I believe our group is in a really good spot right now for our project. We know exactly what we’re going to do and the time frame that we have to complete it, which is made easier since we created a schedule already. There is never any lack of communication within our group and there are constant ideas always going back and forth between us all. The biggest challenge at the moment for our team is perfect timing. Our schedules are all very busy with classes and jobs, so a couple of the dates we had planned on shooting content weren’t able to be carried through because of the differences in personal schedules.

This week after watching some of the interactive presentations, I think there are a lot of different new concepts and factors we can add to our project. I noticed a recurring idea with a lot of the projects involved a follow along aspect, but I don’t think that would work as well with the project idea we’ve come up. So it’s been interesting comparing and contrasting different ideas that have been successful for other people with our own ideas.

This semester was gone in a flash with every week seeming more and more short. I am proud of where my group is at, our communication skills are great and we’re adding ideas to a google doc all the time. I also really appreciate the schedule we created as a team and our ability to stick with it as close as possible. What we need to work on now is getting more content to submit by next Friday, we need physical proof of our work and I would say accomplishments through the group. Every milestone passed on the schedule will be an accomplishment for Team Teamy. The biggest challenge we’re currently facing is sporadic work schedules, with some shifts changing every week, it is hard to come together and get some content. However, if it gets to the point where by if next week we’re scrambling to find content to produce in class, we will have no choice but to shoot separately.

This week I pondered on some of the ideas in the presentations we watched to see if I could relate it into my own group. I was still thinking about one where you almost take a quiz for whatever meal you’re in the mood for and the video plays with instructions along with a DIY recipe. The challenges this week were not being able to meet due to class and work conflicts but next week we are much more available now that Husker Basketball is over giving members in our group a lot more time to get really involved in this project.

It’s crazy to think we are already halfway done with a semester that feels like we just started. Throughout the semester our group has had great communication skills on what would get done where and when. I really appreciate the schedule we were assigned to make a couple of weeks ago because as a group, we use that to reference everything. We have solid ideas that may turn into even larger, more thrilling ideas. We just need to continue to work with them. We haven’t done much filming yet but that was figured because we are saving most of our filming to one weekend and then the rest of the time to edit. The biggest challenge we have faced with our project so far would be figuring out the best way to film while at the grocery store, in Jacob’s apartment and outside of Jacob’s apartment. This is a challenge that is very easy to solve though.

My contribution this week included sending messages in the group chat about our assignment for the week, as well as, meeting with our group members after class. We haven’t encountered any challenges this week yet but we are planning on filming this weekend so I’m assuming there will be a challenge or two. In the future, I think we would come up with a better window of time we are free to help film.

This week in class I did not present a project but I did notice a presentation where I was inspired by the subject matter. I forget the brand but the website where you are able to answer questions based on the type of running you like to do and your personal body alignment. What I took away from this website is the ability for our group to set up an initial survey which could then direct people to a certain meal or grouping of meals for a day. This idea would expand on our original idea to create a part comedy part educational cooking show. The more I think about this idea the more I like it because it would add an extra layer to our project that I feel as if we very much need. On the topic of these presentations, I noticed how many of them included interactive media but did it in such different ways that I was able to sit and think how I could relate it to my groups project. The only problem I noticed with these projects was that the people who didn’t use a power point as an aid to their presentation were far less concise with their points and had an overall harder time presenting, I will make sure to include a power point.

This week my group continued to focus on brainstorming ideas for our meeting on Saturday and Sunday so that is mainly what I focused on. I added many more ideas to how we can produce our content as well as certain things we can add to our finished product to make it more appealing, such as the catered survey idea.

This week, none of our group members presented their interactive analysis, but we learned a lot from the other groups that presented. We got to see exactly what we will have to be doing for our presentations and it gave us good guidelines to follow for our presentations.

A major thing we did this week was finalize when we will be doing our first day of shooting for the project, which will be this Sunday in the evening. It worked out because we all had things going on Friday and Saturday and Sunday is the day we would be doing a lot of our classwork anyway. We will be getting the first two or three meals shot on Sunday and after we get that footage, then we can already start the process of editing the project. I think preparing the meals will probably be the most challenging part because most of our group members are very proficient at filming footage and editing the footage. This week was overall very productive because we finally began planning how to actually put our project into action with the filming, which is the most important of it.

Although I missed the first interactive project presentations, I have already begun researching some of my own. Also, my teammates all provided me with information and background on the presentations from Tuesday and they all sounded so unique and interesting. There were story line aspects in all of them which makes me think harder about the whole outline of our project and how we can make it as much of a story as possible in order to keep our viewers interested. Along with keeping the viewers interested, this goes hand in hand with keeping them actually involved with our project. After looking up a bunch of different interactive presentations, it’s really cool how they’ve formatted them so the viewers can interact to a certain level with their website, making the story experience that much more personable.

This week our team communicated between one another about different ways we could make our presentation more interactive. I gave some creative ideas and explanations behind them. I also created our schedule and looked up specific due dates so that Team Teamy can be as organized as possible and stay on track.

This week during the interactive project analysis presentations, we witnessed 3 interactive presentations that gave the class a real sense of almost being there for whatever the theme was. The first, being about the history and process of immigrating though Ellis Island, gave me ideas on perhaps creating a website where our group could post a meal recipe along with video and audio of the competition happening. This would be interactive in the sense were people could get a visual and auditory representation on whatever kind of meal they want cooked along with the recipe for doing it on the viewers own time. The second presentation added a social and political aspect to the project. It got me wondering, could I do anything where having a food cooking show would be political? Probably not, I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation, however, there are aspects about it context wise I cannot add to my project where it would make sense. I did love the idea of the stars being clickable objects and being able to read what was on them, we could make it where something like that has a video on it or even just a quick clip. The last presentation, although did not feel as interactive as it was more of a survey, gave me an idea to narrow down recipes based off what people would answer to prompts we might put in. This would personalize a meal for every time the viewer was in the mood for something different.

This week, my group and I narrowed down days we want to film and want to stick to the schedule as much has humanly possible. I offered ideas about how to make our videos interactive as well as adding elements such as a soundtrack and sound effects that would make a relaxing yet entertaining style to the video. In the future I want to stick to the project schedule and deadlines we made for ourselves as much as possible and where we would hold each other accountable for everything we do.

After watching the presentations that occurred this week, I’ve realized that the interactive website I choose to do should have plenty of content on it. A presentation this week about the shoes, was very interactive but it just didn’t show a lot of content. All the presentations websites were very interactive, just some of them had more content than the others. I really enjoyed the second presentation, about dreaming because I had never seen anything like that before. The only problem with it was again the content. When I prepare to present and start looking for an interactive website, I’m going to try to find a website that is both very interactive as well as having lots of content I can show the class. I will try to avoid a website that puts the class to sleep.

This week for our group project, my contributions included meeting in class with our team members to finish our schedule, I continued to think about what meals would be best to make and also we discussed what camera equipment we would need to have successful shots. The only challenges we encountered were deciding what camera equipment to use and what dates we are shooting for to meet. But other than that, we have a good mindset on what we’re going to do and I’m excited to get started.

As a group, we have started a multi page document detailing everything we will need for the upcoming weeks of this project. We have brainstormed ideas of the types of video shots we want to capture, post production edits we want to implement, gear we have and gear we need, and most importantly how and when we’ll be capturing this media. This all encompassing list is extremely beneficial to an organized and effective filming session. Our plan for capturing the content we need is to use my personal Panasonic Lumix GH4 with a Sigma 18-35mm 1.8/f lense. This setup will allow for 4k video in 24 or 30 FPS as well as slow mo (120- 240 FPS) at full HD (1920×1080). A secondary camera will most likely be checked out from the J school equipment room for an overhead shot of the dishes as well as a second angle for any potential interviews. Additionally, gimbals, tripods, studio lights, as backdrop, and light reflectors will help us in creating the perfect environment for capturing high quality media.

This week my contribution was starting the brainstorming document as well as adding the majority of the information and ideas to it, besides any food related parts which are all done by chef Jacob. My favorite part of the brain storming phase was coming up with what gear would be needed since I am quite the gear head myself I get very excited about coming up with what tools we will use. Again, we did not run into much trouble this week because we have a group that is very effective in communicating.

February 15-21: All team members do research about cooking techniques, weather forecasts for outside shoots, and which editing software works best for the content our group creates

February 18-28: Team members pitch ideas to each other about what food themes will be cooked for the videos. What style of cooking whether that be outdoor grilling/barbequing, or inside cooking

March 2-9: Food ideas should be narrowed down and grocery list/budget should be made and ready

March 10-14: Research should be complete. Have at least 10 forms of media available for show, preliminary plan for website complete and typed up within 5-7 pages. Interviews between us and Jacob should be near complete, additional b-roll for show.

• Week 8 blog marks mid-term of class, should be half-way done by then

March 17-21: Interactive analysis projects finishing up around this time, should be focusing on main story of project

March 22/23: reserved for content creating 

March 24 – April 6: Deadline approaching, should be focusing on the main format of website and it’s going to look on a computer vs. mobile. Should be thinking about formatting the whole time and making sure the website is not only accessible but also looks good on multiple formats

March 29/30: Everyone will be available – time to get lots of stuff done

April 9-13: Media should be finalized

April 16-20: Week before practice presentations begin, should be comfortable enough with information that we can talk about it. Project should be 90% complete and what isn’t done is soon to be finished

April 20-May 8: Presentations begin the week of April 20th. Corrections will be made and accounted for as soon as possible for final turn-in/review

May 8: Final blog due, final project submitted and end of semester survey due.