Author: cbrick00

As I begin to look back on the multimedia projects that I have created, I have come to realize how much love, sweat and tears I‘ve put into these projects. Remembering how I initially envisioned my group and individual projects to look and how many step backs I had from having to change my initial plan to fit my clients needs to the final product. It was definitely a tiring process however I have learned a decent amount of tips and tricks from my classmates on how to produce a professional video. 

Group Multimedia Project

My group multimedia, also known as the “Football Fan Experience,” was the most difficult project out of my group and individual projects. My partner, Rosemary, and I tended to our client, Ty Obsorn, and his needs to increase fan attendance at the football game and the stigma of the low energy football games. Therefore, we created a very user friendly and minimalistic landing page and a hype video trying to advertise the new tailgate experience that the athletic department began to offer. 

Looking at my group project I have realized how proud I am of the profesionality of not only the landing page but the video. After a lot of suggestions from our client, Ty Obsorne, Rosemary and I began to add more digital transitions and include a variety of shots and nat sounds that really brought the hype environment to life as that was his main concern. One specific example that I loved was the use of the drone shots over the stadium and the fan zone!

 One area where I thought we could improve upon was the stability and quality of certain shots. It was very difficult to follow and keep a steady hand when filming the bouncy house shots and the football hitting shots. If those shots were more steady and stable I believe our fan experience video would have looked more professional. 

Individual Multimedia Project

For my individual project, “Kyra Cox Changes the Face of Golf,” I really wanted my work to reflect my values, passions, and interests. As sports, racial awareness, and inclusivity are three core values and passions of mine I wanted to include those not only to show others what I am passionate about but also open their eyes to the racial injustices within sports media. As a white female who has multiple friends and family of color I know my purpose is to also speak about the racial injustices that still happen even to this day within the sports industry. I chose to make my video more personal by speaking about one female athlete of color, to describe the challenges and responsibility she continues to face as being something other than a white male in a predominately white male sport. Her goal is to make golf more inclusive of not only women but also  minorities. 

When looking at my individual multimedia project I am very proud of the work I have produced not only to tell Kyra’s story but to speak on behalf of other female athletes of color. I am proud that I covered Kyra’s story but at the same time also making it relatable and interesting for other people to relate to as well.  Some specific aspects that I believe brought my video to the next level was the variation on interview shots and b-roll. I also believe how Kyra gave some good motivation and offered her advice to other female girls to end on a positive note was a good, positive concluding segment.  

One area where I thought I could have improved on was getting more nat sounds to enhance the story and b-roll. I only have two areas within my video were I include nat sounds of Kyra driving the ball. I also wish I was able to get video of Kyra interacting with her teammates rather than showing pictures of them all together. I believe videos would have suited the video better as you would be able to truly hear and see them interact with one another instead of a still posed or candid picture. 

Kyra has already started to share my landing page and video to not only enhance my brand but to also enhance her brand as well on her social Media. The book Multimedia Storytelling by Seth Gitner, states that social media is this day and ages main form of networking and content sharing so if you want other people to see something post it on instagram. The feedback from this project from other social media users has included great feedback!

Overall, I am very pleased with my multimedia projects that I have created this semester in Professor Kwami’s Advanced Multimedia Storytelling class and hope others will take this class to fully embrace the variety of options you have as a digital creator.

If I could give two pieces of advice to anyone getting into digital storytelling it would be:

1. To create something you are passionate about because you will not only be more proud of your work but you will feel as though it is a good representation of who you are as a creator. 
2. Keeping your videos within the 3-5 min duration because those videos are easier to share and keep the audience engaged. I learned this tip from the book Multimedia Storytelling by Seth Gitner, Tom Mason, the co-owner of New York City-based Redglass Pictures who specializes in short narrative films, gives that piece of advice for any digital creators.

As I begin to cross into the end zone, I realized how much of a hard run my group project has been. Not only did I have to change running routes but I had to change routes based upon my clients timeline.

fINAL PHASE

I have completed all content production and am in the Final Phase of my Group Multimedia Project, The Paladin Football Fan experience. My partner, Rosemary, and I have finished our fan experience landing page where we included ticketing sales, the football schedule, and the tailgate protocols. We realized the current football landing page was not incorporating good ascetics and user experience. In my Multimedia Storytelling Class we learned about how the UI (Design) and UX (Experience) are very important when creating any kind of digital content. It is appropriate to say you can’t build a website without either element. Although content creators think the website design is more important, the feel of the user experience is just as important as the look of the user interface. We are including the Fan Experience Video at the top of the Football Landing page in order to visually intrigue our intended audience to want to go to the games.

ui (Deisign)

User experience design is concerned with how well a website works: 

• How do users feel about the website? 
• How seamless is the users’ flow throughout the site?
• How easy is it for users to accomplish their goals?

UX (eXPERIENCE)

User interface design is concerned with the aesthetics of the website: 

• Do users find it attractive? 
• Are the interactive elements intuitive?
• Does the design feel natural and provoke a positive response?

What is LEFT?

The only additions/ edits my partner and I need to is an appropriate male voiceover that specifically sounds like a sports commentator to fit the sports vibe. Transitions need to be included in order to not have any jump cuts in between clips. Lastly, we need to make the volume the same throughout the entire video which is one simple task in Premiere Pro, where we are editing our fan Experience Video.

I never knew how difficult it was to have an explicit vision one day and then have it be completely transformed the next. As I began to plan out my Individual Multimedia Project on Kyra Cox, a Division 1 twenty one year old Afro-Latina golfer, who is trying to change to change the face of gold one step at a time, I realized how many times my vision for this project would change.

The First Bump in the Road

My original storyboard included the history and Title IX issues that includes black female athletes have had a lack of involvement and mistreated in the predominately white male sport of golf. However, I have completely changed my vision and storyboard. My biggest dead end that made me change my vision was trying to communicate with Troy Mullins, who is constantly traveling the world as a Professional golfer. She responded once to my direct message on instagram and agreed to interview then left with no communication after that. Similar to my Group project, with the Furman University Football department, it is hard to work on another person’s schedule. I have learned it is necessary to have a backup plan and stay on your toes to be ready to change plans just in case your client does not work on your timeline, or lacks communication. Another bump in the road was how difficult it has been to shoot b-roll with Kyra Cox. Recently, we have had a lot of rain here in South Carolina and Kyra has been traveling a lot as she is in season for golf which makes it difficult to schedule time to shoot with her. 

Times Have Abruptly Changed 

I am currently working on making Kyra Cox her own Personal Profile that she can use to promote her golf game, whether that is through her future career of playing professional golf or being a sports broadcaster. It was difficult to go from originally making a very interactive website to having the right medium of long form narrative and digital elements in order to let the users serve as self-sufficient consumers. If your website is a good active networking site there will be great potential for high user experience. However, all you can do is do your half on creating a good interactive and engaging website and the users will interact with the site.

I continue to work on making to make Kyra’s personal profile into some sort of PSA that acknowledges how to change the stigma around golf being a predominately white male sport as I highlight how Kyra says, “anyone can play the game of golf as long as you have the drive and determination to do so.” 

Overall, I believe that every producer has to hit at least one bump along the production phase in order to produce content that is not just engaging, but also informative.