Video Entertainment semester review
This semester we did so much in video entertainment that really helped me grow as a filmmaker and the roles I like to play when making those films. The very first assignment we had was camera assignment 1 where we had to make a short video about either a PSA, informational video, a music video, or a mini short film. My group decided to make a mini short film that we titled Simply Complex.
Simply Complex is a mini short film that revolves around a man named Albert Franklin III, who has a habit of making things way more complicated than they have to be. In it, he goes to a job interview to be a teacher at his local high school, but something terrible happens and franklin is the only one smart enough to stop it. This project took a good couple of weeks to make. We didn't really run into that many problems except for finding a time when a teacher would be available to be used in our film. Along the way, I learned the importance of camera angles because there were a few shots where a whiteboard covered in drawings was visible and very distracting to the audience. One bit of feedback that I will keep in mind is to not use a place that is familiar to everyone.
This next assignment was to make a commercial for anything we wanted but it could only be one minute at max. So we decided to make a Nintendo switch commercial that everyone in the group loved. The whole point of this commercial was to show how portable the switch was by having someone take it over to his friend's house, then he is playing it in the car, and finally, they are playing it at a park. This film took a few days to record because we wanted to have specific amounts of daylight to show that time was passing. The biggest challenge that our editor faced was that towards the end it got way too dark and had to try and fix that problem. Along the way, I learned how much you can show a product and what it can do in just 60 seconds if you do it right. Most of the criticism that we received was about how dark it was at the end but we tried all we could without having to reshoot it.
This last assignment was our most recent one which was a short film titled Franklin's cake. It's about a scientist named Franklin wh makes a cake to try and make up for forgetting him and his girlfriends anniversary by making a cake. The problem is that the cake becomes sentient and tries to kill franklin's wife so he and the cake can be together forever. This project took a couple of weeks to make because we spent one week changing and revising the script. Then it took about two days to film but those days had about a week in between since both of our actors were busy. Other than our actors not having a lot of time to film we didn't really run into any problems. The biggest thing I took from this assignment was to plan ahead with your actors in case they are busy you aren't scrambling to find a time when they are available.
Overall I love all three of these videos and you can really see how much we've changed by watching the videos. I do feel like there is some stuff that we could have done better but I'm still proud of the way they turned out.
Over the period of the semester, we had a lot of time in class to work on it and we mostly used it to revise the script and to get in contact with our possible actors, other than that everything was done outside of school. I wouldn't say that I used class time the best because I'm not really that good when it comes to pre-production or doing anything with the script. I would still try to help the best I could but it was very limited. Normally when we would have extra time I would either help the editor by getting sound effects and music, I would do work in other classes, or I would look at my phone.
My areas of strength are mostly during filming and as an editor or helping the editor. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to try something other than editor so I chose art director which I think is a lot of fun. For most of the projects this year I was the art director and I'd say I did pretty well, but there were some times when I could have done a bit more. The way I practice being one is by pretending I'm going to shoot a movie and I think about what should be in the shot and what shouldn't. At home, I practice being an editor by making and editing my own videos and sometimes trying to figure out how to do something I don't know how to do.
The areas that I need improvement on is definitely in pre-production. I've never really been that creative when it comes to writing or editing a script so I've just sort of stayed away from it. For our short film, we kept changing things about it and in the end, we decided to come up with some cake puns that I thought of since the film was a comedy. Throughout the year we had a few guest speakers but the two I can say I really learned from were Morgan Cooper and Ryann Burnett. When Morgan came and talked to us he told us about where he came from and how he got to where he is now, which was so inspiring to me. He also told us all of the other things that we could do with the specific roles that we play. Ryann taught me the importance of file management by showing us some of his previous projects and saying why it's important.
This year I had the wonderful opportunity to go to New York and view the All American High School Film Festival. While I was there I learned so much about the colleges that I could go to based on what I want to pursue as a filmmaker. Watching all of the films from kid across the US I realized how good everyone is even at our age. I can't wait to be able to enter my own videos into it next year.
For our class's upcoming feature film I will be the boom operator, one of the editors, and one of the folley artists. Most of what I know about being a folley artist is being creative with the ways of making sound no matter how weird you have to get. When it comes to being a boom operator I don't know much since I've never done it before. Being on a team with two other editors will also be new to me since I have only ever edited by myself, but I know that one of the key things to being a good editor is time management. I know that I will do a great job on the roles that have been given to me.
The things I loved most about this semester was how many videos I got to make and being able to expand as a filmmaker. If there was one thing I wish I could have done better was doing more with pre-production because even though I don't plan on doing any of those roles it still helps to know what is going on. Overall I learned how important it is to know everybody's strengths and weaknesses. One goal I would like to have for the second semester is to upload more of my personal videos. My final thoughts are that I have been extremely blessed to have been given such a good opportunity to be able to be in this program.
Simply Complex is a mini short film that revolves around a man named Albert Franklin III, who has a habit of making things way more complicated than they have to be. In it, he goes to a job interview to be a teacher at his local high school, but something terrible happens and franklin is the only one smart enough to stop it. This project took a good couple of weeks to make. We didn't really run into that many problems except for finding a time when a teacher would be available to be used in our film. Along the way, I learned the importance of camera angles because there were a few shots where a whiteboard covered in drawings was visible and very distracting to the audience. One bit of feedback that I will keep in mind is to not use a place that is familiar to everyone.
This next assignment was to make a commercial for anything we wanted but it could only be one minute at max. So we decided to make a Nintendo switch commercial that everyone in the group loved. The whole point of this commercial was to show how portable the switch was by having someone take it over to his friend's house, then he is playing it in the car, and finally, they are playing it at a park. This film took a few days to record because we wanted to have specific amounts of daylight to show that time was passing. The biggest challenge that our editor faced was that towards the end it got way too dark and had to try and fix that problem. Along the way, I learned how much you can show a product and what it can do in just 60 seconds if you do it right. Most of the criticism that we received was about how dark it was at the end but we tried all we could without having to reshoot it.
This last assignment was our most recent one which was a short film titled Franklin's cake. It's about a scientist named Franklin wh makes a cake to try and make up for forgetting him and his girlfriends anniversary by making a cake. The problem is that the cake becomes sentient and tries to kill franklin's wife so he and the cake can be together forever. This project took a couple of weeks to make because we spent one week changing and revising the script. Then it took about two days to film but those days had about a week in between since both of our actors were busy. Other than our actors not having a lot of time to film we didn't really run into any problems. The biggest thing I took from this assignment was to plan ahead with your actors in case they are busy you aren't scrambling to find a time when they are available.
Overall I love all three of these videos and you can really see how much we've changed by watching the videos. I do feel like there is some stuff that we could have done better but I'm still proud of the way they turned out.
Over the period of the semester, we had a lot of time in class to work on it and we mostly used it to revise the script and to get in contact with our possible actors, other than that everything was done outside of school. I wouldn't say that I used class time the best because I'm not really that good when it comes to pre-production or doing anything with the script. I would still try to help the best I could but it was very limited. Normally when we would have extra time I would either help the editor by getting sound effects and music, I would do work in other classes, or I would look at my phone.
My areas of strength are mostly during filming and as an editor or helping the editor. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to try something other than editor so I chose art director which I think is a lot of fun. For most of the projects this year I was the art director and I'd say I did pretty well, but there were some times when I could have done a bit more. The way I practice being one is by pretending I'm going to shoot a movie and I think about what should be in the shot and what shouldn't. At home, I practice being an editor by making and editing my own videos and sometimes trying to figure out how to do something I don't know how to do.
The areas that I need improvement on is definitely in pre-production. I've never really been that creative when it comes to writing or editing a script so I've just sort of stayed away from it. For our short film, we kept changing things about it and in the end, we decided to come up with some cake puns that I thought of since the film was a comedy. Throughout the year we had a few guest speakers but the two I can say I really learned from were Morgan Cooper and Ryann Burnett. When Morgan came and talked to us he told us about where he came from and how he got to where he is now, which was so inspiring to me. He also told us all of the other things that we could do with the specific roles that we play. Ryann taught me the importance of file management by showing us some of his previous projects and saying why it's important.
This year I had the wonderful opportunity to go to New York and view the All American High School Film Festival. While I was there I learned so much about the colleges that I could go to based on what I want to pursue as a filmmaker. Watching all of the films from kid across the US I realized how good everyone is even at our age. I can't wait to be able to enter my own videos into it next year.
For our class's upcoming feature film I will be the boom operator, one of the editors, and one of the folley artists. Most of what I know about being a folley artist is being creative with the ways of making sound no matter how weird you have to get. When it comes to being a boom operator I don't know much since I've never done it before. Being on a team with two other editors will also be new to me since I have only ever edited by myself, but I know that one of the key things to being a good editor is time management. I know that I will do a great job on the roles that have been given to me.
The things I loved most about this semester was how many videos I got to make and being able to expand as a filmmaker. If there was one thing I wish I could have done better was doing more with pre-production because even though I don't plan on doing any of those roles it still helps to know what is going on. Overall I learned how important it is to know everybody's strengths and weaknesses. One goal I would like to have for the second semester is to upload more of my personal videos. My final thoughts are that I have been extremely blessed to have been given such a good opportunity to be able to be in this program.
Comments
Post a Comment