Our second humanities unit of 2019 was a really fun one. You’re probably wondering, why was it so fun? That is because we got to not only go on a super fun field school but we got to make a travel video as well. Making travel videos has been a big passion of mine for a long time so this was exciting for me. The driving question was: How can we connect visitors of Victoria to the history of BC? Within our videos everyone had their own wa to answer this question about their chosen location. This is my video!

Over the main bulk of learning for this project we were taught about the Cariboo Gold Rush, our parliament, the First Nations, and so many other topics. As well as learning different filming techniques such as the rule of thirds. To get an idea of what our videos would be like we watched some good old Rick Steves, as you can tell we all really like him.

One of the very unfortunate things that happened to basically everyone was their on-site filming issues. Almost everyone either had didn’t use the rule of thirds, their microphones didn’t work, the lighting was horrible, or they just didn’t know their script. So although this meant the videos weren’t as high quality it was a good learning experience. After doing this we all now have a better idea of what to do and how to prepare for on-site filming.

Personally since my video was about the BC Legislature I got to learn about the beginnings of BC and Victoria and how the parliament we have now was formed. This was interesting for me and being able to sit in on a real question period in parliament on the trip was incredible! It’s these kind of opportunities that you get in PLP trips that you can’t get anywhere else.

On the trip we got to experience all sorts of different things as you could see from my little intro clip in my video. However there was one very stressful thing about this trip and that was getting our first draft of the video due on the ferry ride home. Luckily my filming location was on the first day so I had lots of time to edit. Also since these videos were going to be sent back to some of our tour guides they had to be very high quality, so we made plenty of drafts each. My drafts didn’t have massive changes in each but they were all very important.

Peer critique from Fraser

As you can see in my first draft I had very inconsistent audio, I didn’t have all my filming spots, and some of the clips and cuts were just plain messy. So after getting some peer critique from Fraser, I started thinking about my next draft. Since Fraser couldn’t find much wrong with it I also asked my parents and brother if they could find some more things to fix. They agreed with they said I needed to fix some of my voiceovers.

This video was much stronger but of course there were lots of things to be changed. I still had very inconsistent audio, no ending credits, some stumbled words during voiceovers, and some unneeded clips. I then made all the changes to produce the video you saw at the beginning of this post.

In conclusion, this project was a real success for me. I really enjoyed what I was learning and really improved my filming/editing skills. Photography and film had been in my family for years so I am surprised at how much I didn’t know. In this project I learn what the rule of thirds was and how to line it up. I also had to think on my feet of ways to create better lighting in dark filing locations. Since my video was at parliament and I had almost no time to film I think I did really good at getting lots of B-roll which I could then put voiceover on. In my clips from location I was also kind of shouting so when I did my small bit of filming in Deep Cove I had adjusted my volume. These clips then sounded way better.

I really enjoyed feeling like a travel guide in my video and it made me feel really smart. I know that sounds weird, but I always see the people in those videos and they seem like they really know what they’re talking about and I think I looked like that too. Editing videos is also one of my favourite things to do. Whenever I’m stressed or bored I’ll just make a random video and I’ll be happy again. Also with each project we do that requires writing a story or script I believe I’m getting much better. The more you use this skill the better you’ll become at it. The things I’ve learned from this project I can take with me in my future.