I’ve always had a passion for writing. I’ve been writing and telling others my stories for as long as I could talk, read, and write. Last year, I spent a full semester just writing — and if you’re interested in checking that out you can see my blog, Vivian Graves — but this year, I wanted to aim for something different. I decided to put my love of creating and storytelling to the test through different mediums than I was used to. My first project, a podcast episode, was released in November, titled “Spray Paint,” and told a short story about Toska sharing a vulnerable part of their past with Jack. The episode uses two characters I’ve written about previously but didn’t give much focus to, as my prior projects were usually focused on Marie or Kit. I worked for 7 weeks to produce an episode that had high design quality — a clean recording, background music, and sound effects. I developed a plot, wrote a script, recorded with voice actors in Propel, and edited to my heart’s content. My aim was for the episode to be between 5-10 minutes in length, but as I recall, it was closer to 11 minutes.

In the second half of the semester, I redirected my attention to video production. I aimed to produce four short videos, between 1-2 minutes in length. My focus was to learn the basics of videography in a way that wouldn’t be overwhelming — smaller projects, iterated several times, each with a limited time frame, and a focus on just a few elements.