Lipsyncs should be finished

As of today your final version of the Lipsync video should be turned in to 265dropbox. Remember you must export to a movie, and then save the movie to 265dropbox, not the project. This really was a very simple movie to make and it didn't require a lot of editing to make. All you had to do was record the singing in one take, strip off the audio from the movie, add the original song music, and then do the title and credits at the ends. Most of the videos we do next nine weeks will take more work.
How are you doing with your video? What problems did you run into?

LipSync Video

Our new project is where you lipsync to one of your favorite songs. You will record yourself singing to the song, remove all the sound from the video, and add the song itself to the audio track. All the filming should be done by Tuesday! Otherwise, you will not have the time to finish editing and syncing the music for your film before the nine weeks is over. All practicing need to be finished already, I hope you've prepared.
When you record you want to get it done in one take so that it is easier to sync to the song. You can do cuts but it will just make the project more work for you.
Are you ready to film your video? What song did you choose to do?

Xtranormal

This week we made animated movies using the Xtranormal.com website. You create a movie from pre-matched characters and backgrounds and are able to write dialogue, have your characters do different physical postures and hand gestures, and change the camera angle.
This really is a neat way to make a short animated movie.
We had trouble with the site when it came to processing your scripts and saving the movie. I'm not sure exactly what causes this problem but it probably is because of one or two reasons. The first and most likely reason is because we were all logging in with the same user name at the same time. I have you do this so I can look at your movies all in one group. (I may need to change this.) The second potential cause is the fact we were all working through the Internet from the same place. Video rendering requires huge amounts of space and bandwidth and having all of you doing it at the same time through the Internet is kind of like having the whole school exit out of only 1 door at 3:10.
Most of you were doing a really great job yesterday after you got used to the site and I was disappointed we couldn't save many of the videos.
How did you like the site? What was your greatest frustration?

Audacity Sound Files

This week we did two things; learned how to Photoshop parts of one picture onto a second picture, and how to record a sound file in Audacity. Photoshop was a program you used in sixth grade for half of the class, but Audacity is a program you probably haven't used.
In Audacity, you are able to record sounds from a microphone. Then you can edit those sounds, cutting out parts and moving parts around. Just like editing video!
That part is nice, but the cool part about Audacity is the effects! You can highlight a section of the audio file and change tone, pitch, speed, all sorts of things. That's why that one guy on YouTube sounds so weird, he has modified his audio file.
How did you like hearing your recorded voice? What did you think about using Audacity?

Photostory 3

We have started our first video project. You are going to create a movie using Photostory3. This program takes individual photographs and allows you to sequence them together, add text, transtions, music, and then create a movie file combining them all together.
Your project should be ten to fifteen photos about PV. Soon the counselors will be going around to the grade schools to enroll the 5th graders for next year. It would be nice if they had a couple of videos that they could use to show off the school. So that's the idea for your project.
By now you should have chosen all of your pictures and have imported them into the order you want to use. Hopefully, you have started to work on your text comments and transitions. How are you doing on your Photostory project?

Photo Composition.

I know many of you didn't really understand why we went over the Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds, although most of you caught on to the Bad Picture PowerPoint. All of these are to help you take better photographs. By taking a little more time to think about your photograph before you press the button, you can create a much better quality picture. One that more people will want to look at. Many of you waste time by taking pictures impulsively, resulting in bad or poor quality shots that you have to redo. Action shots have to be taken very quickly but some planning of your position you physically put the camera in will result in better pictures.
The more you work at doing it, the easier it will become, like typing on the keyboard, or playing the piano, or shooting a free throw. Practice makes perfect.
Which of the three lessons do you think you will use the most, the Bad Picture PowerPoint, The Golden Ratio, or the Rule of thirds? Why?

Starting a New Semester

Welcome to the Video class. This class involves a lot of fun, taking pictures and video around the school. One thing you have to remember is that this also involves responsibility and trust. If you don't take responsibility for your behavior and meet a certain level of conduct, then I won't be able to trust you to go out and take those pictures, and doing all your filming in the classroom is not as much fun.
You are going to notice as we go through the semester that I have changed some things around from previous semesters. The class is currently going through a redesigning process. Hopefully, this will make it easier for you to succeed in making better movies in less time.
I hope none of you are shy about being in front of a camera because not only will you be taking pictures but sometimes you will have to be acting in the videos.
What are you hoping to learn in this class? What problems do you think you might have as we go through the semester?