The video project was great to work on, and I feel as though I really learned a great deal of information through it – not only about video editing, but also about climate change as a whole. For the frame of my project, I wanted to do something similar to my infographic and podcast presentation, but also dive into a different direction by observing a much grander scale effect that humans have on the earth: changing our climate through pollution. Similar to the first two pieces, I decided to make the piece for an audience that is generally new to the subject of climate change and interested in learning more. In framing my issue, I wanted to first establish the fact that our world is precious by showing clips of nature while also narrating the scenes – this set an idyllic tone of appreciation for our planet. Suddenly, I cut this off with an error screen and dive into the meat of my entire piece: climate change as a major problem.

I think that this portion of my piece was the strongest for two reasons. First and foremost, I employed a number of very prominent speeches from esteemed individuals in our world today. From Barack Obama to Leonardo DiCaprio to Al Gore, we see the same fundamental issue being explained over and over again: our climate is in danger, and we must act now. In our class discussions, we talked about having a goal for our piece and a general call to action that we wanted our audience to take. For me, my goal was to capture the massive subject of climate change into one video and my call to action was to simply do something to help – and that is where my narration came into play! Throughout these video clips of famous people in our society, I interjected with moments to talk about how we can help around the house, by talking to our congressmen and women, or by joining activist groups online and engaging with other individuals in the community.

Overall, I think that this back and forth nature of the video was one of the strongpoints of the piece. While it highlighted the massive flaws that we see in our world today, it equally emphasized the ways in which we can start helping right now. Additionally, I think that the audio that I used worked very well. For the beginning, I included the song “What a Beautiful World,” while later in the piece, I included a somber piano song. Together, these set a tone that follows the content of my piece quite well. I chose to move in this direction because I knew that my audience might get tired of listening to me harping on ways to help – instead, the back and forth keeps the viewer engaged and interested in potentially helping my call to action.

If I could change any component of my final product, I would have tried to include more evidence of climate change in my video. Whether this be through a time lapse of polar ice caps melting or through massive rain events dumping down and flooding major cities, I think there are a number of ways to clearly and explicitly show that our world is changing rapidly due to our selfish actions.

Climate change is a real problem, and we need to take a stand. Join the effort to help make our world a better place! #OurVoicesAreVital pic.twitter.com/C7VkoPAVjP

— Ben Wilson (@Ben_Wilson_18) May 31, 2017

I enjoyed working on the Podcast for a number of reasons. First and foremost, this was entirely different than not only the infographic, but also any other project that I have worked on in the past.

While my topic was the same as my infographic, there were a number of differences along the way. The frame, however, was somewhat similar. Once again, I expected my audience to be generally unaware of coral reef depletion, so I looked at the subject in a very simple way with clear and concrete ways that we as individuals can make a difference. To frame the issue, I set out a general guideline from the start. The piece includes an introduction that sets out my layout for the project, a brief conversation with my guest, Phillip Osborn, an anecdotal piece to highlight the effects of coral reef depletion on humans in our world, and a final wrap up of the piece with ways in which we can help our world going forward. I think that by setting out this general framework early on, it allowed for my project to flow in a clear and concise path along the way. The final product of the podcast was informative, interesting, and (hopefully) inspiring to those who listened.

Looking back, there were many parts of the podcast that went well and were great to work on. First, I thought it was nice to have an interview in my piece – and it was even better that it was my friend from Northwestern who is a major in civil engineering. While I have heard briefly about his experiences exploring coral reefs around the world, it was great to dig a little deeper and expose his interesting thoughts to my audience. He, too, approached the issue in a simple way and was able to provide an understanding of what is happening in reefs, why it is happening, and the tangible ways that we can help. It was difficult, at times, to hold him back from going off on tangents – I actually had to cut a good amount of audio from our interview because he was so enthusiastic and dived into a number of topics that where somewhat irrelevant to my project. Additionally, I really enjoyed working on the project from a technical standpoint. I have never used a program like Audacity before, so it was educational and interesting to play around with the various effects (fade in, fade out, amplify, normalize, etc.).

In the end, I felt like my approach to the project was a good one. I think that often times people do view coral reef preservation as a very important part of humanity, but fail to understand the tangible consequences that humans face because of this depletion around the world. By bringing in the anecdote about the tribe in Madagascar, I think listeners are able to understand the crucial piece of coral depletion that I set out to make clear: our actions as humans affect other lives around the world, whether that be fish, wild animals, or other humans.

Looking back, I think I would keep most of content the same, but would definitely try to make things shorter. In our day and age, ten minutes can be valuable (especially for businessmen and women), so having a shorter product would have been helpful. While my initial submission was somewhat longer, I did try to account for this in my post here by making the piece shorter and easier to digest.

BWInfographic

My infographic was a very interesting project to work on for a few different reasons. The project itself was a great opportunity to take a very large and immense topic and condense it down to something simple. For me, this meant researching the present science of coral reef studies through several online forums, and also looking into efforts currently being taken by activists around the globe.

Overall, the frame for my project was coral reef depletion and potential preservation. I planned for my audience to be somewhat new to the subject, so I wanted to keep things simple and concise. In framing my infographic, I wanted to ask a few questions: what is going on with coral reefs, what are the consequences of our actions, and what are some different ways that we can help? Through these various questions, I was able to create a final product that was both explanatory of the current coral reef depletion in the world and helpful in understanding ways to make our world a better place, whether this is through conserving water, not littering, or even joining activist groups online.

When completing the project, there were many aspects that stood out to me and made the process educational and rewarding. I think what was unique about this project was the concept of taking a large-scale idea (coral reef destruction) and boiling it down to something as simple as an infographic. This is a skill that not only helped me condense my ideas on future projects, but will also be useful in later projects both at Dartmouth and beyond. In this vein, I enjoyed sifting through sources online to find facts that would illuminate the vast consequences that humans have inflicted on coral reefs.

From a technical standpoint, it was also interesting to work with a new piece of software (Piktochart) and create something both creative and instrumental in saving our environment. While art is surely not my forte, it was challenging and rewarding to find different color combinations (by looking at the color wheel) and design concepts that worked well together. Given the amount of information I wanted to include and the limited space that I worked with, I found it difficult to include negative space, but I think that overall my final product was strong.

This project was also fun to approach because I truthfully knew nothing about it – which is why I picked it in the first place. I think that coral reef preservation is such a unique and crucial component of our Earth’s environment and yet it is often neglected. In approaching my project in a factual and problem-solving manner, I think I condensed coral reef preservation into something that makes sense and leaves even a normal listener who is unaware of the issue feeling capable and eager to resist coral reef destruction.

Tackling this project – while it did take some time – was rewarding. I do not think I would change much in retrospect, but if there were something, I would have liked to include just a few pictures to highlight the visual effects of coral reef depletion. While the facts stand as strong indicators of the massive consequences of humans, I think that pictures add a different perspective on the detrimental effects around the globe.