Author: katiesquier

Katie Squier

This week I presented my interactive analysis. I did my presentation on the PBS site After the Storm. This site tells the story of the tornadoes that hit Alabama in 2011. The media on this site is done really well. I really loved the use of audio to hear about the events of the storm, first hand from the creator of the story. The images and video that are presented are really powerful and I think the overall creates a really emotional and captivating story.

Between the presentations that we saw this week, something that I consistently saw was the use of animations. Whether it was moving text or images, each of the sites had some sort animation so I think this could be something current and interesting to try to add to my own group presentation at the end of the semester. One thing that I didn’t like, in terms of my own site that I presented was the inability to skip through some parts. While I was presenting I wanted to show the class as much as the site as possible without it taking forever. This would be something that I want to avoid in my own site just because I dont think people want to spend an extremely long time on each section of your website.

A challenge I faced this week was a miscommunication with my group. I like to work ahead and wanted to submit the group schedule early in the week. Another group member said it wasn’t ready yet and I was under the impression that they would submit it when they finished whatever was left. It didn’t get submitted on time because of the miscommunication and everything ended up being fine but going forward I think our group needs to have clear and constant communication when it comes to submitting assignments for the team.

Activity of Ice Skating

We want to go ice skating at least four times, to ensure enough quality footage, and get better over time. 

The actual dates we go will be discussed further with each other to ensure all of our schedules add up. We understand it’s hard to plan so far in advance. 

• Week 5
  • Pick WIX template
  • Pick date to skate
    • Tuesday right after class(?)

• Week 6
  • Create box folder
  • Make all plans on the technology we need, including the cameras, mics, and equipment.
  • Plan all the shots we need to take for the first time we go skating.
    • Introduction of each person 
    • A shot of each person’s skills for the first time

• Week 7
  • Must skate by week 7
  • Assign who will check out equipment and who will bring it to the rink. 
  • One person will need to set up the equipment and test it 
  • Once set up, one person records the other four, and then switches to be recorded themselves. 
    • Photos
      • DSLR
      • Osmo 
    • Videos
      • Go pro
      • 360 cam
    • Audio 
      • Mic- snap-on iPhone

• Week 8
  • Worked on, and finalized the preliminary submission together in a meeting, 
  • Preliminary submission is due. 

• Week 9
  • Another skating trip
    • All content not taken the first time will be taken
    • Another shot of each person’s progress. 

• Week 10
  • The website has already been started and set up. 
  • The content we have taken so far is edited and organized. 
  • The plan for what goes on the website will be discussed and decided on. 

• Week 11
  • Final skating trip if needed
    • Final shots of everyone’s progress. 
• Week 12
  • All content is done and recorded. 
  • The process of putting it all together has started. 

• Week 13
  • Final touches being put on the project website. 

• Week 14
  • The project is hopefully completed and edited together. 

• Week 15
  • Meet the day, or a couple of days before the presentation and do a final practice. 
  • Presentation of our project to the class. 

Katie Squier

For our project we wanted to get a variety of different media from ice skating. We thought that using the 360 camera would be really fun and interesting. The only problem that arises with this is that we would have to be the only skaters on the rink at the time. We also thought it would be fun to strap a GoPro on to a couple group members to get a point of view from a skater. We are still looking into different forms of media and using equipment that we didn’t get a chance to use in the lower level Visual Communications classes.

This week I helped set up the schedule for the semester. With the help of my group we discussed the timeline of when things should need to be done throughout the semester. We thought that the earlier that we could get things done, the easier it would be on our part. We were missing a group member today so that made some of the planning a bit of a challenge. We were trying to coordinate schedules to find the best time to go skate together, but we will have to discuss further in our Group Me.

Katie Squier

This week we presented our pitches to the class. After our presentation we have decided to go with the ice skating activity. I think that this activity will allow us to get really fun and creative media for the project as well as it will just be a fun activity to get to know my other group members.

I think it is important to create a schedule for the completion of the project because if we do not, the odds of us waiting until the last minute to iron out the details, is high. I think it is important to stay on top of the due dates for individual parts of the project just in case we reach a snag in the process. Completing things early creates flexibility if we were to need it.

A challenge that we may encounter is the access to bring in differnet cameras (still photos and video) into the ice skating rink. Parents are often wary of their children being filed or photographed and I think the chances of children or families being in the background of our media is high depending on the time of day that we go.

This week I set up the powerpoint of our presentation during class. I helped run the presentation by explaining the ideas that we had for the ice skating project. One challenge is we faced this week is that our group didn’t communicate well before the presentation. Going forward I think it would be more helpful if we all could talk beforehand. I think as things pick up it will be easier to communicate because we will have more things going on and more to discuss as a group.

Katie Squier

As I reflect on what makes a great team I have to think through some times I have been a part of teams that were not so great. A successful team communicates well. They let each other know when they are struggling so that perhaps a teammate can help them through what they are working on. A great teams trusts each other. They don’t need to stress about whether or not their other group members will complete their assigned task. An unsuccessful team doesn’t communicate and has a hard time trusting each other.

This week we worked on solidifying our favorite three topics to present to the group. Some problems that we encountered was thinking g of an idea that was unique that would also provide great visual aspects for the final project. We decided that maybe learning a language together wouldn’t quite be great for this project, though it would be something new. I think we did a great job working and talking together to find some ideas that we all liked. I would not have done anything differently this week. I am excited to present this week and make a decision for the project that we will complete this semester!

Katie Squier

When we got assigned to our group the firs thing that we did was set up the blog. I took the initiative to create the website and am still learning how to work the ins and outs of the blog. Something that I might have changed was not messing with the blog layout. I tried to change some of the layout and now I think the blog site itself is becoming more of a challenge than I would have hoped.

Next, we created a GroupMe for our team. It is clear that throughout the semester we will need to work together and communicate a lot. By creating the GroupMe for our team, that will help create an open conversation for whatever we need to discuss for our project over the course of the semester.

Once we got the logistical things ready to go for the semester we began to brainstorm for what we wanted to do for our project.

Some ideas that we had were:

• Learning to ice skate together
• Bowling at the East Campus Union
• Baking a cake together

We know that we want to have an experience together so it is only a matter of deciding what we want to do together. I am looking forward to this semester and using what I have learned in the previous Visual Communications classes and creating a super awesome project with my group.