S | 3 | News Story

Today you finish what 3.1–3.4 built: a real news story, from planning through a captioned, polished final export, with one structured round of peer feedback in between.

Project Briefing (~10 min)

Before you review anyone’s work, review the process. Peer review only works if feedback is specific, objective, and kind. “I didn’t like the ending” doesn’t help anyone revise.

Review the Plus/Delta process together as a class before groups begin.

Project Work Time (~23 min)

Peer Review & Revision

1. Prepare

  • The Draft: Ensure your work is exported or ready to view. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Placeholders for missing pieces are okay!
  • The Plus/Delta Chart: Create a simple T-chart on a piece of paper or a digital document:
  • Plus (+): What is working well? (Strengths, clear storytelling, strong technique).
  • Delta (Δ): What should be changed or improved? (The Greek symbol for “change”).

2. The Review Process

  • Silent First Pass: Experience the work all the way through once without speaking. This allows the reviewer to experience the “flow” of the piece.
  • Second Pass: Go through it again, but this time, the reviewer should jot down specific notes in the Plus and Delta columns.
  • The Golden Rule: Feedback should be Specific, Objective, and Kind.
  • Bad: “I didn’t like the ending.”
  • Good: “The ending felt abrupt because the music cut off before the reporter finished speaking.”

3. Giving Feedback (The Reviewer)

  • Identify the “Pluses”: Start with what is successful.
  • Suggest the “Deltas”: Instead of just pointing out a mistake, offer a solution.
  • Example: “The transition at 0:45 is a bit slow; maybe try a simple cut instead of a dissolve.”

4. Receiving Feedback (The Creator)

  • Listen Without Defending: It’s tempting to explain why you made a choice, but for now, just listen and take notes. If a peer is confused, a general audience likely will be too.
  • Ask Clarifying Questions: If a note is vague, ask for the exact timestamp or location: “Can you show me exactly where the audio got too loud?”

5. The Revision Plan

After the session, look at your Delta column and prioritize your edits:

  1. Level 1 (Critical): Technical errors (missing audio, black frames, typos).
  2. Level 2 (Message): Pacing issues or confusing sequences.
  3. Level 3 (Polishing): Color tweaks, fancy transitions, or extra effects.

Finish & Polish

  1. Apply your Revision Plan, prioritizing Level 1 (critical/technical) fixes first, then Level 2 (pacing/clarity), then Level 3 (polish).
  2. Double-check your captions are proofread and accurate after any edit changes.
  3. Confirm both deliverables are ready: the burned-in captioned export and the sidecar caption file.

Which single piece of peer feedback changed your edit the most, and why?

GMetrix/BrainBuffet (~30 min)

Continue Module 3: Horror Chase “No Way Out”: pacing and cinematic-crop content that previews Unit 4.

Deliver, Export & Submit (~5 min)

Deliver

  1. Finalize your timeline.
    • Delete out any spaces in your timeline.
    • Mark Ins and Outs (Best Practice)

Export Finished Project

  1. Go to File>Export>Media>
  2. Specify your export settings
    • File Name: YYYY-MM Project Name-Lastname
    • Location: Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM Project Name/Exports
    • Preset: Match Source (or use a High Quality Preset to reduce file size)
    • Format: H.264 (The most compatible format)
  3. Choose H.264 from the Format menu. This will create an mp4 file on export.
  4. Click Export. The export script will run until finished.

Strike

Film sets “strike” (tear down) the set when shooting wraps. Editors do the same with their drives. Once your final export is delivered and your portfolio page is published:

  1. Delete the raw footage from the project folder on your computer. Your final export and project file are all you keep.
  2. Empty the Trash. Deleted footage still takes up space until you do.
  3. Confirm your final export plays from Google Drive before you leave class.

Publish your work to your Google Sites Portfolio

  1. Create a new page on your Google Sites Portfolio to catalog your work.
    • Your work should be exported in a web-safe format in a manner that allows for the work to be embedded without requiring Google Drive permissions
  2. Your work should be accompanied by a detailed project description
  3. Submit the published portfolio page to your LMS (Schoology)

🗂 Organize: Save your Revision Plan in the Project Files folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive. Save your final exported news story in the Exports folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive. Save your sidecar caption file in the Exports folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive.

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