Emote - Editing

When it came to editing the footage... it was Munnis role, but as a group we were there in case she needed any advice etc. It's always good to ask for someones opinion throughout the process, because it's easier to fix things straight away.

Emote - Filming

Because the deadline wasn't far away. We had to speed up the paste and move onto filming as soon as possible. We spent 2 days filming the footage. Again to make sure that we have a range to choose from we shot many different situations etc.
I must say I'm not the best actress out there, so if I was to change anything, I would change the actor! It was really hard to keep a straight face, and to pull the facial expressions required. I tried my best and we'll have to see how it'll look after edited.

Emote - storyboards

After researching videos similar to ours with the rest of my group. We talked about the script etc. I then wrote it down and started thinking about my storyboards. I read through the notes I've taken during the last brief where I have read about lots of other artists research and I then started doodling. I must say that at first I drew up lots of ideas, but it wasn't continuous. I drew them separately so then when i present it to the group and they'd think the sequence should be changed I could do it easily.

In the end this is what I got.

At this point, all we had to do is to film our footage.

Brief 2 - Emote

This brief requires us to work in groups of 3, where we pick a theme and create a 2 minute video

This brief required us to shoot a 2 minute sequence based on one of the themes:

LOVE 

FIGHT

HAPPINESS

CHASE

GUILT

WORRY

I am working with Munni and Sophie. 

We didn't want to separate and each do our own thing so we tried to stay together all the time to talk through ideas and processes to make sure everyone's happy with what we're producing.

We've started with choosing the theme, we had a brainstorm and came up with lots of ideas for each of the themes, we then narrowed it down to our top 5, and thought of all the things that could go wrong with it, and choose the idea that had less risks and problems that could happen. 

After choosing the theme:

Worry

We have chosen the our roles. I have been picked to do the storyboards and acting, Sophie is to film the videos and Munni is to Edit it.

Instruct - Final Video

My Final Video!

This is my final video.
It was the first time where I actually did any video and edited it, so I must say I'm really proud of it. I did have a few problems on the way... for example where I exported the video for the first time it played back really pixelated. Turned out it's because my camera recorded it at 30fps where it should have been 25fps. So I then changed the frames per second to 25 and then exported it, which fixed the problem.

Overall it was a nice experience, and I will definitely try it again.

Instruct - Music

I spent ages trying to find the music that would fit the video. I mostly looked through instrumental songs and classical music. I didn't want it to just sound good, i wanted it to be there for a reason. And then I remembered that Vivaldi actually composed Four Seasons. I then began to look for winter.
Vivaldi - Four Seasons ( Winter)
I thought it'll fit perfectly for when my video speeds up to show the process. I thought it'll make it really exciting and dynamic. That's how I knew it is perfect.

Instruct - Filming

So the only things I had left to do was to film the video and edit it.

I filmed it all in one day. Because I not only had to film it but also be in the video. I had to use some help... So i actually had someone who kept looking at the camera to see if I'm still in the right place. I must say it would've been impossible to do completely on my own. I shot a range of videos to make sure that if something goes wrong I will have plenty more to choose from, to fix it. And so the editing started.

I edited the footage in Final Cut Pro. I must say that at first it was really confusing. But as soon as I learned what each option did, it went quite smooth.

Instruct - My storyboards

Here I have the storyboards I came up with.

I didn't really need a script here because it wasn't a complicated story. So I just thought about the things that need to be done and drew it up!

Instruct - Research (storyboard)

I wanted some tips and tricks on how to make the storyboards. And so I started reading about what other artists do and how they do it,on their blogs etc. I also read a few forums where other students and people that just want to storyboard professionally were talking about how they do it. Mostly it's just start of with soft pencil lines and go over them with a sharper line, then scan it and go over it in Photoshop to clean it up. Depending on the style of the artist, and what they find easier. Some prefer starting with silhouettes and then go from there. Some like to not only sketch it in pencil, but also colour it and make it a perfect illustration.
They all talk about reading and reading the script though. To think through what you're going to draw before you start.

Heres just a few of the links I've used.

http://storyboardsecrets.com/blog/storyboard-drawing-tutorial-line-of-action/

http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/

http://theartcenter.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/rad-sechrist-storyboarding-basics.html

http://www.claytowne.com/beats-digging-ditches/storyboard-tutorial-how-to-create-storyboards-for-film-video-and-television/

Instruct - Research (time)

When thinking of showing time passing by I thought of a candle burning out, there being a clock in the shot etc etc.

Clock Time lapse
This is a video of a clock time lapse  I like it because the person that made it used lots of different camera angles, and a lot of shaking etc. to make it really dramatic. And it worked! It looks really good, but I'm not sure if something like this would make sense to be in my video. I think it wouldn't look right.

Second Video
This is a candle burning our time lapse I found. The first thing I noticed is that it's really long and it's not as effective, if I was to use a candle burning out I'd have to use one of the thin, but really long candles, so you could literally see it go down. But again, I wouldn't be able to speed it up too much, and having just a minute for my whole video, I might not have space to fit something like this in.

Third Video
This is another time lapse video I found and at this point I actually realized that I don't need to look far to find how to represent passing by. I remembered that in movies etc. when they want to show the day passing by, they have a person in a room, with a camera in one place, and the person in several different positions and doing several different things. Either laying on the bed, sitting on the chair, then going onto laying on the floor etc. So I thought of just videoing myself knitting the scarf, in several different positions, and speeding that up. I think that would work effectively. So this is what I'm going to go with.

Instruct - Research

At this point all I had left to do was to look at other knitting videos out there.

First video
When I watched this video I found it not as interesting because it's just a basic, over the head, shot looking down at the hands. The shot does not change the angle at all throughout the video at all which makes me think this way. The other thing I've noticed is that there isn't any music in the background. Having just the person talking really puts people off, having even just a quiet simple song in the background can really change a lot. So what I've learned from this is to use a little more different angles, it's not only going to show better the technique I'll be using because you'll be able to see it from the different angles, but also make it less boring to watch.

Second Video
This video also uses just one angle of the camera. What's different here is that the person instead of talking, actually used music in the background and to explain the moves, actually used text at the bottom of the screen. In my opinion they are really distracting, because instead of looking at the person showing how to do it, you read what's below and I think in this case you'd be able to understand and repeat it just by looking at it. So I think it's unnecessary to talk or even write what to do.

Third video
I came across this video and first impression is, that it looks very professional. Probably because of the quality of the image, and the variety of clear, well thought through shots. Also the all the animations probably helped to make this impression. It has good appropriate sound effects. The talking has been recorded properly so you can hear it loud and clear. Also it must have been scripted because there aren't those moments where people forget their line and don't say anything for a while. It just shows that it's worth thinking the video through before you actually do it. Gives you a way better outcome.

Fourth Video
This is another home video. This girl actually  uses different angles and you can see how much difference it makes, in being able to understand how to do it. This is definitely the way to go. I looked at the time and it took her over 4 minutes to present nowhere near as much as I wanted to, so from here on I start to understand that in my video I will have to not only speed up the footage but also in some way represent time passing by. In my mind I want my video to show the scarf knitting from start to finish, and to do it in 1 minute. Seems like a challenge.

Instruct - Brainstorm

The first step of any project I do, is always a brainstorm. Because I'm more of a humorous person, my video  ideas were mostly funny like: "How not to dance" where I'd have a dance off against my very skilled friend or "How not to bake a cake". But with that sort of ideas I wasn't sure if I'm going to be able to push the INSTRUCTIONAL part of the video, I'm scared that I might get lost in trying to make it as funny as I can possibly make it, and loose the most important part of it. 

This thought made me step away from the humour and do an actual instructional video like: "How to make pancakes" or "How to make a Christmas decoration" etc. etc. But when I thought of it, I didn't want to make it easy for myself with something simple like that, and so I decided to do a video about "How To make a scarf".

Studio Brief 1 - Instruct

Our new brief is to create a 1 minute instructional video. We are free to pick what it's going to be about, it can be as funny or as serious as we want. The only rule is that it must be no longer than one minute long, end credits etc. do not count into the 1 minute. 

Things we have to consider are, the sound, the light, the camera angles, and obviously how we're going to manage all those things on our own. But then again the things that make it easy are a built in mic's and tripods, the only thing you can't be sure of, is if the angle is right on the camera. So if you can, it would be best if it's not you in the video. If it has to be you, you can have some person supervising it, making sure you're in the right place.  

We then have to put the video together, consider the way it's going to skip from one shot to another etc. Also we need to pick the music wisely, to not only go with the film but enhance the viewing experience, it can either be dynamic, or calming or funny etc. 

The first thing I'm going to do is come up with several ideas for the 1 minute video, and pick the best one out of them all.