Hi! My name is Nandini and I study Journalism, Creative Writing, and Video Game Design at USC in Los Angeles. Welcome to my little corner of the internet. Somehow you have stumbled upon this page and I am grateful that you're here. In my second Fall semester at USC, I took a visual journalism class. This page is the culmination of some of my best work in this class, along with some reflections on it along the way. If you've got the time to immerse yourself into my visual journalism experience and (hopefully) come out heavily inspired, have fun going through my visual journalism portfolio. This is something I have put hours into and I am so proud of: my very own digital labor of love.
This roughly 3-minute long IGTV video was created for my final video project in this class. Before this assignment, I never thought about the work that online creators put into creating consistent and engaging content. However once I started this, I realized how difficult it really is to collect sources and b-roll to put together a video. There were many challenges that I faced in making this. As a result of this project being due during finals week, I could barely find sources that were willing to put in the time for an interview. Along with that, a lot of them were afraid of speaking so publicly about the mental health issues they faced at USC. Somehow, through hours of reaching out to people, I found three wonderful sources that brought so much to my story. Once I had the interviews and the B-roll that I needed, I was faced with another problem: the time limit. This video was supposed to be a maximum of three minutes long, however I was stuck with 7 minutes of video that I felt terrible cutting down. As a journalist the most important thing you do is filter. Information is always readily available; but it's your job as a journalist to give people the TL;DR (too long, didn't read) on the world. With this realizations, I went on to create a video that I am so proud of! Re-watching it and thinking about the hours of work I put in really makes it all worth it.
This was an audio slideshow I did for my midterm. This was easily the longest editing project I have ever done, but it was also my first. While many tears were shed during the editing of this slideshow, this was also where I found my passion for multimedia and editing. Post this project, I picked up a video game design minor. Some challenges I faced during the making of this slideshow included cutting down two hours of footage into a one minute story. The issue with having so much content is that the story can go in multiple different directions with the click of a button. The responsibility of both authentically but concisely telling a story lies with the editor of the media. Once I had my direction, I realized I didn't know how to work with Premiere Pro at all. I can say that I am now wonderfully skilled at it, all thanks to the fact that I learnt it while doing this midterm. Every 5 minutes I found myself on Google, looking for things like "how to export video" or "how to adjust aspect ratio". This project was arguably one of the most educational experiences in my academic life. I played a lot with the information I gained from the readings assigned. I tried my best to take point of view and close-up shots and found that those were my best. I also remember we discussed taking hand close-up shots in class, so I went ahead and included some elements of that as well.
This was one of our first assignments in this class, and I remember being so excited. These really weren't my best pictures, but they were definitely a first. It was my first time deliberately trying to stick with some of the camera settings we played with in class. We were given specific ISO and aperture measures to stick with in our assignment and I remember feeling like a professional photographer walking around with a camera around campus. My amateur days are long gone, and I feel like I truly have grown as a photographer, even if I may not be a professional yet. To see some of my newer work check my photo essay out. I created the essay for another assignment in this class, and I truly believe it is my best work this semester. I now know the basics of photography, composition rules (for lack of a better word) and I seem to have developed an eye for photography. Somehow everything I see is now a photograph waiting to happen! The reason I believe I did so well in the photo essay is because I closely followed the instructions from the assigned readings and I stuck to the principles of photography. I personally enjoyed learning about leading line photography and then putting it into practice.
These were two graphics I made for a graphic design project in class. This was probably my easiest and quickest assignment. We did this on Canva, which I have been using for years now. I managed to put this together in about ten minutes, and had a blast doing it. The most fun part of design is being able to play with colors, shades, undertones and textures. I also kept in mind the design principles we learnt in class, like proximity and contrast. Focusing on the latter, I was able to make a clear and cohesive graphic with clear distinctions.
To say this class was the best class I have taken would be an understatement. It was fruitful, informative, fun and challenging. Despite the tears cried and headaches caused from hours of editing, this class turned out to be my favorite. As someone who viewed Journalism as purely writing only, this was an eye-opener. I fell in love with the world of multimedia. I also found my passion for photography and audio journalism and will probably pursue one of those two in the future. There is a whole different aspect of storytelling that cannot be put into words, and I say this as a passionate writer and poet. In getting to learn the language of visual journalism, I feel like I have opened up so many way of storytelling for myself, and I am so grateful to this class and experience for that. As a visual journalist, I have learnt how to stick to time limits, edit clean audio and video and take more deliberate pictures. These are experiences I will forever cherish and take from in the future.