Hello everyone and welcome back to another amazing post! In this post I will be explaining the process of video making and reflecting on all the videos I’ve made so far this year in Maker.

There are many things that make a video great so lets get into it!

1. Planning

The first step when making a video is planning. In this stage you should plan out everything. Some of the more important parts what to plan out are, your shots (what are you going to film and from where), who’s going to film it (wether its you or one of your friends or family), what your going to say (will you speak in your film).

One project that we did this year which was crucial that we planned was our Take Your Kid to Work Day video + post (which you can find here). It is important to plan out ever video as the better planned out your video is the better it will turn out.

2 ish. Scouting

What I mean by scouting is scoping out the place(s) you are going to film at. I have found scouting to be quite helpful if you are only going to a place once because then you can find out what’s there and what’s not. I would consider this an optional step as some times this will make it harder for you to make your video. e.x. If the images you are using to look at the site are out of date.

I used this particular step and found it quite helpful in the making of our ghost town video as we weren’t sure what places were in the town, so we used google maps to look it up.

3. Filming

Now we move on to the most important part of making a video, filming. One important thing to remember in this step is film 10 times more footage then you think you need. If you are making a 2 minute video, have enough B roll (extra footage) to make sure you don’t run out. Also making sure you have the right shot, take the time to ask or wait for people to move out of your shot and do your best to have a steady camera.

My Alberta post (found here) really shows that you need lots of B roll to make a good video. Remember that half of a great video is making sure you have great footage.

4. Editing

Now your probably asking yourself what is the other half to making a great video. My friend the answer is EDITING! Editing can be split into three major sections.

First up we have audio; audio is very important because without it you can’t really understand what’s going on.

Next is music; make sure to keep in mind that music basically sets the mood of the video so fining the right music is very important for a good video

Last and definitely not least is make sure everything lines up and makes sense; I know that sounds very confusing so let me put it this way. Re watch your video multiple times to make sure, the audio lines up with the images, your music achieves the mood that your going for, listen to make sure you audio is not drowned out my your music, and look for any errors in the footage to make sure everything looks right.

One video that shows all of this very well is the enchanted forest video that we made in Alberta. As it was very hard to check all of the editing parts off.

Ending

Looking back at all the videos that we have made so far in all of our subjects I realize how far I’ve come in completing these steps. I have leaned so much from making these videos and I’m so glad you took your time to read all of these steps. Even though we are writing the blog post now, this video unit has yet to officially end as we will continue making videos following this formula.

Lastly I leave you with a comparison of two videos. The first was made at the beginning of the year and the second was made just before Christmas break.

Enjoy!

Until next time

-Em