During this project I was hoping to try my hand at making a simple narrative about somebody looking for something not important and ending up with something much better than the thing they were looking for. I also wanted to spice things up with more than just static shots. So I experiemented with moving the camera around and panning from my subject to whatever item is dominant in the scene. I also experimented with using different angles for my shots as well so that the scene would never become stale or boring.

The most difficult part of the project was telling the actors what they should be doing at any given time, what they should be saying, and having to keep things light while trying the same shot over and over. Initially the video was going to take place exclusively in the park, but as it went on I decided it would be more interesting if we went a few different places for the scenes. I was able to ask my actor what kinds of things he would normally do on a day off and then go from there to try and make things seem authentic. Of course there’s a bit of a twist at the end and I had to actually rush to get those shots. One of the actors I was working with, Cece, came home from work and needed to go to practice 30 minutes after, so we had a limited window to get everything I needed for the project in terms of her acting. I learned how to successfully navigate a stressful time crunch situation all while buying my actors dinner as thanks for helping me out so much with the project.

The editing process was long but simple. First I watched through all my clips and got my best shots together, then I plugged everything into Premiere and began the editing process. A lot of the time I’ll cut a video like this to a predetermined music track so that the clips flow with the song, but this time I decided to put together the clips without any song. The goal was to have a video that could stand on its own, even without a music track and I feel I won out on that front. The dialogue was the most difficult part to edit and I believe there is a ton of learning for me to do in terms of coming out with clean audio. I had to up the volume on most of the clips with voice but tried to at least keep all the audio within a consistent range. Hopefully I was successful in that end.

Overall I feel that I was able to successfully make a video that is light and airy, somewhat comedic, and is hopefully relatable to anyone who watches. It was fun to come up with all the different locations and working with my friends, and I can’t wait to do it again!