Building My E-Portfolio: Growth, Gains, and Glancing the Finish Line

I will be the first to admit technology isn't naturally something I gravitate toward. In fact, while researching the first reflection blog that I wrote for the class about building my brand,I discovered that I had absolutely zero digital footprint. Not only that, but I had avoided media production like the plague in my high school years, convinced I wasn't smart enough to do it, and I should stick to more traditional, tangible forms of art.

The Bottom "Home" Section of my E-Portfolio

Now, I have this glowing E- Portfolio thats only made me cry twice. Victory!

Here's what I did to make my E Portfolio match my brand:

• Used bright colors, namely brilliant red, but paired it with a simple background to not overcrowd my art.

• Added stickers, sticky notes, scribbles, stars, and tape for a hodge podge scrapbook vibe to represent the vast spectrum of types of my work, as well as my nontraditional approach to technology.

• Used an array of textures like lipstick, paint, clouds, colored pencil doodles, and gave the buttons tickers and images shadows for a more tangible user experience.

• Added Links to absolutely EVERYTHING that could spark someone interest in my work while scanning through my website- keeping them engaged going back and forth across my page.

What did I learn?

This learning curve was MASSIVE. I've never built a website outside of Canva or Adobe wire frames before... If I had to go back and do it again I would probably make my graphic design panel Individual projects like my Print and Editorial Collection where each of my articles has it's own moment. I would be quicker to admit I don't know how to do certain things on Wix, and quicker to Google. I would give myself more space to PLAY and enjoy the process, instead of worrying about my final grade.

What will this portfolio mean for my future?

I hope this portfolio will be the bare bones of my portfolio when I graduate. I will swap out my art for my senior projects, delete the group project "scary story" lab that still gives me hives, add more of my creative writing, typography, prints, and illustrations. I will add the app I am going to work on developing this summer during my MayX solving food deserts in Ireland. I will keep these reflections blogs as a reminder of how far I've come, and how much growing I still have left. All of these additions (or subtractions) are for the benefit of presenting onoefluid product to my future potential employers, to show them that NO I am not lying on my resume, I really can manage projects across Adobe Audition, Premier Pro, Illustrator, and Photoshop, not to mention Canva and Wix.

Mainly, I will keep this portfolio intact because I am immensely proud that I, Ellen Shipman, hopeless worm of all technology, sucked it up and figured it out. Now, I no longer think of myself through that deprecating lense, and will continue to work on tkaing up the space I inhabit without apologizing for being an inherent inconvienece.

The projects inside the portfolio itself bring back all kinds of memories.

Before taking digital storytelling:

• I had no social media.

• I had never made or edited any kind of video.

• I had never used a camera outside of my phone.

• l had never touched a memory card.

• I had never used a microphone outside of performing in theatre.

• I had never designed layout for an article.

• I had never filmed in public.

• I had never interviewed a stranger.

• I didn't think much about AI or its potential uses.

• I didn't know what media literacy was, let alone think it was important.

Safe to say, this class felt like drowning, every. single. day.

And I could not be prouder of myself for how far I've come.

Here is a small collage of pictures of my set I took at almost every filming this semester!

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  Early morning Filming for Editing Lab

  

  All the Equipment for my first solo shoot I acted in!

  

  Learning to Interview strangers is hard... unless you're Ellison Floyd

  

  My Documentary Interview Setup! Those mic handoffs though....

  

  Definitely my hardest shoot- my PSA

  

  My first willing interviewee!

  

  My set:)

  

  My photo essay!

  NOW:

  • I am so confident on Premier Pro, that I have been the sole editor on film projects in other classes (Hallo Deutcheklasse!)

  • I have filmed 2 major projects with Vixia HF R500, not to mention flown 2 film drones: DGI Mavic 4 Pro, and DGI Mavic Mini.

  • I have learned so much about the nature of digital filing (mainly from storing things wrong, losing my shots, and then losing MY SHIT. Now I have a 2TB storage device and a 512 GB thumb drive I work off of.

  • I have used all nature of microphones, including the Vixia mics, Rhode mics, Lavalieres, etc.

  • Instead of wearing a mic someone else was handling for me, I had to manage rapid exchanges between 8 interviewees between dances while filming for my contra documentary.

  • I didn't know how AI worked (does anyone?), but I am very interested in the politics of who owns it and what they stand to gain by creating disinformation or spreading misinformation.

  •  I am FAR better at spotting AI content after our exercise on finding AI in the wild, in fact I've had to point it out to my relatives at family functions when they've expressed anxiety about seeing tons of videos of children getting almost attacked by wild animals in their backyard.

  • I have stopped making prententious statements about not having social media. Refraining is something I'm actively choosing to do for as long as I can, but I am no longer wearing my lack of media literacy like a crown.

  • I learned very quickly that when laying out articles, fancy fonts and bright colors weren't gonna cut it, so I dove into the world of editorial layout and fell in love.

  
  

  But MOST IMPORTANTLY....

  I had to advocate for myself and the equipment I needed for my projects, stand my ground institutions where I had little flexibility, reach out to ask perfect strangers for advice, time, or interviews- none of which I was comfortable doing before.

  Often the nature of my projects lead to people being skeptical, sometimes even rude, but I was so excited about what I had the potential to produce, I didn't take it personally. In fact, I was so excited about these projects, I took these encounters as opportunities to practice pitching projects.

Everything inside this portfolio reminds me of just how grateful I am for all the Digital Storytelling class has forced me to grow! Was it uncomfortable? Yes! Was I drowning? Yes?

Was it worth it? YES!