Jazz Band is one of my beats, and I usually cover them in Instagram mini-stories and longer stories for our website. But when the Jazz Band was invited to play live on Denver’s public jazz radio station (KUVO), I saw an opportunity to do something a little different. To produce this video, I used classic techniques like B-roll, interviews, and transitions. I decided not to do a voiceover, and instead included text on screen, so the music would be the focal point of the video. I used the interviews to transition and fade between clips of the band playing, and I showed footage of some soloists while their interviews were rolling, so viewers could couple the solos with the musicians’ thoughts.

The University of South Carolina Ice Bucket Challenge was at peak popularity for a few days during the spring semester of my junior year, and I knew I wanted to produce a TikTok on it. Because it was so popular, I decided to use students' clips of their own ice-bucket experiences to fill out the video. This piece got a lot of audience engagement on Instagram and TikTok, and I was proud of how I integrated the film clips with music. I filmed it with Features Editor Sophia Hady, and we had a lot of fun compiling student videos. At the end, as a bonus, we even dunked ourselves. And, of course, to complete the challenge, we nominated three other local student newspapers to carry it forward. 

Our TikTok team worked quickly to announce our Spring magazine, rushing to create promos echoing popular memes. This video was inspired by a current trend originating with yearbook staffs nationwide. I helped film and put this one together, and I also acted as one of the angry people banging on the door. We had to do a couple of takes because we couldn't keep straight faces. On the final take, our A&E Editor and star of the video, Dhanya, misdirected the water toss a little bit and it ended up drenching me. So, fun fact: I've been soaked by water in two of the three USJ TikToks I've filmed. What an interesting statistic.