Video Editing Practice Reflection

 Premiere Pro Learning Process 

I thought learning how to use Premiere Pro was a pretty smooth process. We started off with watching some videos that explained everything we needed to know from start to finish. The videos showed me how to create a project in Premiere Pro, how to add in the clips I would be using, how to organize everything, how to edit clips, and even sound. As I was watching the videos I followed along to get a better understanding since I learn better by actively doing things myself.  As I was following along I also just got myself familiar with the software by clicking on icons that I didn't know how to use and seeing what they did, as well as asking a lot of questions. Once I finished the videos I got a chance to put everything I had just watched and learned and put it into practice. I created my own edited video trying out a bunch of the editing techniques I learned.  

Some of the videos I watched:

Experience Creating Clip

I had a lot of fun creating my clip. I thought it was very interesting to see how it all came together. I first looked through all the materials I had to make my clip before deciding what I was going to do with it. I then started pulling certain sections out of the interviews and B-Roll I was provided with and put them on my timeline so I wouldn't lose them. After pulling out all the content I needed I started dragging the videos into the order in which I wanted them. I dragged some of the videos to V1 and some to V2 so I could get the voiceover effect and I also edited the audio so that the audio of the videos on V1 and V2 would blend well together and so you could hear what I wanted to be heard 

Dragging clips:

Challenges I had: 

I struggled with editing the audio the most. Since I had a lot of clips that overlapped each other the audio would sometimes mush together or one of my clips would be too loud and I wouldn't be able to hear the one I needed. My edited video focused a lot on voiceovers, so I didn't want to audio of the clips in V2 to be louder than the audio of clips in V1. At first I tried muting some of the audios in A2 but I realized that whenever I did that it muted all of them instead of only the one. I then figured out how I could lower the audio of each clip separately by dragging the gray box in the audio square. That box also let the audio be louder in certain of the clip which I liked since I wanted some words to stand out and be heard louder than all the extra background noise. 

Close up on audio showing the gray box:     

Successes I had: 

I think I succeeded in keeping my timeline organized and picking apart the portions of clips I wanted to use. To keep my timeline organized I color coordinated some of my clips so it would be easier for me to see everything and for me to be able to distinguish what I was looking at without having to rewatch the whole clip. This definitely made the process easier for me. I also succeeded in picking out the clips I wanted to use. One of my favorite parts of this process was getting to pull apart certain parts of my interviews and B-Roll to use in my clip. I would watch the videos and click the { on Premiere Pro where I wanted the cutout clip to start, then I would click } where I wanted it to start. 

What cutting out the clips looked like:

Some of my color coordination: 

What I learned: 

I learned a lot during this process. I learned how to navigate and properly use Premiere Pro by trying out the different icons and settings, how to organize my content by making bins and color coordinating my timeline, how to insert and remove clips in different ways, how to edit and insert audio, and even how to change Premiere Pros layout to better fit whatever I'm working on. 

Important take aways/How will this help me later on: 

I am going to take everything I learned with me as I continue this class because I think all of it was important. Since I am planning on doing a film opening for my final project, I will end up having to use everything I learned and learning it sooner rather than later will help me become more familiar with the software, so by the time I start editing my project I wont be confused or delayed by Premiere Pro. I will also definitely keep on practicing so I can get better on the thing I struggled with and so I can perfect the things I understood. 

Final Clip: 

 

Camera Work Reflection

 Camera Angles and Shots Project:

The learning process for this was made up of note taking and observing. During class we did stations, we went from table to table taking definitions of the different camera angles and shots to really understand the technicality of them. At those stations we also cut out and glued examples of the shots and angles into our notebooks so we could see the definitions in action and get a clearer understand of what they would look like.   

For this project we had to pair up with a partner to tell the story of an inanimate object using 15 different shots that we learned. It had to include at least one of the following shots:

- establishing shot

- long shot

- mid-shot

- close-up shot

- point-of-view shot

- low angle (used with any shot)

- high angle (used with any shot) 

For day 1 of this project, I started off by choosing my partner and brainstorming ideas with her, which then led to us making our story board. We decided on a story about markers competing against each other for the best rating. On day 2, we brought out storyboard to life. We gathered our materials and took our many different shots on the white board so we could then make our powerpoint presentation. 

I think we succeeded in completing the project in a timely matter and on following our story board pretty well. Some challenges we faced was getting the shots done properly, since the markers were quite small it was sometimes hard to get them into focus or get them to stay in the positions we needed for the pictures. 

I learned throughout this process how to identify the shots by actually doing them myself, since I had to work on getting the proper positioning and angles I can point them out more easily now. I also learned the effect that the angles and shots have on a story that I had never noticed when watching films before, this allowed me to convey certain messages in my project without have to use words. 

What I would do differently is tweak the story. My story was basically all shot with the same background which made a lot of the scenes look similar and it was hard to add variation. Next time I would make it so that there were more scenes taking place in different locations so that the story could be more engaging and differentiable.  

 

Storyboard: 

Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zvoMGjTaGdWs2LmMl11jenOQtdWi9gC5/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101976636099626655852&rtpof=true&sd=true

Camera Movements Project:

The learning process for cameras movement was made up of note taking, observations, and a quiz. We started off by taking notes around the room on the different camera movements and their definitions. We then watched a video that gave examples from films of each of the camera movements so we could see the difference between them all, it also just refined the information we had just taken notes on. We were also quizzed on the definitions after getting a few days to review to guarantee that we understood the information we were given.

For this project we had to get into a group and create a storyboard and a short video sing the prompt "surprise" that included the following camera movements:

- static

- pan

- tilt

- push in OR pull out

- tracking

- one movement of your choice

For day 1 of this project we came up with out storyboard and filmed all our clips since we already knew what we wanted to do. On day 2 we  choose the clips that we were going to use and edited them together. 

I thought this was a really fun experience and a great way to start the year since it was our first project. I liked that were were able to get creative with the prompt and it was a really good way to review the different movements. 

I think the project was an overall success. Me and my group members agreed on what story we wanted to do pretty quickly and had a clear image of what we wanted to do so making the storyboard and carrying it out was a success. We also had people in our group who had a little experience in editing which allowed us to combine our clips and finish the video.  The biggest challenge we had was the quality. There was a lot of background noise and we were working on our phones so the quality wasn't as good as we wanted and we had to do a few retakes because of sound issues like it being muffled. 

I learned a lot about what goes into all the different camera movements. Since we didn't have professional equipment we had to do all the movements ourselves, and for example when we were filming a scene with trucking we had to actually run alongside the characters. This taught me how the movements are carried out and what the different movements could mean. 

What I would do differently is maybe try out a different concept for the prompt "surprise". I think there are so many things that could fit into that prompt and it would be interesting to explore more of them. I would also try and record on something with better quality like a camera rather than a phone. 

Storyboard: 

Video: