Final Report

Before joining practicum I was not entirely sure what to expect out of the class and what I was going to be doing exactly. Throughout the course and semester I have come to realize that there is so much I learned and even more that I want to learn in the coming semesters. Coming from print to broadcast is the best choice I have made in my education because I came to know that I enjoy doing the broadcast side much more than print and I feel that this class has led me to this conclusion.

During the semester I did a lot of different things with the camera and the editing process. In the beginning I did a lot of shooting games; men’s and women’s soccer, basketball, volleyball. I had been in Introduction to Broadcast before and knew how to use the camera, but I felt that shooting these games made me a lot more familiar with the camera and how to properly use it. Getting the different angles during the games helped me learn that when making a package, the b-roll is very important in telling the story in an interesting way. After filming some games I went through the tapes and made highlights out of them in Final Cut Pro. I really enjoy using that program because you can do so many different things with it and make your package however you want. 

As the semester went on I began shooting more and more games and did almost every men’s basketball game. Shooting different sports helps me learn as well. I began to get bored with shooting games so I began to help Kirstin McIntyre with her news media project packages. I would go get interviews with her and help her shoot the b-roll. Seeing something different was very refreshing for me. I would spend hours in the studio with her logging the tapes and then helping her edit them. I learned a lot in Final Cut Pro from Kirstin. She showed me how to make a package and how to work through problems in FCP. Making videos was a lot easier for me because I knew how to use the program more efficiently and now I really like using the program and just messing around with the different features of it.

Every Friday in class we would have students speak about the news in the broadcast industry and listening to these articles was interesting. I learned a lot about the new technologies in the industry that I never thought would be possible. The industry is advancing so quickly. There is a new way to make things more simplified for us coming out every day. Hearing the class opinions on them was also educational, for the most part.

I definitely did not want to wait to get my hours in until the very end of the semester then end up rushing to do things, so I got a lot of mine in before spring break. I had at least thirty hours in before we went on break, and that helped me a lot because I wasn’t worried about getting all my hours in, only 10 or so. I could focus on my other classes and projects because that is when the homework started piling in.

Overall I feel that this class was very beneficial for me and I am looking forward to what next semester has in store.