The forth video assignment I did was called selfie story for 4.5 stars. The directions instructed you to

Narrate a story using selfies. It can be any story you’d like (crazy night out, movie night with friends, just the average day, etc). You can use a combination of selfie clips or pictures, it is all up to you. Create a 1-2 minute video montage of all the selfies to tell the story. Try adding music or effects to keep it interesting.

I decided to narrate my best friend Heather and I’s hiking trip. Which ended up being a lot more adventurous then an average hiking trip. As we had no cell service and therefore had no directions to get there. So along the way we stopped at apple stands, glass blowing shops, and little shops along the way to explore. Finally I had enough cell service to screen shot the directions to Old Rag and then off we went. However this was definitely a more strenuous hike then we were use to. It also was a lot later by now and by the time we came back down the sun had set and we were hiking in pitch black. I put the pictures together on my phone using Flipagram and then put All Star by Smash Mouth as the background music. Using the tools provided in the Flipagram app I added captions to some of the pictures in order to narrate the story a little better. To upload it to my blog I had to upload it onto WordPress from my phone. I tried emailing it but it wouldn’t let me and so I couldn’t get it to upload on Vimeo and Facebook wouldn’t let me upload it because of a possibility of not having rights to the content. Which I’m guessing is the song because the pictures are mine.

I actually turned in my fourth Video Assignment for the week on my YouTube account six minutes before midnight yesterday. This, more or less, explains why the date on the video is November 10th, instead of November 11th. However, since there’s one other project left for me to do before I can really put myself through virtual boot camp, it only seems right that I try to explain how The Modern-Day Midnight Rider was made.

The assignment in question, worth yet another four-and-a-half stars, is what’s referred to as a “selfie story,” which is exactly what it says on the tin – a short story that’s told entirely through the self-portraits that people make on their cameraphones. Considering how good my previous efforts were, with regards to editing, this looked to be one of my better performances on paper. To be more specific, I had to do the following:

Narrate a story using selfies. It can be any story you’d like (crazy night out, movie night with friends, just the average day, etc). You can use a combination of selfie clips or pictures, it is all up to you. Create a one-to-two-minute video montage of all the selfies to tell the story. Try adding music or effects to keep it interesting.

I took ten of these pictures the night of November 10th, 2015, on my way to and from that night’s Newsgathering class. Since Daylight Saving Time ended last week, we’ve basically entered the part of the calendar year where I’m essentially taking glorified night school lessons. This made my choice of song for this particular project all the more fitting, especially since my teacher for Newsgathering is also a fan of the band who plays it. As if the title alone didn’t give it away, the song playing in the background of this video is none other than “Midnight Rider” by The Allman Brothers Band, the same group behind the seminal Southern rock classic, “Ramblin’ Man,” as well as “Jessica,” the instrumental theme to the long-running BBC motoring show, Top Gear.

Editing everything together on Windows Live Movie Maker was rather tricky, especially the opening and closing credits, to the point that it sometimes felt like the mouse, alone, had a mind of its own. Even the pictures were rather tough to deal with, at least until I noticed two “rotate” icons that helped me straighten each of them out, one at a time, and all by hand. From there, I found another button, “AutoMovie,” that pre-selected a series of transitions and effects on my behalf. After a round of further edits, with some of the selections being switched out for others, I downloaded my copy of “Midnight Rider” from SaveClipBro.com; uploaded the MP3 onto Movie Maker, uncut and unedited; saved the entire product as is; and, along with your usual round of paperwork, uploaded everything onto YouTube, with less than six minutes to spare before the twelve o’clock deadline.

For my first video assignment of the week I decided to complete Selfie Story. [Narrate a story using selfies. It can be any story you’d like (crazy night out, movie night with friends, just the average day, etc). You can use a combination of selfie clips or pictures, it is all up to you. Create a 1-2 minute video montage of all the selfies to tell the story. Try adding music or effects to keep it interesting.] I already take plenty of selfies, and Douglas complains constantly about my need to capture the moment on my phone. However, since this was for an assignment he obliged to my recording our pumpkin carving adventure via Selfies. It was so much fun, and I think (as per the assignment) that the video itself tells the story. Here’s our Punkin Adventure!!

I made this video with Windows Movie Maker. The pictures were taken on my LG G2 smart phone, and then I downloaded them to my computer and uploaded them to the movie maker. At this point, it was a matter of adding transitions and background music. I used transitions that had sharp edges and triangle-shaped features because I thought it resembled the triangle-shaped eyes of the carved pumpkins. For the background music, I used an instrumental mp3 of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” I figured this song was appropriate given the spooky holiday feelings!