Music Video

The first project I completed this semester was a music video. For this video, my group used the Taylor Swift song, Everything Has Changed. In order to fit the overall mood of the video, my group worked on establishing a strong warm aesthetic and used the 6 shot system to add variety to the film.

This project took around a month to storyboard, location scout, and film. The first step in this process was choosing a song and actors. I was very set on using the Taylor Swift song Everything Has Changed because I knew it would be an interesting song to show a story through. Next, my group worked on casting actors that we could find similar look alike kids to. Eventually, we found 4 actors that would work perfectly with the video. Once casting was set we began to film. Our group used a wide variety of locations to tell a story. Since we had to travel a lot to film, it took around 5-6 days of filming to get all of the footage. After filming was complete, our group began the editing process. Editing took around a week and I was very happy with the way the video turned out.

There were several challenges I faced in the production of this video. One main challenge was finding days to film. Everyone in our group had very busy schedules and it was very difficult to find days we could all film together. Also, we had a hard time figuring out how to edit this video. Everyone had a different perspective on how we should edit the video and it ended up with us all editing our own individual videos.

I learned several new skills through this project. Mostly I learned that everyone has a different perspective and vision when it comes to video production and that you need to work with everyones ideas in order to produce a successful video. Our group struggled with accurately communicating ideas and after the competition of this video, I now know ways I can work as an individual leader to make filming and editing easier for everyone. I also learned how much I really enjoyed filming music videos. Going into entertainment video I knew I wanted to make short films and movies in my future. However, now that I've made a music video, i've really begun to love this side of video. I now have plans to film 2 music videos this summer and I hope to use the skills I learned from this video into the production of new music videos.

Some feedback my group received was to use a tripod. My group didn't use a tripod for the majority of the shots and it was very obvious in the final video. The stabilization software can only do so much to stabilize and it is really important to use a tripod when possible.

If I was to do this video again, I would use a tripod as well as more variety in the shots. We had lots of shaky footage and shots that where from similar locations. I think if we used more close ups and establishing shots the video would look a lot more professional. Another thing I would change would be my production role. I want to get behind the camera more so that I can get specific shots that I vision.

Overall, I really enjoyed creating this music video and am very proud of the way it turned out. This was the first music video I've ever produced and I hope that I am able to continually make more music videos throughout the next few years. This project helped establish my love for music videos and I have learned several new skills through this video that I can carry into entertainment video next year.

High School Musical 3 Trailer

The next project we completed this semester was a recreation of a high school movie trailer. For this video, we had to recreate each scene shot for shot. My group decided to do the High School Musical 3 trailer because we knew we would enjoy the challenge of a more complicated trailer that included lots of dancing and audio.

This video took around one month to produce as well. We spent around a week and a half planning for the video and location scouting. We had to screenshot every scene from the trailer which took a while but was very helpful in the shoot. We also had to spend a while choosing a cast. Because High School musical had such district characters with personalities, we had to find people who would fit the same personalities. We also had to do a lot of choreography and planning before filming. The actual shoot went really well and we got most of our filming done within 2 days. After we finished filming, we began editing. Editing was fairly easy since we just had to recreate what was already done in the original video.

There were several challenges I faced in the production of this video. First off, it was very hard to organize what shots we needed to film. Since lots of our shots took place in similar locations it was hard to know where we needed to set up the camera. Secondlly, it was also fairly difficult to teach the choreography. The original trailer had very short clips of people dancing and it was difficult to see what dances took place in them

In the process of this video I learned several new skills. I mainly learned the skill of time management. Since this video took a lot of time to organize a filming day and to find a day when all actors where available, I had to really make sure every day we could film on was successful. Our group really had to maximize the time we had together to guarantee that our video got done on time.

Our group received feedback on audio levels and specific shots. We had some problems getting good audio since we filmed in several loud locations. Lot's of our shots also didn't accurately match the original video and we could have done a better job at redoing shots until they matched.

If I could change anything, I would use more props and costumes. We tried our best in our limited time to match wardrobe with characters but it defiantly could have been matched better.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed filming this video and I had a really great time working with the cast and crew of this video. The High School Musical trailer was a good choice in recreation because we were able to find actors who really fit the role and where open to acting. I am not totally happy with the final product, but I think it shows a lot of hard work as well as room for improvement in the next years.

Terror-Dactyle Short Film

The last video we made was a short film. For this project we were assigned groups which was really cool because it gave me the opportunity to work with a new group of people. For this short film, it needed to be anywhere from 5-10 min. Initially, everyone in our group wrote their own short film treatment and script and then we chose which one we wanted to produce. My group chose Evan Mayo's script originally titled The West Woods. We really enjoyed how humorous and creepy we could make the video and decided to create that film.

This video took a little over a month to create. Creating a short film was a very long process. We first selected the script by Mayo and revised it a lot to add more humor and thrill. We wanted to make the video as cliche and funny as possible. We eventually renamed it Terror-Dactyle because we made our bad guy wear a terrordactyl costume.  We then had to cast 4 actors that fit with 4 different personalities in the script. Finally, we decided to film at Evan's house and we were ready to begin shooting. We worked a lot in this production with wardrobe and props. We decorated the basement in a lot of halloween costumes and tried to make it look as creepy as possible. The filming went very well since all of our actors were able to embody the personalities we gave them. Lots of the humor was improved and it made the footage a lot more natural.

A few challenges we faced was with lighting and plot. When we began filming it was very bright out, but by the time we got to the ending scenes it was very dark. We had trouble with getting good lighting and we had to use our phone flashlights a lot. We also had a hard time trying to show the ending of the video and the overall conclusion is a little bit rushed.

Throughout this production, I learned the importance of managing in class time. Since I was working with a new group of people, I had to work on communication. We also had a lot to get done before we could begin filming and we had to make sure everyday we were working on something productive in class. Our successful pre planning really helped make the filming days go smoothly.

Our video received very positive feedback. Lot's of students thought our video was very funny and was a different style of video compared to all the serious short films that were produced.

If I could change anything about this video, it would be the ending. The ending was very rushed and confusing and if I had the opportunity to redo anything it would be to add more transitioning shots at the end.

Overall, I really like the final product my group produced. The funny dialogue, props, and sound effects really contributed to the videos overall mood and made it more enjoyable.

Time In Class

Throughout this semester I have efficiently used my time in class. Since every project is team based, the time we get together in class is very important. Because I have such a busy schedule and so does everyone else, the time I was in class really helped make sure every project was completed on time.

At times, I finished projects early and I had extra time. When this happened I helped give feedback to other groups videos and researched new skills I can apply to my own videos.

Outside of class I do a lot to help enhance my work. Outside of class I use Pinterest and youtube to research other ways to edit videos and ways to make my videos better. I am also on Team 1710 on the media team. Being on 1710 really helped enhance my work by giving me more experience in editing videos in short amounts of time.

Strengths

One of my biggest strength is project management. Through everything I am involved in, I always make sure I give as much time as needed to video so that my projects can be completed on time. I really strive to make sure all my work is done to the best of my ability and that I am proud of all of it.

Another strength I have is collaboration. I can work well with everyone and being in a new group for the short film really helped me develop this strength even more.

Weakness

One weakness I have is communication. There have been several times I have had to be absent in class because of doctors appointments and track meets. When I am absent I need to work more on communicating with individuals on where I am and how I can make up my assignments from when I am gone.

Summary