This particular video is a bit different from what I had initially pitched. It was meant to feature multiple people with multiple locations; an ambitious undertaking considering the amount time I had to work with. Oregon Memories is a video series I thought of about a year ago. Each video would feature a person familiar with the outdoors of Oregon and talk about what makes a specific area a special place for them. Oregon Memories: Mt. Pisgah could be considered a pilot episode in that regard. In this one, I visit Mt. Pisgah with my girlfriend, Emmareighn. She speaks on the times she’s experienced and the emotions she associates with the area, both good and bittersweet.

With this project, I really wanted to make people smile. The ultimate goal was to create something that could distract others from whatever negativity is surrounding them, if any, or to simply make you laugh because it’s funny. I wanted to emulate a “typical make-up tutorial” that you might find on YouTube. In the video, you can clearly see the person behind myself acting as “The Arms.” This was as intentional as it gets. I wanted the parody to be obvious, but not overbearing, so I told a story to keep the attention of my audience’s ears, and the silliness of the arms and (mostly) bad make-up to keep their eyes focused on the video. I’ve had my make-up done a lot as a dancer, so this wasn’t out of my realm by any means. The way the make-up was applied from someone who couldn’t really see me well made it extra funny and I didn’t get poked in the eye too many times. The lighting and general set-up for the video was pretty difficult. I don’t have an actual stand for my phone, which is what the video was recorded on, so that made it difficult to get a decent angle. The final cut was actually taken from just one take, because the angle changed too drastically in other takes and I didn’t want that lack of continuity in the video. During the editing process, which was actually very fun, I found so many useful tools in Premiere Pro. This was only my second attempt at editing video on my own, and I think it went much better than the first time. What I am most proud of in regards to this video is not the editing or animations or anything that came from post production. It was that I remembered to take the video with my phone turned on it’s side. I am also proud of the editing I did, because even if no one else does, I think it’s funny and clever and really reaches the outcome I was looking for in this project.

Cast & Crew
Creator, Director, Editor, Face-Cole Brown
Make-up Artist, Arms, Emotional Support-Maya Auld
Music from Epidemic Sounds
Graphic elements and SFX from Premiere Pro’s Free content.

By: Cole Brown

I had a lot of fun making this video. I had about 40 short clips/shots that I captured at Mt. Pisgah. I had a hard time choosing my favorites but I am overall very happy with how this video looks. I think the lighting as well as the selective focus in some of these shots creates a fun and interesting view.  It was nice to use homework as an excuse to go outside and get some fresh air. I usually find myself confined at my desk or in my bed starting at my laptop like a robot. It was so refreshing and wonderful to spend time with my mom and doggie is such a beautiful place. I had a hard time lining up beats in the song with clip transitions, but i am pretty satisfied with how they turned out. I also felt like all the transitions on premiere pro were really cheesy looking so I opted to just have the clips follow each other without fancy transitions. The only transitions I added were from the title in the beginning to the first clip, then the last clip to the credits, and I am really happy with how that turned out. 

I did have a hard time with the audio, and listening to it I felt like it sounded unnatural at times. I talk rather fast and I couldn’t record audio while watching the video so I ended up breaking the audio into pieces and spreading it throughout the video. This allowed more time for the music to shine and just allow a break in narration. 

I think I am pretty proud of the final product and excited about how much I have learned about video/audio production. This was only my second video I have ever made so i am pretty happy with it.

By Morgan Murphy

The final project was an interesting and fun project. My original idea was to make a video about art block, simply because I was in one! But I finally came up with an idea that I thought would match my interests in the creepy/mysterious aesthetic that I like going with for my projects. I knew I wanted to incorporate tarot cards and candles into my video, with some witch type of figure. I was thinking about recording myself doing an actual tarot reading by drawing the cards and laying them out and talking about them, but I didn’t think that would be “spooky” enough. My voice isn’t spooky in the slightest and I didn’t think I could pull that off. So instead I compiled footage of myself lighting candles and looking through the cards, some smoke, and some shots of crystals and other things. I then went on the search for some stock footage that would match my theme and I ended up finding some really interesting clips. I really wanted the moon to be in the video so I’m glad I could find a high-quality video clip of that. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do that with my camera at all so that was definitely needed. I also found some really interesting clips of a witch-type figure at a bonfire, which I couldn’t do myself due to not knowing where exactly to light a fire like that and make it look interesting without causing a wildfire! Overall I really enjoyed editing the project because I learned a lot of new tricks with my program. I ended up snipping, copying, and reversing clips a lot to create the effects I did. During this, I learned a lot about video transitions and what types of transitions fit with the overall mood of the video. I hope everyone enjoys it or at least found it interesting to watch.

The theme of the Gear Game takes inspiration from the popular stereotypical side-scrollers throughout the decades, such as Super Mario Brothers, RedBall, and many other aspects of the MedtroidVania subgenre. It was made using unorthodox methods of animation (if you can even call it that). Five environments were drawn using tools exclusive to Algodoo—a physics engine intended to be used for education—and referenced from my mental map of the music, so that events on screen would be synced up with it. 

The interesting part about the production of this project was that I had to design a game and play-test it. Obstacles were fine-tuned to allow for manageable navigation and correctly timed on-screen events. Exploring the functions and scripting language of Algodoo was a true feat within itself as well, for the program is very old, and makeshift community tutorials date all the way back to 2006.

Once a scene is completed and thoroughly tested, I set the simulation speed to half and play through the course in real time. This allows for my screen-recording software to capture a smooth frame rate. The video recording is then saved to my desktop, and dragged into my editing software: Final Cut Pro X, where I speed up the footage to match the music.

Motivation for making this cartoon came from a desire to transition from the not-so-practical methods of practical effects in Stop Motion animation. For five years I have been repeating the cumbersome task of taking thousands of photos of meticulously placed physical objects, only to realize a mistake was made halfway through the process, forcing myself to redo everything. Computer animation, I have learned, is far more flexible when it comes to altering the world I am manipulating. If a mistake is made, all that needs to be done is to merely press the undo button, and it is repaired. Objects can be moved by the bulk, and most of all, the laws of physics don’t apply here! I can make things float, explode, or have the torque of a thousand Newton-metres, contained within a penny-sized gear if I wanted to.

Algodoo is not limitless. I have encountered my fair share of denied possibilities due to engine limitations. But it certainly has broadened the room for bigger imagination.

When I got word that my mom had access to a drone for her camping trip, I knew I had to do something with it. I have always wanted to get my hands on some more professional looking footage, and I figured this would be the perfect chance to experiment with it. She’s wanted me to edit for her for a while now as well, so everything kind of just fell into place. 

My biggest challenge with this project was that I had no control at all of what footage came my way, since I couldn’t be there. I tried to give them a list of things that I wanted shot, however, I left a lot of room for creativity. I felt like this was a good idea at the time, but when they came back with actual hours of footage of just my dog playing fetch, I couldn’t do much with it. 

While I was editing, I decided to create a simple storyline with the footage I was given. I started with several establishing shots to set the scene and get a feel for the area that it was in. There were some beautiful scenery shots that I was given to work with, and they worked great as introductory shots. From there, I visually introduced my dog with a video transition, and from there, I focused on several shots of him playing fetch in the snow. I hoped to have a little more variety in my shots around there, but I didn’t have much to work with. From there, there were a few more shots of him playing in the snow, catching snowballs and chasing mice, but they were shot in a different location, so I used a dip to black to introduce the shot of my mom and my dog hiking to somewhere else in order to keep visual setting continuity. 

I think that given the footage that I had to work with, I think my project turned out great. I was hoping to edit a video documenting my dog’s adventures in the snow, and I really think I got what I was hoping for. Onto the next adventure!