Wow, what a ride this term has been. When I first started to brainstorm on what I wanted to do for my final project I was leaning more towards a remake of the scene in The Devil Wears Prada. I wanted to reenact the scene wear Miranda’s character (Glenn Close), interviews Andy (Anne Hathaway) for the job of her assistant. Needless to say it was an epic fail. First off the location I used for the interview was the library, on a Saturday afternoon, right after family story time (one of the busiest times at the library). It was impossible to get my opening shot without a ton of people getting in the way and after about 10 takes my daughter was just not into it any more. When a 4 year old is done, that is it. End of story.
After my experience with my first attempt I knew that I would need to shoot my project at home, where I knew my daughter was most comfortable and I did not have to worry about strangers getting in my way. My husband really loves horror and so does my 4 year old so I stepped out of my comfort zone and jumped in feet first. I am happy with my finished project, even with some of the editing glitches, because I know how hard I worked on it.
Thank you to all my classmates who made this such an enjoyable class and good luck to all on future endeavors.
For my project I did a podcast pilot. What I was trying to accomplish was a video pilot of the podcast I am releasing in a few weeks. I have to say this was exhausting! Nothing wanted to go my way and after this I think I will stick to audio. I did have a lot of fun filming this pilot and learned a lot. This project really pushed me to learn editing both for sound and quality video considering half my video was too dark. On the directing side of things, I did really well with one actress and not so well with one actor. My fiancé knows absolutely nothing about sports yet I was able to make her sound believable. Where my good friend Emy went over his time limit a few too many times. I have to say the most difficult thing I had to do in this project is cut down my time. I cut down to 3 and a half and then had to cut out 30 more seconds. Thanks to the help of Karl and Annette I was able to do so and I feel it worked and flowed a lot better because of it. This was not my original plan but in all I am vey happy with what I got done and can’t wait to see what the future has in store.
Well, I mean, it’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it is a review nonetheless. If anything, it shows that you can create decent video with an entry-level DSLR. But I digress…
For this video, I used a Nikon D3300 and a Nikon 18-200mm DX lens, Audacity for the monologue, and Videopad with the NCH software for the video editing. Since I didn’t have the time or the resources for Premiere, I used freeware instead and I am all the better off. Let’s just hope that Premiere doesn’t come back around to bite me later. But back to the task at hand.
Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH
A sample image taken with the Minolta SRT102
Most of what is in the video was shot on the same day. Little planning was used (except for a rudimentary script), and my expectations were low for the final result. However, I am impressed with my “presenter” (whom I will leave as nameless per request) for putting up with my “one more take” line. It’s rough for both parties when you aren’t sure of what you are doing, but hey, it’s my first time making this kind of video!
And now I can be done with it!
Sidenote: Yes, I noticed the copyright logo and I have no idea how to fix it. Considering that is on multiple websites with different users posting it though, I think the legal issue is null and void. I just want to say though, if the volvere.fi photographer reads this, I get it when people steal images. I’ve had mine stolen and… that’s not a justification for what I’ve done. But I will definitely credit you here: THIS VOLVO PICTURE IS FROM “VOLVERE.FI”. I DID NOT TAKE OR MAKE THIS PHOTO.
This project wasn’t nearly as rushed as “Five Pointless Pleasures for the Scatterbrained.”
I kind of owe this getting done in time to Jacob, the man in the chair up above this description. And not only for this, but my final for MUL 105 as well. I basically texted him to see if he had any advice, and admittedly to complain a bit. I thought he hadn’t even gotten the text until he showed up on campus ready to film an hour later!
I’m not gonna lie, this class was stressful for me. I had absolutely no idea as to how a Mac works when I walked in the first day. Honestly, I’m not sure i really do now, but I’m closer than I was back then. I definitely learned that I do not make a good director, save for simple directions. I’m not assertive enough, I guess. I always feel bad telling someone they did something wrong and I don’t know why.
Before the video project (Project 4, I think?) and the final (See above) I had never really embraced the sillier side of me at all. It was interesting, but if I can help it, I think I’ll stick to more serious things from now on.
Have a nice spring break.
Theresa, thank you for putting up with me for ten weeks. I’ll be the first person to admit I’m a difficult student at best.
For my 6th and final project of the quarter for this class, I have decided to make a video about my travels around the world.
I was inspired to make this video because I am someone who is very keen on travelling, as I believe that it is a very important part of life. First of all, the traveller experiences something other than what they are used to. Getting out of ones comfort zone is important because it forces you to keep an open mind. You will certainly run into situations that you have never experienced before and learn how to deal with things differently than you are used to.
Ultimately it makes you a better person, who is more open to the world around you and more accepting of all the different circumstances of life. I encourage people to travel as much as possible because it will open peoples minds in ways never believed possible; there is a lot of self discovery involved in the process as well, and it is interesting to see how you may handle different situations. The world is a vast place and there is so much to see and therefore I believed it to be important to show what is possible.
And to finish it off with an inspirational quote…
“Live, Travel, Adventure, Bless, and don’t be sorry.”
I wanted to work on a project that was interesting to make, as well as interesting to watch. I have a curiosity about learning time laps photography. I enjoy putting together projects that are produced from still photography, though I am learning to appreciate video in this project. I expect when I take VP 1 and 2, I will learn more (and become more proficient) regarding video production, from the camera operators’ perspective. My goal was to explore the possibilities and finish with a good result that people will enjoy.
My experience with this assignment.
This was an interesting assignment in that I had a couple ideas and had to decide what to go with for the proposal and the end product. I picked the things I have a passion for, which included video games (“Let’s Play” videos), certain types of genre like “Saturday Night Live” (maybe a short like “Mr. Bill”), and finally art and wine. I wound up choosing art and wine, which had a number of developmental growth stages.
I am interested in time laps photography. Kun inspired me to pursue that interest with this project in some way. I started out thinking about a skit like the “Red Green Show” segments of “home movies,” similar to the “Mr. Bill” shorts idea in a lot of ways. As things progressed, I found I was more interested in doing a single story about a “rogue artist” in a Sip and Create class.
Now, I needed to figure out the story and working with time laps. I actually had a couple plans for the vignette. As it was, alternate plans are a good thing, since on the day of my first shoot, my original talent was ill and could not make it to the event. Plan A was out, due to illness. I had Plan C, to reschedule the shoot and change the script a bit for the re-shoot if need be. But I thought, why waste the day, let’s see what develops here. And I can always go to Plan C. I am happy to say that Plan B worked out great.
I got some great shots and footage at the event with new volunteer talent. My new story went well with what was going on and I got enough material for this project. I like the resulting story better than my original scripts for Plan A and C. Rick Simms calls this a “serendipitous opportunity.” I think from what I have heard in the visiting artists’ series, here at school, one needs to learn to take what is given and run with it; think outside the box.
I was not able to fit my video footage into the final project. I have included it as a bonus reel, that may be interesting to watch. The video is a time laps of the process. Maybe I will use it for another project.
This is my video for P6 – Final Project. I am honestly very proud and surprised with how it turned out. I’m lucky to have friends that were willing to help and happily cooperate with me on this project, and even help with the writing process.
My favorite part of making this video was either the filming or the writing process, both of which were really fun. The filming process was fun because I got to make my friends say the stupid things I wrote, but the actual writing process was fun, too, because we all got to contribute jokes and ideas.
One of the hardest parts of this project was holding ourselves back and not making the video South Park-levels of inappropriate. We wanted to make it as safe-for-work as possible while still being universally funny. I don’t think there’s anything in here that’s considered offensive or mean/malicious, and we’re very happy with how it turned out. There were plenty of points that we thought it would be funny to just drop it to shock horror where everything is calm and out of nowhere Jesse or Briar would say something outrageously inappropriate or offensive, but we knew we wouldn’t be able to do that.
I would love to continue to make things like this. I still think it’s funny every time I watch it and I think plenty of people will find it funny, too. I want to be able to grow and improve my skills in the video field, especially in the comedy department.
For my final video project I decided to make a short film in black and white, 1950’s, noir style. My first draft of the screenplay was quite different. I really wanted to challenge myself to make something beautiful and dynamic, with multiple moving parts and locations. If this project taught me anything at all, it’s that I shouldn’t expect so much out of myself this early in the game. Fortunately, I was able to whittle the story into something much more manageable.
Another very important lesson I took from this project is that no matter how much time & effort you put into preplanning, no matter how prepared you think you are, you’ll still run into obstacles. I spent about a week & a half perfecting my shot list and script. I planned out all the sets, I bought all the props/costumes, I obtained all the equipment (I rented a T5i camera, a video tripod, a snowball mic & some bounce cards for my lights) & I wrangled together a crew. When filming day came around, everyone was excited to get rolling. We got everything set up for the first shot & boom- the camera died, despite having charged it all night. We had sadly rented a bad battery that would only stay charged for about 5 minutes at a time. Luckily, we had a back up camera. Although, this caused some issues on the editing floor because we had filmed in 2 different aspect ratios. But needless to say, I was not prepared for equipment failure. After about 6 hours, switching cameras when the bad battery had to charge, we had recorded all the shots.
I used a snowball mic to capture a monologue that did not make it into the final cut, because I ran into issues with that as well. The mic was placed in different positions while recording, which messed up the consistency of the audio quality. For example, we held the mic under the table while we were filming & we had it on the desk when we were recording narration. Now I know for next time that a boom mic is the way to go. I tried to salvage the audio in a few different experiments, but I eventually decided to cut my loses & make a silent film. This meant that I had to rearrange some of the clips in places where the main actress was saying her lines. I tried a couple different arrangements, but I believe I went with the best choice in the final product. I spliced different shots of her talking with shots of her looking around, looking into the camera, playing with her handcuffs, etc. I believe this shows the passage of time, as if she’s been in that police interrogation room for hours. Ideally, it would’ve been nice to have the monologue & narration playing over the film. It would’ve clarified the story. Without words it’s unclear that the husband has been cheating on his wife with his student. On the other hand, I also kind of enjoy the ambiguity of the film. Perhaps it works better this way.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I think I was able to capture some really nice shots & I was able to edit them together with a nice rhythm. I only hope to get better with practice. Thank you to everyone that helped me keep this project out of the trash.
