This project was definitely a long process for me. I have never used Premiere Pro prior to this assignment, so this was a new experience for me. I worked very hard on this project and dealt with many technical issues. My photos were not uploading properly when I used my camera, so I decided to use my phone. After a few days of the new photos still not uploading into Premiere, I finally had gotten some of the photos to upload. I then worked very hard on the audio of this project, just for it not to upload. I recorded part of the artists songs on my records and then added the audio to the slide show pictures. I originally wanted to add a video of the song playing on the record, but that would’ve made the video to long. Uploading to youtube was probably the longest process of this whole project. It took hours and it finally uploaded, but the audio was left out of it.This really frustrated me because the audio was the best part of the video.Overall I think was a really fun assignment. I just had never used to program before and I really didn’t know what I was doing. It took me a lot longer than I anticipated because nothing wanted to upload properly and because I had to re-take to photos on my iphone to get them to upload on my Mac. I hope the next time I use Premiere Pro I don’t have so many technical issues because I really did enjoy the whole concept of making my own movie. I am still wondering why my photos didn’t upload into Premiere. When I added the Youtube URL it originally didn’t want to embed in the blog either. Basically every step of this project I have had some sort of problem or “Error”, which I’ve seen so many time trying to upload. I’m just happy that I completed the project so I don’t have to stress about it anymore. I really hope that I get the hang of Premiere Pro because it is a good program, I just had to many problems with it in this project. The audio isn’t in the video, which really upsets me because that was the best part. I don’t know why it took the audio out when I uploaded it to Youtube, but it unfortunately did. This is my project, it definitely could be better, but this is the best I could do. I hope you enjoy!

For this assignment, I chose to use action figures as my subjects. A couple of years ago, I discovered a thing called toy photography while surfing through Instagram. People were creating scenes with action figures and taking photos to be viewed online. As a hobby, I am a huge collector of action figures. I collect many kinds from anime, wrestling, star wars, comics, and the list goes on from their. And seeing stuff like this gave me the idea to do something with the many figures that I own.

I had a scene mapped out in my head where I would use action figures from the 1960’s Batman show along with anime characters from Lupin the 3rd, Lupin and Fujiko. The story is set where Lupin and Fujiko look around the corner and see Batman capturing Joker and Riddler. They notice that the batmobile is unattended. So they wink at each other, sneak over and steal it right from under Batman’s nose.

I wanted to shoot this scene in the city where I would have actual building corners to set up my subjects as well as having pavement for the Batmobile to ride on. So I went downtown and shot this near a store I normally go to.

My goal was to apply what I learned in Visual Literacy and make a good sequence of shots. The most difficult one was where Lupin was jumping into the car. I thought that adding the credits roll was cool. That’s where I added the names of the real life actors who portrayed the roles of these characters. The cool thing about action figures is that even though the real actors are gone, you can basically use toys with their likenesses however you want and add them into whatever universe you desire.

Another cool thing I added in the end was a tribute to Adam West. I thought the project turned out pretty well and I hope everyone enjoyed seeing it come to life.

Not a lot of good ideas popped out at me when I had to decide a theme with 5 in it. So what did come to mind was my 5 favorite hikes. So I stuck with that. I ended up spending most of the weekend hiking, filming and editing. I wanted to improve my video skills so I watched a youtube video on how to make impactful videos. They had some really good advice. The biggest tip that I took from that video was to record movement. Either someone moving, or create movement by moving. 

To record I used a crosstour action camera. It is a wide angle lens, high definition action camera, much like the go pro. I also used a gimbal. The gimbal is a handheld mount for the camera. It reacts to your movements to keep the camera level at all times. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement with my video, the gimbal really helps keep the camera much more stable. Especially if you are walking. Even with the gimbal, I was still getting a bit of stopping of the camera with every step. I also tried some close up techniques to try to make the video more interesting. I would try to find something straight and run the camera down it. I think I can be more effective with this technique in the future. 

I also brought along a Canon T7I. The T7I is capable of capturing good video. But without the advantage of a gimbal for it I recorded video with the cheap action camera. I used the Canon to take pictures to accompany my video. I was able to take some really nice photos, but they seem to be losing quality with every transfer between the editing program and posting to youttube. That will be something I will see if I can improve on for my next video. 

This is not my first video production. I have made a handful of videos in my time based tools class. But I have also made a few outside of school work. When I say a few, I mean 3. I would say check them out on Youtube, but don’t. They aren’t very good, and kind of embarrassing. I did really enjoy making this video. I was regretting picking such a time consuming activity, but in the end, I’m glad I did. It was much more fun having free reign to do a project that was all my own. 

Hope you enjoyed the video!

Creating a video project about the number 5 seemed challenging. After all, not many things come in sets of five…. So I settled on the simple 5 Senses: Touch, Smell, Hear, Taste, and See.

I enjoyed working with this topic because the Five Senses is something that often seems under – appreciated. Just brainstorming about the five things I love about each of the five senses reminded me of how much I use them (and overlook them) every day!

When the time came to start creating my video, I first started with the audio. I recorded my voice, and then created a long checklist of all of the things I would need to take pictures of. I noticed that a lot of my pictures were “zoomed-in”. I should have balanced them with more distant shots, but I really enjoyed the challenge of getting new, close perspectives of everyday items around my house.

At one point during the day, I went on a relaxing, long walk around the neighborhood to capture some photo and video footage of the beautiful fall trees and some of the last few flowers in bloom. The weather was cold, but the light gray clouds were perfect for the lighting of my pictures. On the other hand, taking pictures of the food was by far the hardest job; I’d much rather eat food than photograph it!

Using Premiere Pro to compile this video was fun; I fell in love with it after getting introduced to it in the Time-Based Tools class. Although I’m an amateur, I love to use Premiere Pro to renovate old homemade video projects I’ve done a long time ago. Each time I use it, I keep learning.

If I had extra time and energy for my video project, I would have worked on my lettering and fonts in more detail because strangely, my words were blurry in Premiere Pro. I was worried, but thankfully, they appeared rather normal in the exported video.

So here it is! I hope you enjoy this video and won’t forget just how amazing it is to be able to touch, smell, hear, taste, and see!

For my image editing project I decided to do something around veterans because of the Veterans weekend. I chose the the Five Emotions of a Veteran to showcase what many veterans deal with certain emotions. Emotions tend to be tossed out of the equation to either cope with loss or to just not to show weakness. I took up this short video project to share a lightside to the idea that the veterans are tough as nails and have no time for “weak” emotions. The video also was for myself to ease up and make fun of that side of me. I may not speak for other Veterans but I know that this lack in human emotions extends to those that have gone to war. In this video you get just that angry face that is the most familiar face that expands to all emotions in the military. Looking from the outside in, Vets can seem very intense without trying to and it is not intentional at all at times. At times? Okay most of the time, but it is not directed to the person. On a serious note, deep down inside of us there is an ongoing physical and mental war that keeps many of us on our feet. And I sure as hell know that vets are not the only ones. Those struggles give us that warrior face which can give us this angry edge that is showcased in the video. This project was a pleasure to make.

Making the 5 Emotions of a Veteran was a fun project. The idea came to me as the Veterans Appreciation Week at Lane was coming up. Took some few discussions with my girlfriend to actually hammer down an idea. Once I got my idea outlined, I texted Aaron Williams to star in my video. Like myself, Aaron is an Army Veteran that I felt was the right guy for the job. I then set us up to do some recording at the Robert Maxwell Vet Center on campus. I used my Canon Rebel T6 to record the bit. Took no longer than 30 minutes film. I had my girlfriend assist which made it easier. Once done, I paid my actor with food and mead for his help. To edit my video, I solely used Premiere Pro. I did a ton of chopping and made adjustments to the video. The editing is possibly my most favorite part in this project (besides having mead with Aaron). I added music from Kevin Macleod off of Incompetech and an image from Pixabay. The only problem I had in the whole process of editing was trying to work with my  Premiere Pro project on campus. I had forgotten that I was using the latest 2020 edition of Premiere Pro and so I had to just finish my project at my home studio. All and all, It all worked out and now hoping it proves to be enjoyable to the viewer.