LONDON: Internship Abroad

I’ve neglected to update my blog since the beginning of my abroad experience and I plan to catch up in this blog post, let’s see if I can do it!

Today is the start of my fourth week in London, more specifically in Kensington, studying at Richmond University.  Although I’m taking a British culture class and a screen acting class my main priority is my internship, which starts on October 15 (due to Visa regulations).  In the mean time, I’m exploring the United Kingdom (UK)!

My first week in London was a whirl wind, to say the least. The American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS), the program that helped me plan my abroad experience, collaborates with Richmond and fills the week with different ways to acclimate to the new area.  Basically, it was an orientation week.

The second week was when it became easier to navigate my way through the area and learned, more importantly, how to use the public transport.  The London Underground, also referred to as the Tube, is an effective way to travel around London, which is way too expansive to walk everywhere.  Although, walking shouldn’t be dismissed in a city this full of adventure.

For example, Hyde Park is only a two-minute walk away and is where my roommate, Brook, and I spend some of our free time running, biking or just gazing at the marvelous park features including the Kensington Palace.

The end of the second week proved to be magical with a Saturday trip on the London Eye and a Sunday day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.  My favorite memory from the weekend was drinking some of the water from the Roman Baths, even though it wasn’t too tasty it was a must try!  Don’t worry the water is treated and safe to drink.

This last week wasn’t too busy but Brook and I managed to fit in visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum on Monday, attend a movie night in the residence hall on Wednesday and I joined a Harry Potter walking tour Saturday afternoon ending my week at platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross Station.  I didn’t make it to Hogwarts but I’m still in London and ready to start a new week full of enchanting adventures around the city!

For pictures and up-to-date posts on my London adventures checkout my Facebook and Twitter.

Pictured below is a view from my room of a sunny day in London.

Wrap-up Blog Post for Communication 210

When I first signed up for communication 210 I was ecstatic to learn more about the Adobe suite, after the first couple of assignments I was wondering if I’d made the right decision by taking this course.  But after I’d waded through the challenges that slowed my progress during the semester I’m glad I finished what I started.

My favorite project, ironically, was also my worst grade…I won’t tell you the grade but let’s just say it hit my ego pretty hard.  Designing a logo in Illustrator allowed me to tap into a creative side of myself that I hadn’t before.  Photoshop I found to be difficult because you were working with something that was already finished, Illustrator on the other hand was a place where you created something from nothing.  I enjoyed that aspect of Illustrator.  A close second would be our final video.

I struggled with Premiere for the majority of the section but once the professor, thank you by the way, uploaded an older version of the software I hit the ground running.  I’m proud of my final product because I was able to put the time necessary to complete a piece of work I want to share with others.  Outside of those I learned a lot over the course of the whole semester.

The Adobe suite is tedious to learn but I’m confident the skills I acquired throughout the semester will help me in the majority of my future endeavors.  I’m graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication but my emphasis is in public relations, with the changes in the field of PR there’s a lot more need for well-rounded employees.  Learning a wide array of technological skills will increase my ability to provide my future employers with just that.

Although this course didn’t influence my decision to work in PR, I already knew I wanted to work in the PR field, it did reinforce my decision.  The course did open my eyes to different ways to become involved in the field of PR and I’m looking forward to applying the skills I’ve learned in real-world situations.

I can’t think of any skill that I wish I would have learned, and then again I’m not too technologically savvy.  The skills I learned in the time allotted were quite enough to handle, especially since I had technical difficulties along the way.

This course provided me with a lot, I’m even going to continue my blog!  I do wish I would have seen the professor and the other students at the first lab and then after that it could’ve transitioned to more of an online-only course.

Other than that I’m counting down the days until graduation…it’s not a very long countdown only one-and-a-half more days until I walk in a Washington State University graduation.

Final Video Project

Final Video Project: Storyboard

Video	Audio
Title Page: “Experience of a Lifetime”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Bookman Footage: “What is it like to study abroad?”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Interview of Corrin Veiga	Corrin explains her experience studying abroad in Spain.
Interview of Madison Frame	Madison explains her experience studying abroad in Italy.
“Come fall, I’m studying abroad in…London”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Picture of me with Butch: “A long way from WSU.”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
“How will study abroad prepare me for my future?”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Picture of me with Sam Hege: “I’ll make new friends…”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Picture with Stephenson North: “But keep the old.”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Picture of just me: “Mature…a little.”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
“But most importantly…”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Another picture of just me: “Explore the world to better understand the bigger picture.”	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”
Credits	Music: Avett Brothers “The Perfect Space”

Final Video Project: Write-up

                Premiere proved to be a difficult medium to work with but in the end I think it was my favorite.  Working with Premiere was the culmination of the work done over the entire semester with Photoshop, Illustrator and Audition.  It was difficult at first because I was forced to go to lab to accomplish any work, once the professor helped me download an older version I was on my way to developing a project I’m proud of.

                I reworked my entire rough draft based off of what my peer said in their comments.  I knew I needed a better story to accompany my video.  I decided to introduce studying abroad by interviewing my friends who have already studied abroad, Corrin Veiga and Madison Frame.  After that I wanted to dive into what I wanted to experience while abroad.

                I did that through adding still pictures from my time at Washington State University (WSU).  I added movement by using the tools learned in the tutorials and a variety of different transitions throughout.

                The different effects were fun to play around with and test out different looks.  I restricted myself to only using two fonts and a handful of transitions to keep a bit of consistency throughout the video.

                With my last project done I’m excited to finally see what’s awaiting me after graduation (which happens to be this Saturday)!

Premiere Tutorials

Premiere Tutorial 

Draft Video with Storyboard

Storyboard for Draft Video

Video	Audio
Title   Page/Introduction	Text:  Study   Abroad with Heather Wilson
[Page Turn] Interview	Roberta Kelly and Tallie Matteson
[Page Turn] Interview	Lauren Sigfusson
[Page Turn] Interview	Roberta Kelly and Tallie   Matteson
[Page Turn] Interview	Heather Wilson (ME)
[Page Turn] Interview	Lauren Sigfusson
Student   Footage	My voice, “I’ll see you abroad!”

Draft Video Post

            Premiere is the most difficult of all the programs we’ve learned this semester but it’s exciting to see everything come together.

I focused the content of my video on studying abroad, since I’m studying abroad in the fall I wanted to connect that experience to the skills I’ve gained throughout my college experience.  I did this by interviewing a faculty member, Roberta Kelly, who advises my club, the Association of Women in Communication (AWC).  I’m the treasure for AWC and it’s been a big part of my life for the last two years.  I also interviewed Tallie Matteson, the President of AWC, because she’s my peer who I’ve also interacted with in a professional setting.  Their interview discussed how my time spent with AWC will prepare me for my study abroad experience.

To further connect the study abroad aspect I interviewed a woman from Washington State University (WSU) who is also studying abroad with the same program.  In the interview I asked what she wanted to get out of her study abroad experience and then discussed what I wanted to achieve.

The transitions I used for the video are ‘page turn’ my thought was the video resembled a chapter in my life.  In the beginning I added a title slide to introduce the topic.

I would like to change a lot with my video; underlay music, mess around with transitions, and add text to introduce different sections of the video plus much more.  Creating my draft video was a challenge because I was constrained to the lab hours, which didn’t provide enough time for me to do my best work.  I’m looking forward to working on the final version, with the professor’s help I was able to download a different version of Premiere and I can work at home into the wee hours of the night!

Raw Footage for Video Project

Final Draft of Audio Story

Get to Know ME

                In my final draft I took a lot of the comments into consideration.  They had a lot of constructive criticism.  I changed the song from just the beginning to running throughout the whole story and turned it up at the end to exaggerate the lyrics in the song because life goes on and on, which reflects the title of the song by The Avett Brothers, “It Goes On And On,” from their album I And Love And Love You.

                From the beginning this project kept me on my toes getting material to work with was difficult because I was interviewing people I see every day but at the end of the day I’d remember I forgot to ask them!  They were all willing participants when I asked them to describe how they knew me and what they thought I would be doing after I graduated from Washington State University.  I then constructed my piece putting in introductions by me between the different people I interviewed for the project.

                I really like how the song ended up sounding in the piece I think it brings it together and helps creates a singular story rather than a bunch of different interviews.  I’m happy with my work, even though I know I’m not an Audition genius I worked hard and learned a few tricks along the way.  One of the shortcuts I learned was that pressing the ‘r’ key changes the cursor to a razor and pressing the ‘v’ key changes the cursor back to the move tool.  I cannot describe how much time this realization saved me!

                Thank you for listening and I hope you’ve learned more about me and what I might be doing after graduation.

Draft of Audio Story

First Draft of Audio Story

            Audition a word I once associated with theatre arts and my time spent in Daggy Hall, I now associate this word with the time I spent bent over my computer trying to create an audio masterpiece.  This assignment wasn’t as stressful as the past assignments but it took me a little longer to understand the basic pieces of the software.

            I started with the intention of just interviewing my friends with questions and piecing together their various answers.  After interviewing my little sister, Meagan Wilson, I decided this wasn’t the direction I really wanted to go.  The only question I want to ask is, “How do you know me (Heather Wilson)?”  My blog is about my life after graduation and I thought it would be fitting to interview the people who have shaped my life while studying at WSU.

            To interview my friends at WSU I’m just going throughout my day and asking influential people in my life how they know me.  By doing this I want to show through an audio story where and how I’m involved on campus through my friends.  I think it’s better for other people to speak of your involvement, rather than spouting out a long resume and losing your listener because it’s monotonous.

            For my draft, I interviewed Meagan and my friend/co-worker Samantha Hege.  For my final version I plan to include my supervisor from Residence Life, Matthew Jeffries, one of my co-workers from UREC Marketing and possibly someone from my club the Association of Women in Communication.  I think this would create a well-rounded audio story.  I want to also underlay the audio story with music through the whole interview.  I only placed a small section of music at the beginning and I don’t know if I like it.  What do you think?  Hopefully you’ll enjoy my draft and help me to make an even better final version.

Raw Audio Interviews

Self-Interview:

Little-sister Meagan’s Interview:

Watch out for the audio story coming soon!

Audition Tutorials

Tutorial 1:

Tutorial 2:

Enjoy!