Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog! Today I’ll be telling you about a recent project that we did called Vibrant Videos. In this project, we were learning all about filming and filmmaking. In grade 8 we learned about photography and this year we are learning about videos, and next year I expect we will be learning about audio as I’ve talked to a couple of grade 10s and they are making podcasts.
The first thing that we learned was the history of movie making. We learned that Thomas Edison invented filmmaking, and we watched him record himself sneeze through a kinetoscope. A kinetoscope is a device that puts together a series of photos and plays them very fast to make an animation. The recording of Edison sneezing is the oldest surviving film. Another great milestone in filmmaking is a film called The Great Train Robbery. It was the very first narrative film! After we learned about historical filmmaking, we learned about making films in more recent years such as Jaws, Avatar, or Star Wars.
Once we had finished learning about the history of filmmaking, we went on to create our first film! Our film had to include what I enjoy doing and why, what I don’t enjoy doing and why, what gives me meaning or purpose in life, what my talents/skills are, what I like to read or watch movies about and what I daydream about. I started by writing out the answer to all of those questions, then I wrote a script, and finally I was ready to film! I filmed at my house, and it took approximately 1 hour to make my movie. Here it is!
For our next video, we had to do a silent film. We were allowed to add music, but no talking. We had to include different angles (long shot, close up, Birds Eye, worms eye, are just a few examples), a filter for an old fashioned look, a goal-getter story and an appropriate soundtrack or music. Our video had to be 1-2 minutes in length. For our goal-getter story, we chose one called Making The World Better, One Cookie At A Time. You’ll see what it’s about in this video!
Our last video was a tutorial video about setting and achieving goals. The inspiration for this video came from a book called What Do You Really Want? It is all about setting and achieving goals. Before making the video we learned about treatments and log-lines. A treatment is a brief description about the movie, usually about a paragraph in length. A log-line is similar to a treatment, but a LOT shorter, usually only a sentence or two in length. Another difference between the two is that the log-line is usually used for advertising purposes. One last thing that we learned about is the storyboard. A storyboard is a collection of drawings that show the sequence of events in the story. It is similar to the treatment, but it shows the different angles at which the shots are being filmed. You would usually start a film with a treatment and a log-line, then move onto the storyboard. Once you are finished, you would go on to film the story. Here is the video!
Treatment:
Has this ever happened to you? One day Jeremiah talks to his teacher. His teacher says that he has to do a Maker video by Friday. On Wednesday he is feeling quite uninspired. Then there is a guy who says ‘Hey people! Welcome back to our YouTube channel, today we’ll be talking about 2 simple tips to stay on track for your goals. Remember to like and subscribe! The first tip is to check your goals daily, so that you don’t forget them!’ Then it cuts to a scene of Jeremiah checking his goals. The next tip is to set rewards for yourself to stay motivated. Then it cuts to Jeremiah setting rewards, and when he’s finished, he’s going to give himself 5 coffee crisps. After that, he celebrates because with these strategies, he’ll definitely get a rainbow.
Log-line:
A boy named Jeremiah is trying to get a video done for his maker class but he comes across some trouble making his video. He learns some tips to help him complete his goal and receive a rainbow.
In conclusion, I’d say I did well on this project, seeing that I know how to do all of this stuff now. I think that my favourite and best part of the project was my first video. I really enjoyed making it, and I am proud of it because I didn’t get any help. I was the only one home, so I got the whole house to film. I also realized that the difference in preparation between the first and the last film is crazy! In the first film I wrote a script, and that was all, but in the last film, my group and I had written out a treatment, log-line, storyboard, and script and it made a big difference with the final video.