Reflecting on my blog

Early in the year, I learned the importance of setting the right formart (widescreen 48) on a new project because if not the clips will come out too small. You can see that in my first film, I didn't do this, and the screen is very small and it dosn't look good at all. I was still having trouble at this time with all the editing and how to work on premiere pro. I thought it was really complicated at first but then slowly I started learning and soon projects that took me days started seeming easier now that I knew how to do things and I could focus and more important things like sound, shots, camera angles etc. On my second project, I learned how to edit correctly to get the best possible result. Dr. A taught us to always cut a video with a good facial expression and to always make sure that the person wasnt looking down or closing their eyes. I also learned key vocabulary like start and end point and all the different names of the screens and panels. Another important thing I learned in the second project was how to import clips and export final projects and put them up on youtube and then to my blog. A scene that shows the editing well is then we cut dillon, marleen, and skylars clip when they were laughing and they were all finished talking and at a right point. Later in the year, I showed that I really had learned how to transition scenes along with sounds in our cyberbullying video. We were all taking part in the editing by giving suggestions and feedback to Eddy, who was the main editor. I really liked how the sad music in my depressed scene changed when the shot changed from medium to a close up. It got more dramatic as the camera came closer to my face and showed my expression. I also really liked how I was positioned on the floor, bringing me lower to set the mood. I also learned how to work with other people and how to collaborate to help as much as I could and to always give out suggestions. It is also very important to listen to what other group members have to say and encourage them to give out suggestions and to keep being on task, but casually taking a break to reflect on what we had done so far. I loved how whenever we were fliming someone always had a suggestion on how to make it better then we had planned on our storyboard and the ideas never stopped yet somtimes we were restrcited with time or resources. We always did what we could and we did try to come in after school somtimes. I was always proud of our final work.

Important things I learned this year about making and watching films is to always look for a mood and emotion and a purpose behind every shot and scene. When somone takes a camera shot, they should have a specific purpose behind it. For example to set a mood, intesify an action, or suggest somthing without dialouge. I also learned that so much can be portrayed without even having people speaking and that so many quick little shots can say so much and give a feeling or give a setting. I also learned to look for things when watching films, like in the angels and how they can make people look small, or big. Not just in size but their importance or power. I also learned to look for how much of the screen each character takes up in an over the shoulder shot and that this is important because somtimes one charcter in bigger than the other and the other might be looked down upon by the larger character. Maybe it is because they are older, smarter. etc.

My overall experience in this class was full of learning and lots of fun. I really have enjoyed making videos and editing and working with the people I have worked with. I really leanred a lot about using a camera and I think it has come in handy for me because I love photography and all the angle shots have helped me take better pictures. I also now pay way more attention to details in movies and I pick out things and think of why it happened or what the director was aiming for.

Final Project

The Race

The story we were trying to evoke with “The Water is Wide” is a story about a boy walking up to a track about to run a race, then running the race, at one point falling down and feeling defeated, but then finding some sort of motivation and getting back up again and crossing that finish line. We thought the music went along perfectly with the ups and down of the story we thought of in our heads and as for me this is the emotion that was created within me. In the middle of the song the music sort of slows down, and this is the part where we pictured the boy falling and his world stopping. When the music picks back up again I pictured a face looking up and looking strong, then getting back up again to finish what he had started.
The images that I am most proud of are the hills where the sun seems to be moving across them and the green abstract picture that starts getting brighter and yellow. To me, this showed a new beginning and a new way of thinking. It gave a positive feeling to our story. The time sequence of these pictures is
Our choice of images helped suggest the story by showing sunlight and earthy abstract pictures. I would say that it would be hard to guess what our story is really about but once one would know I would think it would make sense. We used darker images for the low emotion sections, and soon when the music picked back up again the images seem to get brighter and lighter in color, suggesting a relieving mood and feeling.
I would say that about 85% of the images we used are abstract and the ones that are not abstract are animated. We had an idea of using earthy tones and colors and as for shapes we tried to not use many sharp looking images.
What I learned about picking out and identifying abstract images is that an abstract image is an image that isn’t specifically a thing. It is shapes and colors put together and many different people can have a different point of view or idea on what the picture is suggesting. I remember the picture of the beach. Some people looked at it as the sky, and they felt a sense of freedom. Others saw a beach and got a sense of summer, and the ocean. Abstract images are meant to do that, they set a mood for people to give it their own meaning, even though the artist might’ve already given it their own.
What I learned about the interaction between music and images is that the mood of the music works together with the mood set by the image and the colors and shapes.
The most important contribution my partner made was giving suggestions on where to put the images to go along with the music. She listened carefully and we both worked on trying to match up the moods and feelings as best we could. She also had to work alone the day I was gone because I was taking a placement test and I give her credit because I’d hate to work by myself.
The most important contribution I made was doing all the editing and all the animation. I did most of the computer work and put the whole thing together and did the research on the images.

Special Effects Video 2

Special Effects Video 2


Directions:
1. Pick any video you like and drag it into the timeline without any sound. You do this by just clicking on the film icon which says "Drag film only".
2. Click on Video Effects.
3. Under the Video Effects, click on the Stylize folder.
4. Then click on Brush Strokes and drag it on the clip on the timeline.
5. Go to Effect Controls.
6. Then click on the triangle next to Brush Strokes and open all the key frames by clicking all the clocks.
7. Then drag the #'s any where to the right or to the left until you get the effect you want on every effect.
8. Then click on the clock again to set the key frames.
9. Do this to all of them and change them to your liking
10. Then export your video to the FLV and upload to youtube so you can put it on your blog.

Jabberwocky

The special affect that I believe we used best is the alpha glow because I liked the effect it made on our picture and how it made the dragon look fierce and the red color added the intesity. I do think we couldve played more with the keying but we didnt have much time and we did the best we could to get this profect finished on time. The mood we were trying to communicate is power and intesity. The idea we were trying to show was that this was dark and sort of mysterious in a powerful way. The idea we got from the line "slithy" was snake, but we used a much powerful animal that is also a reptile but much more powerful.

Official Star Video by Cynthia & Denise

Directions:
1. Pick any video you like and drag it into the timeline without any sound. You do this by just clicking on the film icon which says "Drag film only".
2. Click on Video Effects.
3. Under the Video Effects, click on the Distort folder.
4. Then click on Lens Distortion and drag it on the clip on the timeline.
5. Go to Effect Controls.
6. Then click on the triangle next to Lens Distortion and open all the key frames by clicking all the clocks.
7. Then drag the #'s any where to the right or to the left until you get the effect you want.
8. Then click on the clock again to set the key frames.
9. Do this to all of them and change them to your liking.
10. Then export your video to the FLV and upload to youtube so you can put it on your blog.

NNRT_02_1.f4v

Final Values Video Project.

Rough Draft Values

Reflection on Rough Draft Video

We currently have not been able to post our video due to technical difficulties and problems like not finding our camera when we are supposed to dump and edit the day the sub was here. The value we are representing is giving out a helping hand to others in need and passing on kindness and compassion. We show how a girl helps out a peer from school when she gets bullied and harassed even though the girl helping was in a hurry to get home. We have work hard and steadily as a team and and we've managed to stay after school to film at least 3 times so far and we've spent hours trying to get it right. We've filmed really well in my opinion and we definatly know how to communicate ideas with each other so we bring out the very best of this project. Eddy works very well with the camera, Cynthia always has great ideas, Estefania does good acting, and I give good tips to make our camera angles better and to make out video seem like real time. Overall,we all do a great job. What we might be a little behind on is editing because we have'nt even been able to get started. We have'nt been able to upload our clips because on the first day we had to finsih filming, when Ms. Nelson was our sub our cameras were missing and we didn't have access to the clips, and the class after that the computers were being really slow. These are all the negative things that have held us back. We still need to complete the entire editing process, but we have all our music and sound ready and we will begin to work on our titles. A challenge we faced in creating our film is making the illusion of real time since we filmed on different days. I had to bring the same clothes i wore the day before and the lighting mightve been a bit different since one was in the afternoon and the other was in the morning during class time. We also had to position ourselves the same way we were before which was tough. We did the best we could do we have not looked over these clips since we have not been able to do so. Another challenge we had on how to best tell our story was whether we should have more people ignoring and making fun of the lonely girl or not. It was going to be hard to get al those people together if we had to re do a scene so we decided that it would work just as well without all the extras and we changed our setting to after school outside instead of during lunch at the lunch tables.

Sequence 01

 This video is not ours because we couldn't find our tape, but we did shoot our over the shoulder shots. We planned our shots by placing ourselves to the side of the camera while we were facing each other. We shot away from the sun.\, like Dr.A suggested us to. We didn't get to realize anything after about our shots because we never got to actually watch and edit our video. Instead, we used Cody's and Bree's. For the first shot, which was the shaking hands shot, they did follow the rule of thirds, as you can see theyre not really centered. But then, when they started doing their over the shoulder shots, Bree was very towards the center, leaving a lot of space to her left which can cause a lot of distractions to the audience.
  Cody was also very centered and in the backround there was people walking around and it also caused a lot of distrations. The focus was also on Bree's head, and Cody seemed blurry.
   The Impression that over the shoulder shots create on characters is that there is a conversation going on and it allows us to catch the mood and tone. It can make characters seem small. or very big and dominant. It also allows us to see the facial expressions to make us see how they are taking what is being said to them. This works by how the people are set up in front of the camera, and reaction shots are on the people that are being talked to, not the one talking.
 The dialogue seemed realistic in the final edit, challenges we had in the final edit was not making it seem so awkward on the scene transition from the greeting to the I have some news, because the characters seem to suddenly be in different positions. The tone in this video is kind of serious, but dull, and then it gets interesting because Bree gets excitied when she finds out about the money.
  Other realizations that I made about over the shoulder shots are that it is important that there is not a lot of empty space to the side of a character because audiences eyes tend to go to all distractions going on with all activities beside them and it adds awkwardness.
 I learned that to make an effective video the cuts need to be quick,  the rule of thirds must be follwed, and it must be decided if to want characters to be equal or if you want one to be more dominant then the other.