Monday, May 11, 2015

Dance Team Client Work Continued (Music Video blog)

Chisolm Trail Dance Team Slideshow 2014-2015


This is the final product of the slideshow we created for Ms. Hankin's dance team. The transition between 7th grade and 8th grade, and the end of the slideshow are the little parts that I feel like make our video a bit more interesting than the average slideshow video. We successfully created a slideshow that our client was proud of and that Megan, Jayleah, and I are proud of. This was our first slideshow for Chisolm Trail Dance Team, and in the future I definitely think that we have room for improvement, and I hope to push my creativity levels in order to see how creative I can make a banquet slideshow.


Chisolm Trail Dance Team Spring Show


Client Work (North by Northwest)

While the class watched "North by Northwest" Megan, Jayleah, and I worked on our Chisolm Trail Dance Team client project. For the assignment we were asked to do two main things; create a slideshow video of the dancers, and to film their spring show and then create copies of the show for all of the dancers.

To start off the project we began working on the slideshow for the banquet. Ms. Hankins, the drill team coach, had the parents of all the dancers put pictures of their son or daughter onto a google drive folder that was being shared with us. There were also video clips that Ms. Hankins recorded of the dancers talking about their favorite memories from the year. We had to import all of those clips into final cut, but once we started to edit we found out that not all of the dancers had the pictures or video clips that we needed. Learning to work with google drive was a bit of a challenge at first, but throughout the process we emailed Ms. Hankins frequently about who was missing what, and in doing so we were able to efficiently get the job done. The actual editing process was challenging due to the fact that our clips were not very organized, and it's hard to make a slideshow video creative. We learned the importance of naming your folders and having your project organized as well as how beneficial and important it is to communicate with your client. Creativity wise I think that we did a good job adding little elements to the slideshow that made it interesting to watch. Ultimately Ms. Hankins was really impressed with the outcome of the slideshow, and how efficient we worked.

After the slideshow was completed and given to Ms. Hankins to be played at the banquet Megan and Jayleah went to film the spring show at Chisolm Trail. Prior to them filming I checked out all of the equipment- camera, SD card, tripod, and battery. Unfortunately, I failed to realize that a 60D camera was not the camera to be used for filming long clips such as a spring show. As a result Megan and Jayleah encountered several problems while filming such as the camera randomly turning off, and the SD card saying that it was full. Had I checked out a Panasonic camera these problems could have been prevented. Luckily, Ms. Hankins had a dad at the show film all of the dances so we are going to get the clips that we missed from him and then continue to edit. I have definitely learned the importance of knowing which camera's are best for what and how important it is to have several SD cards in case something goes wrong with the first one. Although, we started editing with the footage we did get, we have yet to receive the clips from one of the students father's. Once we do receive that footage we will still face challenges when editing, but so far I have already learned a lot, and I am expecting to learn more as we continue editing.

I hope next year we are contacted by Ms. Hankins again, because I really enjoyed working on this project. If I could change anything about this experience and our editing process I would start by organizing all of my clips and pictures as best as possible, then I would check to see if I had everything that I needed. Also, I would of course make sure that I got the right camera depending on the task that was presented to me.

Friday, January 16, 2015

My 5 Strengths

My Top 5 Strengths

Belief 

My first strength was Belief...I think that the reason why I got this as my top strength is because of my faith in Christ and my desire to live according to His word. When working in a team I think that this strength could help me because since I have strong values I can work hard and get my job done as well as help other students with their job if needed. 

Harmony

Having harmony as one of my strengths allows me to help bring others together. This can be an extremely good strength for working in teams because I can help reduce friction between people that may not work as well together.

Connectedness

Connectedness gives me the ability to "build bridges between people and groups" which will show people how they can relate to others, and how they can rely on others. This is good because throughout this journey of creating a short film a lot of people may get frustrated and impatient with people, and I can remind them that we are all working on this together and need support from one another.

Developer 

This quality allows me to be able to see the potential in others. If someone I am working with feels as if they don't have a specific quality that makes them good at their job I can remind them of all the reasons why they ARE good at their job and remind them of how they can continue to grow and improve.

Adaptability

Adaptability means that I am a "live in the moment" kind of person. This can help in a team, because when others are stressed out about the future I can help them stay calm and focused on what is going on that day rather than what may happen tomorrow or a week from then. 


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

No Film School Blog- Location

Location & Whether Or Not It Matters 

Location. Does it matter? Is having a good filming location reallyyy all that big of a deal? To be honest I hadn't ever really put much thought into whether to not the location where a film takes place is a big deal or not. I came across the article "Casting Locations: Mark Friedberg on the Role Architecture Plays In 'The Ice Storm.' Friedberg chooses locations that add "a new dimension of storytelling and poetry to film." Friedberg notes that most of us aren't going to remember the location where our favorite film was shot at, but if you think about how different a film can be portrayed if it were filmed at a different the location the whole tone of the movie or short film may be completely changed. So, is having a good filming location really a big deal? Yes! Location can add a specific tone to a film and as a location manager I want to make sure that the tone being portrayed by the surroundings of an actor or actress matches with the vision of the director and producer.

http://nofilmschool.com/2013/08/mark-friedberg-on-role-architecture-plays

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TY2rfGERh8A


Monday, November 17, 2014

Spoken Word

Natalie Hunt and I were partners for creating a spoken word. Natalie found an inspiring poem for us to used and after we both listened to the poem multiple times we created a story board. We then went out and filmed at school as well as at Ernie Miller Park. Our final project was a bit disappointing because we didn't follow our story board as well as we intended. All in all, we still created a decent video for our class.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Codec

    Codec stands for compression and decompression. A common example of a codec file is one that ends in h.264. There are also many different types of codecs such as capture codecs, edit codecs, delivery codecs, and archival codecs. There is actually not a "best codec" for certain videos, but there are codecs that work well depending on what you want the outcome to be. For example, if you are going for speed you might choose a codec that will give the video a lower quality but have enough speed. Codecs also can affect color, for example some codecs an result in spatial compression which can cause an image or clip to look like there are blocks of one color. Codecs can also affect the frame of what you are shooting, for example, a temporal codec.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Film Crew

Producer- I would make an okay producer because I am generally pretty good at keeping a schedule as well as being organized, but I'm not very good with numbers so I don't think I could monitor a budget very well.

Director- I would not make a good director because sometimes I lack creativity and I also am not very good at being calm when I'm in charge of multiple tasks; therefore I think I would get way too overwhelmed and stressed to be a good director.

Cinematographer- I would be an okay cinematographer as long as I knew how to work the camera well and I has somebody helping me come up with cool shots, because like I said before, I'm not the most creative person.

Editor- I would make a good editor because once I have all of the clips in front of me I generally am pretty good at piecing them together in a way that flows. I also enjoy the challenge of making not-so-good clips good. I also enjoy being able to change things after getting opinions of what i have edited.

Project Manager- I would not make a good project manager because I don't do well in situations where I have to take charge because I am more of an introverted person, and being in charge of lots of things puts me outside of my comfort zone.