20 Steps Challenge

One of my most recent projects was when I filmed the "20 Steps Challenge, " which I filmed by attempting to stop every 20 steps in any direction and shoot a short clip of what I'm doing. The point of this project was to give an insight on what it's like to be me on a regular day. I started at my house, where I filmed myself feeding my dog, then doing my homework, eating dinner, then eventually going to my uncle's house where my cousin just recently celebrated his birthday. I actually didn't end up filming my cousin who had the birthday because when I got there, I wasn't walking around too much because we were mostly just having snacks and desserts and talking with each other. I did, however, film while him and a few of his friends went out to celebrate some more because my younger cousin came over with his dog and we just hung out. I stayed there for about another two hours where I filmed us leaving and arriving back home. Once I was at home, I also filmed myself watching T.V. with my Dad, and then finally going to bed. I thought that this project went very well, however, I felt that I could've done better by shortening some of the shots and there was a small part where I left a shot out of focus for about 3 seconds, but I sped it up a bit and cut it in half. I thought that I did really well in some parts of this video, like when I used different pans to make cool transitions. My favorite transition by far, was when I filmed myself doing homework, and when I looked at my backpack, I panned upwards to my parents and I eating dinner by using the table as a transition point. Forgetting about the out of focus shot and the length of each shot, I think that this video turned out fairly well.  

River Bank

Project
During the fourth quarter, we had the opportunity to write, storyboard, and direct a short film. My group consisted of Drew McCall, Bryce Prichard, Tanner Daniels, and I. We initially decided to make a short film about a group of teenage boys who went on a camping trip, but rejected a friend of theirs and told him that he wouldn't be able to "handle it". As the boys are all having fun around a camp fire, they soon separate and eventually "disappear" one by one until one boy remains. The boy soon realizes that the man at fault for the dissappearances of the kids is their friend whom they rejected.

 Process
Our group took about a week to come up with  a complete story, and took a few days to write a script and storyboard. After all that, Drew was able to find four people that were able to be apart of our film, including Drew himself. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we had to start in the middle of the film and work our way back, and then finish at the end. After about five hours of filming,we seemed to be on a good pace because after each day of filming, we planned on editing that part during class time. After a few days of not being able to film, we finally got a day in which everyone was available for a few hours. Drew, Bryce, and I all went to the location to film after school, however one of our actors wasn't showing up. After about two hours of waiting and trying to get him there, his phone died and we couldn't reach him. We unanimousley decided that we should completely redo our story, and make up a new one, which we were able to do in the span of about 90 minutes. Our new story became about two teenage boys out in the woods for a hike, who find a dead body with a wallet full of money. They don't know whether to take the  money and run, or call the police and report it. After much consulting, they realize that they might be framed for the murder because they contaminated a crime scene. After much fighting, one of them decided to go get help, while the other one starts to choke randomly and dies. The reason for his death is the "cursed" wallet, because anyone who has the wallet dies. The money serves as a trap in order for people to take, and once they have it, it's already too late.

Learning Experience
Surprisingly enough, I do not regret anything about our project, because it was a great learning experience that taught us that we should plan ahead better, deal with scheduling conflicts as early as possible, and that we need to manage our time well. We were also fortunate to have used a boom mic, which was excellent for sound quality. I think that's one thing that our video excelled in. We also did not use a tripod at all throughout our published project, because Drew held the camera very still, but we also used the stabilization feature.

Challenges
As you can already tell, we did in fact face many challenges along the way. First, we had some days that we could not film due to some scheduling conflicts. Second, we had to come up with a completely new story with a short time period because of an absence of one of our actors. I think next time, we should get actors earlier and find out days in which they are available, as well as us. We should also leave enough time just incase we are not able to film certain days. Some things I would do the same is that I would use the boom mic again, and probably pick the same crew to film with because they know what they are doing.

In conclusion, I  thought our project turned out very well considering the circumstances, and our editing made it even better. The project was very fun, and I hope that we get another opportunity to do it again.    

"I Want You Back" Music Video

This is my version of our groups video of Jackson 5's "I Want You Back". We chose this song because we thought it would be a fun song to make a video to. But it did take a while to make our song selection and storyboard. One thing I thought we did well was collaboration. Whenever one of us had an idea we would all say what we thing of that person's idea and how it could fit into our story better if needed. One thing I think we could have done better however was choosing our song and making shorter shots because it took us about two class periods to choose our song and some of our songs were longer than ten seconds. The story is pretty much about a high school teenager who had just gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and he realizes that he made a mistake and wants her back. He sees her with another guy and decides he will give her a note that explains how much he loves her. When she puts the note in her locker without reading it, she forgets about it. He then tries giving her all sorts of objects to win her back, but in the end she finds the note, reads it, and decides to take him back.