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Telling a story through sound

Choosing a topic

The topic I chose to talk about is the UMW volleyball team’s 2024 season, which just ended. As a member of the team, this topic is something that I’m particularly passionate about, and is something I know a lot about, since I’ve been there for all of it. The team faced a lot of challenges this year with the introduction of a new head coach and the loss of most of the starting lineup, and fell in the semifinal match at the conference championship last weekend.

Selecting equipment

I chose to use the voice memo app on my iPhone, as that is the recording device that is most easily accessible to me and when I made my sample recording, the quality sounded up to standard. There are some sound effects that I will most likely have to find elsewhere, since I couldn’t record during practice or a game.

Sample audio

Creating an outline

I used Microsoft Copilot to help with writing my outline, as it was difficult for me to try to write something like this from scratch. I took the original outline it gave me and made some changes based on my knowledge of our season and my ideas for how I wanted the final product to sound.

Here is the prompt I gave it:

write a detailed outline for a two-minute audio story about the University of Mary Washington 2024 volleyball team

Outline script

Detailed Outline for a Two-Minute Audio Story on the University of Mary Washington 2024 Volleyball Team

1. Introduction (10 seconds)

  • Opening Music: Energetic and upbeat.
  • Host Introduction: “Welcome to ‘Eagle Eye on Sports,’ your go-to podcast for all things UMW athletics. I’m your host, Lauren Foley, and today we’re spotlighting the University of Mary Washington’s 2024 volleyball team.”

2. Season Overview (20 seconds)

  • Brief Recap: “The Eagles had a season filled with highs and lows, ending with a 14-17 record.”
  • Key Matches: Highlight the opening win against Kean University and the tough loss to Virginia Wesleyan University.
  • Sound effects: volleyball being hit

3. Highlighted Performances (30 seconds)

  • UMW Invitational: “One of the season’s highlights was the UMW Invitational, where the Eagles secured a 3-1 victory over the University of Lynchburg.”
  • Key Players: Mention standout players like Chloe Crosen and Emily Flamm, emphasizing their contributions and leadership.
  • Sound effects: applause

4. Challenges and Resilience (20 seconds)

  • Tough Matches: Discuss the challenging matches, including the loss to Gettysburg College.
  • Comeback Wins: Highlight the team’s resilience with a 3-0 sweep against Virginia Union University.
  • Sound effects: players shouting

5. Conference Tournament (20 seconds)

  • Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference: “The Eagles fought hard in the conference tournament but were edged out in the semifinals by Salisbury University.”
  • Team Spirit: Emphasize the team’s dedication and spirit throughout the season.
  • sound effects: crowd cheering

6. Looking Ahead (10 seconds)

  • Future Prospects: “With a strong foundation and promising talent, the future looks bright for UMW volleyball.”
  • Closing Remarks: “We can’t wait to see what the Eagles achieve next season!”
  • sound effects: whistle blowing

7. Conclusion (10 seconds)

  • Outro Music: Fade in uplifting music.
  • Host Sign-Off: “Thanks for tuning in to ‘Eagle Eye on Sports.’ Stay updated with all your favorite UMW teams by following us. Until next time, keep cheering for the Eagles!”
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Video Project Checkpoint

Shot List 

Scene 1 
Shot Type: Graphic 
Notes: Title Card created in Canva- Hey everyone and welcome to the Journey to Self-Discovery Podcast.

Scene 2 
Shot A
Location: Wilderness 
Shot Type: Medium Wide Shot 
Camera: Tripod
Notes: Hiking video- My name is Erin and today I am going to share my journey through discovering who I am and who I am meant to be.

Scene 3 
Shot Type: Online video
Notes: People walking- I believe a lot of college students can benefit from support as they navigate their formative years in college and decide what their goals and passions are as well as discovering strengths that make them who they are.

Video by JEONGWOO KIM from Pixabay

Scene 4 
Shot B 
Location: Residence Hall Lobby
Shot Type: Wide, Medium, and Close Up Shot 
Camera: Tripod
Notes: Wide Shot of me sitting in a corner looking at the camera, medium shot of me turning my head and close up shot of me putting my head down- I will give you a short back story to my journey. I grew up shy, insecure, and full of doubt within myself.

Scene 5
Shot C
Location: Residence Hall Study Room 
Shot Type: Medium Shot 
Camera: Tripod
Notes: Shot of me taking notes with books all around and glasses on- I immersed myself into school and strived to get almost perfect grades.

Scene 6
Shot Type: 2 Online photos 
Notes: Fear of failure photos- However, I never stepped out of my comfort zone because of fear of failure.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Scene 7
Shot Type: Existing pictures and video
Notes: Pictures from attending Laurel Ridge Community College and videos from graduation - As I approached my time in community college, I knew I had to make a change because yes, I was successful at academics, but I never pushed myself beyond that. This is the moment that the journey to self-discovery began.

Scene 8 
Shot Type: Existing video
Notes: Video of me receiving the rose at ptk ceremony- I accepted invitation into a community college honors society called Phi Theta Kappa and this decision would serve as the turning point to this journey. I was challenged academically, socially, and as a leader and I persevered through that challenge learning so many qualities that I did not know I had in me.

Scene 9 
Shot Type: Existing video
Notes: Video of me speaking at ptk induction ceremony- I served in a leadership position, I spoke several times in front of large audiences, I mentored other students, and I formed pivotal relationships with faculty and administration within my community college. I embraced every opportunity given to me and surpassed expectations for myself. 

Scene 10 
Shot Type: Existing pictures 
Notes: 3 pictures from awards ceremony, receiving award, stage pic, and after pic- Until I was awarded the Journey to Self-Discovery Award at our college’s Student leadership awards, I could not see what others saw in me.

Scene 11 
Shot Type: Existing video
Notes: Video of me giving my speech at awards ceremony- Now today I can be confident in my abilities and have gained a passion for guiding students through their college journeys.

Scene 12
Shot E
Location: Parking Lot
Shot Type: Wide, Medium, Close up Shot 
Camera: Tripod and Pan
Notes: Using tripod video of me holding up posters with written inspiration and use of camera movement-  I challenge you to never stop learning and growing. You learn your passions as you push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Everyone is brilliant in their own way and will create their own inspiring story to tell, so I encourage each and every one of you to create your own, who knows you might discover something about yourself that you never knew before. To conclude this podcast, I’d like to share some inspiring words from a motivational speaker named Lisa Nichols. 

Embark on Your Journey
Discover Yourself 
Embrace the Challenges 
Embrace the Opportunities 
Discover Who You Are Meant to Be
Are You Willing to Push Yourself?
Create Your Story 

Scene 13
Shot Type: Online video
Notes: Video from YouTube- Are you willing to become someone you’ve never seen before? Are you willing to run, leap, and soar? Even at the possibility that you might fall. 
Video by Flow Arcade.

Scene 14
Shot Type: Graphic
Notes: Ending Card Created in Canva- Thank you for listening!

Equipment

I plan to record the video using my iPhone in Cinematic Mode. I am choosing this because the quality that cinematic mode portrays is surprisingly really good and it will be easier to record on my own without any help. I will have a tripod for stabilization and more importantly to be able to achieve camera movement without much shaking.

Visual Material

Since I am portraying a story in the past, a lot of my video and pictures are pre-existing shots. However, I will be able to incorporate visuals in the present that portray my story as well. I believe having a mix of both will achieve the feeling that I want the viewer to have as well as give an understanding to my backstory of the journey. Being that most of the visual material I will capture video of is school related I love that I have so many places on campus where I can shoot them. I am most excited to shoot the scene with the inspiring messages at the end!

Test Recording

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Final Project Plan

Overview

For my final project for Intro to Digital Studies, I have decided to make a portfolio for my creations as a writer. The site will adopt several different media types and represent my scope both as a writer and digital creator.

Media Types

In this project, I want to create three sections within the website: one for my poetry, one for my long creative essays, and one for videos/audios that correlate to my poetry (ex. readings, videos that go along with narration, etc.). This domain will reflect who I am professionally, so I want it to be as creative and true to myself as I can make it. Through WordPress functions and customization options, I hope to be able to make it more of a domain of my own I can use even after college. I also believe that this website will truly culminate what I have learned this semester through the use of different media types embedded into the website.

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Coffee Break Video

Video

Topic

My video is all about how to make the perfect latte at home! If interested in making your latte look more professional, here is a beginner’s guide to latte art! If you love latte’s but don’t know where to start on making your own, here are the best affordable espresso machines!

Credits

Image found on Pexels.com from Darina Belonogova. Graphics made on Canva.

The Process

To film my video, I just used my iPhone and a tripod. The video quality on my iPhone is good enough that I didn’t feel like I needed to use a nicer camera! I used iMovie to edit my video because I have experience editing on this app before, so I know how to use it and could do it on straight from my phone. I decided to upload this video to YouTube, because again, I have done this before and am familiar with the process.

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Final Project Plan

For my final project I plan on building out my main domain to market myself to future employers and showcase projects and assignments that I have completed. I will add things that show my skills, my accomplishments, and anything else that would be appealing to a future employer.

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Data Driven Story telling

Image created by Makenna Hadden
Image by Makenna Hadden

Audio Recording

Data

The data I used for this project was data comparing students who play sports in college verses students who don’t play sports grades. I got my data from StatCrunch. The data discussed how student athletes receive higher grades than students who don’t play sports.

Audio

I chose to create a short audio discussing this topic because I wanted to explain to listeners how the data was taken and what exactly it means. My audio supports my data because I discussed how students who play sports obtain a higher GPA, from a student-athlete perspective.

Equipment and Audio

I chose to use my computer audio recorder called “simple recorder” to record this project because it was simple and easy to use. To brainstorm the media I wanted in my audio I wrote down a checklist of what I needed to include.

Credit

StatCrunch

Makenna Hadden

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Final Project Idea

For my final project, I want to expand on my Coni101 podcast about student involvement in school. The first episode will be reused from the podcast module where I talk about how student involvement can impact your academics in a good way. After that, I’ll do two more episodes where I interview people who are involved in extracurriculars. One episode will be about balancing school, extracurriculars, and personal time. The other episode will be about students’ lifestyles before vs after getting involved in extracurriculars.

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Final Project Idea

For my final project I want continue to discuss sports at UMW. I want to create a podcast and potentially interview sports players here at UMW. I would like to use my first audio from the audio assignment and then continue on with two other podcasts.

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Data Project Checkpoint

Data

The data Set I used was comparing students who play sports verses students who don’t play sports GPAs. I used StatCrunch for my data.

The process

I used the data I found online to create an excel work book. I am very familiar with excel because I have used it several times before. I used the data to create a Pivot Table and used that to create the graph bellow. Here is my Excel Data.

Data Graph

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Video Project

Topic

The topic I chose for my video was sports at UMW. I used YouTube to find a copyright free short clip of a field hockey game. For support for this topic, I used the UMW athletics website and the website Community College Daily for reasons why sports are important. 

Credit for my Sources

Makenna Hadden  

Vecteezy. Com (copyright free source) 

YouTube

The Recording Process

I chose to use my phone to record my videos. I used snap chat to create my cover photo. I used an app called video up! To edit my video and put all the clips together. Finally, I chose to upload my video to YouTube, so it is accessible to all.  

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