Month One Complete!

Month One Complete!

It's the last day of September 2013 and the last day of my first month of sixth form! I am really enjoying Media at A level as I feel like it is more hands on and more exciting than GCSE. It is easily my favourite subject and I find myself looking forward to each lesson. 

Here's to the rest of the school year!

1... 2... 3... Edit!

1... 2... 3... Edit!

Today was our penultimate lesson of editing. Our lessons seem to fly by when we are editing away. I applied my audio (Different People - Biffy Clyro) to my video it worked really well and I am pleased with the progress I made with editing today. I just need to add titles and I should be good to have my video completed by Wednesday's deadline. I'm really excited to publish my video on my blog.

Making Decisions

Making Decisions

I'm currently searching through my iTunes trying to find the perfect song for my camera movement video. One song that I keep coming back to is Different People by Biffy Clyro. I have listened to it over and over and pictured my videos and it has sparked to interesting ideas which I can use when editing my footage together.

Here is the song

Shooting Task 2

Shooting Task 2

During the past week we were given the brief for our second task. The aim was to show we can use camera movement effectively. The shots we had to include were:

 

Shot	Description
Slow pan through 180º	Camera should be at eye level for a Year 7 student
Whip (fast) pan through 180º	Camera should be at eye level for a Year 12 student
Slow upward tilt through around 75º	Camera should start at near-ground level and tilt to around 75º focusing on a building
Fast downward tilt through around 90º	Camera should start at around +45º and end at around -45º, with 0º being at eye level for a Year 7 student focusing on aperson
Zoom	Camera should be at eye level for a Year 12 student zooming in on a sign
Reverse Zoom	Camera should be at near-ground level beginning on a single leaf/ flower and zooming out to show a landscape
Point-of-View (slow)	Camera should travel smoothly down a corridor, replicating a student walking through the school
Point of View (fast)	Camera should travel quickly through an external location, replicating an individual being chased
Follow	Camera should track an individual through several doors
Overhead pan	Camera follows an individual from above head height

I had to figure out how I would be able to track someone through several doors. I decided to use an office chair on wheels and be pushed down a school corridor by my friends Charlotte, Ellen and Caitlin while filming Bethany walk through doors. This should give me the nice smooth effect intended. For the overhead pan I used my Gran's stair lift to film my brother Jamie walk up the stairs. Another interesting shot is the Point of View (fast) where I was to replicate someone being chased. This was my favourite part of this task's shooting process as it was a lot of fun to film. I gathered a large selection of year 12 girls and directed them to act as if they were chasing their favourite celebrity. My footage shows my friend Calum running ahead shortly followed by me (POV) during the clip I pan round to see an army of screaming girls chasing after us. 

I am currently in the editing process and should most likely meet the deadline of Wednesday 2nd of October.

Shot's Video Strengths and Weaknesses

Shot's Video Strengths and Weaknesses

In my last post I published my shots video. When filming the footage I was really excited to start editing my clips together but when it came to editing I was unhappy with some elements of my video. In the video when the camera angles change from low angle shot to medium close up there is a continuity issue as the position of Charlotte is slightly different in the separate frames. This makes the final production of my video look unprofessional. Another thing I would change if I had to do this task again would be to mute the audio on the clip where the phone rings as the noise of the ringtone doesn't work with the music played over the video. I would also consider the length of each of my clips.

One strength of my video is how the music adds tension to the video. When planning for the video I knew I wanted to include music rather than narrative for dramatic effect but I hadn't actually chosen the piece of music I wanted to use yet. I chose Forever I've Known by Macabees after I filmed the footage. In my opinion this was the best way to decide what music to use over videos as you know what will work best once you have a better idea of what the final outcome will look like. Another section of my video that I like in particular is the continuity between the medium/very long shot into the low angle shot. I think that looks professional and well edited.

Shots Video

 

Final Cut

 

 

The following video is the final cut of our first official task. The aim of the shots task was to show our understanding of the different camera angles and to give us an idea of how to capture footage in an effective way. I titled each clip with the name of the camera angle. For example, the first clip is an extreme long shot. The music I added was Forever I've Known by Macabees as it sounds quite sinister.

 

Here is my video, enjoy!

 

 



Work in Progress

Work in Progress

Today we carried on with editing together footage we filmed last week. The aim of this task was to show that we know and understand the basic camera angles e.g. extreme long shot, medium shot, close up etc. and also for us to learn how to use Adobe Premiere. Today I finished cutting down my raw footage so I was only using the best and most relevant clips.

 

Rather than just filming random objects and different angles to prove we understood the task brief. Charlotte and I decided to put a story behind our footage. 

Our short film shows Charlotte walking home and she is being stalked (whilst including all the required camera angles of course). 

When editing the short I avoided using transitions between clips for dramatic effect. I added a cross dissolve at the end of my film so it fades to black.

Next lesson I plan to add music for dramatic effect (the music I will actually include is still undecided) and also titles.

Learning The Ropes

Learning the Ropes

In today's lesson we began editing the footage we shot around  school on Friday. Editing footage is time consuming at the best of times but today's attempt was especially slow paced as it was the first time we had used the software. The programme we are using to edit our footage is Adobe Premiere and although initially it looks scary it seemed easy enough and I managed to get my head around it. This meant I had time to upload and start cutting several clips together. I'm very excited to start editing my own short films.

Inspiration Behind My Induction Task

Inpiration Behind My Induction Task

In my previous blog post I published a thirty second video 'advertising' my boyfriend. When planning the shoot I came across an advert for Justin Bieber's perfume 'Girlfriend'. I liked the way the camera was the point of view of Bieber's girlfriend so when watching the advert the audience was automatically put into that position. The advert uses a range of the basic camera angles. So taking inspiration from this advert I wanted to make a video of this style.

Media Induction Task

Media Induction Task

The induction task for our AS Media class was to make a thirty second advert that portrays someone in a positive light. I chose to make a video advertising my boyfriend, Niall (with a cameo from his puppy Bailey). We were limited in terms of space so I made the most of the possible camera angles available while filming this mini project. I used Windows Movie Maker to edit the advert.