For this project, I wanted to do something a little more serious than my past assignments. As much as I love comedy, I wanted to test myself on how well I can make a more informative piece. And so, I decided to make an interview of Donald Gruener, a photographer/graphic designer of Gruener Design Studio. Conveniently, he happens to be my dad! I wanted this project to not just show my editing skills, but to be informative to current and future media art students, especially those who plan to pursue photography/graphic design.
The production and post-production phases went smooth enough, but there still were some hurdles. Initially, I set up two phones to video-record the interview. One was a front angle and the other was a side angle (which I ended up not using). I would have liked to use a better camera, but my iPhone was the best that I had. I also set up a super nice microphone (the same one I used for P4-Audio) to record audio much better than my phone. We did the interview, but It felt unnatural so we redid the entire interview the next day! I also recorded a bunch of extra footage showing my dad doing some of his graphic design. We even staged an entire photo shoot just for me to record!!
For the post-production editing, I had the terrible idea of using my own computer. I found this video software called “DaVinci Resolve,” which has a pretty awesome free version. It is very advanced like Premiere Pro, making this an amazing piece of software that I can get for free! Plus, I wanted to expand my knowledge of tools beyond the Adobe suite. Well, turns out my semi-decent laptop is a total wimp. Playback was so laggy that it became impossible to simply compose the video. Plus, my computer’s hard drive completely filled up, so there wasn’t any way that it could handle video editing! So I was forced to re-do everything at school in the media creation lab. Using Premiere, I managed to complete the entire video in a mere two and a half hours!
All this hassle made me not want to add in the second camera angle. It might have looked cool, but it would have been too much work. Plus having the different angles mixed with the different shots might have made the video too chaotic. Also, as I said earlier, I recorded the audio separately on a nice mic. Well, turns out that audio got cut off. It’s too bad, because it sounds much nicer and crisper than my phone’s mic!!
Overall, I’m glad with the end result, despite all the problems. In fact, I’m kind of glad that it wasn’t smooth! It taught me to adapt to the situation and not let it get in the way of a nice video. Anyway, enjoy the video, and I hope you learn something from it!
Credits:
Filmed and produced by Colin Gruener
Music credit: bensound.com (https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/beyond-the-line)
Special thanks to Donald Gruener of Gruener Design Studio!
Hi Colin,
I had no idea about Gruener Design Studio, so this video was very informative. I liked how I could either hear and read the question if the question wasn’t clear when Mr. Gruener talked. The audio was very clear and transitions had a nice flow. I think you did a outstanding job making your video in just two and a half hours!
Hi Colin,
I had no idea about Gruener Design Studio, so this video was very informative. I think Mr. Gruener did a fine job answering since I could tell what the questions were by how he introduced them. The audio sounded great and the transitions were smooth. Amazing how you got the movie done it two and a half hours! Great job!
Hey Colin,
Great job! I really like how you shifted to video of your dad working on product for the clients he was talking about in the interview, the transitions were super smooth and the subtle background music was pretty perfect. It was also very informational, you managed to fit a lot of information into a short video. I am studying photography and graphic design, and want to start my own company, and the info presented was super relevant.