Our music video unit has now concluded and this one seemed to be a lot more hectic than I remember from sophomore year.
The Process
Originally starting there were four people in our group: Addie, Evan, Reece, and myself. The concept started with the song "Dancing Queen by ABBA", and it was going to be more of a seventies vibe. Reece and I started playing around one day and decided we wanted to take the video a different direction. We split our groups and began planning another video, "Brother by Kodaline".
Concept
While this is not my story to tell, I was apart of the video process. Reece has a brother when he was younger that passed away from a drowning accident so we wanted to do a remembrance video in Logan's honor. The song was something that meant a lot to Reece so I really wanted the opportunity to be apart of the video. We had out favorite Alumni, Abbey Heller, help us with the cinematography on the video and I did the editing. Reece, of course, took the role as the director and also the main actor.
Pre-Production/Production
This portion of the video I was not a big part of. Reece had a solid idea in his head he was keeping to himself, and when it came to the filming it was something that he and Abbey did on their own. Looking back on it, I would have preferred to be there to do the cinematography. Much of the shots filmed were shakey or dark, and there were not a plethora of shots to work with which made editing limited.
Post-Production
When I was finally able to get my hands on the shots, the editing process became a lot smoother because everything went by really fast. I spent a Saturday afternoon editing it and was able to pull the whole video together to the best of my ability. The biggest complications that came from editing was the shaky shots. Warp stabilizer did no justice in this case and actually made the shots look worse so I had to shorten a lot of the shots as much as possible to avoid the look of warp or shakey-ness.
Take Aways:
Learning Curves:
Re-doing another music video made me realize a few different things: music videos are not my strong suit in eComm, editing shots I did not film seems to frustrate me a lot more than I thought, and there is no way to create a perfect music video.
I think the reason why I struggle with music videos is because much of what I gear my interest in towards video is very serious. Common issues going on within the world, client work for information, nothing that really allows to me know how to loosen up and film people having a good time. When it comes to editing, I prefer to do editing and cinematography because I'm familiar with all the shots that I am editing already. I know what sequence I want them in, as well as a couple additional shots for things like B-roll which would have really helped the video featured below. Finally, the biggest thing that I think I struggle with on all my projects in the idea that there is a way to make the video perfect. There is not! There will always be people that don't like your video, and you can not always please everyone which is hard for the perfectionist portion of me to understand. The more projects I spend editing the better I get about understanding is that all I can do is my best and that's the mind frame I need to keep. There is always room for improvement, but the perfect video does not exist and it is not one I will be able to create.
For the Future:
Given the opportunity, I would like to redo another music video, all by myself as an assignment because I want to see how it would turn out if it was only my view on things. I think everyone has their own idea of the ideal music video and their own view on what is visually pleasing to the eye. However, when it comes to any group project, I know the planning and time management is something that could always be improved. There are a few people in our class that I think do a very good job at keeping everything in order when it comes to planning and production. I am very good at getting everything organized but actually making everything follow plan during the shoot is where I lose my drive. After watching all the videos though and hearing the concepts I am extremely impressed with how well other eComm students did. I was so impressed with show many of the videos turned out. While it's easy to criticize as well as ignore my own video, I was very impressed with two videos from the afternoon eComm class: "Youth" and "Awake my Soul". It was so impressive to see how good of a grasp my other classmates have when it comes to making music videos, or videos alone.
Conclusion:
There are many things from this that can help me grow. Taking the feedback and putting it towards my next video, learning from my peers videos, as well as asking for help when needed. They are small things but in the long run they are always things that will make a big difference in the long run which I think is the most valuable take away form these projects.
Now that senior year has started, the first assignment due was a commercial. I had a group of four people made up of two juniors and two seniors. Hadley was our art director, who turned into the cinematographer. Carson was our cinematographer that turned into our actor and editor, Nathan was our editor that assisted Carson with the final project, and I was the director that helped with the acting as well as additional camera work.
We chose to take an HP laptop as our product because this year we will be moving to the 1-to-1 at Olathe Northwest so we wanted to do a little bit of advertising around that. The whole concept came from Misson Impossible. We did not have a script when it came to this video, we just had a storyboard to plan out our shots.
The group wanted this video to be intense, but also be a little cheesy just out of the fact that the viewer doesn't quite understand why the character is running. The concept originally started out with the idea that Mac was better than an HP because that is what we, eComm, use for our entire program. Once the planning began we quickly realized that we were trying to shove too much into one minute of screen time and we needed to make something more simplistic.
Pre-Production -
After the groups were assigned, coming up with an idea took place. At first, we weren't completely sure what to do but we all knew we wanted it to be something popular so we ended up taking a laptop to film with. We made storyboards and decided we did not need a script because we wanted it to just be an action blurb. From there we starting planning out everything that needed to take place. From there everyone took on a production role, and I took on the director.
Production -
This was the hardest part for our group due to the fact that not everyone was going to be there no matter what day we chose to film. Our actor did not show up three different days, so finally on the last day, we chose to film, three out of the four of us just knocked out the project. Carson ended up having to be our actor, and Hadley ended up doing cinematography instead of art direction so there was a switch up of roles right before production actually began.
Post-Production -
Carson and Nathan took on all of the edits, this was the time that I was very hands off for a big project. Hadley and I would check in with the guys to make sure they were sticking to the storyboard as well as editing it to how the whole group originally saw the vision. Much of the time spent on editing and the "post-production" phase was used for working on my website as well as planning different video projects I am taking this year.
Five Guarantees:
Technical Skills -
This project no one in the group really took the time to learn anything new, it was all from what we remembered from last year. The most "technical" things got, was when Hadley and I worked the camera together to make sure we could get the focus right.
Communication -
The communication within our group seemed to be an issue because not everyone could be there on the day we had discussed and our actor did not show up one time. He canceled multiple times which happened to create stress that was not needed.
Leadership -
Hadley and I were the ones that really took leadership on this assignment, the guys were pretty hands off and not really involved.
Collaboration -
When assigning groups, it was more of a "collaboration" than previous projects done in eComm. We meshed groups together to bring in new ideas.
Project Management -
Aside from the communication problems, this project went really smoothly. We were integrating with the new class of juniors, and it was our first assignment.
General Thoughts:
Improvements -
After receiving feedback from the class, a lot of valid points were made. Our video is difficult to identify what we were advertising. It bounces around a lot between shots, and it is kinda all over the place. I would want us to go back and rework the story a little bit, or maybe change the product in general to something we could make more comedic as opposed to action base.
Conclusions -
I enjoyed the new connections I made with the group on this project. Smaller things like this are what I am hoping to get better at as the year progresses. This is looking to be a very good one and I think the new insight coming from the juniors is going to help us have a really strong feature film this year.
During semester one, a lot of projects and activities took place. We learned through creating PSA's, short films, writing scripts, guest speakers, a lip-dub production, as well as a field trip. At the start of the year, our first project was our PSA, and our group chose the topic of racism.
Racism PSA
The project itself was completed before two weeks. We had the idea of bringing everyone together to create unity instead of the separation between race. When it came to the challenges we faced during the production of everything, the biggest complication was getting actors. We initially wanted a large number of people to be there for the ending shot of everyone holding hands but we were unable to get the number of people we actually wanted. Along the way, we had learned that our planning as a group needed to be a little bit better as none of our times for production worked with every group member. When it came to present to the class, we were given feedback that discussed our lighting. The class liked the concept and the set up of the video, they just felt it would have been easier to watch if it was brighter. We were unable to go back and make changes without redoing the entire video because when it came to color correcting in the editing, everything turned an orange color or a blue color, the picture no longer looked normal. Overall, this is a project I would not consider my best work, but it was a learning experience considering it was the first project we did coming back from summer break.
Short Film
Our next project we created was a short film, that also involved our second assignment of the year, my script. The original idea behind my story was Christopher Robin, from Winnie the Pooh. He grew up in a broken family, with parents who did not want him so I ended up taking that idea and making a story out of it. We had a mother, an older sister, and a younger sister. The mother who is an alcoholic is very aggressive towards the older sister who goes out of her way to protect the younger sister. It was based on family dynamic and who actually took care of one another in the family. We spent an entire day of filming, after a week of pre-production, and three days of editing. The most challenging part of all of this was that we had a camera die right at the end of the production so we ended the film very abruptly. Along the way, we learned that even though you are filming something that will be five minutes when done, it can take you 4 hours to shoot. When my group and I presented to the class, a lot of what we got was positive but some things that people pointed out is that we didn't have a variety of close up shots. There were things in the film that would have been a lot stronger if we had got shots that were closer or conveyed more emotion. They also made notes of the ending, about how the film just ended at the end of act two without any resolution. We were unable at the time to go back and change things like that because it would have resulted in a restart of the entire production process just for that ending scene. Looking back at it now, it would very much be something I would like to change, but our group never took the time to. Overall, I was semi-happy with this project, I look at it and can see a lot of things that need to be fixed but for my second short film created, I would say it was pretty decent.
Class Time
Class time this semester was used very productive some weeks, and not so productive with others. During this semester I took on additional projects like the lip-dub which took away a lot of "menu item" time. A few of us in class spent a lot of class time in pre-production for the lip-dub video which kept most of my attention when things were not happening in class. Once the lip-dub was done, my focus immediately switched to the scripting of Kansas City Savior so it went from on project to another. Any real downtime was spent doing homework, or going over menu items, or working on videos for an upcoming youtube channel a few of us in eComm would like to be starting next semester. Outside of class, most of the eComm work done was centered around pre-production things. It was rare I took home camera equipment this semester. When the equipment was taken home, it was for personal use, working on filming different things, or taking pictures - nothing that was published for eComm.
Strengths and Weaknesses
When it comes to my strengths in eComm, I believe I am strongest in project management and leadership. I spend a lot of time planning different things and keeping what I can organize in class with all of our projects and I feel that is where my skills are used best. When it comes to my communication, I also believe that is a stronger trait of mine, but it still needs some work. Collaboration is something I feel I do well because you can't do all the planning on your own and you end up needing help along the way. My technical skills I feel are my weaknesses in the program because I don't put as much time into the camera work or editing when it comes to production as I do with all of the planning in pre-production. Editing is something I do believe relaxes me once I get into a rhythm or in the "zone" of editing, but outside of that, my technical skills are something that will always need work.
Guest Speakers
During the semester we got the chance to hear from two guest speakers, Gordon Lamb and Joshua Smith. I loved listening to both of them talk about their experience. When it comes to what we learned, I had learned most about the personality behind filming and producing videos from Mr. Smith, and the different times of professional equipment from Mr. Lamb. Overall, I was very very happy listening to them and learning about all of the equipment and experience both of the guest speakers had gone through. They were able to give us not just information over the film industry, and production but also over things they had learned in their life that helped them be where they are today and that was really important, I felt when speaking to a group of high school students.
MX4D Experience
Our field trip this semester was something I was really happy I got the chance to experience. We were able to sit through a movie and had numerous features actually you and your senses to feel as if you were actually in the video. The biggest takeaway from the field trip for me was that, when it comes to production, there are higher standards of how this movie can be shown so trying to make it realistic is important. The new technology in the film industry I do believe is very cool, but it is also something I feel needs to be executed correctly otherwise it can ruin a whole production.
Summary
The first semester, I thought was great. My favorite part, of course, was the production of the lip-dub because that was the project I got to take on as my own with a whole team of people. It was one of the most positive and fun-filled experiences I had had throughout high school and I am really really thankful for that. If I could go back, I would put a little more time into our first two projects because I know they can be a lot better than they are now, but it has to be something everyone in the group is dedicated to, not just a few group members. One of the biggest takeaways I learned this semester is that no matter how much you plan, not everything will go the way you want it to, and that was probably one of the hardest things for me to be okay with considering I always spent so much time planning things. My biggest goal for next semester is to have a quality feature film that runs smoothly. When it comes to our eComm class we know our strengths and we know our weaknesses, and we have to be able to work as a team around those things. Aside from all of that, I am genuinely very thankful for everything that happened this semester and I'm looking forward to coming back after the break and hitting the ground running without feature film.
Back in August, I approached my entertainment teacher with the idea of bringing back an all-school video in order to promote positive press towards our school. The original idea behind all of this was that with a new school in the district was opening up Olathe Northwest had large changes regarding over half of a new staff, as well as a decrease in students transferring to the new school. The intention behind the video was to bring the student body together and show off the love for our school because it was something I felt we as a school needed. From that point, my teacher Mrs. Smith began helping me plan out how we could make everything work.
"Pre-Production" Process -
Building a Team
The very first thing I did for this project was present it to the two entertainment classes in the eComm program in order to build a team of people who would be helping me with this project. Surprisingly 34 different students were interested from the start which was amazing to see. A power point was presented to them showing Olathe Northwest's first Lip-Dub from 2011, as well as our latest video made in 2015 centered around High School Musical's "We're all in this Together". I had talked to the classes about how I would like this year's video to be the traditional "Lip-Dub" style because it allowed everyone to participate and show off their love for what they spent high school involved in. After getting a team together, our production crew was asked what positions they would like to be apart of (Director of Photography, Editor, Art Director, Location Managers, and Music Supervisor) and filled out small applications allowing Mrs. Smith and I to pick who was right for each part. Our next step from there was to present the idea to administration and get everything approved before we could plan.
Administration Pitch
After scheduling a meeting with the administrative staff, I presented to them the same power point I originally presented to my production team. We sat in a room and talked through all the possibilities and different ideas we would like to have in the video. They asked questions about how we planned to execute this video and how they could help. They agreed with the reasoning behind why the video should be made and they felt that this was something the school really needed due to the changes made. By the end of the meeting, we got the approval for the video and we were able to start planning.
Production Team Planning
About every week we would meet one morning at 7 am and would have breakfast and talks about the different things we would like to have in the video. One of our biggest things was the song as that is the most important part of the video. We worked to create a path to maximize the number of students we would put throughout the school as well as where each group should be based on how many participated and how much they wanted to do in the video. A drone was incorporated to show the entire outside of our school and then we focused on showing off the students, what Olathe Northwest was really about. One thing we wanted to make sure we HAD in the video was a big ending scene with everyone coming together because that showed off what the "Raven Nation" really was. In the time of planning, posters and t-shirts were made for the entire production team. The administration was given shirts as a gift for all their help, as well as additional staff t-shirts for all the eComm teachers and a few additional who were part of the planning and execution of the video.
Prep-Night
As the student director, this was the most fun I had aside from the actual lip-dub. Prep-Night was November 8th, the day before the lip-dub. My production team helped hang up posters, blow up 600+ balloons, do walkthroughs, go over job assignments/final procedures for the next morning. Different rooms in the school were arranged different ways, we figured out where rugs needed to be placed for camera movement to be clean, as well as where poles needed to be moved from what doors. Our final touches resulted in taping sports on the floor where our RFC members (Raven Flight Core) would start their lip-sync section. A small group of us stayed the entire night and by the time we left it was 10:20 pm and the next morning we were back at 6:30 am ready to go again.
Production
November 9th, 2017 was the day my production team and I had been prepping for since the second week in August and the day production took place everyone was very excited but on edge, because we all wanted this to be amazing so it quickly was a reality check that the video was happening. Fox 4 was there getting behind the scene footage of the filming of the Lip-Dub as well as additional people from the district in order to see the process. There were some complications during filming that day. We originally planned for the lip-dub to be shot two times through completely that way we had options, but we ended up having to do four complete walkthroughs because we were running too fast through the path.
Take One/Take Two
Our first two recordings of the lip-dub, you were not able to tell what each group was because we were running instead of just walking. We had an incident at the end of the second run through where the music had stopped right before entering the gym so our last couple people lip-syncing made up what they were doing and people around them had just continued cheering and keeping the spirit going.
Take Three
On our third take it the music had stopped halfway through which resulted in a total reset right after making it past Golf into the commons. At this point, we switched out speakers in order to make the music louder as well as make sure it would work all the way through the school.
Take Four
The fourth time we were able to make it all the way through with the music as well as slow down our speed so everyone was noticeable. By the fourth take, the timing was practically perfect, there were only a few things noticeable about the first three takes to the final take and that was the spirit in some parts of the hallway. It was hard for everyone to maintain the hype by the end of the fourth run through due to all the time it was taking.
Gym Scene
The gym scene was by far the most successful part of this video in my opinion. The entire school came together and we did our "Oh When Northwest" chant and at the very end the student body rushed the floor and balloons were pulled and thrown into the crowned. This really showed the unity and pride our school needed coming together for the shot.
"Post-Production" Process -
As soon as we finished filming in the school, we immediately headed upstairs and the editing team got to work. We started to pick our what shots we wanted to use for the gym, as well as which take we wanted to use versus ones we could not use. The editing team worked Friday, then the following Monday-Wednesday on getting color corrections, nat noise, music integration, clip alignment, as well as transition shots were done. Thursday, November 16th was the day of our premiere to the school and all of us were extremely pleased with the outcome even though there are things we know we can change.
Final Thoughts/Conclusion -
The entire experience behind the lip-dub was extremely fulfilling for me. While there was a lot of stress, I was very happy with everything in the end.
Changes -
There are a few things I think would be beneficial for next year if we choose to do this again.
1. Communication between location directors - During our run-throughs, we had art directors calling and yelling what we were passing so the other side of the school knew what was going on and it made things hard on both ends. The other side of the school didn't know, the calls would drop, different things like that.
2. Louder speaker(s) positioned throughout the school - Everyone needs to know where we are and there were points where I feel like students were a little blindsided by the fact that the camera was right in from of them cause it would be a really quick turn of a corner and it instantly was there turn to get hyped up.
3. Press - I think this would have been beneficial if we were to bring more publicity to what we were doing. Posters being made sooner and hung up for the rest of the students to see and be made aware of. Mrs. Smith made a good point that we could have easily drawn more outside attention from this that would show off our school in a positive manner so that was something to keep in mind for next year.
Those were the three biggest points I thought would have made the video smoother but I know there are others. The week following the lip-dub we got feedback from both entertainment classes where a lot of good points were brought up that I also think will help change how next years video is produced.
Conclusion -
I could not be more thankful for the experience gained from being student director on a project this large. I learned a lot about myself during this time, as well as what it really means to be a leader. Seeing the entire school come together the way they did was one of the satisfying and heartwarming feelings I have ever gotten because I really showed off who we are as Olathe Northwest and that was something I think everyone needed to see. A huge thank you goes out to every single person who was apart of the process because without all of them it would not have been possible. For the future, I hope I will be able to make a second one senior year and find ways to improve this year's video.
Create a Short Film: A short film is designed to reach a specific audience with a strong beginning, middle and end storyline. It will tell a complete story (Act I, II, III) and entertain an audience. Your short film should be a minimum of 5 minutes to a maximum of 10 minutes long. It should contain your title and have ending credits.
The script:
The short film you see above was originally a different script based on Christopher Robin's childhood story. The script was re-wrote and was produced as the following:
Two girls living in a broken family. The father is not present and the mother is an abusive alcoholic. The girls are unable to continue living in their house because the older sister does not feel it is safe for them so she attempts to leave but runs into different problems.
Production Process:
Pre-Production -
In Pre-Production, we picked groups and production roles based on who in the class wanted to do each script. I had a wonderful production crew that consisted of Armin Dikic [Cinematographer], Erin Johnson [Editor], Makenna Snowbarger [Art Director], Jordyn Whitfield [Storyboard, Documentarian], Katie MacDonald [Actress]. Our cast list included Eva Johnson, Katie MacDonald, as well as Polly Whitfiled. They were all wonderful to work with, it was a very easy going process getting everyone on board for our film day (October 7, 2017 8am-1pm).
Production -
Production was almost like a team-bonding experience for our team. The day started out with breakfast and a cast reading, as well as a walk through of shots and directional notes to be made so the overall vision of the film was kept consistent. We ran into few complications even though we had a couple of complicated scenes. The house was extremely hot, so we would find ourselves stopping to stand outside and cool off. Eight people in one room that is filled with sunlight is not the most comfortable in all honesty. We also dropped the plate off the counter causing a small dent in the floor that we are now hiding form my parents...fun times filming, every shoot is an adventure. Our final problem that seemed to effect us the most was that we had multiple cameras and by the end, all the batteries were dead or dying so we were racing against the camera battery. We were able to get all the shots we needed before it died, but not all of them saved to the SD card.
Post-Production -
Post-Production was very short for our group. Monday when the editing began, we found that our very ending scenes did not record onto the SD card, so about two minutes of footage concluding our Act III had disappeared resulting in an abrupt ending at the end of Act II. Erin worked very hard on the editing for three days and produced "EVA".
My Role -
For this project I was the director and script writer. During production, I also did a small amount of filming but that was not my main role. After this project was completed, I learned that being director is not my favorite role due to the fact that the script would only be produced the way I wanted it to. If I were to give my script off to another person in the classroom, I guarantee you that we would've had a completely different film submitted, and I like to take other people's ideas into consideration which is why the script was changed the day before we filmed.
Technically/ Professionally -
For this project, Adobe Premiere Pro was used, as well as YouTube for our background music. As this was not treated as an extremely professional project, it should have because our Five Guarantees were used in this assignment.
Technical Skills -
Cinematography, Editing on Adobe Premiere Pro, Script writing on Celtx
Communication -
Contact with crew members and actresses, coordination between location owners, members jobs and supplies needed
Leadership -
Everyone on the team was a leader in their own way. I led the vision, Armin led the camera, Jordyn led the process of shoot day, MaKenna led continuity and getting the actresses costuming/makeup, Katie led the actresses and Erin too lead on editing. We all had the opportunity to be a leader during this project.
Collaboration -
Sharing of ideas and script changes, brainstorming the overall vision or outcome of the film, working on fixing on the spot problems brought on during shoot day.
Project Management -
This is where I personally believe we lacked the most because we did not have time to go back and re-shoot the shots that we ended up not having the weekend after we filmed. We had a limited number of hours to edit, and it really effected out short film. We spent so much time in pre-production but didn't acknowledge how equally important production and post-production was in this process.
Conclusion:
Changes I would make -
We really did have a good experience filming, but I would make sure I was more tedious about filming when getting the chance to re-do this project. I would like to have all of our shots, and there are a few shots I would re-do because they are a bit shaky or dark and I effects the continuity of it. I would also probably change the location to somewhere with a larger kitchen just because we spent a lot of time there and it was SO hot by the time we finished. I also think the short film would have benefited from a little bit of script touch ups, and having another person make changes to "slower: parts in the film. Next time I will also make sure that everyone has formatted their camera cards so we do not have missing shots when starting editing. I would also make sure the profanity in the one kitchen scene was removed.
Things I would keep the same -
Almost everything I would keep the same regarding what is left. I had a wonderful team, our production crew's family that helped us were some of the sweetest and funniest people I have had the opportunity to work with. I am overly thankful for everyone that help with this project because while I am fully aware our short film could be much stronger and more detailed, I felt like for our first short film of the year it is sitting in a very good place. We were given very good feedback from the class consisting of people really liking the editing style, the variety of shots and music chose. Many spoke on behalf of the fact that broken families are a very real situation and it was portrayed very well in this film and it was easily understandable.
Final thought:
From here on out I would like my projects to continue to improve because I know I do not push myself hard enough. I would also like to take the time to branch out and try other jobs as I do love being behind the camera as well as editing but it is not always my first choice.
Our first assignment of the year was to make a PSA that was between 50 seconds and two minutes long. The group decided our PSA would be over racism. We thought using silhouettes would be a really strong idea for the video as it never showed the color of someone's skin, only the outline of their body sticking with the theme "we are all just people".
Pre-Production:
Pre-production consisted of a lot of brain storming. We came up with the idea to take a bunch of different people with different races and ethnicities and having them speak/take pictures for us. We stuck with visual representations of "coming together". The storyboarding nor script took long because we pulled statistics for or actors to say, and much of our story boarding was just pictures of silhouettes. We all took rolls in the group, choosing what we were most comfortable with for this first project which helped it move along quite smoothly. The hardest part of preproduction was getting the cast list to work best with the production team. It unfortunately fell apart right at the end because we were unable to use all the people we originally wanted so we improvised and worked with the smaller group of people and turned in a product that was not as good as originally planned.
Production:
Production was a really short process. We filmed other eComm students during class so we could get all the images of silhouettes we needed. Our actual footage took about 15 minutes to shoot after school one day, and most of that time was spent waiting around for people to get there or finding people that could help.
Post-Production:
Post-Production is always my favorite part of the process because it is an "all on your own" part. You are able to sit and edit, and you generally get a different product from the rest of the group because you interpreted the concept a different way. Especially with such a short video, it is easy to get really caught up in small details and finding things you would change and make better for next time which is why I like it so much, because I'm able to learn from it.
My Role:
For this video, I took the role of cinematographer. I was not really needed until the afternoon we shot video. I helped a lot in the brainstorming how we thought the video should look but after that I was more hands-off until they needed my help. While filming all of this I learned the video would have been much better if we were able to get a lot more people to come help us because it would have looked like more people were helping support what we were doing. We had 6 actors come and help us and they were very easy to work with, but it was a real eye-opener on how much our pre-production fell through when we started filming.
General Information:
For this project we used Adobe Premiere Pro, which is what we used last year for all of our video edits. Much of our five guarantees were used in this project, but all in different ways. Technical skills were not as enhanced in this project as we took pictures of silhouettes and used and dolly to push and pull a camera. The communication between the group was pretty average for our first project. We all chose each other which made the communication between the 5 members easier as we were all friends. Armin really took leadership in this project as he was our director and it was him who made all the final choices. Collaboration was heavy in this assignment. We worked with other eComm classes, students we didn't know personally, and so that was a little bit of a challenge because everyone was a little nervous when we were getting pictures. Finally, the project management skills went right along as planned even though not every film went as planned. We did everything on the days we planned to film, edit, ect. but we didn't have all the people we originally hoped for.
Change and Keep the Same:
The concept of the video is very strong, and that is important when we are making a video about a sensitive topic such as racism in America. However, when it came to post production I found more things we could have done better than what I liked. The biggest problem was the lack of people, so the planning of that I would change. I would also change some of the silhouettes into not only faces, but full body too just because it is more of a visual impact of "No matter what our skin tone is, body type, gender, ethnicity, ect. we are all just people, and we all make a shadow". I would have added in a shot where we showed all of our actors smiling or laughing in front of the camera to make the heavier topic more light hearted. It is my personal opinion that if we were to get the chance to re-do this over, we could produce something better than what we have now.
General Thoughts:
I did enjoy doing this assignment, it was an easy one to get back into the swing of things. Being able to point out the mistakes makes it easier to learn, as well as fix things in the future. For the next project, over-planning in pre-production seems like a smart move, just so there is a back up incase something is to go wrong. For the first piece of the year though, I am proud of what we have and I do think it somewhat relays the message we needed to get across.
Sophomore year had a lot of ups and downs to it, but eComm made it much more enjoyable. Choose two strands we favored most, and spending an hour a day in those classes. Video was my favorite strand, and will be the once I continue with for the rest of high school. While video has caused me a lot of frustration and stress, it is something I am really passionate about.
What I Did This Semester -
Music Video
Coming back from winter break we analyzed numerous music video techniques, shots, and editing styles. We were assigned a group to work with where we took a song everyone thought would be good to edit to, and then began preproduction. We chose locations, costumes, coordinated times with our group members as to when we would film, story boarded, composed shot lists, etc. The project from start to finish I think took two weeks, maybe three - I'm a little unsure. Along the way, a lot of things were learned start with, the weather is really not your friend. We waited for a day that was nice and sunny for Lilly (our main dancer) to preform, but it turned out to be freezing, and muddy everywhere due to rain taking place the night before. We also learned that in post, warp stabilizer will not fix all the shots we had to do while walking with a camera. Much of where we shot was un-level, or too muddy for the tripod to sit up correctly so we ended up just holding the camera a lot. When we presented this to our class, some of the feedback we got was that we should have a larger variety of shots. We missed out on really good opportunities for some extreme close up shots, as well as some close up and over the shoulder. If I could go back and change things, I would probably re-do the whole assignment, come up with a new song, prompt it to have an actual story, as well as choose new location. This is a project I think I could have made a lot better if I thought out more of what I wanted the video to look like in the end. I did have fun making this video, although I will probably never want to listen to the song Upswing ever again because I have heard it enough to last me a life time.
High School Movie Trailer Remake
Our next assignment was to recreate a movie that took place in a high school. We were to remake it shot for shot, edit for edit. Lilly, Ryan, and I kinda stretched the idea of "High School" with this because a lot of Napoleon Dynamite was produced outside of the school when it should have been done ALL in school. This assignment took a month I believe, it was to be finished before spring break. Some problems we ran into started small, with our group. We originally had different actors for our film, some upperclassman who would have played the part really well just because they all work together, and have a type of chemistry on screen that is very humorous to watch. They had other video projects they were executing during the time we needed to be filming, so immediately we had to change plans and Ryan became our Napoleon. Some other problems we ran into was a cranky main actor because he didn't want to wear a wet shirt for a couple shots, but it was okay, he had every right to be upset, it was cold. With this film, we learned how important time management is. During the time we were working on this in class assignment, Lilly, Ryan and I were also working on client work as a group which made it so much harder because we gave our clients more attention than our grades. This resulted in us rushing, and I am sure if we actually took the time, we could redo this and make it much better then what we have now. There is always room for improvement and I have learned a lot since we did these last two projects, which is why I know what could be changed. When we showed this to our class, much of them really enjoyed it, but some of the points we made were very true. Our audio does not line up with the original video, and the lighting is off in many shots. We were unable to get a tetherball for this which resulted in some improvising, but we could have easily gone to an elementary school and found a tetherball to get footage with. Once again, now that the video is exported, we did not go back an change anything, but if I took the time to, I would correct a lot. Shots would be changed, as well as working to make it shot for shot exactly so we could get it as close to the original trailer as possible. I really liked making this video because I had a lot of fun editing it, and working with Lilly and Ryan gave me the chance to get closer to them which I really valued.
Short Film
Our final project that we have spent the past month on was our short film. We all started by learning about genres, plot development, and themes. We took the time to develop treatments of stories we came up with, and then presented them to the class. We choose four that everyone really liked, split into teams and then began choosing how we would make the short film work. I was assigned director for this which worked in my favor because I am very type A personality, and feel more comfortable in charge. Josh, our cinematographer, started by storyboarding the film. Lilly, our main actress worked on creating production schedules, shot lists, prop list. Jaclyn, our art department worked on costuming, music we could use in the film, as well as creating a movie poster. I worked on re-writing parts of the script so we could do all of it at school, as well as coordinating with my team ways we could actually film all of this and what ideas we could add to make it better. We originally planned to have security camera footage, as well as test messages popping up on the screen but we ran out of time for that towards the end which resulted in changing parts of our short film. When working on this, a few things were made really apparent, starting with audio. We have a lot of dialogue, our story relies on it, and so if something goes wrong we have to make a lot of changes. Our lunchroom scene was redone three different times, and in those times we probably did the whole scene six or seven times so we had a variety of shots. Another thing we learn is that, when it comes to pull of a mirror image of the main actor, we needed someone who looked exactly like Lilly. Same build, roughly the same skin and hair color. It would have made filming certain parts more believable. For critics, my class suggest that the scene where the office lady is looking t her computer could have been a tighter edit, because it was long and awkward, however, they did like it which was good. For other members of our short film the main concern was that the lighting changes a lot in the film and should be color corrected. We did a good job of making it suspenseful and pulling off a really good story. If I could, I would probably change the beginning of the story so that way it started at Sarah's (the main character) house and have it show her stalker starting there so it didn't just seem sudden once she got to school. I would most likely find ways to make the shots connect a little better because even editing it, I feel there are a couple things that become hard to follow. This project was very interesting making. I was out sick for a portion of it which did not help my group, but I am super happy that we finished. I am happy with the outcome of the project, I just know if we were given the chance, all of us could find ways to make it better.
Valuable Takeaways Learned From Each Guarantee -
Technology
Much of the technology aspect consisted of trial and error, video demonstrations, various projects and learning how to adjust different things. From our very first video assignment of the year, the six shots system to our final project, our short film, much improvement has been made. We learned lighting settings, audio settings, color correcting skills, how to set up different shots, how to execute different types of moving shots. When it came to editing we learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro as a whole. Freshman year we spent time with Final Cut Pro so this year we took the time to learn an entirely new software, which I favor much more over Final Cut. The skills we acquired this year are important because they will be the ones we always remember. We used audio adjustments, music overlays, color correcting, different shots, story boarding, pre-production planning for all our projects and because it was so repetitive it will be routine. Along the way many challenges were faced especially when it came to filming/audio problems, as well as editing. There were times, especially in our last project where shots were too shaky, and warp stabilizer would not work so we would have to go re-do the shot because we forgot to check it before moving on. There were also instances where we thought the audio would be fine, because that's how it sounded on the camera, but that was not the case. When we would bring the footage back, the audio was really messed up, you were unable to hear anything but white noise or popping when talking between scenes got loud. When it comes to technology, my greatest strengths is that I am willing to go redo something just because the edit does not look good with that we are doing. Another thing would be that when I get stuck and have issues, I am not afraid to ask for help, or even watch videos on how to fix the problem I am having. My editing is something that has improved a lot because it used to be something that I would rush, but now I take more time with the editing than I do the filming. By doing this, it has allowed me to learn a lot of skills, such as morph cuts, and how important B-Roll is when an interview is taking place. There are many things I know I still need to work on, and one of them is taking the time to get everything set up on cameras before filming. Lighting and audio are the biggest struggles, and it is something I honestly forget just because I am so ready to start filming. Next year because I am continuing video, I know I will use a lot of the skills I have learned from this year because they are all very valuable and very important for what is needed to make a video good. There is nothing I would change, but I know next year I would like to know all the things you are able to do with Adobe Premiere Pro because I think if I had more knowledge about each of the tools and what they did/how they can change your video, I would find ways to make my videos much better. Technology, as well as communication are, in my opinion, the most important parts of eComm, so the take aways are extremely valuable, and I think what I am walking away with meet that.
Collaboration
A lot of my collaboration skills were learned outside of the classroom when we were working on filming or with client work. Being out an working around problems that appeared where what taught me most about collaborating with group members. As soon as certain shots didn't work, everyone would be throwing out ideas so that we could fix the problem as fast as possible. Collaboration is important in this program because you can't always do your work by yourself. You have to be able to work with a team, take suggestions, and work problems out with the people you work with. While there were not a lot of challenges faced in this guarantee, one that showed up a lot with client work was that we would go to wherever we were needed, we would work on filming, getting everything they needed, and then when we would send off our final product, we would not hear a response for a little while which made it really hard to work together with our clients for reasons like time management and effective communication. Some of my strengths when it came to working in group settings and as a team were that I am very Type A, a leader personality so it was easy for me to take charge when things started moving slow. I was always one to be able to contribute new suggestions as to how we could do things. I was also very open to suggestions. My weakness came from the fact I would get bored of the group project we would be doing and some days ideas of how the video should go would be completely different than how they were actually supposed to go. When working on Napoleon Dynamite, we changed so many things from the original trailer just because our original group fell apart and we rushed. When working on the short film, our group script started would with a bus stop scene, and we ended up changing it so it would be easier for us to film. I have learned that when we are part of a team, we take full responsibility for one another's mistakes, and it is something I am going to use in everyday life, all the time. Weather it is in eComm, or at work, it is a valuable takeaway the can be interpreted into many different life settings.
Communication
Communication is one of my greatest strengths when it comes to all the guarantees. This program constantly has me communicating with teachers, clients, online through blog post, and websites like Behance. All of these help me learn how to get better and better in these areas. Communication is really important in this program because it is constantly about "How are we going to get this information out?" Some of the biggest issues I face in this is the mis-communication errors. When working with clients, or even in group settings, the communication is so SO important, and one little misunderstanding can result in the success or failure of a project. When working on client work this year, Lilly and I had a communication error with some of the clients revolving around interviews and how they wanted certain things in the video, as well as what they did not want in the video. This resulted in re-editing the video, which was not the end of the world, it was just frustrating at the time because we were under the impression we had completed the video. My weakness when it comes to communication would probably be expressing when I do not agree with something. Numerous times while working on projects in first and second semester, there were things I did not agree with in the sense I did not think they would look good in the video itself. I have a tendency to keep a lot of feedback to myself as well, just because I hate criticizing other people's work. Next year, I plan on improving that by offering minor suggestions when it comes to to critiquing classmates work, but I know it is something I will have to keep working on to feel comfortable giving my opinion about what I actually think of the videos we watch. Much of what I have learned this year in communications, I am always going to continue to use. Communication has taught me how to be effective in what I am saying, be professional, as well as given me a little extra confidence when it comes to new clients. There is not much I would change in this aspect, because it is one of strengths, I know I can get better at it which will be beneficial to me in the long run, having room to grow.
Project Management
I learned project management quickest, because I am very grade motivated, and generally when turning things in late, the grades begin to drop. Project management is important because it teaches you that deadlines are not flexible. Your client wants a video due in two weeks, and you don't have it completed, you are not going to have very happy clients who will refer you on to others. It is important because it teaches you to be responsible, and work effectively in the time you have. When it came to time management, this was probably my worst of the five because I would rush everything just to get done on time. There were numerous projects where I felt they could have been better if I had just found the time to continue to work on it. By working extra hard to get all the shots we need in a little amount of days, and then by spending time editing, and fixing, and making final touches, it really moves by quick. I plan to improve this all together by managing my time well in class, as well as taking the time to work outside of class if needed because I rarely did that this past year when I knew I could have. I know I will need to work on sticking to production schedules better, as well as pacing myself on the editing portion by doing it in sequences that get things done more efficiently. For example, all the sub-clips go in first, then audio channels are adjusted. Next we make sure there are no shaky shots, we then color correct, and add in extra sound effects or edits, finally we export. Being able to get that process down will help with my time management as well. With the things I learned this year, I will be sure to put them into better effect next year in hopes that my projects are all improving and I'm not thinking "...if I would have taken more time to edit this, it would look better". I plan on making sure I stick to be really effective in my time management, as well as making sure the quality of my work is shown by how much time I put into each of the projects I do next year.
Leadership
This skill has taken many years to learn and improve on, and still I am constantly learning how to get better. My teachers all make a big influence on how well my leadership skills get because they are people I look up to. Without leadership skills, projects would have no dynamics. Everyone would just go along with whatever the project was, structure would seem minimal, and it would gradually start to fall apart. When leadership skills come into play, things are done efficiently, there is always something needing to be done, projects are managed better, as well as being directed/lead in the right direction. The most challenging about this is that I am very "leader" personality that I am always the one to take charge, and throughout this year I never really thought about if someone else wanted to take charge in any of the groups I was apart of, I was always the one who just took charge of it and went. Next year, I most definitely will try my hardest to not always throw myself up as leader for starters because everyone deserves the chance to be in charge of a project. I know I can also work on being more open to suggestions all the time, not just some of the time like I am now. With what I have learned I will continue to use it in my everyday like, especially when it comes to work and school. There is not much I would change to this guarantee, other than what I know I need to work on which I plan to improve with next year.
How My Time Was Spent -
Video was never a class I slacked off in. I was very social in this class, and talked to my peers a lot, but I was constantly working. When I wasn't working on in class assignments, I was working on my client work for the Olathe Public Library or Olathe East Design Academy. I never finished any of my projects early. There were many times where I found myself staying after school taking the time to finish editing just because I was so tedious about how I wanted the videos to work. Outside of class, I watched a lot of videos that had really unique edits on them for the purposes of personal work I would like to do in the near future. Video was without a doubt my most productive class.
My Overall Strengths -
My strengths when it came to video where leadership, problem solving, and my willingness to learn and correct my mistakes to improve the quality of my work. These were present in every single assignment without a doubt because I would always push to take the lead, and make sure the video was done step by step that way we had everything.
My Overall Weaknesses -
My weakness when it came to video was the need to always be in charge. There is no doubt in my mind that it annoyed people in my groups. With that also comes the bad habit of always choosing how the video was done. If I could change anything, I would probably choose to have someone else be director for this last short film and I would have taken role on cinematographer. It is my belief that if someone else was director, our film would be different because someone would have a different idea of how to execute the film.
Summary -
Like I said, video is my favorite class out of the whole day. It is a time for me to relax and have fun, but I still get the chance to be creative. This semester, I loved the projects. I loved the entertainment based side of video compared to the news side of video. I would have liked to work with other people on my projects because I worked with Lilly and Josh on two out of the three projects, and I didn't get to work with hardly anyone else in the class. One of my biggest take aways from this semester would be knowing the importance of "coming in late, leave early" because a lot of my videos would be better if I remembered it. My goal for next year is that I am a positive contribution to the new video time I will be apart of. I am overly excited about getting to be apart of the bigger class because creating their short films looks like so much fun even though I know it is a lot of work. Overall though, I could not be more thankful for the friendships I made in video, my amazing teacher, as well as all the things I learned. I know next year will be great, but this year alone made such an impact on me and it is one I will never forget.
Remake a movie trailer that takes place inside of a school. Shot for Shot/Edit for Edit. We were to analyze shots, and advanced camera work and advanced editing.
Pre-Production:
Planning this project had to be my favorite part of the entire thing. We started by choosing a movie, and story boarding. My group and I chose Napoleon Dynamite, and from there we took screenshots of every different shot throughout the trailer, and wrote about camera direction, locations, and character lists/costumes. We planned on doing a lot of the filming outside of the school day because it would be easiest to get these shots when no one was in the building. Along with that, we took the time to recreate the animated shots of moving words using illustrator.
Production:
Production turned out to be a bit more difficult than we originally anticipated. We found ourselves redoing shots a couple times because a line would be messed up, or the camera was positioned wrong, just minor details just like that. Much of the filming was done in one day, at various locations. We shot the film at my house as well as Olathe Northwest. We were unable to find a school with a tetherball still out on the playground available for us to use which resulted in is changing a couple things in the trailer, but all and all the filming experience was a lot of fun.
Post-Production:
Editing was found to be easier than normal project because all we had to do was take our shot and put it in order with the original trailer. When editing, we ran into little problems such as Ryan talks a bit slower than Napoleon does in the Original Trailer which is why you will notice the left side of the screen goes blank every once in a while. We also noticed that because we do not have colored lockers in our schools, the shots are not as visually appealing in our trailer as they are in the original trailer.
What I learned:
With this, I learned that you should not underestimate all the work that actually goes into a trailer. There is a lot more work to it, than say a new story, or a music video. Aside from that, everything seemed to be very smooth. I had a great group to work with and we had a lot of fun making this. It kept us laughing which was the nice thing, it made the filming seem easier. We did however have to work around the fact we were unable to get a Pedro actor with us when we were filming outside of school, as well as the fact there was no school with a tetherball or a car with hydraulics at our dispense.
What I would change vs. What I would keep the same:
If I had the chance to redo it again, I would make sure we were able to get all of the actors we needed at one time that way we could get all the shots needed instead of having to change shots to make it work with our trailer. I would also probably change the location inside of the school to a place with better lighting for the inside shots, or even find a location with more color inside the school because the grey lockers make it look a bit dull inside the trailer.
General Thoughts/Conclusion:
From this project, I will most definitely take away how important analyzing shots are. Things like lighting, dialogue emphasis, as in getting the actor to speak at the same pace as the original actor. I will also take away the importance of planning and making sure you have everyone together and all your actors/actresses in order because having then cancel last minute seemed to cause a little bit of panic. Nevertheless, the project was a very fun and meaningful experience. While we ran into some complications, and maybe Ryan would have enjoyed a different trailer choice, I probably wouldn't change anything because I do felt like Lilly, Ryan, and I bonded a bit on making this since there were so many last minute changes.
Our assignment for the beginning of the year was to create a music video with a school appropriate song. Our video had to be a max of two minutes long, and had to have a large variety of shots. To start off the project had to pick a song as a group which actually seemed to be the easiest part of the project. We went through about three sons before deciding on Upswing by Prinze George. From there we went home and got all the publication information (When it was released, the writers, the record label, etc.) When we came back, we began planning out out production schedule. We found a location, the dates we were going to go, who all was going and where we were going to get all of our shots. Our idea for the music video was to follow along with the song, running away from problems going on in every ones lives. We were gonna have Lilly dance in the video, and the style she did was almost what we considered fighting her inner problems.
Production
Once we were on location, we only ran into a couple problems. One, it was freezing. Two, it was dirty everywhere, trash was everywhere, it was muddy, and it smelt like a mix of garbage and cold air. The filming was a lot of fun though, we got to meet some really interesting people out there including some professional vloggers TwinSauce who were super nice, and they were a lot of fun to talk to. We did Lilly's dance scene in all the locations of the Workhouse so we would have a variety of shots, different backgrounds, and different lighting. After spending about three hours filming over the weekend, we came back and began organizing and editing clips.
Post-Production
We noticed when we came back, we really lacked in close up shots so a lot of our video is done in Wide, Extreme Wide, as well as Medium shots. Unfortunately, none of us are in a position to be able to go back and film down here again but it is something we we need to make sure we work on in the future; getting a variety of shots. The editing took a whole week, and organizing the clips took the longest part of everything because we had a told of 78 clips between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. As I started laying stuff into the timeline, it got harder and harder to keep going because everything seemed really repetitive even though the other thing that was repetitive was the backgrounds. I ended up having to stay after school a day because I was not able to finish during the week due to making sure everything lined up.
What I learned
I learned a lot while making this. Lighting is you best friend when changing shots and locations. Always make sure you switch shots every couple seconds in the video. When filming, change camera angels and the variation of shots. With the technical aspect of it, I didn't really do any advanced editing in the video. I liked the dark and light mix of shot even though it should all be one color. I could have fixed that, but for some reason I just stuck with the original video clips.
With the teamwork aspect, I never really ran into trouble. I had a great group. Everyone was fun, we were able to share ideas with one another, and figure out all the little problems when filming, editing, and when planning dates.
Changes
In the video, I would change the fact we have almost no close up shots, and I think there would be certain moments in the video that would really be much better if there was more emotion in some shots. However, I do love the location and how Lilly pulled off the emotion of fighting inner problems within the dance. It made everything come together really though even though there are things we are missing.
Takeaways/Conclusions
For our next project, storyboarding will be really beneficial in the pre planning when you have an idea and you can immediately put it down on paper so you have that idea. This project overall though was SO much fun and allowed you to bone with people in the class. It gave you the opportunity to be more creative and express emotion in the video instead of doing hard news cast, or feature stories.
Our assignment was to create another feature in hopes of improving from our first feature story. We were to plan, film, edit, and produce a story noticeably different than the first.
Pre Production:
The process began with extensive planning. Coming up with a topic, creating interview questions, having a day-to-day schedule, as well as having days we were taking cameras home for additional footage.
I chose the foundation of Gift Of Life as my original story. After conducting interviews with Kim Harbur and Andy Donnelly, I found that my original plan involved too many stories. I was trying to tell the story of Gift Of Life, Andy's Transplant, and Kim's experience as a recipient mom which was too much for a simple feature. From there I went with Andy's story, and began the production process.
Production:
Production began by sorting out all of Andy's good soundbites where he answered all the interview questions. After that I decided I was only going to use a small clip of his interview to tell the story. After that, a voice over was created, B-Roll was collected and the video was pulled together. The final product is what you are shown below.
Post Production:
In post production I noticed many things I thought were good, but what also what I really struggle with. B-Roll seems to be the most difficult. None of my footage was relevant to my story except for the pictures at the end showing a liver transplant. My peer critics let me know that the video story was very good, and they felt the additional interview was not needed but relative B-Roll would have made the story much stronger, as well as slowing the pictures down a bit because they were very fast.
Along with that, we took notes during the critic process in how we can improve our feature videos. This will be useful as we are going toe doing a news package next, and then come semester time we will be moving into entertainment.
In conclusion, I do believe this project was much better than my last although I did not blog about it. My audio skills, as well as my video skills have improved even though I know I need to work on rule of thirds during interviews, as well as the 6-shot system during B-Roll.
Our second assignment in Video Production this year was an audio, news story. Our requirements consisted of 60-90 seconds, strictly audio, voiceovers, sound bites, and underlying sound effects. Our main goals for this assignment was to compose an audible story that sounded well balanced and a clear story with a beginning, middle, and end. The story was to be shared as a new segment for ONW-NOW called '1 in 2000'.
Pre-Production:
In Pre-Production we were assigned partners to do a story on. I had the privilege of working with Claire Damewood and her love for the musical arts. We were to write 21 questions to ask in the interview which allowed us to get to know who our 'ONW 1 in 2000' really was. After coming up with 21 questions we did a brief run-through of the 5 W's.
Who was my story going to be about?
What was the purpose of the story?
Where would the video be shot to sound most appealing that related to the story?
When would the story be due?
Why we needed to have some many components? ie. Audio Levels, Net/White Noise, Sound Effects, ect.
How long would the video take to make/export?
Production:
When production began, I took Clair to the practice rooms so I could hear her play. She demonstrated Fur Else to me. From there we went to the Flex theater, and we began her interview. We made it quick and only went thought about 15 of the 21 questions. We were able to shoot all of Claire's interview in one day which was really reassuring. The video was not done as a full string, it was done in sections of 5 questions at a time in hopes Claire would really elaborate on her answers, which she did!
Post Production:
Post production was the most complicated part of this project. A strictly audio story when you know almost nothing about Audio Channels, Audio Gains, and balancing the sound bites, voice overs, and effects to sound all level. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn. Watching lots of videos, reading tutorials/how-to's were the most time consuming but once I knew what I was doing it became very, very easy.
This picture here will help explain the process!
Every small blue clip you see with an audio channel on top and underneath is what we call a Sound Bite. This is Claire speaking. The singular audio clip is my voice over. The green underneath is what we call the Net Noise. It is the artificial background noise to create the scene. Adding it all together you get a final product, which is my audio story you can listen to right below! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-hHW14cOS0hZUxfZmw2MTY3UXc
Final Thoughts/What I learned:
One take away I have from this project is don't underestimate how easy audio can be. Learning how to do audio is actually a difficult task and it is something I have to take time working out throughout the year. After having the class listen to it, the thing I needed to change most was when I have two of Claire's soundbites play back to back; audio levels matching at those points are crucial! Outside of that one error, I thought my video was great. For my first audio story I was surprised at how well it seemed to turn out, and so was the teacher!
As our first project of the year kicks off, we started with a simple assignment. Our assignment was to create a procedure video showing school expectations as if we were going to give it to them entire school. The video had to be no more than 30 seconds, could not have a voice over, as well as include the 6-shot system.
Pre-Production
Pre-Production began with the story board. We panned out how our video was going to go, drew pictures, and discussed the ideas with our teammates on how we could get the most information in, in a fun and quick way. After learning camera set-up, my partner and I decided how we were going to incorporate all the rules, as well as the information.
Production
Production was the most fun part. We used the third hour office aid as our main actress. After finding an empty classroom we began filming our video. We initially started with a wide shot to set the scene. From there we went right into a close-up which was intended to be an extreme close up. As she takes the drink of the water, you can see of the camera focused on the background and not the subject of the video.
Medium
Close-Up
Extreme Wide
As the video proceeds on you see the camera panning following the subject around the busy scene. The video does not feature an extreme close-up as it should, and the ending shot does not look the best as we began to pan the camera again.
Post-Production
After shooting all the clips, we loaded them into Adobe Premiere. At that point we began to edit the video. As this was our first time using Premiere, editing seemed to take much longer than it needed to. Placing all the clips where they needed to go, cropping them to meet video rules, rearranging to tell a story, then adding music before final publication.
Evaluation
During evaluation, classmates had given feedback such as how adding music would be beneficial and be more appealing to an audience. The original video did not have music and was perceived as a "silent film". Another comment added was that when doing videos, still shots is all we need - we had a tendency to pan on a couple shots. Finally, we were told that the last part of the video would be better if we had positioned the camera in a different location; the shot looked too busy and made it hard to focus on just the one subject.
