Here’s a piece I made a few years ago in Motion.

Motion is very intuitive to use, while still giving editors many options. Motion allows for key-framing or applied behaviors. Users can add cameras and edit in 3D space, which is becoming more and more popular in motion graphics for not only car commercials but documentaries. There are also stock replicators and graphics that are easy to manipulate. As most applications by Apple are aesthetically pleasing, Motion is probably Final Cut Studio’s most aesthetically pleasing application.

What I like most about Motion is “round tripping.” This means an editor can easily move between a sequence in Final Cut and a motion graphic or applied effects in Motion. A sequence can be sent directly to Motion, effects are applied, and those effects appear directly in Final Cut without any export. Of course some rendering still have to take place, but who doesn’t render?

Adobe’s After Effects is different on the other hand. The only “round tripping” or seamless editing can occur within Adobe. An editor could move between a project in Premier and After Effects. But a project in After Effects can be seamlessly edited in Final Cut or AVID.

This orange room is the first project I made in After Effects that I had some success with.

When using After Effects and Final Cut, which I have so gracefully taken to with the advice and wisdom of Andrew Killoy (pretty much a master, at least from what I’ve seen), a motion graphic must be exported as a large reference file, then that reference file must be encoded in Adobe Encoder with the desired specs. That file can be brought into Final Cut as a QuickTime, for example, and rendered.

However, if one wants to make changes, they have to go back into After Effects, re-edit, and export all over again. While when working in Motion and Final Cut, changes can be made in Motion and are directly and immediately changed in the Final Cut sequence.

This is a series of photos I stitched together in AE. They were taken near a botanical garden in Valencia, Spain.

This is a single photo I manipulated in Photoshop to create “The Kid Stays in the Picture” effect.

Not too perfect, some of it is rough around the edges, but I am still learning. So why am I bothering to learn After Effects? the application is a powerful tool and most industry professionals know and use it. Although, I must say that it’s popularity has to be because it runs on PCs and Macs.

I do hope to become proficient enough in After Effects so that I can use the program to create motion graphics for my documentary pieces as I have done in my most recent mini-doc, which I used Final Cut and Motion for.

The semester consisted of our investigative journalism class working on the South Hadley and bullying beat. My specific beat was on the School Committee. The class kept a blog at MassLive.com/bullying.

The whole semester we worked towards are final projects which were profiles of people involved with the Phoebe Prince case and South Hadley.

Going into the class, I knew I wanted to make a video, but I also knew how hard it would be to get people to speak on camera.

I went to the School Committee meetings every other week to cover my beat, and interviewed people involved with speaking out against school officials in the background of the semester.

My final project is a documentary style piece featuring Darby O’Brien and Luke Gelinas; it covers why they speak out about Phoebe Prince’s death and why they are so critical when it comes to the administration.

For logistical reasons I ended up shooting the interviews on my Canon T1i (I wish I had access to something more versatile). I used a Zoom H2 as a backup audio device, which ended up saving an important portion of the video piece. I used an umbrella and Lowel lamp to light the room. I didn’t have access to lavaliere microphones, so I was pretty much risking it all. And hit record. I edited the video in Final Cut Pro. Some of the archival footage was shot on a consumer Canon. The School Committee footage came from the South Hadley community television station. The photos came from MassLive.com and The Republican.

You can watch the upload on MassLive.com:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

Or, on my Vimeo.com:

Or, on my website:

http://rosiewalunas.com/productionsphoebeprince.html

This is RosieWalunas.com!

I took a web design for journalists class this past semester, and, the final product was a portfolio website.

My website displays my production work, resume, and some photography and articles. I also link to my Vimeo, Flickr, Twitter, and blog.

Since I’m still new to web design, I there’s much more for me to learn and explore, but I am proud of myself for making it this far.

More to come, of course.

Enjoy.

Video and more photos on the way. This is all I have time to pick out for the moment.

Down, around, and in the bayou.

A baby gator the guide keeps around so people can see them up close and personal.

We left Knoxville after eating breakfast at a Wafflehouse and checking out the Sunsphere.

Making our way through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Today we went to the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium after breakfast at Café Fleur De Lis, which was the best breakfast I’ve had in a while.

Then we took a stroll down Magazine Street to see some of the Garden District.

We had dinner at an oyster bar and seafood restaurant called Desire. The oysters were spot on, as was the crayfish etouffé.

We further strolled down Bourbon where the football fans were getting their party groove on as were some great street performers.

My primary reason for wanting to go to Knoxville was influenced by an episode of The Simpsons where Bart and company take a kid road trip down to the city. They get there and the city is virtually deserted and their highlight – the sunsphere – is filled with wigs.

Knoxville is a smaller city that I imagined and you could really only spend a half day there and a night.

Even though it’s New Year’s Eve, very few people seemed to flock to the downtown’s center stll lit up with Christmas lights, a small ice skating rink, and some festival activities.

Rather than sticking around for the ball to drop, we headed back to our hotel.

Will we see the sunsphere up close? I hope it’s open on New Year’s day.

The best instance of my integrating Flash into my portfolio website would be to do displaying my photography.

I would like the Photography page to display my photos. Users can click on words such as ‘nature,’ ‘people,’ and ‘places.’ A photograph would appear, and sub buttons would appear below the subject buttons. Then visitors can click on the sub buttons, such as ‘Lithuania’ and photos taken in Lithuania would appear.

Flash would enhance the photography page by allowing more room for aesthetics, while HTML and CSS would be much more difficult to manipulate in such ways. Most of my photos are uploaded to Flickr. Using Flash will allow me to feature specific photos. Also, if I have natural sounds sounds that may fit with some photos, Flash enables web developers to apply those sounds, such as in a button.

"Macbeth" at The Globe, London.

I already have the photos. I would make the text and basic graphics in Flash. If I decided to add natural sounds to the photos, I would have to go into some of my videos taken at the time and get sounds from those videos. I probably don’t have audio for every photograph, but it’s something that would be interesting to experiment with (I hope it wouldn’t be annoying).

I currently know how to make buttons and add sounds that would fit perfectly. I would like to better learn how to program the buttons with a motion graphic. I can do both individually, but I am still learning how to program the concepts together.

Reason: I have been taking five classes and working two jobs.

Details: I’ve been taking some some interesting classes at UMass Amherst, such as web design for journalists, investigative journalism, and a film workshop at Hampshire College. 

I’m learning web design and building a portfolio website in a web design class, taught by Brian McDermott, which I will publish at the end of the semester. That’s a huge step up from this blog, which I’m excited about. The website will creatively display my work and resume. I’ve been using and learning Dreamweaver as well as Flash to build my website up from scratch. I haven’t used a single template, which has proven to be a great learning experience. I will provide more details about my website when it’s published.

The film workshop, taught by Abraham Ravett, at Hampshire College is pretty awesome. It’s been a difficult transition from working digital to working analog, but because I have such a solid grasp in camera fundamentals like film speed, aperture, frame rate, and shutter speed, I’ve definitely had an easier time than some of my fellow classmates. The class requires students to work in 16mm black and white reversal film shot on a Bolex and edit projects on a Steen Beck. I’ve transfered pretty much all of my footage to video, but the transfers aren’t that great, which is kind of disappointing considering how beautiful film looks projected as opposed to scan lines and pixels. I’m still working on editing my most recent shorts in Final Cut Pro, which I will likely upload at the end of the semester.

The investigative journalism course, taught by Steve Fox, has taken up most of my time and has been a challenging learning experience. We are investigating and reporting on the Phoebe Prince bullying case and its aftermath. The UMass journalism class is partnered with MassLive.com, so everything we produce gets published on the site. Our articles are published on a blog page which can be found at masslive.com/bullying. My beat is covering the South Hadley School Committee and related matters. My final project for this semester will be a video, which I will link to when it debuts.

Work has been keeping me busy editing various wildlife videos. I’ve recently edited videos on swamp pink, bog turtles, and puffins. They will debut at a biologists conference in February; I am uncertain if they will be published online.

This semester has been far too busy, but it will all be worth it come mid-December. As a prelude to next semester (my last and final semester of college), I hope I will be able to update much more frequently as well as have more time to play around with After Effects, cameras, and documentary work – oh and looking for a job.