- How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I shot this on my iPhone 11 Pro, using the regular lens. I shot this within the Moment photo app, which normally serves me well, but I accidentally left the setting on to shoot the footage in a flat profile – which normally when shooting in proper lighting, makes colour grading a real treat. But from the darkness of my apartment, it was not fun & I think the quality has definitely been compromised. So note to self for next week, don’t shoot in a flat colour profile! My kitchen is quite cramped, and I was trying to get a variety of shots for the sequence but it is difficult. I was setting the camera up on a tripod on the bench and also shooting handheld for some shots. I didn’t need to stabilise anything in the post as I was keeping things quite wide and locked off.
Normally I do play around with framing using the rule of thirds, but I actively decided to shoot centre focussed to use the square aspect ratio video form. Most of the footage was shot in 4k 25fps, and as I was editing on a 1080 timeline so that I could manipulate the framing to make sure things were squared centred Any of the slow-motion shots were done in 1080 at 60fps to slow down.
I didn’t really get a chance for second shots for quite a few of them, as I’m not made of coffee grinds. But there was a shot where I’m holding the camera showing my point of view as I grab a coffee cup out of the cupboard. I was focusing on the actual screen, and as I reached in to grab a cup I kept missing the cupboard handle or the cup itself, so that took a few shots before I learnt my lesson and looked away from the camera, and actually focused on the cup.
I edited the final product in Premiere pro, using J and L cuts to bring the audio from each clip overlaying; I knew that I wanted the kettle to boil out of the frame and then cut into it from before I was shooting the sequence. The intro of the video is black, so I had to use the cover photo so that the video showed something, and why not use the money shot of me drinking the coffee. I filmed a 1-minute atmos track outside of the rain to put in the background of the indoor shots as the rain wasn’t consistent the whole way through filming.
- How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I exported this on my computer and used Airdrop to get it onto my iPhone. I then uploaded it from there onto Instagram, as it was, I didn’t use a filter. I added a location tag and a few hashtags to fill out the caption. As this was a student filmed piece of media I opted for #student and #media and I didn’t want to discredit star of the show; #coffee. The caption is in reference to the fact that I can’t actually function without coffee. If I’m to contemplate anything, first I must caffeinate. A bad habit from my previous years working as a chef.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the shots I did. I was really struggling with thinking of a video in relation to the theme, and I’m finding myself let down by the quality of the videos with the absolutely abysmal lighting of my house. So my curation process has definitely had to be less critical when working with my phone, I’m used to shooting with my DSLR. But with the concept revolving around contemplation within the time & space of COVID-19, learning to embrace the restrictions and work within our limitations is something that I have to do as a part of this process. I don’t have a lighting kit at home, but maybe next time i’ll experiment with using a plethora of lamps or something.