Final Reflection

4. At the beginning of the semester, something we learned about was filming Over the Shoulder shots. In my Over the Shoulder video on my blog, Cody and I are the actors. In our scene, the over-the-shoulder shots go back and forth between Cody and me to depict a realistic conversation. Later in the year, we used similar shots in our Values Video. The best scene of this is when Cody helps Lisa up after she falls. Another thing we focused heavily on was Rule of Thirds. This concept is basically setting up a shot so that the most important aspects are in the visual focal points for the audience. Throughout the entire semester, I have implemented the Rule of Thirds in my videos. My Over the shoulder video with Cody shows this concept during our conversation. We placed Cody’s head in one focal point, and my head in another, so the focus would be on us as opposed to the scenery or other elements in the shot. In our values project, we also used Rule of Thirds, especially in our two and three shots. A good example of this is when Lisa in running and trips in front of the Jocks. She is in the right hand focal points, and the Jocks are in the left hand focal points, so they are both equally emphasized. Something else we learned late in the semester was the use of effects in a video. We first did this by doing Sandboxes in Premiere Pro. Demi and I worked together to create two completely different scenes. After learning how to use these effects, we used them in the rest of our videos afterward. In the Jabberwocky stanza video we were assigned to do, Cristabel and I worked on including special effects. One of the effects we used was turning a photo black and white, and making the blood the only part of the photo that was in color. Another thing we did was we made the wood swirly, and we also made a woman fade into the blurry darkness. In The Water is Wide video, we also used these effects. In the beginning, the photo of the little boy sitting at the window shakes calmly back and forth, to give the illusion that he is experiencing a flashback or a dream. Something I learned last semester was how to make titles. The best example of Lower-Third titles is all throughout my Cyberbullying Final Draft video. For every speaker, we have their name and title included. Another example (from this semester) is at the end of our Values Video. The lower third title reads “Lend A Hand”. 5. Some things I definitely learned from other people’s video were from their cyber bullying videos. Something I learned from Elissa’s video was the importance of music. The first draft of her video lacked music, which left an unestablished tone for theaudience. It made me realize that an audience cannot assume what your message is, but they can understand your implications through the power of sound and music. Just adding a simple soft, piano melody would have made this video a lot more effective in portraying its message. Something else I learned from this video is the power of footage. Thevideo simply had images as the video which became very boring and unrealistic. Footage keeps the attention of a viewer, and it also seems very real. Footage lets the viewer envision your message and lets the video-maker become personal with their audience. Cassie’s rough draft of her cyberbullying video made me understand the power of firsthand experience. If someone personally tells their encounter, like Rachel Alva who was cyberbullied, it lets the viewer know your video is meaningful and authentic. It also grasps the audience's attention to emotion, and realization that things like cyberbullying actually occur. It creates a sense of empathy. From Estefania’s video, I realized though this video that humor can truly supplement a message. Although cyberbullying is a serious topic, this group managed to insert comic relief. When Estefania narrates the introduction, it creates a fun tone with the music and her body movement/facial expressions. Another part where humor is effective is when Eddy arrests Cynthia because it is unlikely to happen, especially so randomly at school. In addition, I doubt a policeman dressed in regular clothes would arrest a teenager at school and take their phone away. Another concept was the input of adults. They used three different teachers (Mr. Parker, Ms. Mott, and Mr. Huerta) and let them explain what they think of cyberbullying. Often times, teenagers/students overlook the opinion of adults, but these adults had very valuable, helpful things to say regarding cyberbullying and sexting. I’ve also learned that planning is an essential part of making videos. If you don’t thoroughly plan out when you plan on filming, when you plan on rehearsing, when you plan on creating the actual video, you’re pretty much bound to encounter problems. Something I’ve learned is that proper planning means that I am ready to encounter anything that comes up, and not necessarily having everything go perfectly. A lot of times in class, we would watch films, and Dr. Achterman couldn’t help but stop the films and point out the various camera angles, music, etc.

The Water is Wide

1. In 5-6 sentences, summarize the story you were trying to evoke (suggest) to go along with the music. 2. Choose the sequence of images in a 30 second segment that you are most proud of. Identify the time sequence (e.g., from 1 min. 10 sec. to 1 min. 40 sec.). Describe in detail what part of your story you were trying to suggest or evoke in this sequence. Describe how your choice of images helped suggest the story. Describe how your consideration of colors, shapes, and abstract images helped suggest a mood for this sequence. 3. What percentage of your film is made up of abstract images? Did you have a consistent idea about using a color or shape to suggest a mood? Explain. 4. What did you learn, realize, remember, or discover about the use of abstract images in film? 5. What did you learn, realize, remember or discover about the interaction between music and images. 6. What was the most important contribution your PARTNER made to this film? 7. What was the most important contribution YOU made to this film? 1.The story we were trying to show was the journey of an orphan boy. At a young age he lost his mother in a car accident. He reflects back on his childhood and also looks forward to the future. It's basically a summary of his past and future. With the thought of his mother in mind, he can still be successful. 2.I'd say the part I am most proud of is the first 45 seconds of the film. It summarizes how his mother died, and his own personal reflection on how it happened. We were trying to porttray the sadness of the event. Our pictures are staright forward, but together the pictures and music make the video sad. 3. Thirty percent. We tryed to use a lot of greens (for life and mother-ness) and blacks (deatyh and evil. 4.Abstract images help transition from one scene to another. They can evoke a feeing without a clear understanding if the photo. 5. Music and images are complementary of eachother. Most of all, music really emphasizes the emotion of a film. 6. Cristabel really helped me piece it together when I ran out of ideas. She also made the large bibliography. 7. I chose a lot of the photos.

The Jabberwocky:Stanza Two

We used the effect "Camera Blur" under Blur & Sharpen to give an eerie feeling. The woman seems as though she is looking as she blurs away giving a warning to "Beware!" The next effect we used called "Color Replace" under Lens Distortion. The reason we chise this was to focus on the blood in the photo to create an uneasy feeling for our audience. The last effect we used was "Lens Distortion" under Distort. We decide to use this an the woods to make it seems as through you are walking through the woods and they are trapping you. It also gives a creepy, dillusional feeling. Basically, our entire video was trying to create an unsure, worried sort of feeling.

Special Effects Sandbox Two

The effect we used was Strobe Light. We adjusted the Blend and Random Strobe features to get this product. What this clip gives the audience is a sense of urgency and restlessness.

Special Effects Sandbox One

For this special effect, we combined two effects. The first one we used was Brush Strokes and we changed the Stroke Density. The second effect we used was Fine Edges and we adjusted the Blend. This clip was supposed to imitate a t.v. with "Bunny Ear" attenas. It shows the static and clearness of adjusted a retro t.v.'s attenas.

Star Testing Promotion Video

Our video combines seriousness and comedy to keep the attention of our viewers. We want to promote star testing from a new perspective. If you vote for our video, it will not only make us happy, it will also bring education to the underclassmen of SBHS.

Group Five Director's Cut

Final Draft:Values Project

Lend A Hand
http://youtu.be/MC14FGdFaYQ

Thinking About Our Final Values Video

By:Bree, Cody, and Michael

Positive Comments
1. The jock is actually very considerate and helping-Hayley and Kayla
2. We especially like the long shot of the "mean girls," because it helped emphasize the idea that they were going to be somewhat important in the video-Hayley and Kayla
3. The title of the film reflected its contents well. It did grab our attention –Hayley and Kayla
4. What we liked best was the acting and the jock helping the nerd-Hayley and Kayla
5. Overall the film was pretty good-Cassie

This post is from Bree, Cody and Michael.
The positive comments that were most meaningful to us were from Kayla and Hayley, they told us that we need to fix our editing and that was helpful because. In addition, they told us that our titles and credits were attention-capturing and that helped us see that we did something correctly despite all the things we need to fix.

The two best suggestions we got were from Cassie.

She suggested that we should add some music that suits what we are trying. We agree with this suggestion, and our plan to address it is to find copyright-friendly music online.

She also suggested that we fix our titles and credits because they don’t suit our video. We kind of agree with this suggestion, and our plan to address it is to experiment with different fonts and formats.

Suggestions
1. You could add to the resolution by having the jock and the nerd hug after he helps her up, and link arms while they're running. This would help give us the idea that The jock is actually very considerate and helping. –Kayla and Hayley

2. Our strongest suggestion is that you fix all your cuts. (No offense) –Kayla and Hayley
3. There is no music -Cassie
4. Overall the film was pretty good. Just need to find music that you can use for it. -Cassie

Rough Draft:The Bullies vs. "That" Girl

*Due to a shortage of time, Dr. Achterman instructed us (Michael and Bree) to write our reflection together.

1) The value we're trying to show is lending a hand, and to stop bullying. Lisa is a girl in our video that is bullied, and even when Cody's friend make fun of her, Cody stands up for what is right.'

2)As Cody said, we work very well togehter. I agree, we value each other's opinions, and are always open to new ideas.

3)We need to complete basically everything. We need to edit and recut all of our clips because the edits are very choppy. We need to edit our music, especially the in and out points. We need to finish inserting titles and credits.

4) We want feedback on:
Do the various camera angles add to the message?
Are the cuts too choppy?
Where can we improve?
Is the music helping convey the message?

5)*Due to a shortage of time, Dr. Achterman instructed us (Michael and Bree) to write our reflection together.

1) The value we're trying to show is lending a hand, and to stop bullying. Lisa is a girl in our video that is bullied, and even when Cody's friend make fun of her, Cody stands up for what is right.'

2)As Cody said, we work very well togehter. I agree, we value each other's opinions, and are always open to new ideas.

3)We need to complete basically everything. We need to edit and recut all of our clips because the edits are very choppy. We need to edit our music, especially the in and out points. We need to finish inserting titles and credits.

4) We want feedback on:
Do the various camera angles add to the message?
Are the cuts too choppy?
Where can we improve?
Is the music helping convey the message?

5)*Due to a shortage of time, Dr. Achterman instructed us (Michael and Bree) to write our reflection together.

1) The value we're trying to show is lending a hand, and to stop bullying. Lisa is a girl in our video that is bullied, and even when Cody's friend make fun of her, Cody stands up for what is right.'

2)As Cody said, we work very well togehter. I agree, we value each other's opinions, and are always open to new ideas.

3)We need to complete basically everything. We need to edit and recut all of our clips because the edits are very choppy. We need to edit our music, especially the in and out points. We need to finish inserting titles and credits.

4) We want feedback on:
Do the various camera angles add to the message?
Are the cuts too choppy?
Where can we improve?
Is the music helping convey the message?

5)A problem we had was not having all our cast showing up when we needed to film. Another problem we had was that Lisa is not very good at filming. I think If we had more time to rehearse the filming might have been better, and a lot more productive. I think maybe next time we should really consider another script due to a lot of people and the outside setting.

Over the Shoulder

Our group planned our shots before we shot the actual film. We realized how important planning and organizing is to producing anything. Just planning all the shots together at our table was difficult, so I cannot imagine what it would be like not planning anything.

Our video did not consist of the rule-of-thirds very well. The filmers were not as concerned with the rule-of-thirds as much as practicing the over-the-shoulder shot. I am a perfectionist, and If I would have shot I would have made sure we followed the rule of thirds. Regardless of not following the rule, I think the shot established the image we wanted. In the shots, my head appears larger than Cody's, creating a scene of dominance.

The impression an over-the-shoulder shots create a sense of a realistic conversation. It gives the viewer a sense of being a third-party outsider, yet still a part of the group conversation.

When we recorded, we filmed Cody's dialogue first (all in one take) and then mine (in another take. Once we pieced it together, it seemed like an extremely realistic conversation that was happening right then. The most challenging part of editing was trying to cut the takes. Sometimes either Cody or I would talk too fast, so it made it difficult to understand.

In our video, there are two main moods. Cody's tone is enthusiastic and calm, while my mood is annoyed and anxious. By our facial expressions and tones we conveyed our moods/tones efficiently.

Over-the-shoulder shots are best touse when having a casual conversation amongst two people.

This was a very effective excercise.

Over The Shoulder

Holiday Greetings

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:Explore the wondrous occasions of Hanukkah in Jerusalem, and Kwanzaa in Africa. You'll be on the edge of your seat, wanting more. In this holiday special, we take you to the unknown depths of the celebrations-With colorful wildlife, indigenous people, and amazing things.

REFLECTION

1. I feel that Demi and I worked hard on the information we provided in the video about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. I think even though we both had other obligations, we managed to get the video done and uploaded before class. It was very informative and lovely. We chose to make it informative and spontaneous so we could keep the attention of teenagers, primarily. When the class watched the video, they found it very comical, although those were not our intentions. The backgrounds we chose were the ones we thought best represented the holidays. I chose a menorah because that is a key symbol of Hanukkah and Demi chose a lion because it is an animal found in the African savannah. Our editing was completely terrible! Honestly, the week we created was very busy because of my duties to Circle of Friends as president, and my duties to ASB as Staff Relations. I only decided to put in music at the beginning and end of the video because we were so pressed for time. The credits did not include the citations for the pictures or the music, and I personally take the blame for that. I saved the citations onto a word file that I could not relocate on the computer I had used. Creatively, I think we used the art of comedy (if that's possible) because we really made our audience laugh.

2. Personally, I wish we could have put sme unique titles, but instead ours came out boring and generic. Also, I wished we would have incorporated music throughout the entire video. I also wished we could have experimented with speakind together like Damon&Cody and also like Estefania&Eddy.

3. Basically, before me and Demi were partneers, I knew that I wanted to do Hanukkah as my holiday. If you want me to be honest, I did the ENTIRE green screen workshop, mostly by myself while my partner checked her e-mail. I also initiated the writing of the script. I even came up with the idea of writing over a Google Document, that way we could add together, but that obviously failed. My partner decided not to do this and instead write the script without my input which was obviously irritating. I also did most of the editing, and I worked on the credits and music alone. I also had to rewrite the enlarged scripts to read off of for our videos.

4. I helped my partner by doing the majority of the work.

5. I would probably work alone. I LOVED Demi as a partner, but I work better alone thwn with others to be honest. I guess I would have also maybe chosen another Holiday or even do what I mentioned in #2 (above). I wuld have started earlier as well.

Greenscreen Workshop

http://youtu.be/wiSP7nriO7o

A green screen is literally a green screen that is used for filming. In computer programs, a green screen can be edited out, and replaced with a background or media. In Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe AfterEffects, the background can be faded with the "Keylight" feature.

It is a very bad idea to wear green when filming on a green screen. If you do this, you will fade into the background and only become a floating head. There should also be lighting from every angle to ensure that there are no shadows. If there is an uneven color on the background of the screen, it creates problems when trying to fade the green to back.

As stated above, if you wear green clothing when filming with a green screen, the effect is a floating head in the inserted background. Also, if there is a shadow on rthe green screen, the shadow will not fade very well into the background.

Between AfterEffects and PremierePro, Adobe After Effects was most helpful. It was easier to navigate and everything was straight forward. Premiere Pro causes too many things to be going on at once in one program, similar to thought-overload. Plus, in After Effects it was easier to mve the background and film-position.
Other thoughts?

At first, editing with green screens is very tedious, but as time goes on, I become more used to using the programs. It is a very interesting concept to learn from. I look forward to working more with green screens.

Five Things I Learned From Other Videos

Cyberbullying Group Seven(Elissa)


-Something i learned from this video was the importance of music. This video lacked music, which left an unestablished tone for the viewer. It made me realize that an audience can not assumwe what your message is, but they can understand your implications through the power of sound and music. Just adding a simple soft, piano melody would have made this video a lot more effective in portraying it's message.

-Something else I learned from this video is the power of footage. This video simply had images as the video which became very boring and unrealistic. Footage keeps the attention of a viewer, and it also seems very real. Footage lets the viewer envision your messsage and let's the videomaker become personal with their audience.

Cyberbullying Group Five (Cassie)


-This video made me understand the power of firsthand experience. If someone personally tells their encounter, like Rachel Alva who was cyberbullied, it let's the viewer know your video is true and authentic. It also grasps the audience's attention to emotion, and realization that things like cyberbullying actually occur. It creates a sense of empathy.

Cyberbullying Group Three(Estefania)


-I realized though this video that humor can truly add to a video. Although cyberbullying is a serious topic, this group managed to insert comic relief. When Estefania narrates the introduction, it creates a fun tome with the music and her body movement/facial expressions. Another part where humor is effective is when Eddy arrests Cynthia because it is unlikely. I doubt a policeman dressed in regular clothes would arrest a teenager at school and take their phone away.

-Another concept was the input of adults. You used three different teachers (Mr. Parker, Ms. Mott, and Mr. Huerta) and let them explain what they think. Often times, teenagers/students overlook the opinion of adults, but these adults had very valuable, helpful things to say reagrding cyberbullying and sexting.

Final Draft Cyberbullying: Group Eight

http://youtu.be/rvIP4fj_4hI

I am most proud of the diversity of adults and students. I feel like we portrayed SBHS in a good way.

Comments from others that were helpful to me in creating our final draft were mostly the ones from Dr. Achterman because we only received three comments on our rough draft from students which is sad. I really like the idea of switching things around and creating better titles.

Changes we made on our final draft were fixing the titles, adding sad music to the entire video to change the vibe, labeling everyone who was interviewed, moving the cyberbullying definition to the beginning, fixing the ending credits, adding a bibliography/ works cited, and trying to rearrange things to fit better.

Changes I would you make if I had another day or two, would be more filming, and to rerecord the introduction statement of "I am a cyberbully" by Noah. I also think I would maybe try different lower third titles and trying raising the volume on voices and lowering the volume on music. I would also better cut the clips and maybe do the titles in a different font.

If I had the chance to do the project all over again, i would probably film more, and chosen better computers that do not freeze. I also would have looked for more music to be used, and maybe interviewd more adults.

Creating videos is a lot of work! Now I understand why it takes movies so long to be produced, because everything has to transition properly and be audible, and also be cut correctly. i thought this would be easy, but it is a lot more difficult than i had ever expected. I now appreciate any sort of filming a lot more.

I think that we did decently, I wish I could have used more effects. i am proud we had Cesar in our group, because he taught us how to better utilize titles.

Rough Draft Cyberbullying:Group Eight

Estefania's Post:
Just want to say that your video was really good, and i liked the fact that you interview many people and you got a lot of information of the topic of cyberbullying. I also liked the fact that you guys made your video fun also. I also liked the fact that Bree's mom was also interviewed. I felt like some of the clips were a little cut of but thats ok, you guys can fi those little problems. All in all I think you guys did and excellent job, and i cant wait to see the final result of your video.

Eddy's Post:
I didn't really understand the way that the beginning was suppose to engage the audience because there was no title it was just a person talking. However, when you started with the cyberbullying and the depressing music, i think that was a more better and interesting ending. Another thing that i really liked was the fact that you guys provided a lot of information on a variety of topics that served well to inform the audience. I thought it was really funny but you managed to keep the seriousness of the tone really well when it was you acting as if you were older. Maybe something you guys can work on is better editing on the shots and maybe adding some transitions to smooth them out. This is also true with the music because sometimes it changed really abruptly from one to another. Personally, i really liked the shot of the hall in where you captured someone walking away, i really thought that was professionally shot because it was truly captivating. Some other thing you might want to work on is in the credits and bibliography.
PS Take notes ... (:

Elissa's Post:
What I liked best about your video was how funny it was. For example when Bree played the role of a parent it gave off a very comical vibe but everyone got the point. This was effective because it was relatable.The opening scene could have been better by adding a title that introduced your video. The main points I got from the video were that cyberbullying has become popular and affects many in a serious way.I think the clips were really good but they could have been arranged differently.The interviews added a greast vibe to the video and the viewers have a lot that they can take in from the video.The selection of music was great but the editing and incorporation could have been better. I thought the point of the video was clearly brought out in the summation. Aside from missing credits the overall video was well done and entertaining. Kudos to Bree and her group.

Titles Workshop

One

This is an example of an Opening title, which means it is placed before the clip actually starts. You might use this kind of title when you want to know the title, give an introduction, or simply state a fact.


Two

This is an example of an Overlay title, which means it overlays the clip (title and clip play at the same time). You might use this kind of title when you have an interview and want to state the person's name and job title.


Three

This is an example of an Template title, which means that is a pre-prgrammed title that you only need to type your own information in. You might use this kind of title when you are short on time, are not very creative, or in a formal presentation of a video.

Lifting & Extracting Workshop

Extracting

A simple cut in the timeline means that there is a space/ gap in the timeline. When you cut, the other clips in the timeline are spacious.
A ripple edit is when you choose a clip to delete (or a portion of a clip) and all the clips that were after that clip move over to the left and fill the space that was leftover. You do this by choosing a clip to delete and the other clips automatically move over. When you ripple delete, the other clips to the right of the deleted clip shift to the left to fill the gap that the old clip was occupying.
Lifting and extracting are two ways to cut clips at one time. To do this, you set the in-points and out-points of the clips you want to remove. Lifting is like extracting and removing clips you don't like while extracting is like removing paerts you do not want, in terms of what happens to the other clips in the timeline.
This is an example of a deleting edit. I decided to edit the two clips where I did because the things that were in the clip were slightly unnecessary to the video.

Insert & Overlay Workshop

Overlay
This is an example of an overlay edit. An overlay edit places a clip on top of a preexisting clip. To do this, you drag your new clip into the timeline on top of the preexisting clip . I decided to overlay the 2nd clip where I did because the place where I overlayed it made the scene a bit more dramatic and the horse was in a different place after the switch of clips. We formatted this video incorrectly; it is supposed to be in 48KHz Widescreen, a simple accident.


Insert

The difference between an overlay and an insert edit is an overlay is when a clip is placed on top of another clip that basically takes away the piece that the clipped was overlayed on. An insert is when you place a clip in between a preexisting clip, so it is similar to a pause
You would use an overlay in sports (football, racing, track,etc.), while you’d use an insert edit when you are trying to create a dramatic effect and pull away from the action at hand (relief). In this case the insert edit works better because the overlay edit is slighty awkward and takes away from the action at hand (horse-back riding). We formatted this video incorrectly; it is supposed to be in 48KHz Widescreen.