Once Again the Start of New Year

A brand new school year and we start a new semester of Video Production. In this class you will learn how to take pictures and video and how to make movies. You will be both behind the camera and in front of the lens! (We have to take pictures of somebody.)

Movies are more than just pointing a camera and hoping something happens. You have to plan out what you are going to do by writing a script and drawing a storyboard. You have to consider what camera angles you are going to use and how close up you want the image. You have to plan how to record the sound, what extra sound effects you will need, how the light affects your image. You have to take your video and edit out all the parts you don't want, put in the sound effects and narration, add the title to the front and credits to the end, and then add music for a sound track. All of these are part of a good quality video.

What do you think you will be creating movies about for the class? Do you have any questions or worries about the class?

Dealing with Special Effects.

The newscast movie is our first attempt to deal with adding special effects to a video. Special effects are great because they allow you to do some really cool things, like add a different background making you look like you are somewhere else, or showing an object on your screen that really isn't there. Things like this make your movies look really great.
But, special effects are not easy! Of course, if they were then they wouldn't be special. They can be tricky so you really have to pay attention to what you are doing. In Adobe Premiere you actually have to open a special set of controls for each effect so that the computer knows just what you want to do.
How are you doing with adding your special effects to your newscast movie?

Beta Versions Away.

Well you have tried out that new website, http://xtranormal.com/, and used it (or tried to use it) to make a movie that was stored on the Internet. Most of you had some frustration on this I know. Some things for you to remember.
First, the website is in the beta version. For those of you who do not know a beta version is a version that is being tested prior to a full release. This is why those three extra groups of characters are available at this time instead of just the basic group. It is also one of the reasons you had some of the trouble using it that you did.
Beta versions are put out there to test so that the programmers can have real people use the program and find all the 'bugs' that they missed when they created the program. Then they go in and fix the problems before they do the full release. There are many companies that do this including Microsoft. One of the nice things about Beta versions is that normally they are free to use. This balances out the running into software problems.
Some people like using Beta programs because they are the newest versions. Some people hate them because they can be full of problems, especially on any new features the old version did differently or didn't have. What are your feelings about using beta version software? Have you ever used beta version software before?

"How To" Video

The project we are working on now is quite simple. You are making a how-to video in the same style as CommonCraft.

• You think of something you know how to do, say making a hero sandwich.
• Then, you make a list of every step in the correct order. (This is the part that trips up most people.)
• You plan out the images for the video with a storyboard.
• Either draw or trace those images out in Photoshop and then print them.
• Trace the lines with a marker and but each image out.
• Video each step in the process by setting out the images one step at a time.
• Record your voice saying the steps, one step at a time.
• Edit and put everything together.

Viola the video is done. Very simple, once you start.

Finishing Your Movie

Many of you are still in the process of editing and completing your movie video. If you haven't done it before, it definitely is not as easy as you would think. Many people think they can just point a camera at something and film it and presto they have a good movie. They don't realize that it really takes more to make a good video worth looking at.
To make a quality video you have to cut out the bad parts. Sometimes you have to rearrange pieces of the video so that it makes more sense. A quality video will also include audio work. Sometimes that means adding sound effects, sometimes a voice-over (Where you have a person speaking off camera), and sometimes you have to go back and dub in a person's voice (replace what they said during the filming with a second better quality sound recording of the same words.) Of course, don't forget adding a music sound track in the background, adjusting sound volume, making sure the sounds are the right length, etc.
Then you have making the Title and Credits at the front and beginning of the video. Easy, once you know how, but it does have a correct way it should be done. That is why I gave you the example on the checklist for The Door.
The biggest problem most people run into is remembering to export their movie to the desktop and hand that file into me. If you just give me the project file I can not see anything, the project file relies on all the other files you use to be in the same folder, which I don't have.
What has been your biggest problem doing this video? Remember its due next week!!

Photostory

We have completed our first and simplest project. In this project you took pictures and created a video out of them. You could do this on any theme and one of the ways you can make videos for our later projects. Our next project will be using actual video not snapshots.
You need to think about something you can act out here at school and video (remember the Royal Expectations.) Think about that this weekend and be ready to plan it out in class next week. We are going to discuss writing a script and what makes a good or bad video.
What are some of the things you think make a good video? Not a movie or a film, but a good video.

A New Class, Once Again

Once again it is a new semester and that means we have brand new students in the class again.
If you browse the posts from last semester and last year you will have a better idea of what the class is about. Primarily we take photos and videos and then edit them and put them into projects. I hope you are creative and have the ability to come up with ideas quickly, because that helps a great deal with what we do. Over the semester I will show you how do use different tools to make different videos. If you have a video that you would like to make don't hesitate to ask me about it because I would rather have you create videos that you want to make. I also hope that you are not shy about being if front of the camera because you are going to get your picture and video taken a lot in this class.
Another thing that we are going to need to start right away is I would like to have volunteers go to the basketball games (and later track meets) to take pictures and video. You need to be passing all your classes with no F's on your progress report to do this.
What do you think will be the biggest problem you have in this class? What do you think you will like the most? What would you like to make a video about?