Semester 2 Final

Short Film

    

 Project

For this project, everyone in my class had to write a script to possibly make into a short film that would be 3-5 minutes long. After hearing everyone's script and ideas, the class voted for the top five scripts, and then we were assigned onto teams based on the type of story we wanted to do. I wanted to do a mystery story, so I was put on a team that was doing a mystery story.

Challenges and roles

     It took my team and I two weeks to complete. Some challenges we face were our director and one of our actors being gone due to illness. We filmed what we could with me being mostly behind the camera. Another team member, Maleah, helped me behind the camera and helped choreograph scenes. She and I filled in as director when our director was gone. The rest of my team, including Maleah, was acting in the short film, so I had a lot of time behind the camera and recording.
     I was also the editor for my team. I really wanted to edit because it's my favorite part of the filmmaking process. I had to sharpen some shots in Adobe Premier Pro, which is an amazing video editor, as well as color correct some shots, which was fun. Two shots were originally very, very orange, so I tried my best to tone that down and make it more natural. I could have done better with those two shots if i spent more time on them, but sadly, I didn't. I also had to color correct the shots in the chase scene. When were filming outside, it was dark and overcast, making the shots more blue looking rather than a sunny, natural, outside look. I also had to mess around with sound because I forgot to check out a mic. The camera was great at picking up sound, but when I was editing the restaurant shots, it was hard to get rid of the music in the background. I tried my best.

What I learned and Feedback

     I learned how to direct people and makes lines were down and memorized for the next shot, color correct, and edit audio.  Some feedback I was given was to make sure the set is clear and to mic the actors when filming in a loud setting. The original script had two more scenes we were going to film, but due to time constraints and actors goofing off, we couldn't film those scenes. We had half of one of the original scenes filmed, but due to scheduling and people getting sick, we couldn't film the other half. However, the ending to this piece still makes sense and works for what we have. In the end, the final product was around 4 and a half minutes long, so i fit the criteria when editing. I really like this piece despite the bad jokes that were thrown in.

Music Video

    
 The goal of this project was to recreate a music video. My group chose to do Pompeii by Bastille. I loved this song, but because I had to listen to it so much while filming, I'd rather skip it on my Spotify playlist. It took us several weeks to film this due to very bad winter weather. Weather was a major challenge when filming due to filming in winter and filming in Kansas. Another challenge we faced was people showing up on time. Our main actor was always late despite the fact that we had communicated in our group chat several times when and where we were filming. I learned to be patient and deal with people when I was in a bad mood. Some feedback my group was given was how good the eyes turned out halfway through the video, but the eyes at the end could be worked on a bit more. If I could change anything about this project I'd change the actor. He wasn't very reliable when it came to scheduling and showing up, so if i could find anyone else that was reliable, I would and replace the original actor in an instant. Overall, my director was great and so was our editor. The film itself is the best it could have been due to many conflicts.

Class Time

     If I was the editor, I spent majority or all of my time editing the film. I really enjoy editing, so it was no problem for me if I was assigned to editor. I usually took a back seat and filled in any roll needed, but if the director was gone, I filled in that roll and took over. For the short film, we were lucky enough to be able to film during class, which is a rarity for entertainment filming. If i wasn't filming or editing, I worked on my graphic design work and practiced my Illustrator and Photoshop skills. I don't do much outside of class unless my group plans to film. I try to make it to filming, and majority of the time, I do show up.

Strengths and Weaknesses

     I am really good at editing and enjoy perfecting projects. I have improved a lot when it comes to color correction and editing clips. I've also learned where to cut a clip to get it to be more natural when put together with other clips. 

     While I am good at editing, I need to work on sound. I have a basic understanding of how to edit sound, but need to practice more. 

Summary and Final Thoughts

     I loved editing the short film. Overall, I wish I did more editing. I learned how to use equipment properly, how to edit to enhance projects, and how to be a team player on projects like these.  One goal for next year, even though I won't continuing Video, is to continue to practice editing and maybe make a few videos in the future.
     There are a lot of good students in my video class that will go on to do great things. I really enjoyed working with my group for the high school movie trailer and wished we could have filmed more to finish our project. I have made a lot of good memories with this class and I hope everyone goes on to do great things and to do what they love. At times, there was a lot of stress, but eased up towards the end.

Self-Portrait

     Description

     For my first official Video assignment of the 2018-2019 school year, I decided to show the hobbies and activities I like and do on a regular basis with a twist. I'm speaking French because I've been learning the language since fourth grade. I've always been interested in the language, culture and the country of France. This past summer, I did visit France and it's very different than America, but I enjoyed every minute I was there, whether it was at the Eiffel Tower or at a little cafe, watching the people pass by. I wanted to speak in French because it's a language I've spent a lot of time to learn and I wanted to practice my vocabulary by speaking it in the video. Through this video I want people to see how much I know and how I can communicate to others in a foreign language.
     Out of all the other self-portraits I've seen I really liked Jaiden's video where he wrote a poem touching on how movies portray homosexuality and racism and how homosexuality and racism is a deeper problem and real life than what everyone would like to believed. I thought it was really brave of him to do that and inspired me to a better friend and person.

Explain

     I wanted to film against a blank wall with nothing else to look at around me so all the attention goes to me and what I am doing. I also tried to find a bright room so the object and myself are visible and easy to see. As for the framing, I made it so the audience could see examples of what I like that relate to a bigger topic and made sure to keep that example up so the audience has enough time to process and make connections before moving on. There are a ton of examples in the video but one is when I'm talking about watching tv, and that I prefer Phineas and Ferb. All of these connect to what I wanted to show about myself because they are things, activities, and hobbies I like and what make up me. 

Reflect

     I hope through this video people can gain a better understanding of me, my life and what I like. I think I was successful since I got majority of the activities and hobbies I like in the video. I did have some trouble with some filming at one point because my camera roll was full, and wouldn't record. Most of the other troubles I had were forgetting what I was going to say, and not continually talking and the transistion to the other subject was not the greatest, but I think I did okay. One thing I would do differently is add more examples and maybe write some notes or reminders of what I'm going to say so that way there's no waiting. I learned that it's difficult to get everything want across to the audience and not everything you like will make it into the final cut. 

     

AB Sequence

Shot Sizes and Sequencing   

 The six main shots for photography and video making are very crucial in order to make a good film. Each shot adds a certain part to a story whether it is giving us details of the setting or showing us certain emotions of a character. Along with shot sizes comes sequencing. Sequencing is also vital to film making. If certain clips were placed randomly together, the story in the video makes no sense. Sequencing makes the story fit like puzzle pieces. With these two components, anything can happen.

Brainstorming

     Our idea for this project of sequencing was to do a thriller or horror chase scene. The idea of a chase scene was shot down by the teacher, so I worked around the chase scene to make our project more of a horror or thriller. Instead of a chase scene, the "victim" was to run towards safety while the "killer" can teleport anywhere. This still gave the impression of a chase without any chasing taking place. This worked better than a chase scene due to the fact that the "killer" can teleport anywhere. This gives the audience a sense of dread by reason being nowhere is safe.

Editing

     For editing, I used Adobe Premier Pro. The goal was to try to cut the runtime to thirty seconds, but if needed, we could go longer than thirty seconds. Editing was easier this time around because I knew what certain things did. This time, I learned how to make a Title shot.
      The title shot was interesting due to the possibilities of color and style an editor could add to the title slide. 

Overall

      the collaboration with a new team was interesting. The variety of skill in this new group was evident due to the two other people's knowledge in the thriller/horror genre. I have not seen any horror movies, so their knowledge benefitted the group as a whole.
     I did not think this was the best video I made, but it is still good for a beginner.  

   




Keith. “Puzzle Pieces.” KeithRN, www.keithrn.com/2016/01/clinical/.