Portfolio of Experiments:
- Interview (Week 1)
What went well in this exercise: Got a pretty good idea of how the equipment works (I hadn’t used them before).
What didn’t go so well/things to work on: Lighting could be improved. Very echoey audio. Forgot to phrase the questions in the answers after a while. Didn’t think about how I’d edit this together so it jumps from topic to topic.
How it will help for my vid: Good to know for my interviews!
- In-Class Food Assembly (Week 4)
What went well in this exercise: The handheld camera’s footage was really good, and having cameras A & B made editing really easy.
What didn’t go so well: We messed up at one point and one camera stopped filming, which confused the rhythm in the edit. The audio in the edit sucked – music would have made it better. Make sure to use headphones to edit next time. Also I could cut more from the video to make it shorter/more engaging.
How it will help for my vid: How to follow a person’s actions while they’re doing something, picking up audio for voice-over, editing B-Roll & subject footage together.
- Vox Populi (Week 5)
What went well in this exercise: We asked the same set of questions each time, so editing was easy. We also had the interviewer approach the subjects with the camera/sound people following shortly behind, so that they could see the setup but didn’t feel obligated to participate – which made people less awkward. Our cameraman also kept rolling while we were figuring out what to do next, which gave us handy b-roll to work with.
What didn’t go so well: It was awkward to film/edit. Tips would be to make small talk before asking the proper question – to make sure the crew is ready – keep moving forward instead of circling a particular space, and make sure the interviewer stands next to the mic if you want to pick up their question.
How it will help for my vid: Make me more comfortable filming spontaneously and asking questions on the spot.
- Interview (Week 5)
What went well in this exercise: I think we were good at asking follow-up questions and letting a small silence lead to further explanation. Using text in this video was fun to do. The asymmetry in the shot was nice also.
What didn’t go so well: Didn’t set up the situation – would have been better to have her seated maybe? We didn’t get her to phrase the question in the answer. Also we all kind of jumped in with questions at random points, which meant her eyeline turned to three places at random times. Lighting was off. Editing definitely wasn’t seamless.
How it will help for my vid: Getting used to quick interview situations, the importance of setting it up properly.
- B-Roll/Observational Experiment (20th April)
What worked well: Some of my close-ups and mid-close ups’ compositions work well. I did a good job at adjusting the ISO each time so that I got nice deep colours and shadows.
What didn’t work so well: I went overboard playing with the focus. Some shots could linger for a little longer. Need to work on my long shots – they look grainier for some reason… Will need to have more of these for each plant if I want have establishing shots. Also, how do I change frame rate when filming or at least adjust the speed of clips in premiere pro? Something to research.
More to work on: I’ve thought about adding subtitles for each plant or illustrations to make it more engaging… Next experiment. (I’ve downloaded Paint by 53 on my iPad so I can make animated hand-drawn visuals and text.) Also, this wasn’t an exercise in sound but I noticed that I should have recorded an atmos track to underlay all of the clips – the result is that it’s very clunky and distracting.