"No Sleep" PSA

The original concept that we came up with for our video was an anti-cussing video where we would take common cuss words and replace them with types of food and show the food in a humorous way. We also wanted to do a 1930s themed film where the main actor drops their phone and begins to say a cuss word but they look up and they see they've been transported into the '30s where they can not speak any foul language. After my group and I spoke about this, we decided that we did not have the materials to create a video of that nature and make it look high quality. So, we switched to insomnia, which we thought we could create easier and of a better quality.

The process of creating this video was a bit anxiety-inducing at first because we were given this project when we were beginning to create our feature film and my group and I have significant jobs on this set. But, we persevered and created something when we had time. We did not have a script since there were no words spoken in this video. Our production team roles were slightly mixed since we only the two of us in the group plus our actor. So, Armin was the cinematographer while I was the gaffer, Armin was the editor, I was the continuity supervisor, and we were both directors for the video. The creation of this film was quick and filmed in just 25 minutes, it was also edited in 45 minutes to an hour.

We both had to act as a lot of roles on set and I believe we both effectively did what we needed to do in the short time it took to film and create this video. I did not learn much from this video, it was pretty basic and I have not learned anything. We used an 80D with a 50mm lens, we filmed in 60fps. We were going to use the 25mm lens, but the room was too dark to see the actor, and it would look grainy if we tried to add a filter to lighten it. It was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro. We still find the video to be too dark, but we do not want the film to be too grainy. We used the five guarantees effectively, in my opinion. The only one that we did not truly use to the full extent was Time Management, since we did not turn it in until the last minute.

The only thing I would do different is to try to lighten up the actor a bit more. I would also change the end just a little bit. I would do everything else the same, honestly. I really enjoy how this video came out and working on it was a little bit fun but also kind of terrible. I think I would only take away one thing: make time to work on the pre-production.

Overall, I really enjoyed the beginning process of making this film, even if it was stress-inducing. I would change some things but I thought it worked nicely for what little time we filmed it in.