Videography

The first challenge for the Videography module was to post a picture that contained the principle of “rule of thirds”. I had absolutely no idea what that was at first, even though I use it all the time (without knowing). Rule of Thirds is the idea of the focused object being away from the center of the picture frame, on the left side or right side. When my group and I went outside to take our picture, I thought about how many possibilities there were, how many options I had. I thought about how taking a picture is just like going back in time or remembering something, but having more clarity in the image. The camera is your point of view in this case, and you can use any angle to make it look the way you want.

The next challenge was to create video that showed our mission statement of the school. We were given a tripod and a camera. My group members had a lot of experience with cameras, while I didn’t really know what I was doing. But what made it easier was that we all had a big interest in making films and taking pictures.

We started walking around the school looking for different places we could record clips that we could edit into a short film. We tried the different shots from different angles, speeds, distances, etc. At one point we found a rubber duck on the floor and we thought it would be cute to incorporate it into our film, the duck would go on an adventure around the school. Sadly, we ended up not going with the idea, because we were too far into the module, but it goes to show how you can always make anything better.

We had some trouble finding some of the footage we had taken from previous classes, and where to store it, but we learned from our mistakes. We learned how to import, how to save to different devices, and how to move different files around.

Then came the best part. Editing the clips. In order to go on with the module, we had to import the clips into the imovie program. After we had done that, it was time for the actual work. Before we filmed the clips, we had an idea of what we wanted the overall film to look like, but when we tried it out on imovie, it didn’t really turn out how we planned. So we went through the process of deleting, adding, bringing back, making the clips faster, then slower. It was all over the place. Until we spent a good amount of time working on it all together and compromising. It became the best we could make.

The whole process of creating a media creation in this particular form is so much fun. Yet so much work. I mean, imagine what goes through a directors head while filming a movie. I enjoy taking pictures because I appreciate the beauty they hold, it just depends on how you interpret them. Videos are everywhere, we watch videos everyday, were surrounded by media everyday, so we should make the best of it.