🌲Hello and welcome back to the forest of learning! In this post, I will be summarizing my learning from our most recent and shortest project in Maker 9, “Vibrant Video”. In this project, we learned about the history of film, built our movie making skills, and learned techniques so that we can progress to become full on Movie Makers! This project took place across the span of about two weeks so it was relatively short compared to what I am used to. Before this project I definitely didn’t consider myself to be someone who is very good at making movies so I am really glad that I was able to learn and improve a lot in this project! I can’t wait to see how I will use what I learned during this time in the future. If you would like to learn more about it, keep reading!🌲
Before I get into the project, I wanted to introduce an activity that we completed throughout the project as a sort of “side assignment”. Every lesson, there would be a new challenge posted that would help strengthen your movie-making skills. They were all optional, accept for the fact that by the end of this project, you had to have completed at least two and posted them in basecamp. I thought these were fun, although, I am not really that proud of how mine turned out. I don’t think I really challenged myself as much as I could have. No matter how they turned out, it was still fun to apply the skills we learned in class to videos with more creative freedom!
Here were all of the challenge options:
I personally completed “Add a Song” “Playing with Angles” and “Green Screen Challenge”. You can find all of these challenges below⬇️
Add a Song 🎵
Playing with Angles 📏
Green Screen Challenge 🟩
Along with challenges throughout the project, our lessons would be focussing on one of two options: building a skill, or learning about film. So, first, learning about film. Often times we would learn about movies and film in between learning different skills. We learned about the history of movies, how they are made, different techniques, different effects, and so much more! If you would like to see what I wrote as my notes for this time, feel free to check them out here. I really enjoyed learning about this- it was really interesting to think about how the movies that I grew up with were developed! I had no idea that Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first animated film ever, let alone how they made it! I also enjoyed seeing one of the first ever movies featuring Thomas Edison sneezing. Since my dad works in the film industry, it was also really interesting to talk about these topics with him. Learning about film has made me really respect it’s history and all that goes into creating a movie.
Now, for the skills:
- Skill 1: Think Like a MovieMaker
- Skill 2: Framing Shots and Developing Angles
- Skill 3: Planning and Shooting
- Skill 4: Making the Most of Effects
Each of these skills were intended to build our understandings of how to make a great movie. Every challenge we completed also often connected to the skills as well! Almost every challenge was connected the the skills we completed throughout the week. Overall, I found making each of the videos taught me important things that I would not have known how to do without making each video!
Skill 1: Think Like a MovieMaker
For this skill, we needed to create a short video using Clips. This video needed to be a story about you and your hobbies with a beginning, middle, and end. There were other skills we needed to develop as well when it came to using Clips such as zooming and panning across photos, adding emoji’s, a soundtrack, a poster, and more! I am not too happy with how my video turned out since I was still not too confident with my movie making abilities just yet. However, after making this film, I was able to learn a lot! Unfortunately, I forgot to include live titles, and I find it pretty cringy to look back on, but, it was still a great learning experience that taught me how to use Clips like a pro!
Skill 2: Framing Shots and Developing Angles
In Skill 2, we needed to create a silent film. As the name indicates, a silent film is a film without sound. With this challenge, we needed to use angles and film techniques to convey a story without words. We were instructed to use the “Aged Film” filter for our movie. We needed it to take place in one setting, as well as record plenty of coverage from different angles and distances, use the GASP! poster for any titles you want between clips, add an appropriate soundtrack, and be less than 2 minutes in length. My idea was to use old footage from a stop-motion tea video my sisters and I created and some how re-use it to make an awesome silent film. Looking back, I regret this decision since this skill was about developing shots, and, since I used old footage, I was unable to exercise this skills and make the video as great as I would have liked to. Regardless, even if the video was not my best, I am still proud of how it turned out.
Skill 3: Planning and Shooting
For this skill, we worked in groups! I was in a group with Max, Cooper, and Cale. For this video, we needed to use iMovie storyboards to create a tutorial video. We needed to shoot our film from creative angles with style using a teleprompter, as well as edit our film with composition, colour, and exposure. We decided to make our video about “How To Drink Water”. I was the in charge of the camera, Cale was in charge of using the teleprompter, and Max and Cooper were our actors. Overall, I enjoyed filming and making this video, however I wished we would have followed the story board instructions, since this video was a bit unorganized. I am still happy with it though! It makes me laugh.
If you would like to check out our storyboard, click HERE
Skill 4: Making the Most of Effects
During our last skill, I worked along with my friend Ariane who is awesome and amazing and clearly superior in terms of height, Colton, and, of course, yours truly. In this film, we needed to make a story using green/blue screen and special effects to make a truly amazing film! Our concept was to make a story about someone who is trapped inside their iPad because they did not read through the terms and conditions. We used filters, transitions, and effects to enhance our film. Side note: While creating our film, on our way to the choir room, Mr. Barnes (the band teacher) requested that in order for him to unlock it for us, we needed to stand at the front of the Grade 8 class while they performed a song for us. We proceeded to get Rick Rolled by an entire band. That was a wonderful experience. Anyways- I enjoyed the concept of our film, but, the execution was not the best. I wished we would have recorded the green screen effect somewhere else and spent more time on it in general. Overall, this was still pretty cool though!
If you would like to see our shot list, click HERE
From each of these skills I have learned so much. I am really proud of my abilities to use film-making techniques and apps to my advantage. My biggest goal for my next video is to push myself outside of my comfort zone and make a film that I can be really proud of. I hope to put together many apps to convey the tone and messages that I wish to. I want to further support it with the tips I have learned in this project so that I can make my film truly amazing. I am by no means a pro, but I am on my way!
So, now, how can I make a great video? Well, from this project, here are the steps that I hope to use in the future when making my videos:
- Start with a storyboard: plan and think about what you will make so that you have direction when filming and a concept to stick to. Remember: you can always change your mind, but it is best to have a foundation before starting any project!
- Enhance with tips: use apps like Canva, Procreate, Keynote, ActionMovie, WordPack or really any other creative app that will help enhance your film. Use angles and perspective to set tone and convey messages. Include visual representations of what you want to convey!
- Use visual effects: use filters, text, greenscreen, animation and pretty much any other effect to add depth to your film. Transitions can also be a huge tool in representing certain moods you wish to have in your video.
- Use sound effects: be sure that your sound effects or soundtrack is chosen with intent. Sound should be used to enhance and set tone in your film- not be distracting!
- Add props: props or costumes can really improve your video. Using objects and costumes in your film allows you to portray characters or add depth to a story. Make sure they are chosen with intent!
🌲The skills I have learned and built on in this project has allowed me to improve my film-making skills significantly! I have made some videos in the past such as my About Me Video for my project “Working with Words” or my Private Victory Choiceboard Activity in “Believe in Good” or even my PLP application video from grade 7 and, if I would have done this project earlier, I know they would have been much better. I genuinely learned so many cool new things that I don’t think I would have figured out on my own. I know how to use iMovie and Clips, green screen, music, storyboards and SO much more that could have been used to improve my old videos and will be used in the future to make my new ones the best they can be! In the future, I really hope to be able to use these skills to make films that I can be proud of. Learning about the history of film was also really cool and I had fun seeing my peer’s videos throughout the project as well. Although the work I produced in this project was by no means exemplary, creating each one was a huge learning experience! I know so much about making movies from this project, and I honestly did learn a lot. As always, I hope you enjoyed watching me grow in the forest of 🌲
🌲learning🌲
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