Hannah Schofield

In the second session we had a tutorial on how to use Adobe Premier Pro. We looked how to export and import and how to simply edit your video. We learnt were to get copyright music from and how to add it into the background of our videos and how to add all different layers to create a documentary type video. We were given a take ‘My Local Covid’ were we had to go out and take image and videos that related to covid and make a video out of them. I decided to focus on the topic of how covid effected international students as I live with two international students. I decided to interview one of them (Tania) who is from Switzerland and is in her third year of university. I added this into the middle of my video.

Lsbu first year marketing student Lily Keohane, 18, is secretly a YouTube superstar who has one hundred and ten thousand subscribers on her channel – Lilymaexo.

Lily first started her YouTube channel when she was ten years old. She was inspired by popular Disney channel show ICarly and began posting skits on her channel with a school friend. Over 5 year’s time, Lily had branched out on YouTube alone and had reached 6000 subscribers by the time she was fifteen. Lily’s success on Youtube skyrocketed when she posted a ‘Night-time routine’ and a ‘First day of year eleven’ video. She said: “Both of the videos did really well, the night-time routine video got 700,000 views and the first day of year eleven video got around 600,000 views.”

Lily described the experience as a ‘great feeling’ and explained that her channel continued to grow from there up to 25,000 subscribers within a few weeks of posting the videos. Lily now post relatable content such as vlogs and lifestyle videos that still gain great interaction from subscribers. Many people when experiencing success on social media decide to focus solely on growing their followers and opportunities within that industry. However, Lily decided to attend university alongside creating content for her channel. The marketing student said: “University was never part of my plan, I never dreamt about the day I would attend university.” Despite this, Lily decided to attend London South Bank University as for her, YouTube is a ‘hobby not a full-time job’ and she wanted a degree to fall back on and study a subject that she enjoys.

When asked where she sees herself and her YouTube journey in five years’ time she said: “I would like to grow my social media platforms, have a clothing line and grab any opportunities I can get.” Whilst three of these next five years will be spent gaining a degree, Lily will have her hands full with a full-time course and levelling up her social media platforms to stay relevant in such a competitive field.

Lily is determined to meet more subscribers, do well in her degree, save for a house and branch out into other aspects of social media.

“I’ve got big dreams to achieve.”

12th October – Voice Training

During this session, Amanda taught use how to use our bodies to project ourselves to be confident and clear public speakers. we learnt about were the voice times from and how to speak clearly to enhance the importance of what we are saying. We also completed an exercise were we spoke into a microphone and had to read a piece of an article, we was recorded whilst doing so. This pushed us out of our comfort zones and allowed us to evaluate what we do right and wrong whilst public speaking. For example, I could read clearly and confidently but read to quickly and needed to slow down my pace.

13th October – Video/audio packages and Story angles

During this session, Rime presented possible ideas for our theme for our video or audio. I am interested in Home, family and relationships as the way people think and feel interests and inspires me. I am unsure at the moment whether I will choose an audio or video as my main piece. We learnt about the different angles that stories can have such as national, local, new development, follow up and human interest. I think I want my piece to be heartfelt and personal however I am unsure of the overall idea at this point and I am also wary of the editing as I lack experience in this department. I am thinking along the lines of questions/ interviews with people such as ‘where or who feels like home to you and why?’ or ‘What is the last thing you said to a person you love today?’

Other ideas I have at the moment are how relationships struggled through the pandemic or long distances.

Hannah Schofield – LSBU Student

Students at the LSBU Accommodation are struggling to cope with their mental health due to the overnight guest’s pass being banned for the first few weeks of term.

Students at the LSBU accommodation are struggling to cope with their mental health due to the overnight guest’s pass being banned for the first few weeks of term.

This has created a debate whether Covid 19 regulations are more important than student’s wellbeing as many will be far and wide from family and friends. Students questioned the necessity of these new rules due to mass double vaccination and an easing of Covid 19 regulations in the UK. Students are appalled that they are paying over six thousand pound a year and yet do not receive value for their money. 

A Standard En-Suite room at McLaren cost one hundred and sixty-nine pound a week and a Queen En-Suite room cost one hundred and eighty-one pound a week. These figures remain the same even though residents are not receiving the benefits for paying these prices. Queen En-Suite resident Saoirshe Smethurst, said: “McLaren charges more for benefits such as visitation, so logically they should reduce the price for however long they take our benefits away.”

Students feel robbed as they pay to live at McLaren and yet do not have the freedom to have family and friends over until the staff say so. 

Covid 19 is the most probable reason for the ban of guests, however Denise (Head of McLaren) stated: “No, it is not Covid related, and the reasons are in an email sent out to residents.” The email sent by McLaren on the 16^th of September clearly states, ‘To minimise any increase of self-isolation cases as students continue to arrive in halls.’ This has created confusion in halls as staff claim it is not covid related but their email says otherwise. 

Most students feel that this ban is unnecessary and unfair. Guest are allowed in McLaren from 7am to 11pm but not overnight. Possibly the staff believe that Covid does not exist between the hours of 7 and 11. Resident Amelia Homer, said: “It is bad for students’ mental health which I think is more detrimental than a virus were over half the country is double vaccinated and the virus has a ninety nine percent survival rate.” 

A second email sent out a day before the guest pass ban was to be lifted, exclaimed that the ban was being extended to the 11^th of October. This has only caused more anger and worry for students as it has now been a month without being able to have family members or friends stay over. With Mental health awareness week approaching (9th – 11th October) possibly McLaren will look more into the long-term effects of this ban on their residents and grant their students some time to see loved ones in a safe and comforting environment.  

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