Upon completing COM 210, I find myself EXTREMELY satisfied. Being the busy student I am, juggling everything in my life is not a simple task. Clubs, classes, and work control my life. COM 210 allowed me to balance the course along with everything else.

My favorite project during the semester would have to be working with photoshop. It was a great introduction to the course. I understood what was expected of me – and I learned how to work with a program I had always struggled with in the past. Although frightening to see the power of a computer, it was fun to adjust and change images. It was the assignment that got me really excited for the rest of the semester.

I believe I will use all skills from this class in the future. The field I am going into will most likely require most of the applications we learned. I also know that I will continue my hobby of making films over the summer. Premiere is an application that I will most definitely be using with my friends.

In my future I plan on being a Public Relations practitioner. In this day and age, having a strong media outlet can be vital to a company’s success. Knowing this, I hope to prove to companies how beneficial I could be to their team. I believe that all of the coursework can benefit me in the working world. On top of that, the technological proficiencies I have added to my resume have tripled thanks to this course.

One Adobe application I wish that we could’ve learned was Adobe Indesign. A good friend of mine from home introduced me to this program. They had created one of the best spaced out resumes I had ever seen – inspiring me to do the same. It took me hours to figure it out. Going over this in the course could really benefit other students resumes!

One thing I did not do in this course was pull from other websites. Other than using creative commons websites for images and music of course. I did not learn any tips or tricks from those websites though – I felt that everything was provided for us.

This course has been my favorite course so far in college. The fact that it assists my knowledge in my major, and has really put me a step ahead in my field reminds me why I am paying so much for tuition. So thank you TAs, and thank you instructor for a great course.

For my final video story I have decided to put together a video of healthy snacks you can eat in college. I figured this would go along with the topic of my blog really well. Anyone who reads the blog will understand that the goal is to educate college students on how to eat healthy. My final video story allows you to see, hear, and learn about different healthy snacks.

Being the busy person I am, I knew I couldn’t go out and film me shopping at walmart. I decided to work with what I had and what my friends had within our dorm rooms. I wanted to put an emphasis on protein and quick and easy snacks since we all know college students don’t have the time to sit down and make themselves a meal.

My inspiration stemmed from passion that I have while being a student here at WSU. I am very involved in clubs and activities outside of my courses which makes for not enough time to think about what I will eat and snack on that day. This blog video helps not only myself but also my viewers.

In order to make the best possible video story, I pulled from tutorials and previous knowledge in premiere and audition. I put my audio together using audition, so that it faded in and out smoothly. I also wanted to make sure the audio didn’t sound pieced together. I saved my audio, and opened it in my sequence in premiere.

While editing the clips themselves, it was very simple. I just had separate clips of the food I was highlighting and just put them in order with my audio. Between shots I did a cross dissolve transition. At the beginning I used fade to white and the end fade to black feature. After listening to my audio along with the video shots I placed a dehummer and deesser over the audio in order to make it sound less crackly.

For my draft video story, I have decided to put together a short story on healthy snacks to eat in college, and what they look like. This project idea relates to my course topic because it relates to healthy eating in college. It provides my blog followers insight to some great ideas on how to fill your body with nutrients. (But also with enjoyable snacks!)

The research for this story just came from knowing what to put into my body in order for me to feel full and energized. Also through being an athlete all throughout high school, we were required to fuel our bodies with certain items. Knowing that protein and snacks with low sugar are best for you, I wanted to implement those in my story.

My design process was somewhat simple. I wanted to capture the snacks on film. The main goal was just that the viewer could see what the different snacks were. I also wanted to make sure my audio matched with what was being shown so that the person watching would be able to understand what they were looking at, the health benefits, and how it was a cheap option still.

I collected the snacks on my own time. It was easy to prepare for this video because my friends and I already had the healthy snacks I wanted to put an emphasis on. It was also easy to film since I was able to complete it all in my room.

Using adobe software, I knew I would be using premiere and audition. All I wanted was smooth transitions between different shots I took as well as my voice to dictate what I was showing in the shots.

Technical challenges I faced were forgetting to save the videos in a folder on the desktop I was working on. This just allowed the media I was working on to go missing and I had to just redownload my shots onto the desktop.

For my final audio story I decided to do an interview. I wanted to incorporate a couple different ideas into one story so that was the best option for me. I asked for some help from friends, and they were willing to answer my questions.

Since the focus of my blog is staying healthy in college I thought it would be most appropriate to do an interview on healthy eating. I asked how some different people start their day healthy and what they eat in order to accomplish it. I also asked if they found their meals at the dining hall or if they shopped somewhere else. Most people said they shopped elsewhere. This was a good tip for people trying to stay healthy in college.

Anyone can read a blog post, but I thought it would be best to incorporate what I would want to write about into my audio story. This way the listener can hear from multiple different people how to stay healthy in college. Also they don’t have to sit and read a blog. Instead they can sit back, relax, and listen to some pro tips on how to be healthy in college.

My draft for this audio story definitely needed some work. I didn’t proof-listen before I uploaded which was a huge mistake. I cut the audio wrong and pieced together the parts I didn’t want in my final audio story. It also was choppy and the audio had no even background sound.

To fix this issue I just restarted my audition project. I cut the audio how I wanted it to sound and pieced together the tracks better. I also knew that it sounded choppy and uneven so in order to fix this I knew I needed to add something. I added some happy upbeat background music. It filled the empty awkward spaces. I got my music from :  https://www.bensound.com.

For this project, I decided to use previous tutorial skills to put together a draft. I wanted to make one large interview with different responses on how to stay healthy in college. I also wanted it to be with a variety of responses. This way a variety of people would be able to relate to the audio.

This project idea relates to my course topic because it allows the listeners to brainstorm if they want to pursue a healthy lifestyle in college. Although a blog post would be easier to read and skim over – the blog reader can now have different ideas from listening. By listening, they are able to form their own opinions and ideas.

My main influence on this post was the audition tutorial we were assigned when we were interviewing. I wanted to ask some questions, and have at least two different answers from two different people. It would be modeled after the tutorial, one question, the answers right after the question. I would use soundbites to create a strong audio. Also, I hope to keep the room tone somewhat the same throughout the entire interview.

Collecting and preparing for this was somewhat simple. All I did was design a few interview questions and ask some friends from different circles to help me out. They all gladly agreed. I only asked those who focus on staying in college though. This way my audience would be listening to all strong advice.

Using the Adobe software was easy. I just used audition to chop and edit my project together. I trimmed down my questions. I trimmed down their answers. I pieced them together like taught in the tutorial. I did not face any hardships just because my editing was very simple.

The fact that they assignment was so short as well also benefited my editing process. There were not a ton of directions for how to accomplish this so I did what I do best – short, simple, easy to understand.

My final logo was pretty similar to the design I originally submitted. I was told and discovered that the key to a successful logo is simplicity. By using simple colors it doesn’t cause chaos. Using simple to no text makes it more appealing to the eye. By making sure the logo is completely centered allows it to look best too.

In order to best represent my healthy eating blog, using a plate as the background was the best option possible. The plate is simple in itself. I believe adding fruit or more food would turn the logo into a picture. I don’t want it to be a picture – I want it to represent my message.

The message of my blog is best represented by health and food. All of my images so far have been snacks, which is why I thought picking one snack would not best represent the entire blog. A plate represents all food, so all readers can relate to the plate. Also, by incorporating banners, it allows for the plate to not be too simple. The words also are there for better understanding.

My draft and my final logo are similar because I think the basis of my design was a smart one. Easy to look at, and not too much going on. I took out some of the banners because I realized just one could do the trick. Also, to make the reader best relate to the plate, I decided to add the gradience for it to look most realistic.

The feedback I received was helpful however not very critical. I appreciated the kind words and tips however I do wish that I could have been critiqued a bit more. This way I could really help my logo look it’s best.

After completing the logo feedback assignment I do believe that the other logos taught me how to better my own. Having a logo that is centered is crucial. It looks extremely sloppy with it even a little off centered.

After completing this logo project, my biggest goal was to make my logo look most appealing to my reader so I hope you like it!