Final Reflection

Early in the year, I learned the importance of editing film clips smoothly, and exporting videos correctly so that they are a decent size on the screen. You can see this is in my intro film, which I didn't export the video correctly and it's too small for the screen. On my second project I learned that the placement of video clips make a difference in the set up and message of a video with Baler Interviews.Later in the yar when we began to learn about the arc of stories, I showed that I had learned that concpet well of placing clips carefully in a sequence. One good example is during our cyberbullying video, when we had many photos and I did a voiceover and my group had to decide which pictures best fit the order of symptoms I was listing off. I also showed this through our bullying video, "Bullies are Not Your BFFLS", when Luis (Alejandro) looks up from the table and I suddenly appear in front of him. This didn't feel right to any of us and we asked for help because we knew the sequencing of the clips felt wrong. I also learned how to work with others and not become a domineering force in a partnership. When working on the Holiday Greeting video, my partner was Lizzy and I had to figure out how to incorporate both of our ideas and wants into the video. We also had to figure out how to make our video flow between the two different holidays we were presenting and how to not give each other the cold shoulder in our seperate dialogues. We also learned that black is not a good color to wear when working with a green screen. We tried everything, but no matter what, we wound up looking ghostly against the backgrounds we chose. I probably look the worst because my background had a lot of cool colors to it. When working with the Star Promo I really got to play with transitions, which was fun. I had only previously worked on transitions when working on our bullying video and I really only used fades. I also got to work with effects on the Sandbox day. Luis and I had accidentally done effects we weren't supposed to use, so we had to do it over, but I don't regret it because we got to use more effects for it. I applied the effects knowledge to the "Water Is Wide" music video and to my picture for the beginning of "The Jabberwocky" video we did, since I read the stanzas and didn't get to actually make a video for a stanza. I thoroughly enjoyed the "Water Is Wide" music video. Working with effects on pictures and seeing the result was truly magical. I believe I learned how things flow correctly and smoothly by watching other films. I also learned different ideas of how to apply techniques and effects that I probably would not have come up with on my own. I also learned how to appreciate things that directors, writers, filmers, and even actors do in films to portray or convey certain aspects of the message trying to reach the audience. I alos now fully understand and appreciate the filmmaking process. I really enjoyed this class as another creative output for myself and others, I really enjoyed watching others' films. I learned how to get along with so many different types of people and appreciate them for what they contribute to the class. I feel close to this class and will greatly miss them and our awesome teacher who opened our eyes to look through a camera lens and find beauty and reason to everything around us.

LSFinal.f4v

Orchestra

Wave Warp

We chose the effect Wave Warp from the folder Distort. We could use this effect for various things, the Sine waves work perfectly for a shot meant to be a reflection on water or for her to appear to be in water, and the Sawtooth waves work for a disrupted or distorted effect on a television screen.

Replicate effect

We chose the effect Replicate from the folder Stylize. We liked this effect since it multiplied the subject into a bunch of little screens within the screen. We could see this being used as an effect for a commercial where the subject talks about a good deed spreading and multiplying.

Star Promo

I believe my video should be voted for because I like my use of transitions and the font I chose. I tried to use transitions that I felt would keep the flow of the video going, but not be too boring. Such as when Zach comes on full of energy after the title "Why?", I tried several transitions to see which one would help highlight Zach's enthusiasim. I chose the color red for my titles for two reasons. 1) It's a bright, vibrant color that catches the eye and pops off the black background and 2) it's one of our school colors and I thought it would help with school pride. I enjoyed the font I used becuse it's different and fancy, which evokes a sense of importance and intelligence. I also put thought into where the clips would go and which to use. I had at first imagined to combine tips and importance, but I couldn't get the video to flow quite well enough. So instead, I grouped them together, with tips first followed by the importance of Star testing. I chose to put the "popsicles" bit in last in order to bribe, if you will, the underclassmen. I also chose not to use music so the focus would be entirely on the students' voices and words. And those are the reasons why I believe my video should be voted for, that I can think of right now.

Thinking About Our Finals Video

Positive Comments
Jaay: I especially liked the establishing shot, because it sets up the entire short film. It shows that Alejandro is alone, and working on something for school, and then the bullies walk in and harass him.
Cassie and Alexis: When one of the bullies push Alejandro they used a fade. We would have done the same because it comes out smooth.

*This post was from Jaay. The positive comment we find meaningful to us was from Jaay. She told us that she liked the establishing shot because it set up the entire short film. It was helpful because it gave us a good idea of what camera shots went right.

Jaay: What I liked best was that the actors seemed well prepared to take on their roles, and they knew all of their lines.
Cassie and Alexis: The beginning shot because it sets everything up. Alejandro is alone and by himself studying. It helped emphasize the idea that he is alone and an easy target.
*In addition she also told us that our acting was well prepared and that helped us see that we did a job well done on the acting, no problems what so ever.

Suggestions

Cassie and Alexis: Our strongest suggestion is to add music to the punch, it would add so much more.

Jaay: The only shot I would suggest adding to the film is some sort of clip of Amanda walking up to Alejandro after the bullies are chased away. The new shot should be a wide angle shot, showing Alejandro sitting at the table and Amanda walking up to him.

Cassie and Alexis: BUT the background of the title does not suite the storyline and adds nothing to the video.
Maybe having it fade in on a black background with a vibrant color such as red would be better.

Jaay: Personally, I would recommend an overlay title that appears a few seconds into the film while Alejandro is seated alone, and then fades away.
*The two biggest suggestions we got were from Cassie and Alexis. They suggested that we add music when Michaela is about to punch Luis. We agree with this suggestion and our plan to address it is to find some music and see what we can do about it. Another suggestion they made is to add a better title at the beginning of the video. We agree with this suggestion and our plan to address this is to brainstprm a new title and sees what we could come up with

Group 1 Rough Draft (Updated)

This is the most updated rough draft of our group video!

Rough Draft of Values Video

1) We are trying to represent the value of speaking up for others when they cannot to protect them from harm of any sort and to help continue a sense of peace and helpful kindness in what are supposed to be safe environments.
2) I think our group did the editing well for what we have done and that we have also helped add comedy to our video by simply being ourselves and dealing with our circumstances as best we could (having two female bullies for a male student).
3) We still need to complete a chunk of editing for Zach's role in the video, and we also still need to add some music for the opening of the video since we had decided to do so.
4) We are most in need of feedback for how the video flows and if the ending is any good, or even funny at all. We also would like to know if the camera angles are any good or if they make any sense with the video.
5) We found first that we needed an extra person to play a role in our video. How we addressed this was that I asked my friend Michaela to be part of the group. She became our Bully 2. This also presented another awkward predicament, how would people react to having two females bully one male student? How we got around this? Just going with it, the portrayal of the bullying was believeable enough to think that both bullies were simply mean and looking for someone to pick on. Another issuse I was worried about, was if the lighting was going to be off due to weather. The first day we were scheduled to film was actually supposed to be gloomy and cloudy and the other days were supposed to be sunnier, and I feared for a dramatic shift of lighting in the video and therefore ruining the illusion of real time passing by. Luckily, the day turned out to be sunny and no visibly dramatic shifts in lighting were recorded.

Over the Shoulder

We had to figure out who was going to be which student and then figure out if we were going to be sitting or standing. We also had to make sure that we weren't shooting into the sun. We tried to follow the rule of thirds as best we could with Alicia and I being on opposite sides when executing the over the shoulder shots. The over the shoulder shots create the impression that both characters are having a personal conversation, this works because the space between the characters seems smaller when doing over the shoulder shots. The dailogue didn't seem too realistic simply because there were too many short answers that neither of us felt completely comfortable with. Editing wasn't too hard because we've done these simple cuts before. To be honest, Alicia and I both agreed that we would try our hardest to make this seem like an awkward conversation right from the start with the handshake. We accomplished this by looking as though we didn't know what "human interaction" meant. We also found that using over the shoulder shots help with height difference in some cases.