Blog 11: Interviewing and Sound Unit!

The "Tropos of Interviewing" and "Editing Digital Audio" videos we're both very helpful to me in planning for my final project. I really enjoyed "The Film Lab" clips, they shared a ton of useful information in a fun and interesting way! It definitely reminded me to do my homework before doing an interview, and MAKE SURE you have the questions planned out ahead of time. Also, I never really realized that what's in the foreground or background of an interview really does count, and can help with your tropos of interviewing.

I am still continuing to sharpen my focus for my interviewing, and deciding exactly the interview questions I want to use. These videos definitely helped me understand better how to properly hold an interview. I would love to interview Frederique, the Belgian woman who works at our Clemson University Brussels Center here in Belgium. I plan to ask her about the differences in advertising in Belgium versus the United States. Also I plan to talk to her about recycling in Belgium for my video about an issue here in Belgium. The problem is since our school is strictly American's from Clemson (about 35 of us), I honestly don't know many Belgians (if any!) to interview. But now what I can continue to work on is exactly which interview questions I want to use and for which video of my final projects. I am also glad to be more knowledgeable about editing audio files; I feel like I will have a few issues with that. I can definitely look back on these videos though for help and advice. I love your expressive and interesting beginning to the video by using different sound clips while looking like you were in a scary movie. It got me even more interested to learn!

I plan to start pinpointing down my questions and interviewing very soon!

The ACTUAL Belgian Grocery Store video from the previous post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXN7u5rZmuU


Ahh yes yes you are right Mr. Nichols, I thought my last video had posted through Blogspot but apparently it didn't. Butttt after much time spend trying to figure out the whole youtube posting thing (it STILL wouldn't post to youtube either but I found a tutorial that explained the correct way to save an IMovie video and upload it to youtube correctly). So, read the blog below and then watch this video!

My first....video!

I know this video is not the best, but I am honestly proud of myself that I was even able to get this far with IMovie. I'm glad that we had this assignment so I can begin to learn different things about the program and get more familiar. I literally had no idea about Imovie or how to even put video clips together-- so I feel quite accomplished for having made it at least this far so far!!

What I wanted to do was show what a pain it can be to go to the grocery store most of the time. It's quite the process....we go to the metro, take a tram, walk for quite a while, get to the grocery store...and don't forget you have to bring your own plastic bags! Also, you can never get more than you can carry home! Which also involves being very crowded on a metro, so literally you cannot get much. It does truly make me miss Walmart- where you get your own bags, can get as much as you want because you have a buggy that takes it to your car for you, and actually drive your groceries home! That is quite a luxury. Honestly though I do really appreciate Belgium's efforts to conserve and have us bring our own bag; think of how much money and plastic they save.

Working with Imovie was quite the experience, we had a few fights but I can't wait to learn more about the program and definitely improve my skills. I need to continue working on putting together my final projects!

Major Projects : Attack Plan!

First off....I want to say WOW! The Australia study abroad video that was posted was very inspirational and gives me something to look up to. I was so impressed! He did such an incredible job and was able to experience and see so many things while in Australia-- I'm quite jealous! Already in my short time in Belgium, I feel that I have been able to see so much and also travel to many other places. For my personal video, I can't wait to tell a story of my travels and experiences through a video composition. I am however, quite nervous about figuring out how IMovie works. I've never used it before and although I was in broadcasting while in high school, I left the video editing up to the editors and I stuck to anchoring. It always seemed incredibly difficult and just by seeing them do it, I would easily get confused. So I plan to make myself very familiar with IMovie as soon as possible.

I am a marketing major, so for my professional video, there are unlimited things that I could look at and examine how it's marketed. I could examine how beer is marketed here in Belgium versus in the United States; I have found that very interesting. Drinking beer here is a much classier affair, and advertisements are greatly different. Belgium is also home to many many breweries; Belgium is incredibly famous for beer and many people want to responsibly experience several different types while traveling through Belgium. If not beer, I could look at how chocolate is marketed here in Belgium vs the US. Chocolate is something else that Belgium is very famous for. Any ideas or suggestions?

For public issues, recycling is HUGE here. They take it very seriously and make sure we sort all of our trash into different color bags for proper disposal and reuse. I find it great how important the environment is to Belgians over here. I feel the US should take note! Belgium is definitely doing their part. There does seem to be some confusion though about which items to put into which bags, so I have now seen notices and posters around Belgium explaining proper disposal. Or for my public issue, I have thought about the topic of 'Going Green', especially with incredibly small 'smart cars' and promoting public transportation everywhere. I take the metro everyday and it is packed!!! Any thoughts?

I look forward to exploring IMovie and hopefully staying frustrated free!