On Monday, I'll be honest I wasn't a fan of Un Chien Andelou. I'm still getting used the whole idea of artistic films and have tried to be open minded about it all, but for me, this one was a bit too bizarre. I am glad to be exposed to all kinds of film, but I think that I have trouble understanding something as experimental as Un Chien Andelou. I have enjoyed Battleship Potemkim so far, and perhaps that is because of its more cohesive narrative.
Capturing in Final Cut this week was a teeny bit frustrating since my camera was giving me trouble but once I got it to work it all went smoothly. I also hope that the video comes together smoothly as my plans changed a few times when trying to film. After trying several locations unsuccessfully, I went to the Mount Hope Cemetery on a whim and just recorded what I could in the time that I had. So far I am pretty pleased with what I got, but now I am in the process of editing it all together.
The video tutorials have been super helpful in refreshing my knowledge on Final Cut and slowly I feel like I am getting the hang of it all again. Even though I used it extensively in high school, its been long enough where I feel like I am just having to relearn it all over again. Thanks for posting all the videos on Moodle!
I loved watching watching Sunrise! I usually have never enjoyed black and white films, much less silent ones. That probably is because I am a product of this generation through and through and I enjoy the multi-million dollar productions that heavily feature elaborate special effects. However, I got so caught up in the story in Sunrise and I found that I really loved the simplicity of it all and it totally changed my perspective on silent films.
I'm still not sure where I want to film my Portrait of a Place project, as I find our campus rather uninspiring. Hopefully I will stumble across something soon, since the footage is due soon.
Filming the Library was fun, I really enjoyed using the nice HD cameras since that was what we used at my job in high school. It was cool to come up with artistic shots, though I wish we could continue to use those cameras later in the semester.
I found the categories for the shots and angle types very useful and I'm glad I can now label and understand them when written down.
Hmm...well, this week hasn't been too much worse than the last! Over the weekend I was able to get some awesome (or at least I think) pictures for the iMovie project. I had made some fake binoculars for my niece to play with over the weekend and she loved them and carried them around all weekend and I was able to develop a cool concept! She began to pretend to see things that weren't really there in the binoculars, and so "Little Monsters" came to be.
The most challenging part of this project for me was first, getting good shots. My niece is lovely but sometimes had a mind of her own and I had some trouble getting her cooperation at times. Hopefully I'll be able to pull something coherent out of my images in the end. I also had some trouble coming up with specific shots. Because I had come up with the idea on the spot, I never formalized a shot list and I'm hoping I won't pay for that in the end, though I'm generally happy with my material.
Even though iMovie isn't a difficult program, I'm finding myself struggling with this project. Its hard to make this project not just some slideshow of cute photos, and personally I feel like the Ken Burns effect makes it more so. The biggest challenge in terms of putting the project together ended up trying to make it an artistic film rather than a random slideshow set against some music. All in all, after all the critique and second edits, I am pleased with what I have so far, but I am ready to move on to Final Cut and using video.
I enjoyed the chapter from Making Media and I actually found it very helpful in constructing and cropping my photos for the stills project. The book is super technical but I find it super helpful as my background in video is somewhat limited still.
Not bad for a first week! I guess I don't have too much to talk about since most of what we talked about was basic introductory material. I thought the film A Trip to the Moon was interesting, though not necessarily something I would watch again. It was definitely cool to really get into the whole world of silent film since I have only seen one or two before this class.
The stills video project seems really interesting so far, but I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing for it. Being that I have had a PC my whole life, getting used to the Mac is a little tricky. I keep trying PC keystroke combinations and just the whole organization of a Mac is still confusing for me, but thankfully its not too difficult to learn as I go. I do love working with iMovie and would love to explore it more in the future with using actual videos and experimenting with the effects.
Not much else to say since it was only the first week, but hopefully I'll have more for next time!
