People are gearing up for the holidays around the Portland metro area. The leaves are down, the Christmas lights are going up, but one thing feels off. This is one of the driest and warmest starts to November on record. I chose to do a news story on this unusual late fall weather.
I used a variety of cameras for this news story. It is really great that Adobe Premiere can handle various types of footage in the same timeline. I used my iPhone X, a Canon C100, and a Sony camera for this project.
My subject for this story is Mark Ross. He lives in the Bethany neighborhood of Washington County, just west of Portland. I wanted his take on how the great fall weather has impacted his life. Another interviewee for this story was the owner of a nearby nursery. It’s been so dry in the Portland area that plant experts are encouraging people to water their plants and lawns.
I logged all of my interview sound and then wrote my story around that. Sometimes logging video can be tedious, but it is amazing how fast you can work after that is done.
In my story, I also used a weather graphic to visualize how much rain we’ve seen this November so far, compared to recent years. I made this graphic using computers at my station. In the weather center, we use a program called Max, developed by The Weather Company. This program reminds me of some of the Adobe tools we’ve been learning this semester and it allows us to make some really awesome graphics for our weather presentations.
Audio is such an important part of telling a good news story. I wanted to make sure I had some good NAT sound in this package. I used the sound of a musical ornament, cars driving, people sledding, and my subject playing with his dog. I raised and lowered the audio in those areas with the pen tool. I also used an audio crossfade effect to make the transitions less abrupt. I recorded my track using a special iRig microphone plugged into my iPhone. I used an app called Voice Record Pro to record it.
For the video, I made sure to sprinkle in wide, medium, and tight shots throughout. I wanted to give the feeling of a warm fall that was on the edge of winter. I used a tripod or monopod for a lot of my shots, because I think it most cases a steady shot just looks better.
In editing, I referenced my script and then laid down my A roll (track and interview sound) first. Then, I laid the B roll on top of it. I tried to make sure the pacing was appropriate. I didn’t keep one shot for too long and edited my B roll to match audio from my A roll.
I think this story turned out nice. I’m looking forward to hearing from my fellow classmates on how I can make it better.
Brian MacMillan's Blog 
Brian,
What a great way to develop your story! I love that you were able to talk to different people, one being a person that is giving their own personal insight on the weather and the other people someone where their business could be affected. I think this gives a good variation of insight to your story and how it affects everyone, not just those we can closely relate ourselves to. I personally find it to be freezing, but once the temperature hits 60, I am a constant ice cube, no matter how many hot baths I take or layers I put on.
As for technical feedback, the use of the multiple cameras was a great opportunity that you took and it paid off. Literally the only technical feedback that I can give you is that your interviewees voices could be a little louder, but overall your video was professional and as if I were watching a news segment on my local news channel. I appreciate that you wrote up why you chose the shots you did, but the story played out perfectly and without the write up I would still be able to follow your concept perfectly. I am sorry I couldn’t give you much feedback, this was just incredibly impressive.
Lauren
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Thanks for the feedback on this project! It was a lot of fun to put together.
One of the notes in my classmates’ feedback was that the interviewee’s audio could use some adjusting. I’ll take a look at that and assure it is consistent throughout. I think the audio will be one of the major things I’ll be focusing on when I finalize this project. I want to make sure that the NATS, track, and interview sound are all looking good and sounding full.
I noticed a couple of black flash frames between :20 and :30. I think there may be an issue with the YouTube upload, because I’m not seeing those on the file I exported. Flash frames can happen when you don’t snap your video on the timeline. I’ll make sure to take a close look at my in and out points on my timeline before exporting for the final.
I may change out some of the shots in my project before finalizing. I’m not totally sold on the opening shot because the clicking sound from the ornament is a little abrasive to start with.
Thanks again for your feedback. I’m looking forward to finalizing this video!
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Hi Brian,
This was a very well made story! It’s clear that you have a lot of experience and know what you’re doing. I could name a lot of things I like about it, but one of my favorites was the timing of the audio and video. Your visuals lined up nicely with the narrative and you did a great job of creating a comfortable flow of the story. I also particularly liked how you mixed the natural sounds, interviews and voiceovers.
I have to agree with Lauren and say that I find it difficult to critique your project. It was THAT good! One minor suggestion I have (and this feels like splitting hairs, FYI) is to sub out a couple shots of flowers/trees, just to create a little more variety. I know plants were a central point of your story, so that might be difficult. But, in parts of your story that aren’t directly pertaining to plants, maybe you could incorporate one or two other visuals.
Also, in the final sequence, when you’re talking about the sledding. I might try swapping out the sled in the garage shot with the sledding down the hill shot. To me, it would give the viewer a little more to take in visually as you do your sign off.
This was great work, Brian! Well done!
Justin
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