RThe intro and the pictures 

Well, hello again. Your here, I’m here, we’re here. This is going to be a fun one, because it’s all about my favourite subject. Videos! Insert juicy intro footage here. Anyways, for the past month or so we have been getting down the basics of creating a video. For our whole grade nine year we will be focused on creating videos, short or long. This is why we have been focused on the process of a video. In the process there are three main sections. Planning the shots/story, filming the needed shots, and last, but easily the most important, the edit. Now that you know the three sections let’s get into everything I have learnt and some videos I worked on.

(This is a film about my time at my dads work. I really enjoyed it and I think it’s one of my best videos. Before going there I had a good plan in mind, but I also had to do it free hand from whatever happened and I think that’s a great skill to have.)

The long and the useful

The planing of the shots. This may seem like a step you can just skip, but trust me this will make the filming and editing one thousand times easier. I didn’t use this part in a few of my first videos and you end up not having a perfect distinct beginning, middle, and end. I always think of a video as many pictures rather than a video because that’s exactly what it is. It’s important when planning the shots to draw some photos to understand the different angles you have to film at. The difference that comes between a picture and a video is motion. When planning your shots you have to get an idea of what motions you want. Do you want a man walking with the camera panning left, or drifting downwards? Maybe even keep the camera still on an interesting point of view. Make sure to plan many different types of angles and remember that a video needs lots of motion. Try high angles, low angles, or any type of interesting point of view. Once creating a short sketched out story board and some dialogue if any, you are ready to go out and shoot. Remember to plan your shots, but also what people you need, outfits, locations, transitions, sounds, music, and dialogue. Now get out and shoot!

(This is the live event video. It took me a total of four drafts to make this and I think it was a great learning experience. I even reshot the thing in a different location for the first draft. Overall I think it came out quite good, and the shooting of this was fun.)

The action and the fun

The filming. When shooting keep in mind the mood you are trying to set. Try to keep all the lighting and sound even. One of my biggest problems was my music was way louder than my audio which made it hard to watch. Follow your planned shots, but also take extra shots just in case. When taking a shot, make sure to take multiple and keep the camera rolling a little longer because it will make it a lot easier in the edit. Back to what I said with the mood. For example, if the lighting is bright and fast pace it might feel more jumpy and happy rather than having a dark setting with lots of slo mo. If the lighting isn’t as you wish, you have a few options. First option is come back to film at another time, obviously in lots of cases this will not be possible. If not, try either filming in as much light as possible and amping up the lights in the edit, or film in another place. For the audio try to keep the music at the same volume as when someone is talking. Obviously when the person is talking you can have the music fade out. The keys to shooting are really just follow your shot plan and film way more than you think you need because then you have more choice when it comes to the edit.

(This is the metaphor machine video from humanities, but I used everything that I had learnt in Maker on video skills to make it the best I could. I also enjoyed shooting this and I tried editing to the beat more.)

The beauty and the beast

The editing. This is where everything you’ve worked hard on comes together. It’s both my favourite and least favourite part. This is because it takes a long time and never comes out exactly as you want, but it’s fun taking what you’ve filmed and actually making something of it. Anyways I’m just putting this part in here to see if Mrs Willemse is reading this part (IMovie is BAD editing software) sorry about that. In this last step take a look back at what your plan was. What were you initially planning on making the film look like. Always take a look over your footage and make sure you’ve got everything. Usually I go for sound design first. I add some music and a few sound effects to give it a lively feel then get to work breaking down the footage. I shorten the clips to just the good bits. Typically you should at least cut off one second on either side, this is where the footage is the most shaky. This is why you have to film for a little longer than you think. Slowly put together the vibe you want add more sound effects and shorten the music if needed. Fix audio and even do a bit of colour correction on your video. I’m not saying use some crazy filter that was made by Instagram, but you can slightly change the lighting, contrast, and colour. Once you have your video done go through it a few times to be sure it’s perfect. At the end it should fade out and not just end right away. You can use some cool fonts throughout from right HERE if you’d like. Make sure to use one or maybe two throughout because too many fonts winds up looking weird. Now this is some valuable info so be sure to use it. Anyways after the edit show to friends and family. Take a seat and relax. You are now done!