Quarter One Reflection

Description: At the start of the quarter I took a trip to Hays, Kansas with some fellow classmates in order to film the first football game. Although, the ride down and back from Hays was long the football game itself was an exciting win, and I felt like we got some solid shots. If we had taken another lens to the game we could have gotten some closer shots which I think could have benefited us. Later in the quarter, I got involved in the Behind the Scenes: Soccer video which I'm really enjoying so far. I have filmed a few soccer games, and I also edited roughly half of the soccer promo video with some of the other people on the soccer video team. I'm excited to see what the video turns into, and what our story ends up becoming.

Feelings: During the time I spent filming the football game in Hays I was trying my best to stay positive, because I was sick and exhausted, but the trip ended up being memorable and we got the shots that were needed. I've enjoyed working on the soccer project, because I really enjoy soccer games and I also know quite a few people that play soccer. I think I will like second quarter a bit more than first if we start doing a bit less client work and more other projects in small groups like we did last year.

Evaluation: As I said earlier, I think we could have benefited from taking the telephoto lens to the football game in Hays in order to get some more interesting shots. Personally, I think that I have a lot to learn about how to use the telephoto lens in order to get the best product.The soccer video has really improved  my communication skills, and I also think it's pushing my leadership skills towards improvement. I wouldn't say I lack leadership skills, but I am more shy so I think this first quarter has put me a bit more outside my comfort zone. Additionally, I think we could definitely use the telephoto lens for soccer which makes me realize even more how beneficial learning how to work with that lens could be.

Analysis: With first quarter in mind I now think that I have the ability to improve my communication and leadership skills. Again, I think I should learn more about the telephoto lens because I don't have much experience with it as of now. I learned that I would like to do more small group projects in class like we did last year.

Learning: This quarter I have learned that there's a lot more different components that go into story than I ever realized. I also learned that my communication skills are really improving throughout this school year. This school year in general is really pushing me to create good habits and become a more independent and responsible student.

Action Plan: As for future quarters I plan to learn more about the camera itself, so that I can have more visually pleasing shots. I hope to go film outside of class on projects such as montages like we did last year. I also am planning on to find more of a direction for my portfolio, because right now I have no idea what direction I want to go with it. 

Student Tutorial

Light Writing

Most of us have probably seen light writing before, but if you haven't you should definitely check it out! I recently noticed that lighting is becoming one of my interests, although I don't know much about it there's something about a shot with a gorgeous lens flare or crisp light that grabs my attention. I came across a proposal video that used light writing, and I decided that I wanted to know just how light writing works. 

Here are the steps I found in order to successfully create light writing: 

1. You need to be in a dark room or atmosphere. 

2. If your camera is a DSLR, set it on manual mode and make your shutter speed 30 seconds. A longer shutter speed means more time that light is allowed in through the lens.

3. Depending on how bright the room you are in is, set your ISO to 100 or 200. 

4. Next you are going to change your aperture (or f/stop) to 5.6, because the higher the aperture the more light is let in.

5.Set your camera on a timer so you have time to get in front of the lens.

6. Face a flashlight, glow stick, or something similar facing the camera and begin to doodle. BAM. You just wrote with light! 

Student Project Review

             As Though Lost Review

Working on the set of As Though Lost was one of my favorite experiences throughout my eCommunication career. I worked as the location manager, and honestly when I was assigned that position I wasn't sure if it was right for me. As time went on I found that it was actually really fun getting to decide where certain scenes would be filmed at. Being the location manager I felt extremely involved in the production of the film, because I was helping decide what the tone of the film would be. I personally believe that the locations chosen to film at greatly impact how the audience feels about what they are watching. Additionally, I believe that lighting goes hand in hand with tone as well. 

As Though Lost was the first big short film that I have ever done, and I definitely learned a lot. When it comes to being location manager you have to get permission to film at all locations, you need to know where you can and cannot park, you also need to know how to get to those locations, and you need to know where the nearest stores are in case someone on the crew needs something. I think that I did a good job choosing locations, but if I'm being honest most of the getting permission and knowing how to get there was done by Mrs. Morris, so I owe a lot to her for helping me with my job. If I were to have this job again I think that I could definitely improve by doing more research on each location I would like to film at. There were a couple instances with As Though Lost where I had the wrong address or where I needed to have verified that we could for sure film at a particular location. In the future if I am ever hired for this job again I hope to not run into those issues again, and to do a bit more research on each location in order to ensure that the tone of the short film is presented well through each and every location. 

You can watch as though lost here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C8nCEIiazpA 

Professional Article Review

Can You Tell You Tell The Difference Between Film & Digital?

No Film School 

I've actually never analyzed the difference between film strips and an SD card, but after reading this article and watching the video attached with it (see the article here) I prefer the look of film over digital. Film offers a much warmer look while digital seems to look more cool. Although, in some instances you can hardly distinguish the difference between the two mediums. In the video that is linked with the article on this topic the last shot looks so similar that it took me quite awhile to figure out which shot I believe to be done with film and which was done with an SD card. After re-watching previous shots and comparing them I realized that film allows you to see much more detail than digital does. You can see the differences here:

Professional Project Review

You've Got Mail

   If I'm being honest, when I first watched the trailer for this movie I wasn't expecting to watch a movie that had crazy good cinematography. Although I loved the movie, I was right about the movie not being out of this world when it comes to the shots that were used. Overall, most shots were pretty basic compared to a newer action movie. But I think that is understandable, because this movie was filmed in 1998 and its a romantic comedy. If theres one shot that did stand out to me it would be one of the opening shots of the movie. The camera starts in front of the doors to Kathleen Kelly's (played by Meg Ryan) apartment, and then the camera ascends upward into Kathleen's apartment window. I assume to film this shot that the camera was on a crane or something similar, but I thought that this was a really good establishing shot because it adds movement to the film which is important to have in movies.
  Now the reason why I loved this movie was for the story. Lets be honest, just about every girl loves a good chick flick. You've Got Mail is great, because it's not a typical chick flick. The storyline is really unique compared to other romantic comedies that I have seen which made me enjoy it even more. Plus I love how well Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan act together!

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.