99 Seconds Project:
Choosing the issue:
When we got into the groups we would be making our video with, we needed to decided whos topic we would talk about. In my group, my partner Ethan wrote about teen stress, and I wrote about unrealistic body images in commercials. Eventually though, we ended up choosing the topic he wrote about because we both agreed it would be easier to acquire more information and images for the video itself.
Researching the issue:
My partner had done the majority of the research on our topic in order to write his persuasive essay letter. However, there was still a lot of research to be done and we needed to organize our fact sheet in the appropriate manner. We went about looking for reliable sources not already found. We copied the links and then went back through the sites we had found looking for more facts we could use. Once we had all the facts we needed, we organized our fact sheet so finding the facts we had found was easy.
Persuasive essay letter:
One of the assignments for this project along with researching a topic was writing a persuasive essay letter. We were tasked with finding a person who who we thought could help push for what are argument was in our issue, or to someone we thought could be persuaded on our issue. My partner wrote his business letter to someone in our school's administration. They have not merited a response.
Script for video:
The next assignment we had as a group once we had finished out research we creating a two column script for our video. The column on the left represents what Ethan would be saying in the voice over, and the right side represents the pictures that would be in the video. In order to figure out what images we should put where, we looked over the script on the left side and decided on images that were relevant to our overall topic, but were sometimes humorous.
Voiceover:
In order to record our script, we used a program called Audacity. Audacity is a voice recording program that allowed us to record the script and then export it to a flash drive. My partner and I ended up deciding that he (Ethan) would be the one who would read the script. This was for two reasons. One it was his topic so he knew it better than I did. Two, his voice sounded better when we tried reading the script using Audacity.
Editing images:
For this project, we used Photoshop in order to edit the images. We were required to edit out images so that they were 1280x720 pixels, or have a generic background that covered the empty space. We learned how to use the program on our own and then set about editing the images. Depending on whether an images needed several picture and text, I sometimes found it difficult to coordinate the pictures so that they formed the desired images. Adding text was usually easier, but when speech bubbles were necessary, other pictures needed to be found.
Putting it all together:
For this part of the project, we used the program Final Cut X. Final Cut X is a program where you can create videos. This is where we were able to line up our image with our voice over so they would appear at the right moment. At first, it was difficult because I myself edited some images in the wrong way, but towards the end everything came together. We were able to find images to place where we had gaps, and we were able to insert some comical images.