Filming Some Footy

After completing a plethora of videos with predominantly set requirements, I was looking forward to working on something with a little bit more creative freedom. So as you can imagine, I was pleasantly surprised when we were given our next assignment and it was yet another video but this time had a lot more room to get creative with in terms of style, editing, music, etc. In its most basic form, our task was to create a video on a live event that included a time lapse, freeze frame, a change of speed, still photos with Ken Burns effect, copyright free music, and an interview with a participant of the event.

I knew pretty much right away that I was going to do my little brother Logan’s soccer game. He plays at a high level so the games are usually pretty interesting and I’ve always wanted an excuse to film one of his games. I knew I wanted to use my camera to film as I would be able to be able to zoom as well as capture higher quality shots than I would on a phone or iPad for instance.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t go in to the event with a physical action plan as Ms. Willemse suggested, I didn’t think I needed one, and honestly I don’t think it would have helped me A LOT, but I was a bit ignorant not to do it I must admit, sorry Willemse. Anyways, filming the event was pretty straight-forward, I got shots from loads of different angles and used my phone for slow-mo and time lapses as the built in camera functions work so well. I made sure I had all the shots I needed well before the game was finished to make sure I wouldn’t screw myself over while editing.

Editing was a simple process. Before I even started filming I knew what I wanted my final product to look like, so I wasn’t stuck brainstorming after looking over my footage (which there was plenty of). I had this one song in my head that I wanted to use because it’s new, however it’s non-copyright, and explicit! So being me, I wasn’t going to just give up. Instead, I went on YouTube and searched up a clean mix of the song. It didn’t take long before I found one with a description stating that using the song for non-profit/educational purposes wasn’t breaking copyright laws. So I downloaded the video and dropped the audio file down on to my timeline.

For me, making videos is usually fun, I really do enjoy it, especially when it’s something that’s more personal and creative such as this video. That’s one of the differences between this live Event Video and the previous ‘funny’ videos we’ve been doing. However, the main difference is that when trying to film and capture a live event, you pretty much only have one take. You don’t get to just ask them to play the soccer game again because you missed a shot, you have to be ready before it all happens. That’s what I have learnt from the making of this video, that planning is important, and there are different types of planning.

All in all, this assignment was super enjoyable for me, I had a great time filming outside on a beautiful day and I’m happy with how my video turned out.