Turning My Summer Goal Into My Fall Project

I like having creative freedom when it comes to assignments; however, when I’m allowed a lot of creative freedom it can be daunting. Sometimes there are just too many good ideas. Other times I feel like there’s a better idea out there, so I won’t settle for whatever comes to mind first (or second, or third). So, when we were given the freedom to choose our topic for an instructional video assignment, I spent a lot of time thinking about it.

I could make a pretty decent instructional video about a lot of things. But, when I work on projects like this for class, I keep in mind that I’m not doing it just for class. These are the kinds of things that will go into my portfolio. The project is for my career, not just for a grade.

I generated a list of ideas in my notebook. They were all reasonable ideas, but I didn’t feel motivated to pursue any of them. It wasn’t until I looked down at my shoes (my favorite pair of shoes that are black, white, green, and pink) that the idea struck me.

If you have been reading my blogs for the past few months, you would know that over the summer I started running. I wanted to run properly and work up to running a mile at a steady pace. Fortunately, I have a friend who has been involved in track for years, so she knew how to run and how to teach me the right way to run.

When I looked at my shoes I thought of all the great shots I could do to make this instructional video visually interesting. There is a lot to learn when it comes to running, so I would have plenty of content. You have to be aware of your posture, at what angle your arms are positioned, and proper shoes and clothing. It’s actually pretty significant to know these things if you’re going to take up running so you don’t injure or exhaust yourself.

So, now that I’ve got the idea, I’m off to write a script and a storyboard. What’s the most challenging part of all this? It’s November in Wisconsin and I want to film at least some of this outside. I’m motivated enough by this idea to figure it out, and that’s exactly the kind of idea I was looking for.

Product Videos, Interviewing, and Green Screens

Testing the lighting and setting the white balance

We’ve done some pretty cool things in my Video Camera and Lighting Techniques class these past weeks. Recently, we learned how to set up lighting for green screen. Our classroom has a green screen backdrop, and we were able to use that for our interview project.

I interviewed one of my classmates who has been fortunate enough to travel globally, so he talked about how that has affected him. I’ll be working on editing the video in the next few days. I plan on using one of the places he’s traveled to as a backdrop.

Product video shoot

Earlier this semester we filmed product videos. This is a really practical application for video, because businesses need to show their product to consumers. What better way to do that than video? Our instructor brought in a guest, who is also a professional, to give us some tips on shooting products. It was really helpful listening to him explain how each of our products should be lit based on what color it was, if it was translucent, or if it had any reflective properties. My “product” was the lantern I walked down the aisle with at my friend’s wedding this summer. I used a white backdrop to contrast with the black lantern.

We usually have time at the end of class to work on editing our projects, so I’m able to get some extra help from my instructor and my more-experienced classmates with that part of the assignments. I’m starting to learn the editing software better. There is a lot more tools and features than iMovie. It was the only other video editing software I’ve used before this class. I’ve been taking advantage of all the resources our instructor has provided in the webliography section of eCollege, our online class portal.

We’ve got a few more projects left to complete before this semester is over. I’m looking forward to starting those, and signing up for my spring classes. I’ll be taking Video/Sound Editing and Motion/Visual Effects. Imagine all the cool stuff I’ll have made by the end of May!

My First Commercial

It seemed so strange watching the other group’s TV commercial in my Video Camera and Lighting Techniques class. It was so similar to my group’s video except there was a completely different person in front of the camera going through the motions of entering the main entrance of MPTC, walking over to the wall of academic planers, and going through the Student Services doors.

The reason why the two commercials were so much alike is that the two groups we were split into for class were following the same storyboard. The purpose of this project was to learn how to read and follow a storyboard. We had to set up the equipment, figure out the lighting, and adjust the settings on the camera to get our shots according to what was written and sketched out on paper.

Even with following the same storyboard, there were still some variations between the two 30 second ads. The sketches give you an idea of what the shot will look like, and the directions will give you a pretty good idea what you should be doing, but it seems there’s always a little bit of room for interpretation. The lesson I learned from this is that if you are following somebody else’s storyboard and script, like one your client has created, you may need to get clarification from them to make sure you are getting the shot they want and portraying the story they wish to tell.

I think everybody did really well on this project, and I’m impressed how professional both videos looked, especially considering some of us are first-timers in video making. Check out my group’s commercial for Student Services at MPTC, created by John Lippold, Cody Repovsch, Barret Johnson, and myself!