Lissauer and senior Lilly Strathman film a video for freshman interest night in the publication room. In addition to creating videos, Lissauer helped in the creation of Echo's first animation about the impeachment process.
Broadcast
One of my favorite parts of being a student journalist is capturing peers views on everything from school policy to national events. Halfway through my second year on staff, I discovered how much more powerful a quote can be when heard in a live format. Because of this, I often pair a story with a podcast or video because it allows sources to speak for themselves, bringing in emotion that may be lacking in a traditional story.
Animation
During former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, I grew very frustrated with the misinformation spreading around my school about the impeachment. Luckily, three other staffers had similar feelings. We collaborated to create Echo’s first animated video covering the ins and outs of the impeachment process. I did hours of research, wrote the script and recorded voice-overs to help with the production of a two-part video presenting complicated information in a simple and fun way. With the videos, we aimed to help our community understand the rare process of impeachment.
Impeachment explained received an honorable mention in NSPA's Broadcast News story of the Year
These animations received a Best of SNO
Impeachment explained received an honorable mention in NSPA's Broadcast News story of the Year
These animations received a Best of SNO
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Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, it was hard to understand the extent to which COVID-19 was affecting people and even harder to understand how a pandemic could happen. I, along with two staffers, spent a little over a month putting together a timeline of the pandemic for our second animation. This time, on top of being in charge of research and some voice-overs, I also took on the editing role. I learned so much while putting this together, both about COVID-19 and how to edit animations. |
Video
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After spending the first two months of school in a distance learning format, Park went back at 25% capacity, meaning students went to school one day a week. Since the first day of school occurred four times for the four different cohorts we knew we were going to have to cover each day in a unique way. I worked with four other Echo staffers to get B-roll and interviews throughout my first day. I sat down and edited all the individual pieces into one cohesive video we published that night. This video highlighted the new procedures and students and staff’s views regarding hybrid. |
Throughout the last year, Echo has covered Seeds Feeds, several times. One day, I was in class with a girl that works there and she was telling me all about what herself, and the other seniors who work there, do on a daily basis. She also showed me the vlogs they do which was the first time I saw what the warehouse looked like. I realized that in all of our coverage of the group, we were missing key aspects. I decided to make a video that could show all of the different parts of Seeds Feeds and the students who are involved. While editing this, I included b-roll that highlighted what the students were talking about during the interview. I also made sure to include aspects that Echo has not covered before in an effort to give new information to our viewers. |
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While not impossible, making videos and working with new staffers is harder to do over Zoom. One of the first things I did when we returned to hybrid was combining the two. I worked with a new staffer to make a video about the safety precautions during hybrid, and was able to teach her everything she needed to know about making videos, including taking B-roll, getting interviews and basic editing. |
Podcasts
Although podcasts were a rare occurrence on Echo, when a fellow staffer and I wanted to put together a video to accompany a story about why students should care who the president is, we knew a podcast was our best option due to a lack of interesting B-roll. While we collaborated on the interviews and voice overs, I edited it focusing on clean transitions between clips and keeping the audio levels consistent.
This package received a Best of SNO |
After writing a story about students working throughout the pandemic, I wanted to highlight how students' jobs have changed so I decided on a podcast. I enjoyed editing the podcast because, unlike a story, I was able to show these students' emotions when working with the precautions of a pandemic and balancing school. I had another staffer help with the voice overs but I did the interviews and edited everything together.
This package received a Best of SNO |