During this project I actually had a tough time coming up with a good idea. I knew I wanted something a little more cinematic, and that meant I needed some dialogue. I also needed some sound effects, and music tracks as well. I wanted to show a sort of opening to a story, just a walk cycle that hopefully tells a little about the character and the place they’re in. It was very challenging taking video in the dark, but I wanted to play with light a little bit. There was also a point where I tripped while getting video of my subject, thankfully the camera was okay!

I tried everything to gather ideas: Brainstorming, doodling, listening to music, banging my head against the wall. But of course it came to me while I was taking a shower. It was a simple idea too. Just a guy going out to get milk and coming back home. I thought that would be too easy so I decided to get video in the nighttime and found a very interesting dilemma. It became about seeking out places of light where we could get the shots we needed, and trying to keep the light looking somewhat consistent throughout. I wanted some shots that went alongside my subject so I made sure to keep him in the center of the frame, and not bounce the camera too much while walking. I used my strap and a gorilla mini-tripod to stabilize the camera on my neck and chest while moving to reduce shake. When we got to the mini-mart it occurred to me that I would have to ask the counter if we could use their location. Thankfully they said it was alright and we went in and out as fast as we could.

Luckily I had a bunch of pre-planning done so when it came time to shoot we got it done pretty quickly. Then it was on to the edit, which I have a lot of fun with. I thought it would be cool to showcase the tracks I used at the end with the credits. Plus I got to use the Easy Out technique I learned in Time Based Tools which was super neat. I made sure to track my audio levels, so I don’t think there will be a sound issue, at least hopefully.

I had a lot of fun putting this project together and feel like this is some good practice before our final project. I learned a lot about shooting in the dark, working with another person while shooting, and asking for permission to use a place to get video in.