BTVN: Grade 11

Due to the quick turnaround time from the start of school to the first piece being due, I had to think of an idea I could complete quickly. Since school just started, I decided to interview a new teacher. The interview went well, and Ms. Wood had great answers. However, when I went to edit the piece, all the video clips I imported were at an unusually high exposure. I didn’t know why this happened, but I went through and color-corrected all the clips. It wasn’t until after I finished editing that I learned I had my phone on HDR (High Dynamic Range), which caused them to import with high exposure.

I made this piece with Mylie, and in showing her the ropes of how to make a BTVN piece, I feel I grew as a leader in BTVN. She was with me from the beginning of the process, and we reached out to the students together. Trying to reach out and schedule these interviews proved to be extremely difficult though, as we couldn’t identify their email addresses and not everyone responded. We made questions together, and then I showed her how to conduct the interviews. There was, of course, a language barrier with multiple students, but Mylie and I made sure they understood the questions. I made this piece because I was curious about all the international students, and learning about all their experiences was interesting! I introduced Mylie to editing on Premiere, and overall it was easy. I struggled to edit Misha and Sasha’s interviews because Misha had to translate for Sasha, whose answers were in Ukrainian. I think in the future, I could try to reach out to interviewees earlier, to make sure I have enough time to edit, and that my pieces are done on time.

This interview went amazing! Taylor had insightful answers full of advice, and she provided fitting B-roll for the topic of our interview. The whole interview was 45 minutes, so I struggled to edit it down to a 5-6 minute interview. Also, since it was so long, there were numerous jump-cuts that I had to try and cover with the B-roll pictures. I think I have grown as an interviewer after making this piece, and I think my professionalism and organization have improved. Her experience at Barstow sounded very similar to mine, and I feel I have grown as a student and person just from listening to an alumni. I do feel this was some of my best work this quarter, so I am glad to end it strong.

This was a fun piece to make. I love Halloween and figured it would be the perfect subject for a Classy Update. I feel like my creative scriptwriting skills for more original pieces like Classy Update have gotten better. Writing the scripts is starting to become more natural, and felt like I had way more ideas for this piece. For future Classy Updates, I need to try and finish the CGs sooner, so I am not scrambling to finish them last minute like I was this time. I also want to continue to try and take my own photos for the CGs. It is impossible to take my own pictures for some, but there are definitely many opportunities to do so that I need to take advantage of those. I am currently brainstorming ways to make the Updates more interesting and engaging, and I think I could possibly incorporate videos as well as CGs.

I really like how this piece turned out. As a member of the Agathon, I knew I wanted to make a piece about it so more people could learn what it is. This piece was fairly easy and straightforward to edit. It was a learning experience, though, on how to film Ms. Ganter’s interview. She preferred to not face the camera, so I had to film her differently than I usually interview people. I think it turned out looking natural and not strange. One thing I could have done better on this piece is using better B-roll. The shots of the Agathon meeting were a bit repetitive, and I could have put in a greater variety of videos/images. I also could have used B-roll of previous Agathon magazines and submissions to increase the interest. I really liked the questions I asked as they got the perfect responses out of my interviewees. I feel this piece was a good showcase of my skills as an interviewer and editor.

This was my third installment of “What Are Barstow Teachers Reading?” I wanted to make another segment of this, because it combines an interest of mine, reading, with the Barstow community. It was incredibly hard to edit this piece, as some of the teachers talked about multiple books that I had to edit out. I also struggled to get B-roll from the teachers due to communication issues. I could improve my editing and polish up the text, transitions, and B-roll in future pieces.

In this piece, I chose to highlight the visual & performing arts at Barstow as I have been heavily involved in them. I have taken multiple art and music classes including: BTVN, Drawing & Painting, Photography, Music Theory AP, and Strings Ensemble. It was challenging to try and schedule interviews, as I tried to get at least one student or teacher for each class I included. Editing this was also a bit challenging, as I had to cut down 40+ minutes of footage. Also, some of the interviews were hard to edit, as people either gave extremely long or short answers. I really like all the B-roll I shot for this piece as I think it really added to the engagement.