The First Six Weeks of my Senior Year

Approach Fangirls with Caution PSA

Insomnia - Short Montage Project

The above videos are my first two projects of the semester for my TCOM 487 class.  Our professor encourages us to be creative and think outside the box. I've been experimenting with lighting and camera angles and editing styles and I've learned quite a a bit from directing and editing these projects. They aren't perfect - there are some issues with lighting and focus, for example, but I was working by myself with a small amount of time, so I'm still quite happy with how they turned out!

For the montage I used an EX3 and a pocket dolly, and then I filmed the PSA  with a Canon 5D Mark III. I was really excited to use the 5D again, because I loved using it last year on our Auburn documentary. I was actually only supposed to have access to a 7D, but the equipment checkout office accidentally overbooked the 7D , so I got to use BSU's  brand new 5D! I love that camera. It was fun to experiment with the lenses, depth of field, and editing styles.  Hopefully I'll own my own 5D one day.

My 17-year old brother, Wes, stars in the  Montage project. He was such a good sport, staying up until 4 am to be in my video. He is an amazing person and an incredibly talented self-taught pianist of three years. I highly recommend checking out his piano performances on his Youtube channel!

My friends Tara and Julia starred in the PSA project. We shot it on Sunday, and it was so much fun. I'm not sure I've ever laughed so hard during filming and editing a project in my life. My professor wanted us to do a ridiculous PSA, so this was my go at it. Tara, who is my best friend and roommate, did such a great job of getting into character. I partly made this to commemorate our descent into Arashi madness this semester. Tara introduced me to their music, etc and I will never forgive her for that because it has begun to take over all my free time. Arashi is a Japanese boy band that has been together for 14 years. I guess you could sort of say that they are the Japanese version of One Direction, except that they can dance really well.  They are ridiculously popular in Japan. All the band members are also really talented actors, so I've started watching some of their movies and dramas recently. They also do lots of crazy hilarious game shows and even news anchoring in Japan. Its like an entirely new culture of music, film, and television has opened up for me. Suddenly I'm obsessed with everything Japanese, and I've even started picking up some Japanese vocabulary, so this is actually very educational for me! I would also like to note that this video is in no way autobiographical - it does not represent how we behave in real life. Not at all...

I was pleased with my class's reaction to watching the PSA today. They all laughed really hard, and I love making people laugh. My professor nearly fell out of his seat he was laughing so hard, and when it was over he rewound it to the part with all the screaming. I've gotten lots of nice comments on it from people on the internet, and it got about 150 views on Youtube in the first day, so I'm pretty happy with it!

Production Assistant at WIPB
This semester I also started work as a Production Assistant at the Teleplex/WIPB station here on campus. My bosses and co-workers are amazing, and I am learning so much about production. So far I've recorded audio/video for several lectures and classes, as well as run camera for some green screen studio productions, including a press conference given by BSU's president and a senator. I ran cable for two football games, and I ran camera for a volleyball game as well. It is really great experience, and I am grateful to be working there.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project
This semester I am a part of an Immersive Learning Project with the Building Better Communities Organization here on campus. There are twenty students on my team, and we are working to produce film and other elements for an app related to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We will be heading to Washington, D.C. to film on the National Mall in a few weeks! (as long as its open by then...) Its a great project and I'm happy to a part of it. I was awarded the BBC Fellows Leadership Award Scholarship for this project, which was very exciting!  So far I have taken on a bit of a Producer role, and have been involved with the history research team as well. I was able to interview a Vietnam Veteran recently, which was an amazing experience.

Classes
Besides the VVM project and my TCOM 487 class, I am also taking a Media Law class, a Health class, and my final Spanish class for my Spanish minor. I am enjoying all my classes and learning a lot. This is also my third year as a Peer Mentor for the Honors College. I get to teach a class of 8 freshmen about life here at Ball State for the first nine weeks of the semester. It is always a rewarding experience.

100 Acres
I'll end this post with my photos from a weekend with two of my favorite girls, Lauren and Tara. We went to the 100 Acres park in Indianapolis a few weeks ago, and had a lot of fun with our photo shoot.  My favorite thing at the park was being able to play on Funky Bones, a large sculpture featured in my favorite novel, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.