Exploring Video Final 2019

Projects

Movie Trailer

One of my projects this semester was to recreate a movie trailer. We were given a month to do so. A challenge we faced for the first week or so was finding actors that were available. We needed a couple more actors that weren't apart of our group but every person we asked declined. Eventually, we finally got enough actors for the video. While filming, we learned how much effort can be put into a single shot. The only issues with the video is one shot that doesn't look fully focused and there was one part where I was saying a line, but we later realized I was too quiet so we had to use the audio from the original trailer. During editing, we changed the aspect ratio to look like the original trailer. Overall, the quality is very good, and it's a very obvious remake of the Breakfast Club trailer.

Short Film

My latest project was to create an original short film. This was one of the few projects where we were planning and creating something entirely original. We had a little under 2 months to create the video. We also had to start by writing a logline, synopsis, script, and film treatment. After everyone did this, we chose the best videos to create and we got into groups. We had to schedule, storyboard, and other pre-production steps. The filming only took one day. My editing took four days. The short film is a comedy about a man that gets robbed whilst gaming.

Time Management

Whenever I have something to work on in class, I will do it. If I have nothing to work on, I'll do work from other classes. There have been many class periods where I had nothing to do, but when there is, I am usually productive. For example, after we filmed "The Robbery," I edited every class period consistently and I even came in for Raven 50 one day.

Strengths

In video production, I think I'm not bad at editing and operating the camera. The only way to maximize these strengths is to practice. The more I use a camera, the better I'll understand it and utilize it. The more I edit, the more I'll understand the software and editing techniques.

Areas of Improvement

I need to improve as a leader. I have only directed one video this year and I'm not very good at it. I have never liked being the leader in charge, but this of course can change.

Short Film

In the short film, I operated the camera for about half of the clips. I was also responsible for editing the video. The genre of our short film, as mentioned earlier, was a comedy. The story is not meant to be taken seriously. Something I learned was how to color correct. While editing, I noticed that some scenes looked a bit too yellow so I had to fix that. Before we were in groups, I had to write my own story. I learned to look for plot holes in my writing. My writing skills slightly improved.

Summary

My favorite part about second semester video production was the short film. I didn't enjoy the writing part, but everything that followed was genuinely fun. Especially, the filming process. I liked setting up the camera and shooting the video. Something I wish I did differently this semester was to finish my music video project. That project was a disaster for my group. My major take-away is that I would like to continue video production as a junior. My goal is to improve my editing/filming to look more professional and polished.