Hey Everyone! So for this weeks assigned blog topic we are supposed to write about our advice for next year's CKTV class when competing at STN. As you all are familiar with, the media productions class went to Orlando, Florida to compete at the Student Television Network Convention. Our class ended up winning 5 of 8 awards: 2nd place Sweet Sixteen Broadcast, 1st place Spot Feature, 2nd place Anchoring, 2nd place Music video, and honorable mention PSA. I was apart of 2 teams, Movie Trailer and Sweet Sixteen broadcast. Unfortunately, Movie Trailer did not place, but that's okay because it was a good experience. My advice for next year's, 2015 CKTV class is to use your time wisely, be creative and have realistic ideas, and to be focused and calm.
This advice will be going for everyone-no matter what competition you are in, use your time wisely. This means don't procrastinate! Focus on your goal of meeting your deadline, don't rush everything or else your final product will turn out sloppy and messy. But also don't be a slow poke because then you won't get anything done and it reduces your time to submit your video and meet the deadline on time. You want to find a place in between the two, you want to balance and level yourself. Find a good pace, enough to do quality work, and enough to meet the deadline. And here's a tip for both competitions. When under a tight timed competition, multitask! These competitions are always in groups, so while two people are filming, the others can go and record or write voice overs. And if your in Broadcast Sweet Sixteen, one person can start editing while the others shoot stand-ups and voice overs. This way you will be using your time wisely-you'll be getting multiple things done in the same amount of time! If you ever heard of that expression, killing two birds with one stone! And for the new Movie Trailer team, this goes for you. Don't spend too much time thinking about your ideas. That means don't change your ideas a lot and make sure that idea is strong enough to carry out. If you take too much time thinking of your idea, you will have less production time to film, thus, cutting off of your editing time. But don't take too little time to plan and think of your idea. Your idea might not be good enough or strong enough for your group and you will find that out during the filming. So remember to take a reasonable amount of time to plan a good and strong idea to stick with.
My next advice (this is more toward movie trailer team) is to be creative but realistic when brainstorming for ideas. Let your mind open and let everyone pitch in ideas. Then narrow down your choices to your best idea. But you want to make sure your idea is something your team is capable of, enough to carry out throughout the competition. Make sure your idea is first off good, strong, and original. You want to keep in mind that the judges will be watching tons of videos, so you want yours to stick out from the pile. But remember from my first piece of advice, don't waste too much time thinking of your idea.
And my third piece of advice for both competitions is to be focused and calm. Yes, the competitions will be stressful and pressuring, but if you freak out it doesn't benefit your team. Take deep breaths and relax and picture the end result. Be focused. Don't doze off or get distracted or procrastinate. You need to realize that this is the real thing. That this is what you came here to do. Yes, you messed around during practices and had some fun but when it's competition time it's time to be serious. Get your head in the game and do your best.
These are my three pieces of advice I can offer the 2015 CKTV students. Use your time wisely, be creative but realistic, and be focused and calm. If you follow my advice, I promise you that your chances of placing is greater. Sweet Sixteen Broadcast and Movie Trailer are both great and fun competitions to compete in, and if you do choose these competitions, i suggest following my advice. That's it for my blog! Byee!!