up of three parts: the pitch, the script, and the video. Producing a short news story was a new experience for me. Before this three-minute audio/visual project, I had no previous experience creating and shooting video footage for anything other than unwrapping presents on Christmas morning and filming our family farm.

I chose to utilize a flip camera to capture video footage as opposed to the Sony camcorders offered in the library. The Sony camera appeared to be more inconvenient to use in conjunction with my laptop, and I did not have a fire wire to upload the clips onto my computer. The flip camera was easy to use, and I was already familiar with its functions and capabilities. After downloading some updates for QuickTime, I was able to upload my footage onto my laptop using a USB cord. This convenient device does have a few drawbacks. A lot of my footage was shaky, and the quality was not as good as one of the more advanced Sony camcorders. Also, the video has poorer quality when using the optical zoom.

The weakest parts of my news story were the interviews. It was difficult to decide which information to extract out of the interview so the video still complied with the three-minute timeline. While the interviewees had insightful comments on the campus farmers market, it was hard to hear what they were saying. Ariel Fugate, the NCSU farmers market coordinator, was difficult to hear, too. Also, she seemed distracted during the interview, which took away from what she said. I would have opted to cut her footage if she did not play such an important role in the farmers market.

Most students and vendors were more than willing to talk on camera, but the interview with the male student proved to be somewhat difficult. I chose to cut some of his footage because a few of his comments took away from the message in my video. For example, he said something like, “I got the barbeque chicken today, but I don’t know how good it will be because I have never bought anything here before.” Later in the interview he talked about fixing and eating the chicken for dinner, so I used that footage instead. To mesh the two clips together I used a transition. Some people rambled during interviews, and I had to exclude information that did not answer the initial question. Excluding this information did not change the overall meaning of what the interviewee said.

While I filmed interviews, I made sure to remember the rule of thirds. This technique made the video easier for an audience to watch and connect with the people. In most of the interviews, the main line of interest was the line going through the eyes. The farmers market served as the background for all the interviews. I liked that people were walking and conversing behind the interviewee because it portrayed that the market was a bustling, lively setting.

I included some shots of an apple orchard and a few cows in my video. I filmed the cows in the afternoon when the sun was very bright, and my footage reflects that. If I had the opportunity to film during a different part of the day, I would to make the video appear more cohesive. Shots of brightly colored vegetables were incorporated in the video to further the message that the farmers market offers fresh food. When classes were exchanging, I got shots of students walking through the crowded area. I also went up to the entrance of D.H. Hill Library to get a shot of the market from above.

Overall, the project was a great learning experience and served as a stepping-stone in my audio/visual production skills.