Final

The Beginning

In order for me to even go to Olathe Northwest, since I was in the area to go to Olathe North, I had to take e-comm for one of the transfer programs. I was a little familiar with the computers but did not have that much hands-on experience. the e9 explore classes was a really good start for me to learn about all the ways to work on Macs, whether it's animation, web design, graphic design, or video editing. But it was the end of freshman year where I heard about Sports Information Directory. Right when I heard about it, I knew I needed to take the class. I always loved reading about sports, it always kept me up to date all the time. I learned a lot in SID whether it was 6 shot system, or organizing a written story. Ever since taking SID, it has helped me developed better writing techniques and making it one step closer to my goal.

One of my first sport that I had to cover was varsity soccer. I had to go to their games and film, do written stories, update the website, and produce a video package. Here is one of the video packages I had to create which was a recap to one of their games:

Reagan Hathaway video

This was the biggest video package I had to put in this semester. It helped me a lot with the 6-shot system.

• I also had to update the soccer website my uploading their win-loss record and stats:

Tri-Caster

The tri-caster was the biggest learning experience for me. I was first assigned to work with it at the Girls Basketball game, and I was a quick learner and thought it was simple to do. It made love being in SID

More than just SID

SID was more than just sports for me, it was a mix between sports and convergence journalism, where I had to create stories and/or videos that did not relate to sports. I created tips for ways to study for finals for everyone to see: 

All of these examples were ways that helped my transition to be a great filmmaker, video editor, and a  writer. 

Goals:

• One of my goals for next semester is to work on the tri-caster more. I really loved it. When i was first assigned the job, I had no idea what I was doing, but after I learned I thought it was really simple and fun.
• My other goal is to get more written stories done. I like doing recaps of any games and talking about what went well and what did not go well. 

Documentary Proposal: Mr. and Mrs. Fouqet

Producers: Nick O'Dwyer and Kyle Ptasnik

Working Title: Overcoming Difficulties

My documentary is about Mr. Fouqet, a former MMA fighter, now an English teacher here at Olathe Northwest. The main conflict is between his struggle with his wife's disability. Ultimately, I want the audience to feel inspired to look past people's flaws and to understand that people's flaws makes them who they are.

Main Characters:

Mr. Fouqet grew up in foster care before going to live with his grandparents. Fouqet later in his life got into Mixed Martial Arts. After absence of his trainer, Fouqet was forced to 'retire.' Later became a professor at KU and is now in his first year at Olathe Northwest.

Mrs. Fouqet

Every once in a while, Mrs. Fouqet becomes deaf and very dizzy, causing her life to be different from a lot of others. In this documentary, we will show how she got this problem, how she deals with it and how she overcomes it.

The issue in this film is that Mr. Fouqet's family has a daily struggle with Mrs. Fouqet with the inability to function with some daily tasks.

Mr. Fouqet wants to see his wife succeed in areas where she has difficulties in.

The climax of this story will be when Mrs. Fouqet will overcome her challenges.

Plot Diagram:

1. Finding out Mr. Fouqet's life revolving around his wife and how he deals with her difficulties.
2. Filming Mrs. Fouqet's hobbies and how she adjusts to life facing her challenges.
3. Interviewing the Fouqet family about their views and opinions on Mrs. Fouqet.

Resolution:

At the end of the film we would like to show the audience how Mrs. Fouqet will show her ability to overcome her challenges and to inspire others to overcome their own challenges as well.

We will plan on shooting when we get back from winter break.

Final exam study tips

December has started, so that means one day closer to Winter Break and also one day closer to finals. The last couple of weeks before the break hits can bring a lot of stress to students who are scrambling to study for multiple tests. Here are some websites that can be your friend for finals:

1. quizlet.com

This website is perfect for studying and memorizing definitions of words and or people. Since you can can just create your own notecard or it may already have the definition and the notecard for you, it saves you time from writing down terms and definitions on notecards. It’s a great website for last minute studying for any vocabulary.

2. sparknotes.com

This website is perfect for studying any subject ranging from poetry to sociology. It gives you summaries and examples for almost everything you need to know for any of your subjects. Its best criteria is literature where it consists of thousands of books and have a complete break down for each of its chapters that has its own summaries and analysis. This is the perfect website if you’re behind in a book.

3. studystack.com

Similar to both sparknotes and quizlet.com, this websites allow you to review and study various subjects to help for your finals. It contains thousands of review worksheets and flashcards for all subjects that are created by teachers. It helps you comprehend each subject thoroughly and reviews your basic knowledge of the certain subject.

4. shmoop.com

This website is really resourceful for it consist ways to study for final exams, and notes as well. Not only is this a good website for studying but it also offers a way to help jumpstart a career that you might not even know that you may be interested in. It makes you take a test and based off your answers, it compiles a list of careers relevant to you.

5. youtube.com

No this is not a joke, but youtube is actually a great way to watch videos on anything you need to study for your upcoming finals. It will have note-taking videos, experiment videos, and step by step videos to help for your test(s). Need help on how to balance chemical equations? Look it up. Help for math equations? Look it up. Help with geography? Look it up. Youtube will have all you need plus more.

Greatest NFL Catches in the Past Decade

5. Pierre Garçon one handed catch from Peyton Manning.

With one of the rare instances where Peyton Manning had a pass a little bit overthrown, Pierre Garcon had no problem catching the ball. His leap made him look like he had a 48 inch vertical as he reached with one hand up in the air and grab the ball as if it were a tennis ball and brought it down for the catch.

4. Troy Polamalu Interception.

Possibly the greatest interception ever and maybe the greatest safety ever to play the game, this diving one-handed catch of the defender was definitely a jaw dropper. He was only inches away from hitting the ground but secured the catch just in time.

3. Brandon Lloyd one hander.

Go to the 1:38 minute mark. This Odell Beckham Jr. like catch was absolutely insane, though it was not a touchdown like Beckham's was, it was certainly a further pass and catch as he reached for the skies over his shoulders and go it with one hand.

2. David Tyree's helmet catch in Superbowl XL11

No doubt this was the greatest catch in Super Bowl history, this catch also propelled the Giants to a comeback victory over the undefeated Patriots. Once he caught it, he sort of put the ball on type of his helmet for support and to keep it from dropping. Eli Manning's scramble aaas perfect. The pass was perfect. The catch was perfect. And the Patriots perfect season was over.

1. Odell Beckham Jr's greatest catch.

To many people's eyes, this was the greatest catch ever seen. This kid is only a rookie and already has arguably one of the greatest catches in NFL history. While the corner was penalized for holding on to him, Beckham reached over in a 120 degree angle, reached up with one hand, and caught the ball with two fingers and a thumb. Absolutely amazing. This catch will be the greatest catch ever for a very long time.

A New Golden Age?

When HBO and CBS announced that they were allowing customers to bypass traditional and go view entertainment directly front the internet, changes were coming to the TV industry. The author states that because of this, the world entered a new 'Golden Age.'

The author's argument in this article is that consumers now dominate the content creation process. He sources that more new content posted in one month on YouTube than was created by the three major television networks in the past 60 years. He also states that when HBO battles market shares, it will continue to change the way we share our stories, but also says that Netflix has already established this  by negotiating the release of new film both in theaters and streaming online.
Some strengths of this article is that he uses a bunch of evidences and backs it up with the resources he found them with (i.e Youtube and Netflix). He is also very good at transitioning from one paragraph to another by using words and sentences to don't complete his argument or fact but yet finishes it in the next paragraph to keep the readers interested in the article. He does not have any major weaknesses in the article.

The author constantly supports his main points with examples of how TV/Gaming companies are adjusting to the new lifestyles of the so called 'Golden Age' of the modern era. 
The evidence is convincing to me because the companies he talked about are companies I use often. I was a little bit confused on what he meant when he said the "installment of  Crouching Tiger, and Hidden Dragon." I didn't know if it was a reference to something or a certain form of word usage.

Overall I thought this was a well developed article over the 'Golden Age' that included many arguments and backed up his arguments with evidence/resources. 

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/digital-innovation-golden-age/

Five Tips for Interviews

1) Make sure you get multiple angle shots of your interviewer. You don't just want one shot the whole entire interview.

2) Do your research. Make sure you actually know what is going on with your interview before it happens. Things might get awkward if you don't.

3) Know what type of questions and story you want to create before you film. If you come unprepared to the interview, then your interviewer might get upset because you are wasting his time just trying to figure out what type of questions you are going to ask him or her.

4) Don't make the person you are interviewing look at a camera. That usually makes a person feel uncomfortable, make the person you are interviewing look at you when the interview is taking place for better results and better answers.

5) Be sure you have prepared questions that relate to the interview. This will allow the interview to go  as plan instead of awkward questions.

ONW v.s. SMNW Regional Soccer Highlights

Results and Stats

9/2 – ONW v.s. Blue Valley Southwest—-Sam Howell & Sam Thomas 1 goal, L, 2-3, 

9/3 – ONW v.s. Shawnee Mission Northwest—-Sam Howell 1 goal, L in PKs, 1-1

9/4 – ONW v.s. Ray Pec—-Sam Thomas, John Hickman, and Jack Cashman 1 goal, W, 3-0

9/11 – ONW v.s. Saint James—-Sam Howell and Sam Thomas 1 goal, W, 2-1 (OT)

9/13 – ONW v.s. Wichita East—-Sam Howell 2 goals, W, 2-0

9/16 – ONW @ Lawrence—-Tie, 0-0 

9/18 – ONW v.s. Leavenworth—-John Hickman 3 goals, John Varela 2 goals, Connor Jokerst, Sam Howell, Griffin King 1 goal, W, 8-0

9/23 – ONW v.s. Olathe South—-L, 0-1

9/25 – ONW @ Free State—-Sam Howell and Christian Haley 1 goal, W, 2-1

9/30 – ONW v.s. Shawnee Mission West—-Jack O’Brien, Sam Thomas, Jack Cashman 1 goal, W, 3-1

10/2 – ONW v.s. Shawnee Mission South—-Jack O’Brien and John Varela 1 goal, W, 2-0

10/7 – ONW v.s. Shawnee Mission Northwest—-Sam Howell and Griffin King 1 goal, Tie, 2-2

10/9 – ONW @ Shawnee Mission North—-Tie, 0-0

10/14 – ONW v.s. Olathe North—-Sam Howell 3 goals, Josh Varela 2 goals, W, 5-1

10/21 – ONW v.s. Shawnee Mission East—Jack O’Brien 1 goal, L, 2-1 (OT)

End of regular season 

Postseason Results:

10/27 – Regional Playoffs – ONW v.s. Shawnee Mission West

Overall Record – 8-5-3

Goal Count:

Sam Howell – 11 Goals

Josh Varela – 7 Goals

John Hickman – 4 Goals

Jack O’Brien – 4 Goals

Sam Thomas – 3 Goals

John Cashman – 2 Goals

Griffin King – 1 Goal

Christian Haley – 1 Goal

Connor Jokerst – 1 Goal

Ravens Qualify for Regionals

The Raven Soccer team finished the regular season with a positive record of 8-5-3 overall, qualifying for regionals. Senior Sam Howell lead the ravens in scoring with 11 goals, while John Varela had 7 and John Hickman had 4, coming in 2nd and 3rd.

The ravens had a rough start to the season, starting out 0-3 but quickly turned things around winning the last 8 out 12 games of the season. During the season, the ravens crushed their arch rival, Olathe North, during the season, obliterating them 5-1 and their best game of the season came against Leavenworth, dismantling them 8-0. In the third game of the season, the ravens loss in a heartbreaker, losing in PK’s (which is equivalent to OT) to Shawnee Mission Northwest. The varsity squad was lucky to be very healthy this year with only one major setback with Jack O’Brien suffering a hamstring injury, missing 2-3 weeks.The soccer team had a major improvement from last year where they finished with a losing record.

The ravens first game of the postseason is next monday where the date and opponent is to yet to be determined. Now qualifying for regionals, things get more intense for the soccer team where its win or go home.

Soccer Head Coach, Chris Graham

Coach Graham was named the head coach for both the men’s and women’s programs at Olathe Northwest High School in 2008.  Prior to accepting the position at ONW, he served as the head coach at Spring Hill High School, opening both the mens’ and womens’ programs.  Coach Graham has served as the assistant varsity coach at Olathe Northwest for four years, helping to open that program as well in 2003.  From 2000-2003 he served as an assistant on staff at Olathe East High School.  Coach Graham is Nationally Licensed by the USSF, a diploma recipient and a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, and has served on staff with the Kansas Olympic Development Program.  His wife, Krista, is an elementary school counselor in Olathe.  They have 2 children, a daughter (Addison) born in 2004 and a son Mason born in 2008.

Preseason Perspective: Boy's Soccer

Last year’s record: We finished the regular season last year 8-8 and then lost to SMNW in playoffs to end up 8-9.

Key Match ups: That obviously starts with the other three Olathe schools.  Outside of Olathe, the rest of the Sunflower League provides such strong competition that every game is a key match-up for us.

Key Players: Our senior class is going to be extremely important for us this year with their leadership and their experience at this level.  Our seniors are Sam Howell, Sam Thomas, Jack O’Brien, Josh Varela, John Hickman, Christian Haley, Matt Wilkinson, and Jack Holmgren.

Seniors: Sam Howell, Sam Thomas, Jack O’Brien, Josh Varela, John Hickman, Christian Haley, Matt Wilkinson, and Jack Holmgren.

Key Newcomers: Connor Jokerst, Chris Cotton, Jack Cashman, Logan Elmer, Jack Holmgren

What do you expect from your team this season differently from the last?

We had a hard time fielding a consistent starting 11 last year due to injuries and other things that we going on.  I expect this year to be much different in the sense that within this group, I expect every one of our 17 players to contribute significant minutes every game this season, and hopefully we can be more consistent with who is available to try and build chemistry throughout the season.

What do you need to do as a coach to help your team be successful?

To help us be successful, I need to make sure that I, along with our entire staff, is working hard to train and prepare the boys in a way that allows them to be as successful as possible.  We want to provide an environment that pushes the boys to compete daily, and to help them develop confidence in each other.

Is there something about this team that seperates them from any teams you’ve coached in the past?

In previous years, there have been times where I haven’t necessarily known how much certain players would contribute right away at the Varsity level.  My expectation for these 17 guys is that every player will have a significant impact for us to be as successful as I think we can be.

What have you done differently to prepare for this season versus last season?

We took a group to St. Louis this year for a summer tournament to allow us the chance to build some chemistry and play together prior to the start of the season.  We also relied more on our seniors this summer to lead certain off-season workouts.

What key games do you see on the roster as a challenge to your team?

All of our league opponents are a challenge, and with our involvement in the Olathe Tournament, it presents another 3 very challenging games on our schedule.

Player Feature: Matt Wilkinson

Matt Wilkinson, senior, is a starting varsity player for the Olathe Northwest Soccer Team. He plays central defender, and has been on varsity the past three years. He is an all-around athlete for he is also on the varsity raven track squad and is rivaling the school record in the 400 meter run. Matt Wilkinson has high hopes on his soccer team this upcoming season;

“We’re more of a team this year, we collaborate better than last year’s team.”

Part of Wilkinson’s high hopes on this season is due to the fact that he believes in Coach Graham

“I think he’s a great coach, he knows how to put everyone in their positions and knows how to get us fired up for the game.”

Part of Wilkinson’s contribution to the team is that is greatest strength is when his team is down and takes over games;

“I think my greatest strengths is when I’m in the air.” Air meaning dribbling, punting, and headhunting the ball.

Like most players, Matt’s hope and dream is to play in college and then professionally;

“I hope to play in college but i’m not for sure.”

His style of play and player he likes most is Paris Saint-Germain player, Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Olathe Northwest Soccer Highlights 9/25/14

Q&A with Griffin King

Griffin King, a first year varsity player, is one of 6 sophomores currently on the ONW varsity soccer team. He brings speed and versatility to the varsity soccer squad. He has high hopes on this years soccer team.

What position do you play?

I play forward.

What motivates you to be a better soccer player?

Reaching my potential and hoping to go college and to go pro.

Where did you first start playing soccer?

I first started playing for a recreational soccer team in my neighborhood. 

What have you personally improved on?

The speed of the game and being on varsity.

How do you think the team will progress from here?

Over the past ten games we have gotten better each game.

How has coach Graham helped your team to become more competitive?

He really sees what potential we have to help motivate us to know what to do from what he says.

Do you or your team have any pre-game rituals?

We have a pump up mixtape video that we watch and we also have a special warmup that we go through.

What are your greatest hopes and fears for this season?

We would like to go over 500 and hopefully win state and our greatest fear is not making the playoffs.

Kyle Ptasnik Interview