Not quite a novice anymore

Considering I haven't even held a video camera since junior high, today's sessions about shooting and then editing video sure were challenging and exciting.

During Arizona Republic's senior video producer Dave Seibert's session on video journalism, I learned about the different types of web video from personality to stills/video combination to FOI (freedom of information) that can be used to tell stories. Even though I know writing is broken down into different types, I never realized video is also in order to best tell a story. Knowing this now, I think I can better relate to some of my students who aren't extremely fond of writing but love shooting video. I'm hoping I can now make these parallels for them and get all my students on board to telling the best stories they can.

Then came the challenging part of tonight's sessions: actually shooting and editing the video. I learned the difference between A roll and B roll, how to pan and tilt, how to embed both a B roll image over a A roll audio, and many other skills I'm hoping I can actually use in my classroom. ASU director of the Stardust program, Dave Cornelius, (pictured right) helped give us these skills with plenty of patience and clarity. I luckily had some extra help from Mark Silverstein, another Arizonan teacher, so I feel like I can use Final Cut Pro with a little more confidence. I can't wait to try these new skills out in tomorrow's video exercise, and then take my new knowledge into the classroom and help bring my publication into the 21st century.

Anna Horton
Highland High School
Gilbert, Ariz.