Video End of Year Reflection 2017

Video Reflection

Music Video

The project was to create a music video using a school appropriate song. We were to make it look as cinematic and real as we wanted. The project took about two weeks for us to make the storyboards, along with picking the music. It took my group a while to pick a song that we all would enjoy. I remember us talking about how Ashlee wanted to do a video with more of a message, while Darby and I wanted to make it abstract and "artsy".

One challenge we faced was getting the song we wanted. Another one was where we were going to film. Darby had chosen a spot downtown that would work perfectly with our video, though it was a restaurant and we would have had to pay over a hundred dollars to just be able to film in the place, which, we didn't have since we're only High School students. So, Darby went out scoping and found a great park, along with using a local Museum that had gorgeous glass on the outside. Though, it was extremely cold the day we went filming, so we had a hard time working with the wind and such.

I learned that we should probably check the weather before we decide to go filming. Also, I learned that collaboration is the key to making a video work. We spent probably about four hours filming, along with three to four hours editing it to make it as perfect as we could.

Our class fell in love with the video, all we heard were compliments. Most were talking about the editing and the way we made it look cinematic. I would surprised by how well it was taken by the class. We really didn't change anything after we were given the feedback, there wasn't really much to change, so we kept it the way it was.

I absolutely loved our music video, I was so astounded by how well it turned out, and I adore the song, so that just made me fall even more in love with it.

Trailer Remake

The project was to remake a trailer from an eighties High School movie. Our group chose The Breakfast Club. We all filmed it together, though we had to edit it on our own. Our project took a good week and a half. We spent the first week setting up the storyboards and writing the script, along with finding actors. 

Some challenges we faced were getting the costumes for the actors, that took a lot of tedious detail and focusing, along with a lot of spending money to get the right ones. We also had some trouble with the lighting, mostly because some days it was a yellow hue, while the other days it was white, which is probably due to our white-balancing. 

I didn't really learn much while making this video, other than that making videos, more specifically remakes, takes a lot of work. It's very tedious in the details, and you need to have it as close as you can to the real thing. 

My recreation of the video wasn't as good as the rest of my groups, but I worked hard on it, so the class let me off easy. The only thing they even mentioned was the way that one person's line was cut off, but I'm not sure at all how that happened. I didn't change anything about my video after the feedback, I just sorta let it be. We also had to move onto another project, so I didn't have time to redo it.

I didn't really like my editing in this video, I could have done way more, but I put more effort into making the credits and the title screen than editing.

Short Film

The project was to make a short film that was school appropriate. Our video took about four weeks, or a month, to completely create it. Most of the time was spent making the storyboards and editing, along with re-editing, the script. It also took a couple days to edit the film, but only one day was spent actually filming.

We really didn't face much challenges in making this video other than finding a place that we could film. Evan, the creator of the script, wanted to use an abandoned house as the set. Though, it's probably not really "abandoned", so that would trespassing, and if it is actually abandoned, then we could get hurt trying to film in it. So, we finally decided on filming in his house. 

I learned that making short films are hard, and they need a lot of effort and care put into them to make them truly work. Also, our teacher told us that the acting can make or break the film, which is completely true. We were lucky enough that our actors had some background in acting and could improvise the lines and change what they wanted to match their characters. Our group was very lenient on the script and what the actors thought would be better, instead of what we chose. 

We were told that our video was funny, which we tried to make it be that way, and was well acted. I didn't really have much to do with that, but I tried to make suggestions while we were filming on what I thought would be funny, which we did use some, like the Scooby-Doo running music. We didn't change anything since this project took up so much of our time, we didn't have time to.

Overall, I had such a fun time making this, and I'm so happy that I was put with a group that I actually liked the script, and not something I was forced into making. I absolutely loved working on this.

Class Reflection

I believe that I used as much time in class that I could. I was constantly trying to work on whatever video I could, and If I wasn't the one actively editing, or re-editing the script, I was looking for music or whatever I could to make the video more interesting. When I would finish all those things, I was a bit unproductive, I would draw with Sarah, Evan, and Leah and we'd have a contest to see who could draw what the best. Though, that was only for one project. Through the other ones, I was constantly working on the video, I even stayed after school for most days. 

Outside of class, my group and I were collaborating on what shots we think would work well, along with what type of costuming we had to get. We were also setting jobs on who did what and what to bring when we were filming. 

I believe my strength is that I work well with others and I'm open-minded with ideas. I think I am a hard worker and I try to get my ideas into the conversation, but I'm not upset if it doesn't go through in the video. I believe I maximize my strengths by adding comments to what needs to be done and how to do it, along with working with people I know are also open-minded about the production. 

I believe I need improvement in my own editing, along with making my own film ideas and characters that would actually be able to make into an interesting video. I don't really know what I can do to make this happen, though I am going to work with Darby and Ashlee over the summer, we plan to make a short film. So, maybe I'll be able to improve while we're working on that.

I loved making the videos and editing them, just putting all the clips together and making it work is so extraordinary to me. I'm not sure why I like it so much, but I do. I think I would change how involved I was in the beginning of the year. I want to put my ideas out there more, and I believe I did that in the second semester, but I wish I would've done it sooner.

I don't really have anything I learned this semester, but I think that I know understand how hard it really is making these videos and how much effort you need to put into it to make it work. I think I would like to actively try to work on my editing skills. I want to be a more efficient and overall better editor. 

Finally, I absolutely loved being in this class, and I made two lifelong friends that I'm sure I'll work with for many years to come. I also was surprised by how well our classes' videos were, we're pretty awesome, and I can definitely see some of the students here becoming part of the production industry later in life.