Alba Rivera

EDCI 270
Wednesday 11:30
10 November 2015
Video Project Narrative
When I first began to conceptualize an idea for this video, I was a little fearful of how
difficult it would be to actually use software such as Camtasia. I gain knowledge and
understanding that I had always avoided because it scared me and I didn't want to try to learn
something new because I thought it would be time consuming or just frustrating. I feel like part
of the knowledge that I learned was that it's not too bad but that sometimes I just need someone
to talk me through it. I'm not always great at learning to do these things by myself, but I learned
that I don't have to fear it and that it's a powerful tool to use and very convenient.
I feel like a lot of the challenges that I had were just unfamiliarity with the video
software. Thankfully the TA was really helpful and patient with any questions that I had, because
otherwise I wouldn't have been able to figure most of it out. Another problem that I had was just
finding a quiet space to do it. Every time I thought I had found a quiet moment to film a video it
was just really difficult to film it if the people around weren't aware or considerate. Sometimes it
just took a lot of patience to be able to use the technology too. I had a seriously hard time putting
music at the beginning and at the end of the video, but little by little I started figuring it out and
learning how to cut up certain pieces of music and how to fade music in and out. It was just
really cool near the end, and I was really encouraged that I would be able to do this in the future.
This video could be extremely useful in terms of a demo, because you could give people
instructions by being able to videotape yourself and actually show the person what you're asking
them to do. Another thing that's really great about this is that you can reuse it from year-to-year if
you save it. It's also kind a neat because it could also be ubiquitous. You can save it on Google
Drive or on your phone or your laptop and you can pull it up just about anywhere and use that
instructional material anywhere and that is just incredible.
I have really been dreading using Camtasia all semester long. I kept using Jing to try and
avoid Camtasia for as long as I could, but it just had to happen and I had no other choice. What I
learned about it was that it was actually surprisingly easy to use. After using it for about an hour I
was actually really excited with what I was making. My product isn't even that fantastic but since
it was my first time I was just really excited and motivated and hopefully in the future I can
make something that is even better and even more interesting and dynamic than what I was able
to produce. I have a hope for that I really do think that I'll be able to do that someday and I can
tell that it's a tool that could be extremely convenient and the fact that you can save videos and
make them available again for the future is something that would motivate me to try to it again.
Links to pictures I used in the video and music:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_cream_cone.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfvrUchcTTs