ONW: 1 in 2000

I'm finally figuring out how to correct
footage in the editing stages.

For my first experience in interviewing, I talked to Sarah Peek. She is a sophomore, and is actively involved in theatre and the E-Communications program at Olathe Northwest. As of now, Sarah is part of Olathe Northwest's production of Beauty and the Beast.

It was hard to stay serious all the time, but
that's what the input/output is for, right?

Over the summer, Sarah and her family attended the Musical Theatre Kansas City (MTKC) Gala. There was a live auction for multiple items, but the one that caught Sarah's attention was a beagle puppy. After entering a bidding war with another family, she finally won. Her puppy's name is Mabel, and is currently just over ten weeks old.

Writing a voiceover proved to be much more difficult than it seemed to be. Watching ONW Now gave me a general idea of how I should format it, with the beginning and ending following the traditional example. The problem with voiceovers is that if you talk for too long, it can become boring to watch the video, but if there isn't enough speaking, it can sometimes get confusing. However, I learned how to properly insert secondary audio into my video, which is a valuable skill to have.

Sarah and I shot our video in the girls' dressing room again, but this time, we used the mirror lights instead of the ceiling lights. This proved to be a challenge, since we each sat on  the countertops, and it was difficult to light our faces properly. After we moved the camera around to find better lighting, we also had to make sure the equipment couldn't be seen in the shot, since we were filming in front of a mirror. Our tripod was very uneven, so we couldn't extend it all the way, which led to a bit of a height difference. However, it didn't turn out to be too distracting.

I had to find the exact lengths to effectively
fit the audio into the missing spaces.

I'm content with the final result of my video. The audio was tricky to navigate, but I eventually figured it out. Another effect that I applied was to fix the lighting and contrast levels. The only issue I ran into was that something had happened in Premiere that extended my video's time from around a minute and twenty seconds to a minute and forty-five seconds.

This is my video, shown below.

Photoshop Reflection

Each Photoshop tutorial was centered around learning a specific skill or tool. The picture to the right, of the man and his daughter, originally had a large object behind the man's head. Using the cloning tool, I filled in the sky behind him, creating a much smoother image.

A few of the images were simple, only needed something removed. The picture of a girl in front of a white backdrop could have been cropped, but the content-aware fill tool prevented an awkward imbalance between the spaces on the sides of the photo. The original is shown on the left, with the retouched version on the right.


The content-aware fill tool is amazing in the fact that as long as the designer selects the area fairly accurately, Photoshop will take care of the rest. It doesn't always work well, but when it does, it creates a flawlessly retouched result.

The spot healing tool was used in fixing the picture of the boy, shown below. The dirt on his face in the original was easily removed and smoothed.

The last project in the Photoshop tutorial series was, in my opinion, the most challenging. We were given three images of a girl and were to create a portrait collage with them. This utilized all of the tools we had learned about, and took the most time.

The last skill that I learned was to use layer masks to accomplish many things. Masks can color-correct, hide or show parts of the original images, and even add or remove texture. This would have to be my favorite skill, just because of the versatility of it. Layer masks have so many different functions, and although I haven't had the chance to use them all, I'll definitely turn to them in the future.

As a beginner with only a basic understanding of Photoshop, I think that these projects helped me get a better grasp on how to use the program. Instead of clicking around, I can use keyboard shortcuts for many of the tools. I really like the way some of them turned out.

If I could do them all again, I would have given myself more time to work on the photo collage instead of focusing on the smaller details in the other ones.

ONW Procedures Video

For our first project, we were supposed to create a video that showed the right way to behave when performing a specific behavior at ONW. The techniques to be showcased were the six shot system and the 180 degree rule.

The clip needed to be flipped horizontally.

My video used both of these techniques well, implementing both effective close-ups and establishing shots. When editing the video, however, I noticed that the 180 degree rule had been slightly broken, and it didn't flow well enough. I used the effect in Premiere to flip it horizontally, and it was fixed.

The basic storyline was one that, as a participant in ONW theatre, is important to me. Keeping the dressing rooms clean shouldn't be difficult, but for some, it is. Essentially, it shows what happens when someone walks in, expecting them to be neat, but then has to clean up someone else's mess.

The process of color correcting

This was the first video that I used specific shots, like close-ups, to further tell the story. I was surprised by the overall affect it added. Additionally, the focus on the flowers instead of on the person in the shot shown above was something that I hadn't thought about, but once my partner did it, I appreciated the visual interest it added.

Before and after color correcting, side by side

A technique that I had previously used definitely helped me once again. Color correcting the video from yellow to a more blue, neutral tone made it much more aesthetically pleasing. This is an issue I anticipate to have in the future, because the yellow tint is caused by the lights in the school.

I definitely appreciate the variety of close-ups and wider shots. However, a classmate recommended a shot of folding the clothes that were picked up at one point, to further visually explain what was done with them.

Overall, this was my first serious project in video, and I'm very excited to create more and improve over this year.

This is my final result, after editing twice, down below.