When our second semester of Digital Media Production Program started, my classmates and I found out that we would be filming the special olympic opening ceremonies for our interactive live streaming course. Finding out this information, I was super excited! I knew this would be an amazing experience.

In our next class, we discussed our positions for the production. Mike, my teacher, gave us a list of roles and he even added a new role that I have never heard of before. So of course I had to have it. This position was labelled TVA (A.K.A Television Assistant). The responsibility of this role was to help anyone who needed help and to be a runner for everyone. I was extremely lucky when Mike asked everyone who wanted this position and when my hand shot into the air, he chose me.

The day before the opening ceremonies, the whole class had to meet early in the morning for a crew call and to grab all of the necessary equipment required to bring to the Fort William Gardens. At around 1:30pm, my classmates and I went to the cage and grabbed all of the equipment and brought it down to the truck loading zone. When we got down to the zone, I was surprised to see a small U-Haul waiting there. We then loaded all of the equipment inside and went our separate ways to meet at the Gardens.

When everyone arrived at the Gardens, we all received our volunteer passes and waited for the U-haul to arrive. We eventually unpacked the equipment and started to set everything up. Since my job was to help wherever needed, I started to help all of the camera people to run their cables from in front of the stage to behind the stage. Unfortunately, this task was a little difficult because the olympics people didn’t want our cables touching their cables. We came up with a solution and strung the cables around the boards and over the protective glass. Altogether, this was an excellent solution and made everything even more organized.

After a couple hours of hard work, we all decided to take a break and get some food, but we came to a conflict. When we tried to get inside of our dressing room, it was locked. We then realized that another conflict had arisen, some of our classmates were locked inside of the room. Someone went around and locked all of the rooms without checking them first. We had a bit of a panic but eventually Steve found the key and the conflicts were solved.

Supper was finished and we had to get back to work. When we finished setting up for the next day, it was around 10:00pm. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know from after running around and helping everyone, I was exhausted. I definitely needed a good nights sleep. We all parted ways and I went straight home to bed.

Today, I have learned a lot of new information surrounding Indigenous practice and teachings. One of the Digital Media Production 1st year students had their dad come in to talk about the 7 grandfather teachings and we even had a smudging ceremony. First, We went to the smudging room at the college and Elder John smudged the whole class, this purified all of the negative energy in everyone, then we went to the studio and learned virtues to a healthy life.

Although I have been in a smudging ceremony before, I still love the experience of being purified and the smell of the sage burning. However, Elder John used a feather to help with smudging and I have never seen this before in a smudging ceremony. From my understanding, he used the feather to help purify the back of everyone, making sure they were rid of all negative energy, front and back.

During the discussion, we talked about the virtues, the animals that represent them, and how you show/use each one. These include love (Eagle), respect (Buffalo), courage (Bear), honesty (Sasquatch), wisdom (Beaver), humility (Wolf), and truth (Turtle).

The main thing that I learned from this lesson was that you can’t use one of these without using more or all of them. You can’t love yourself without being honest with yourself and you’d also have to be truthful to yourself about actually loving yourself. In learning this, I shared a personal experience where I have used most of the virtues. Altogether, I’ve shown truth, honesty, courage, and respect.

At the end of the lesson, my teacher, Michele, gave Elder John a gift and he gave all of the teachers gifts in return. I was a bit taken back when he came up to me and handed me a gift. He told me that he always brings an extra gift in case a person, like me, were to share and connect with what he was teaching. The present was a smudging bowl and holder. I think that this was the sweetest present I have ever received. It was unexpected and very special. This will also help to give me motivation to learn more about Indigenous culture and practices.

Sincerely,

Jade

The semester is almost over, and with that comes; Crunch Time. We have multiple major assignments due, and it has been stressful, with multiple of us staying all day, and some staying into the early morning hours. We are mostly at the point where we are editing, and if needed, doing some last minuet video and photo shoots.

Yesterday, was the day I was dreading most, and I can say I’m happy it is over. We had two major assignments due and an exam! This would determine if we would pass or fail one of our classes, and was the day our documentaries we had been working on for the entire semester were finally due.

To say I was stressed, was likely an understatement, I luckily had awesome teammates for my documentary, I don’t know how I would have gotten through it without them. We had really pulled together and created a documentary I was happy with, and I hope they’re happy with it too. I woke up, bright and early, with little sleep the night before, likely due to nerves for our Sound Design exam (30%) and assignment (40%) due, in total they were worth 70% of our mark. (The final documentary was worth 30%, so if we count that, we practically had an entire class worth of stuff due on the same day! Ouch!)

The day went without a hitch, I studied while at home, along with doing the post-production package for our doc. Once I got to school, I studied for awhile for my Sound Design exam, I even wrote out all of our power points, and then came our documentary class. That surprisingly went well! I really get nervous when showing off my work, but it ended up being a great experience. I recommend checking out people’s documentaries, they were all super good!

Then came sound design, the exam…and the assignment being due. When time finally came for the exam…err…we had to label the protools, ouch. That hurt a lil bit, I either did really well or completely butchered that section. I hope I did well, I think I did great on the first part of the exam though. I think. We will have to wait to find out! When our exams were done, and we went to hand in our assignments, I showed the teacher mine, and he was impressed! Yay! I just hope I did well enough to pass the test.

I have a few more assignments to work on, so I should get back to the crunch, see you guys next time!

-Andrea

Today was the Stock the Bank production and it was also our last production of the semester. During this production I was in the directors position. Being the director was an extremely new experience. I had to make sure that all of the equipment was working and that everyone was doing their jobs. On top of these duties, I also had to make sure that I knew who was performing/speaking in the show.

With only 20 minutes to spare before we went live, I had finally received information on who would be in the show. However, this information didn’t turn out great in the end. During the show, there were some unexpected guest speakers and some of the nameplate graphics were put on screen under the wrong person. The entire show format went down the drain and I was so confused and stressed out. This was my first time being a director during a production and I can honestly say I have no idea how directors can deal with everything going on around them and stay so calm.

It came as a surprise, but that wasn’t the only issue we had before the show. We also had a camera die on us, or so we thought! The camera was perfectly fine, but one of the cords that was plugged into it was faulty and needed to be thrown out. We were fortunate enough to fix the problem before we went live and the camera worked throughout the entire show.

Although I had some struggles and things didn’t go as planned, I believe that I did a good job with what was thrown at me. The show went live with no hesitations and we got all of the shots that we needed. Even if it wasn’t the greatest show or the greatest shots, we finished our final show and that is something I am very proud of.

A couple of things that I took away from this experience was to be more prepared, before and during a production, and to only be a director when there is a set format! A question I’m probably going to get asked is ” will you ever be a director again for another production?” and I would have to say YES! Even though it was very stressful and confusing, I absolutely loved the adrenaline and taking charge of things. It was an experience like no other.

Sincerely,

Jade

Today, was our final show for our Interactive Live Streaming course and yesterday we spent some time setting up for the production. We all had to set up the cameras, the switcher, the graphics machine, and all of the other equipment. It took us three hours to set up everything for our show. Right before we finished setting up, we realized there were a few struggles that we were going to have the next day.

The main struggle was that we had no idea where the stage would be set up and we had to guess where to place the cameras. The other struggle was that we had no information about who would be performing in the award show or who would be speaking. Being the director of the production, these two struggles were the worst thing that could happen. I was told I needed to get all of my shots ready for the next day and that I needed to get all of the graphics in the machine. Since we had no clue on where the stage would be or who would be speaking, I had no idea what shots to get or who’s name to put into the graphics machine.

When we finished setting up, I was told that we would get all of the information on the morning of production. I was so worried that I wouldn’t know what to do, but I had to sit and think for a minute about how everyone is in the exact same boat as I am. After doing some thinking, I wasn’t so worried anymore because we were all just playing it by ear. Thing WERE going to go wrong, but we needed to find ways around them.

Stay tuned for my blog on the Production!

Sincerely,

Jade

Hi Everyone!

Today, some of the Digital Media Production 2nd Year students filmed SUCCI’s Christmas tree Decorating event in the commons area at the Shuniah Building. This event included anyone and everyone, students even got to enjoy free hot chocolate and cookies in celebration of the upcoming holiday. This event is also on ongoing event until Friday, December 6th called “Stock the Bank”.

Department heads are competing against each other to see who can collect the most cans for bragging rights and also have an opportunity to donate $150.00 to a charity of their choosing. The event started with the tree decorating, tomorrow there will be a pancake breakfast, and Monday the 26th of November until Friday, December 6th, they will be collecting cans and donations. This is their 14th annual challenge and Stock the Bank is in support of the Student Emergency Fund. Anyone can help donate and help a student in need.

Each item donated earns points to help their department win the end prize. The items that can be donated include; canned meats, canned fruits and veggies, peanut butter, pasta sauce and canned pasta, pasta and rice, boxes of granola/cereal bars, and gluten free items. These all count for 5 points each. You could also donate reusable cloth grocery bags and those max out 500 points per team.

All of the departments are divided into collection team divisions. There are the large collection teams, the small collection teams, and the academic collection teams.

The Large Collection Teams are made up by Administrations, Registrations/Admissions/Financial Aid/Continuing Ed & The Hub, Student Services/Health Services & SUCCI, and IT/Computer Services/Faculty Services & Reliable Cleaners.

The Small Collection Teams are made up by Distance Education/Paterson Library Commons & APIWIN, CICE & Sodexo Food Services & International Education Centre, The Children and Family Centre/The Wellness Centre & Follett Bookstore, The Printshop/Security Services and Marketing & Communications, and Regional Workforce Development/NEW/Residence/CPRIL.

The Academic Collection Teams are made up by School of Aviation & School of Engineering Technology, School of Business/Hospitality and Media Arts, and School of Health/Negahneewin & Community Services.

The DMP students filmed students and faculty decoration the tree and enjoying food/beverages for our upcoming live streaming production called “Stock the Bank” on Monday, December 9th. This production will talk about what the departments did for campaigns and will showcase the award ceremonies and thank everyone involved in the can collecting. It will also include a group interview at the end to get information about how the event went and how they feel about the ending results.

The students are working hard to get the best videos and the best content to show our viewers. We want this show to be the best one yet!

Sincerely,

Jade

Makeup has changed my life and makes me feel better about myself. I want to start a career in makeup and use my skills that I’ve learnt in the Digital Media Production Program to make my dream come true. The picture above is a my casual everyday look when I’m going to work or out anywhere. The products that I used are a moisturizer/Primer, Yves Saint Laurent foundation, Covergirl Blush, Tart lipstick, Naked eyeshadow, Nyx matte eyeliner, and Monsieur Big mascara. I’m still starting out with getting myself familiar with bigger and better name brands, but I still absolutely love this look.

I recommend getting these products if you’re just starting out, so that you can get a better understanding of what colours suit you and what each product does. This will help you before you spend hundreds of dollars on makeup products that may not work the way you want them to. I learned that the hard way! I bought a $50.00 highlighter and a $250.00 brush kit before I researched the products. The highlighter ended up not showing up on my skin and the brushes were not a good quality. You may even end up loving drug store brands more than most of the bigger brand names. I found that I love Nyx eyeliner more than any other brand that I’ve tried and I love Monsieur Big mascara more than drug store mascara. It all depends on the person.

This is one of my favourite looks! I think that red lipstick looks amazing on my skin type! This look also makes me feel confident and happy. You could use this look as an everyday look or even wear it to an event. The red lipstick I used was lipsense, it’s a matte lipstick that lasts a long time and doesn’t smear. This helps the look to last throughout an event you are at and even helps to stay on while you are eating, so that you don’t have to reapply the lipstick.

In this picture, I am headed to school and I used this lipstick because I knew I was going to be eating throughout the day. I have also used this look in the past for my prom and graduation. This look is not too much and not too little, it is just right for any event. If you wanted to make it more of a bigger and brighter look, you could always add an eyeshadow to match the desired lipstick.

I did this look originally to see which eyeshadows would suit black lipstick. I think this look is more of a fun and creative one, I don’t think that this would be a good casual or even a classy look. I think it’s more of a going out to party with friends look. This picture was taken to remind myself that everyone starts at the bottom and works their way up. When I get better at makeup, I can look back at this picture and tell myself “I did it!”

The eyeshadow I used was from the Morphe X James Charles palette and the shade is called, Artistry. The black lipstick I used was from Mac and I honestly think this is the best black lipstick in the world. I have been trying to find a black lipstick for the longest time, but every brand I have tried has either smeared and/or streaked. This Mac lipstick lasts a long time and doesn’t streak at all. I found that is doesn’t smear, but if you were to touch your lips, it would leave a faint stain. I think these colours compliment each other the best and I would definitely wear these colours together again.

For this look, I followed a makeup tutorial. This was my first attempt at blending different colours together. I don’t think that it’s the best look I have ever done, but I am still very proud of myself for doing a bigger look. Again, I can look back at this look and get better as I go. I chose a nude/sparkly lip gloss to compliment the eyeshadow colours because I find that orange is a very hard colour to compliment.

I did wear this look to school, although you could honestly wear this look anywhere as long as you use neutral colours. If you used different colours; such as, pink, blue, and purple together, then you would probably only use the look in certain events. Rainbow colours would be absolutely amazing in a pride event, a drag show, a beauty event, or contests. Me being myself, I would wear any look anywhere! I love to wear makeup and I love to showcase my talent wherever I am. I can’t wait to get better at blending colours and being able to do this as a career.

Sincerely,

Jade

Yesterday was the day we remembered and celebrated the soldiers who fought for our country. Yesterday was November 11th, also known as Remembrance Day. Confederation College’s SUCCI and the Digital Media Production Program came together to put on a ceremony that was braodcasted live on the Digital Media website (dmpcc.ca). The ceremony held many guest speakers, a women’s drumming group, a trumpeter, and a veteran who talked about his experience in the war. The Digital Media broadcast held two hosts that talked to the listeners about what was happening in the ceremony and we even had a guest, a veteran, John Shea.

My position in the show was the producer. I made sure everything went the way it was supposed to and made sure everyone knew their roles. Even though the producer is supposed to make sure everything runs the way it’s supposed to, during this production, everything that could have went wrong, went wrong. The computer that the videos we were to play for the live show crashed and restarted, because of this, the computer system failed to connect and we didn’t have a way to get the videos back. The graphics stopped working and the show started later then anticipated. Even though all of these flaws happened, we had a plan b for most of the problems. We ended up getting one of the videos to play, the graphics started to work again, and even though the show started late, we still managed to make it a good show! This show would not have went as smoothly as it did if it weren’t for my amazing classmates and teachers.

This was the remote area that we had set up to produce the show. In this area, we had the director cueing the team on what cameras to come out to, making sure that all the shots were set up, and that audio and graphics were brought up as needed. We also had a PA who timed everything, so that we went into and out of the show on time. This area alone took us about 5 hours to set up, but it was completely worth it! The show went really well and when we finished we all felt relieved and happy!

This area focused on the ceremony that happened in the commons of Confederation College and we also had another area, the studio, where we focused on the introducing the show and the interview with John Shea. The setup in the studio was the same setup at the remote area, except the studio could produce videos through a server.

I wore the poppy on my shirt to honour all of the people who fought and died for our freedom. The poppy is a flower that grows in Flanders Field where all of the soldiers are laid to rest. It is a symbol of peace and freedom. We wear the poppy over our left breast, because it is over our hearts. We also wear the poppy to remember those who have died, so that their memories will live on. They will not be forgotten.

Sincerely,

Jade

Today I went to work and we pre recorded a video for a commercial. This photo shows behind the scenes of how the set up really looks. The camera that is used to film is on a jib, which is an arm that moves the camera up and down. It can get all the angles we need by just moving the arm. Altogether, we use three cameras, one to get a close up of the interviewer, one to get a shot of both people, and the last one to get a shot of the person being interviewed. My job is to cue the interviewer to tell them when they are on air and how much time they have to wrap up the conversation.

At first, the job was very nerve racking because everyone knew what they were doing, but I eventually got the hang of it. Now I don’t get nervous at all and I just listen to the director and give the cues I’m told to give. I love my job! Also, the picture shows only part of the studio that I work in. There is still so much more space behind me and there’s even another studio in the studio. IT’S CRAZY, BUT AWESOME!!! Usually when I work, there is always another person helping on the other cameras, but during this shoot I am the only person working.

Working the camera is only one of the jobs I do at my work. I also do audio for the news and when I am needed, I go out to a location and help shoot a commercial with a coworker. One day I hope to work in master control or even work for the news in front of the camera. I unfortunately don’t see myself staying in the city I currently live in, but this is the best experience I have ever had.

One day I hope to start my own business, maybe in makeup! I absolutely love makeup and doing different looks. Maybe that will be a blog for another day! Anyways, I chose to share this picture because it shows a part of my life that expresses myself. I love working with cameras and being able to do it everyday makes my heart happy. I couldn’t ask for a better job!

sincerely,

Jade

Hi Guys!

I promised some creative pictures and I really hope you like it! This photo was taken on my trampoline. I was with my friend and when I laid down and looked at the sky, it was all lit up with pink and orange clouds. It was my first time seeing clouds this colour so close to me. My friend said that it was the suns light making the clouds this colour and I was amazed. It made me think that if heaven really did exist, this would be the view. I would be up on those clouds happy and at peace, but for now this is heaven on earth.

Sincerely,

Jade