Week Six Reflection

The last project we did was the interview project. This project was unlike anything I had ever done before. There is very little editing that can be done in an interview besides the cuts between different sections of the interview as well as the nod shots that are strategically placed throughout. However, despite being somewhat limited in the editing aspect, I still greatly enjoyed the process of the actual interview. My interviewee was very easy to work with and had very full and straightforward answers. He made my job as the interviewer very easy. I feel like the interview was interesting too - Claudio was very passionate about everything he said and it came forth in the interview. The whole interview lasted for nearly 25 minutes, so cutting it down to about 12 was a pretty difficult task, but the most interesting information definitely made it through to the final product.

I am also very much looking forward to creating a commercial or PSA. There are so many good ideas out there, but they are very difficult to create yourself. I have been looking to other commercials for inspiration and many of the ones I have come upon are brilliant. A couple examples are the "Got Milk Aaron Burr" commercial as well as the "Dentine Ice Condom" commercial. Both of these are extremely creative and it is very tough to come up with something as clever as these commercials. Regardless I have a few ideas lined up and the process of creating the commercial should be enjoyable.

Week Five Reflection

Final Cut Pro is becoming more and more second nature for me. This past week, I opened up Sony Vegas and actually wasn't as comfortable with it as I used to be. Instead, I am becoming more familiar with FCP. In class, the lessons we went through deal mainly with cutting and editing video clips as well as sound. Much of the basics in FCP are similar to the experience I have had with Vegas, and thus came with little to no difficulty. However, I decided to delve into "motion" in FCP. One of the first things I learned with Vegas was to make a Star Wars intro crawl. This was relatively simple to do with Vegas, which is very user friendly, but proved to be more of a challenge with Final Cut Pro. Regardless, I got nearly all of the intro completed, but had some trouble with having the text rotate on it's x-axis without going outside the border of the frame. All in all, FCP is gaining a lot of ground with me and I feel that I might make the complete switch to it in the near future. The only problem is that FCP is for Mac only, and I have Windows!

Week Four Reflection

This past class, we learned all about Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro is currently only able to be run on a Mac, so I have had no experience with it...however, it is quite similar to Sony Vegas. Many of the flagship programs: FCP, Vegas, and Premiere all are very similar to one another and thus there is quite a bit of overlap in each of the programs set ups. However, as I quickly found out, there is without a doubt a learning curve when it comes to switching to Final Cut Pro.

One of the main differences that I noticed was the presence of a canvas as well as a viewer window. In Vegas, there is no canvas, only a viewer which shows you the visual image of what your movie looks like at a specific point in time. Another difference involves fading in and out. In Vegas, you simply have to drag one clip over another in order to have them fade into each other. In Final Cut Pro, you must have them end and begin at the same place, putting some extra "room" in between each individual clip in order for the fade to have enough time to look right. While this is a minor difference, I do feel like it takes some getting used to. Regardless, I am excited to become more able with Final Cut Pro in the coming weeks.

Week Three Reflection

A perfect video does not exist without perfect (or at least close to perfect) lighting. Lighting is also not as simple as it seems. There is firstly the key light, which is the main light. Then there is the fill light, which fills in the rest of the subject with a light or reflective board from the opposite angle of the key light. The last light in a traditional three-point-lighting set is the back light, which is used to illuminate the background as well as separate the subject from the background. In class we had some hands on experience with lighting a subject, and it is not always as easy as it is explained. There are several different options, each one giving of a slightly different look from that last.

Obviously, camera work is also needed for a great video - and where better to start than with a camera in hand. The automatic settings can work very nicely, but for more advanced technique videos, the manual settings are a must. In class we learned about zebra lines, a setting on the camera which shows the viewer areas of intense light. In addition to this, we learned some simple things such as zooming in and out, adjusting brightness, focusing, and other basic camera functions. All in all, with my increased knowledge in both lighting and camera techniques, I feel videos will already begin to start coming out more professional.