I usually start my blog posts by saying something along the lines of ‘During this unit, we have learned…’. However, this blog post is about way more than just one unit. Since the beginning of Grade 9, we have worked on creating videos. That sounds vague, but it’s accurate. We’ve created animations, silent movies, recreations of videos we watched, and used just about every type of camera angle and non-copyrighted music. 

The driving question for the overarching video creation unit is ‘What makes a good video?’ Well, at the start of the year, I didn’t know. But now, I can figure it out by looking at the videos I enjoyed, and what made them good. 

The first videos we created were about something we were passionate about. I chose to make a video about acting, because that’s what I’m passionate about. At the time we hadn’t worked on videos that much yet, so it was difficult. My video didn’t have much variety of angles, or sound effects, or lighting.

 

We also created our ‘tell a story‘ video, where we expanded on our passion video by creating a story about it. This one was quick and had to be simple, which helped, but the story wasn’t very strong. This video was good because it was the first one we acted in. 

The next video we acted in, however, already had a story! We were tasked with re-creating a one minute horror movie. This meant that we didn’t have to make any storytelling diagrams, storyboards, or scripts. All we had to do was recreate each shot as best we could. I think one of the strongest parts of this video was how we were able to have good attention to detail, because we didn’t have to actually write the story.

During our trip to Alberta, we created three videos. The first one is one of my all time favourite videos that I’ve created- The Great Rejection of Niklas Jaakola. We created a silent film in a historic ghost town. I worked with Niklas, Fraser, and Emerson to make this rom-com, where my character rejects Niklas in creative ways. It was really fun to create, and I always enjoy showing it to people. Some of the shots in this short film were difficult, like one of Fraser’s character from way below him, and the shot of Niklas from way above him. This is one of the first videos that we used a story spine for, and it paid off. I think the reason I enjoyed this video was because it had such a clear story, and the constraints of the silent movie helped it grow. 

The second video we made in Alberta was at the Royal Tyrell Museum. We had to pick a fossil or artefact to make a video about. I chose the skull of an ichthyostega.  what is an ichthyostega you ask? Well, it was basically a prehistoric salamander. If you want to know more about it, just watch the video. This video was stressful to make because we didn’t have very much time to make it. The worst thing about this video in my opinion, is the lighting, which was very dark. But while using Clips, which is a great app, I could add a filter so that the lighting was just a little bit better instead of being, you know, really dark.

While we were still in Alberta, on one of the last days of the trip, we created a movie in the enchanted Forest, which was like a big beautiful trail with small concrete statues of fairytale creatures. I worked with Caleb, Luciano, Taylor, and Kyle to create a story about a friendly giant in a world of very small villagers. I enjoyed making this video, but it was actually harder than the silent movie, because we actually had to have words, and speaking and narration, which we had to write. This video features some chase scenes I really enjoyed, but there were a couple problems with the lighting, and the story may not have made the most sense. Overall, though, it was pretty fun to make. 

Soon after Alberta, we were tasked with creating a video about an event as it was happening. We got to choose any event, so naturally I decided to pick my dad’s play rehearsal. My dad was in a production of ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society‘s Production of A Christmas Carol.‘, which I was a stagehand in. This was a video that we couldn’t script. Part of the video was an interview, and I interviewed my dad, in-character as a bumbling stage manager excited to finally catch his big break as Jacob Marley in a local theatre production of ‘A Christmas Carol.’ Then, I recorded a time lapse of a dance sequence, a slow motion shot, and shots of every person involved in the rehearsal. I enjoyed making this video because the story revealed itself as I shot footage. It seems real (because it is) but also because the actual event is completely unscripted. I can’t change the lighting, or the people, but that’s a huge part of what makes this video good.

The next video was similarly unscripted. Every year, Grade 9’s across the country visit their parents workplaces for Take your Kid to Work Day. Now, since we were doing a video unit, it was the perfect opportunity to create another video. I visited Golftec, where my mom works. She’s an accountant. However, I’ve been to my mom’s work a bunch of times.  So I found new things that I could learn about, like procuring furniture and the actual golf component to Golftec. This video featured several interviews, and learning how to golf was way more fun than I expected. This video is good because even though there was no script, I could really do whatever I wanted with it. The lighting at Golftec was good, and there were no obvious inconsistencies in the video. I think the variety of the things going on at Golftec really helped the video.

The most recent video we’ve created was our chemical stories video. This video,  unlike the rest of them, we actually created for science. I worked with Amelia, and our assignment was to create a Keynote animation. However, we wanted to go a bit further than that. Our video is completely animated, and we both worked on different parts. The basis of the story is that our characters are elements, who pay for things with electrons, so the exchanging of electrons bonds them. I explained this in my Chemical Stories blog post. For this project we decided to divide up the work, so that I created most of the backgrounds, and Amelia focused on the movement of characters.This video was good because we had fully fleshed out the story before we created it. We had made a storytelling diagram, a screenplay, and a storyboard before we actually created the video. As well, this video worked because we didn’t have to do any acting, other than the voiceovers, which were very clear and easy to understand. My only problem with this video was the voice I used for One of the main characters. Other than that, this is one of my favourite videos that I’ve done.

After reviewing all of the videos we’ve created, I think I can answer the driving question of this blog post. ‘What makes a good video?’ A good story. Every video that has worked really well had had a well thought-out story. Other factors of a good video include good lighting, good audio quality, and good acting (if needed). I think that video creation is definitely a skill I’ve gained.

Thanks for reading my blog post!