Final Story/Overall Class5/21/2019 Broadcast Tech has been an interesting and fun experience for me and I can say that I gained more out of it than I expected going into this class. The final story project certainly challenged me the most out of all the assignments we had because it was a combination of everything we learned and I was finally forced to actually go out and DO all these things and put it into action. For example, I had to film a lot of B-Roll, I filmed an INTERESTING interview, and then edited over 20 minutes of footage down to what I thought were the BEST 2 minutes. It was very hard for me to get going on my project and I found it an annoyance to go through the tedious process of filming/editing my actual video, but it the end I think it was all worth it and I am happy that I went through all the trouble. Although I definitely feel like it could have been better, I am more concerned about everything I learned from this project and this class overall. In fact, even though my projects surely could have been improved, I am satisfied knowing that I will be exiting this class with significantly more knowledge about video recording/editing than I had entering this room for the first time. Overall, I would say that this class will have an unexpectedly great impact on my future and the decisions I will make, and I am glad that I had this opportunity.
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I chose "Competition, Confidence, Strategy, Mastery, Surrender, Conquest" as my Six Word Story because I wanted to use chess as a metaphor which could be related to any type of competition. I was already planning to attend Nationals during the time we were given to record our shots, so I pounced on this opportunity to create a very real looking competitive environment in my shots.
Shot #1: I chose to record this as a wide shot because I wanted to establish the setting and make sure to include the background enough so the viewer can tell that the location is a chess tournament. Shot #2: I chose a low-angle medium shot here because I wanted to establish my character as powerful and confident, while showing her face and the board/pieces as well. Shot #3: Here I used an extreme closeup because I wanted to emphasize her emotions and create a serious tone of focus (moving eyes rapidly) Shot #4: While showing a hand pointing out a potential variation in the game, I used a wide birds-eye-view shot because I feel that it was the best option to capture the entire board clearly Shot #5: When the king resigned, I used a high-angle closeup. I chose to use a high shot because the king being looked on from above created a weak tone and supported the scene of surrender, and a closeup because I wanted the king to feel like a real thing and not just a piece on a chess board. Shot #6: At the end, I used an over-the-shoulder medium shot because I wanted to show the face of the winner of the game while still making it obvious that there was another person on the other side of the handshake. This project was difficult because it challenged me to really make sure that every shot I edited onto the project mattered immensely, because I couldn't just keep adding more. The hardest part of this project for me was definitely to get all my shot recordings in one day, because I was at an event and there was not much down time where I was able to record, so I had to coordinate with my actors, and my main actress actually was busy and wasn't able to film the final handshake, which is why I had to use a different character for that part. Overall, I do think this project was fun and I liked that it really pushes your creativity to create a story that is actually interesting with such little amount of shots, and to actually film all of them properly. Six Word Story Research Blog3/5/2019 Six word stories are the most compact form of storytelling. They are a great way to test and push someone's creativity, and it is amazing how much can be told in just six words. One of the most famous six word stories ever written was by a famous American author from the early 20th century named Ernest Hemingway, who wrote his story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." He wrote this after he made a bet with his friends that he could write a story in only six words. Some other famous six word stories include: "As she fell, her mind wandered," "Streets full of water. Please advise," and "Found true love. Married someone else." A popular way to introduce someone to this creative form of writing is known as a six word memoir. The Six-Word Memoirs project is aimed to inspire creativity through storytelling to those around the world and to keep storytelling alive. Six word stories have and will continue to have a positive affect on people in the world and will always continue to inspire imagination and creativity. Circus Wagon Project2/20/2019 The Circus Wagon project was an interesting experience for me, because unlike usual projects in school, I didn't really have a clear sense of direction. The rules were to basically make as many changes as you could, which was nice because it let me experiment with many different things. Being told to edit font, add transitions, move text, add filters, and cut the video helped me familiarize myself with the software very well, even though it may have been confusing at first. I personally liked this project and I will always like projects which allow me to use my creativity without having very strict rules to follow. I also think the best way to learn something new is to be thrown into it to figure it out through experimentation, and that definitely worked here. Whenever I couldn't figure something out, I would just keep looking around on the screen and trying different things until I could fix whatever was wrong, and that taught me a lot. I think soon, I will be prepared for future endeavors in Final Cut Pro.
In this video tutorial, I learned many important tips when shooting videos, so here I will list my top 5.
1. HEADPHONES: One very important thing I learned about recording is to always use headphones, especially when recording interviews, because even if you may have a good microphone, you don't know if it sounds good or if it is even working correctly unless you are able to monitor the audio live. 2. WIDE MEDIUM AND TIGHT: Always record a wide, medium, and tight shot for the same action you decide to capture! This is important because these 3 basic shots are the building block for sequences, which can help the viewer understand what is important/the focus of each shot and can help tell a story. The wide shot establishes a setting, the medium shows the action/subject, and the closeup gives further detail. 3. RULE OF THIRDS: Instead of simply centering every subject in every shot, imagine the camera view being cut into 9 equal boxes like a tic-tac-toe board, and aim to put the subject of the shot into one of the 4 cross hairs where the lines intersect. If there isn't one specific subject of the shot you want to focus on, you can also align things with any of the division lines, for example lining the horizon with the bottom 3rd line which draws focus above the ground (at the sunset). Correct usage of the rule of thirds creates a more interesting shot. 3a. EYES ON THIRD: An extension of rule 3, always align a person's eyes with the upper 3rd line, no matter what type of shot it is (wide, medium, or tight). This is to insure that the person is properly framed. In an interview, you also want to align their eyes with one of the vertical lines which gives them more empty space in front of their nose. For example, if they are facing right, line their eyes up with the left vertical line, and obviously the top horizontal line like always. 4. LIGHTING: Put the light behind the camera, not behind the subject. The light being behind the subject makes it harder to see, so position the camera so that the light always hits in front of the subject. 5. WHITE BALANCE: To accurately recreate every color, it is important to white balance a camera. This is done by holding a white object in front of the camera and zooming in on it, then holding down the white balance button on the camera. Once the camera knows what color white is, it is able to properly portray every other using white as a reference. Common white balance errors can cause many outdoor shots to appear too blue, or indoor shots to appear too orange. These were 5 tips that I thought were most useful from Video Coach: Volume 1! TV Studio - Lessons Learned1/31/2019 In the TV studio, I visited 7 unique "stations," different jobs, which each controlled a different part of a studio broadcast, and each important in its own right. My favorite stations were the ones where I felt like my job was important and not too easy. These jobs are what I will now describe. The first job that I felt interested in was the Floor Director, where my role was to cue and signal the anchors, or the "talent," and relay what the director in the studio was telling me. I felt interested in this job because I felt my job's importance since the anchor's relied on me, and I felt that my timing was proficient and I was doing a good job. The next job I enjoyed was the Director, not to be confused with Floor Director, which controls the operations of the entire broadcast. I liked being the director because this job was certainly the most essential job out of all the roles of production, and I got to test my managerial skills. Other jobs I liked were the CGI Board because the buttons were satisfying to press, and the Soundboard because I thought it was cool how many buttons there were on the interface. Overall, working in the TV studio and having the opportunity to try many different roles was very fun and I learned a lot of new things that will be useful in my future broadcasting endeavors. "iAm Erik"1/4/2019 I liked the "iAm" project because it challenged me to create some sort of story or meaning with what seemed to me like simply dozens of random pictures. This was especially difficult for me because I had quite an excessive amount of pictures so I had to decide carefully what I would use and what I would leave out. I was able to overcome this by making sure I had a predestined story I wanted to tell so I would easily select pictures accordingly. Besides challenging me in this regard, during this project I discovered several iMovie tricks, the most important one for me being the custom pan crop tool because leaving the default crop wouldn't zoom into the right areas. Next time, after what I learned and experienced from this project, I know that it is very important to have a specific story idea in mind and that it can be useful to have extra B-Roll just in case. AuthorErik is a Broadcast Tech I student at Ladue Horton Watkins High School. Archives
May 2019
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