I made this project for one of my best friends, that just got married (last August). The video is of his five best men and includes pictures of him with each of the best men (through out his life). I originally wanted to make this for him and give it to him before his wedding, but due to lack of time and due to the fact that I had to wait to get pictures from the other best men it’s going to be a belated wedding gift. Also it worked out perfect when i got this assignment I knew exactly what i was going to do. It was difficult trying to get photos from some of the best men that live across the country (Boston and Maine). Luckily there is social media and email otherwise i don’t know how else i would have gotten the photos. I really wish I could have used some “copy righted music” because i already had a perfect song in mind that would have fit the movie way better, but what are going to do? Well, i really hope he likes his belated wedding gift, we will have to wait and see.
Side note: For the record I hate iMovie, worst video software ever made!
My original idea for this project was to ask one question to five different artist/musicians and video tape their response along with added images and footage of their work. I still like the idea and might use it for the final project but i didn’t think it was feasible at this time to work with five different schedules so i relegated the idea. I came up with another concept of having five different dances done by one performer. I pitched the idea to the class and it seemed like the way to go. I had to work with another person’s schedule and didn’t start shooting until two days before the project was due. We created some sets out of whatever we had and I waited in between costume changes to start shooting different scenes. It was a lot of waiting, but I feel it was well worth it. My theme was to pay homage to the silent film era of the 1920s and 1930s as well as the Nickelodeon era where people put a nickel into a Kinetoscope machine to watch a brief segment of a moving picture. I used a tiny Canon Elph 320Hs in B&W mode for the video. This was also my first time using imovie or editing film for that matter so I was learning as I was working. I purposely avoided making precise edits. I wanted the editing to be choppy and rough, not fancy and smooth. I really enjoyed working with video and I know I will be making more videos.
For this project what popped in my mind about FIVE was the 5 senses. I really wanted to go all out for this project and have fun with it. Once I had the ideas for the different senses I was dead set on going through with them and not changing what I had in mind. I enjoyed this project more than P4-Audio since it was dealing with editing video along with audio. I used Windows Movie Maker which I think was fairly easy to use and effective. I wanted to be as creative and funny as possible to describe each of the senses. This project has definitely sparked my interest in making and editing videos and I plan to gain more experience in doing so.
For my P5 project I decided to do the five wildlife around Lane Community College campus. I wanted to get more pictures of the stray cats outside of the Machinery department but, there was the only one. I also got some pictures of the turkeys that run around the campus. I couldn’t get into the pond due to it requiring authorized personal so I went to Amazon Park and got some really nice pictures of the ducks and geese with their babies. For the cougar it was the same with the ducks and geese but, instead I took pictures of the locations they are said to show up when they attack.
I enjoyed doing this more then I did with the audio. I got some really good shots of the ducks and geese which was fun, plus trying to get shots of the cougars was a thrilling adventure and amazing let down when I wasn’t able to get any.
I used Imovie which was a pain to use and the music I used was Gentle Piano Loop from freesounds.org
When I decided to take on this project, it was partially just to avoid having to use a camera and/or actual people for subjects. Neither was I ready to fully dive into video taking and editing. So in a halfway, but nevertheless effort filled attempt at making things difficult for myself I decided to draw my own images. I tried to keep everything I learned in Visual Literacy in mind as I constructed the thumbnails, made referances for the characters, and eventually started making the actual images for the video.
This project in truth became quite simple once I got down to it, but it was the effort in the images and getting the videomaker and me to get along that caused me trouble, besides getting sick.
What does five mean to you? Personally I thought of five workouts to do. It bopped into the top of my head and I love to go with fresh ideas and create them. So for my media arts project five, I introduce my workout spazz self to you guys. Showing five super simple exercises any one can do, in the eyes of spazz himself that is. With the help of my two roommates Chase and Jose, we attempt to bring a small workout production to life. Hoping to be comical and show off creative skills in one video, spazz himself takes you through the routines followed up by customer reviews. I hope you enjoy, learn a workout or two and most importantly laugh.
What five means to me is: A five second animation. My original concept was to do a timed animation, I would have 5 minutes to make any sort of animation. The only problem was I didn’t have enough time to making anything good, so I ended up just changing it to a 5 second animation. This wasn’t long enough for the assignment, so I decided to do a time-lapse of me making it. The whole animation took me 1 hour and 30 minutes, more or less. The recording made me take longer then I thought. But in the end I came out great. This was also my first time using iMovie for editing, it was a good learning curve for me. I enjoyed this project and I will be making more time-lapses in the future.
The first idea that came to my mind for this project was to make a slide show of my travels in Bolivia in 2014. Bolivia has 9 major cities, but one of the most important cities related to music and culture is Oruro. This city is about the same size as Eugene, but it is situated at an altitude of 12,130 feet above sea level. Although it is hard to breath at this altitude, that does not discourage people from around the world to visit. Now Oruro has been declared a World Cultural Heritage site due to the beautiful dances, music and costumes that are typical of this region. Although Oruro is isolated, it becomes one the most important places in Bolivia for 3 days a year. There is an experience of life time for anyone who wants to be part of the traditional dances and cultural expression during Carnaval.
So there was this trend on youtube a while back called “Draw My Life”… where you would draw your life on a whiteboard and then narrate to your drawings! I saw one a few weeks ago and really wanted to try it. It’s a lot harder than it seems and there’s so much editing to do 🙁 Before I was finished I thought “This is a neat project but I’m not doing something like this again.” But when I saw the finished product I thought it was pretty spiffy and might consider sometime in the future of doing something like it with a few different approaches/techniques.
The story I wanted to tell is my own! It’s based on how I got my very first dog Annie and the struggled/triumphs we both went through. As a little kid I only ever wanted a dog, and as a dog Annie only ever wanted a person to love! She’s pretty old now, almost fifteen, and is slowing down noticeably. I’m glad I was able to do a tribute for someone so important in my life!
This assignment was a very slow starter for me. The idea of creating something about “5” was abstract and I was over complicating it greatly. Eventually some ideas started filtering in but they were all very elaborate and difficult to accomplish. Time was running out and I hadn’t even started filming anything or familiarized myself with any editing software. What can I say? I was at a loss. I only had a week left and I hadn’t started a single thing. I asked around, seeking advice from my instructors and other people whose opinions I trust. I continued to hear the same thing over and over. “Step back from it, stop over complicating it, don’t try to force it…” I must have finally caught on because suddenly it came to me. The first thing that had crossed my mind the moment I heard “5”. Simple, fun, and definitely achievable…
I didn’t bother with a storyboard. Time was short and I needed to start producing something I could use. I grabbed a camera, tripod, my friends, bought some editing software, and got to it. Though I have previously produced one short video, the difficulties involved in the creation of this one were by far more involved and challenging. I spent hours watching tutorial videos for my new software, Premiere Pro. It’s part of the Adobe Creative Cloud bundle ( https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html?promoid=KLXLR ) and is a very complicated program for anyone who is new to editing software. The video you are about to see is actually unfinished. I had a few more tweaks I planned on making such as added sounds effects and music, background and unwanted noise elimination, and removal of the more “risque” material that initially seemed a grand idea. Unfortunately while attempting to use Adobe Audition to fix the sound issues I accidentally saved the changes I had been trying out. The whole thing became a mess as I continued trying to back track and clean up my mistakes. Luckily I did export a usable copy before the changes so that is what I will be presenting for you. With only hours left until the deadline I’ve decided it best to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and submit what I have. So without further ado, I present to you “The High 5″.
As mentioned above, I planned on removing the background noise as well as that horrible creaking sound the tripod made on a few of the shots. I also wanted to add some music I had chosen on Freeplay Music to cover up some of the longer, quite scenes and make them a little m ore interesting. The world of editing is vast, complicated, and unforgiving when you make a critical error. There is so much to learn and I have no doubt that once I’ve gotten a good handle on this program a new update will come out and push me back to square one. The very last shot was filmed on my new camera, a Canon Rebel T5. I was completely unfamiliar with it and consequently, the shot came out in wide screen.
Though it is undoubtedly rough around the edges I believe it was a great start in the world of editing. As you saw I made full use of video effects, on screen text, and even a bit of special effects. I learned some valuable lessons that I will take with me and implement into my next attempt. Watch out world, here I come!
