Feature story experience

      I recently have completed a feature story over my subject named Zach Plass. Zach was adiment about the sport of airlift and usually plays every weekend. If you want to learn more about Zach and his activity make sure to check out the video which is located at the bottom of this post. On that note I have decided to write up some things about the process the experience, and the video itself.
    First I want to start off by talking about the narration and how it affected the video. I shot and edited and recoded the narration of the video, so I have seen this video during the whole process. So that means that i have seen the video before the narration, because I recorded the narration after I put together the video. Before I put the narration together the shots and images were pleasing, but it just didn't seem full without it. After I added the narration it filled up and brought new life to the video. It also brought a warmness and understanding to the story. So in conclusion the narration makes a huge impact, and i will remember to use it for videos in the future.
    Next I am going to talk about the interviews. The first person I interviewed was Zach Plass, who (incase you don't know yet) is who the feature story is about.  It was interesting hearing his opinion on airlift and also why he partakes in the sport. After Zach I interviewed Joel Plass (Zach's father). He was truly intriguing to interview because it was interesting to hear the opinion of an adult who is well informed on the subject of airsoft.
    Now I will talk about creating the script and also shooting the video and recording the voiceover. There isn't much to talk about with the script because there was no script in the interview and the voiceover script was tailored around the video itself. The only notable thing about recording the voiceover was that I had to record it twice because the first time I added personal pronouns.  Shooting the video was very thrilling because I got to partake in the sport and record those POV shots. All the POV shots you see are of me playing because Zach insisted on being on the separate team. It was really fun and turned out to be a great outlet to let go of stress.

    Overall I am pretty happy on how the video turned out and I also had fun shooting it. I hope that other people go out and partake in this sport for themselves to see what it is like.

     I have worked very hard on my feature story and have finally come to the end. You may have noticed that I have had two forms of the story. The written feature story and also the video feature story. In the video feature story, I was able to illustrate a lot of the concepts with videos of what was going on, as well as having a voiceover of what was going on. In the written form though I could not have that, so I had to write in detail of what was going on, and also had to make sure to quote the phrases to the proper people. Overall I enjoyed the video form better, but the first part of the written form was fun to write, but past that it is basically the same with alterations.

By: Evan Mayo

He starts running in a dead sprint as soon as the air horn blows, marking the start of the match. Soon there is chaos everywhere as pellets are thrown back and forth between opposing sides. Through his heavy breathing and perspiration, he is calculating. Zach is calculating where in his head he can get the best view and vantage point of the battlefield. He soon finds a piece of cover that allows him to see the raging enemy, but doesn’t allow them to see him. Setting up camp there, he starts firing towards the enemy, managing to catch a couple people in his crossfire. As he is firing though someone has snuck up the line and spots him through a perfect angle. The unidentified shooter lifts up his gun and fires, hitting Zach square in the chest. Zach then lifts up his hand and yells out, knowing that he was unsuccessful, but proud that he did his best in the sport of airsoft.

         The sport of airsoft, for which many people partake in, is one of Zach’s favorite pastime activities. Zach Plaas has been partaking in this sport for around 5 years. He really enjoys the fact that “…you’re just goofin off with your friends …  it’s competitive, but you can still have a lot of fun.”.

         The sport of airsoft is played in many game modes, but where he competes at there is a favorite of the Team Death Match style, which is what will be focused on.  What happens in this game mode is two teams are put against each other, with as evenly distributed teams as possible. Once the teams are decided the players are sent out into the field and prepared for the battle to come. Once it has started you can get people out by hitting them, but you can also become out by getting hit. Once you go out after getting hit there is actually two options for rejoining the game. You can either walk back to the spawn point, then wait a minute, then you can go back into play. Option number two, is that you can go down and then stay in the same position. Then a teammate can come up and revive you by touching you for thirty seconds. After that is completed you can resume the sport.

         Airsoft Is played with special devices that shoot pellets at high speeds, classified as airsoft guns. These aren’t real guns and they lack the capacity to be one, they just have enough force for the person you hit to feel it. Zach is very particular about his devices, and prefers to use a “MPR [special forces rifle] … of the M14, M16 model”. There are actually thousands of different models, but for the time being, that is his preferred choice.

         Joel Plass(Zach’s father), actually really thinks that the sport is really intriguing, even stating that “… It’s pretty cool to see all the people out here, with all their equipment.”. Joel condones this sport and thinks that it is really interesting, but he doesn’t partake in it himself because he prefers “real guns”, out on the range.

         A very common argument that Is heard across the airsoft community, is that it is too violent to be a sport and also promotes kids to go out and be violent with real guns. Joel Plaas doesn’t think that is the case at all, in fact he states “… no I think it’s a good activity”. Joel also believes that it is a good outlet to help relieve some of that violence that may have been pent up, in a good way.

         All in all, airsoft is a fun activity that really helps deal with stress, while having fun with friends. Zach recommends that if you can handle a device, you should try it out.