From now on any video team projects will be posted here. I will continue to upload videos I have participated in to this site.
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Since I started working on video projects so much has happen and so much more is in the works. It seem incredible that this entire thing started with James (RiddlerKhan) and I talking about making a short video, that at this rate will never be made. After that I got involved filming school events through Mr. Owens (no relation). I worked with Steven Moyer, filming a recital at Hillsdale Middle School. Then I somehow got involved making videos for ASB, the first of which, SweetHearts, almost was a complete failure but thank to one of my friends, I was able to finish the video. That one video managed to get the attention of the admins, and teachers. Following that video the Mac Lab received request from theater, admins and teachers, asking for videos or for us to came and film some event. Thankfully by then the video team had been assembled and was ready to start working. Sine then we have filmed the morning announcements, a DodgeBall commercial, and managed to get some attention at the district level. After doing all that we still aren’t even close to being halfway done with all the projects that are lined up. There are still the IVIE video, Dance Crew, Prom, two Cheerleading videos and some large projects coming up for next year.
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of working with the new Mac Lab video team. Honestly I expected the experience to be much more aggravating than it turned out to be. However due to the sheer number of people, we had some delays, so next time it’s going to be a closed set. By far the best part about having a team is that I no longer have to do all the work by myself, which is a real bonus considering that I am busy doing post-production on the dodgeball commercial, and I don’t have time to do storyboards for the three other projects that are coming up. Aside from one actor not knowing the difference between “action” and “cue” it was a good shoot, and a great experience.
In the lab we don’t have any fancy dollies or sliders, but what we do have are creative people who are able to improvise. So now the challenge is to build a dolly with what we have access to. Personally I am thinking about using a skateboard and a piece of string.
This weekend I helped on a film shoot. The experience was incredible. I worked as a grip, which means that I was basically moving and setting up equipment in between shot and scene changes. After the shots were set up I was able to watch how the rest of the crew worked, which helped me learn about how professional film shoots are but together and how much work is involved. The 24 hours I spent on set were by far the most enjoyable experience in a long time. Quote of the weekend, “I didn’t know we were going on action.” The best part is I get to do this for another two weekends.
It is amazing how a simple video can trigger other projects. The admins at my school have apparently been playing with the idea of putting our Thursday announcements online as a video. Mr. Lund asked me to do a demo so they could figure out about how much time it would take to film and edit the announcements. So Wensday, I got to school at five thirty to set up the equipment with Philip. Long story short it took me about ten minutes to film and about two and a half hours to edit. The big news is that I get to participate in an SDSU student’s film project. Should be fun
Update: Video is done and posted under the Movies tab at the top of the page.
As I mentioned in the previous post I finished the Sweethearts commercial just in time for the event. Soon after I received two new projects, one for the theatre and one for one of the councilors. The good news is that at this rate I will never run out of projects, time however may pose a small problem. Regardless I intend to take every video project that is thrown my way.
Note: This is for those who don’t get the Hydra reference.
After eight days of absence I am finally back to my blog. The reason behind my absence is simply that I have been trying to organize all the projects that I had thought were due early in the coming week. Funny story is that the deadlines got switched on me again so Dodgeball is now pushed back to mid-March, which is absolutely fantastic. That still left the Sweethearts video, which is still due on Tuesday. The good news is that the Sweethearts video is extremely close to being done, after 9 hours of filming/editing and another three hours of audio work. Skocko seemed to like it even though it still needs work.
As a learning experience this did not disappoint; It would have been impossible not to learn anything from this. The most important lesson is took take multiple takes of every scene, regardless of how well you think the first turned out, failing that an alternate angle would work, simply to make editing easier. One of less important lessons is that a rack focus is much easier when some one else is controlling the focus, it simple gives you a precision that is near impossible to achieve while watching what you are recording. Lastly plan B is your best friend, because if something goes wrong you have something to fall back on rather than trying to come up with something on the spot.
Thanks to all who volunteered. Special thanks to Steven Moyer, Cody R, Phillip Behnam, Christian Lim, the other actors, Mr. Lourey, and of course Skocko for making this possible.
Note: I will post the video as soon as it is done.
Update: Stabilizing every frame manually is just wonderful.
So the animation on the CTF video has been finished, I showed it to ASB and they liked it. But that is where the good news ends. I found out that ASB pushed the deadline for CTF back and moved the deadline for the dodge ball video forward, so I now have six days to film and edit an idea that was given to me by Christian. This should be interesting and should be great experience. Thank you for the idea Christian, without it I would be in serious trouble.
Update: Finished the filming and then the battery died, perfect timing. If only the footage looked half-way decent. time for a reshoot so unfortunately no special guest. On a happier note ASB pushed back the deadline to April first.
Today I counted how many work day I had until the video needed to be done and ready to present, the number I came up with was 13 days for the CTF video and 15 for the Sweethearts video, however I forgot to take into account the two days off. That leaves me with 11 and 13 days respectively, so it is effectively crunch time.
I will update this post as time progresses.
Update: Ten days left and it’s hard to tell if the projects are coming together or falling apart.
9 Days: Filming for the Sweethearts commercial is today, and out of 34 volunteers I expect at least four to show up. The capture the flag video is beginning to come together, all thats left is the audio and the animation. All in all, a good day if I had remembered to bring the things I needed for filming, there is always next week though.
8 Days; Got some major things done today, recorded the voice over for the CTF video and started the animations. At this rate I should be able to finish by Tuesday. Small update, after another two and a half hours of animating at home, I have a preview that is close to being presentable.
Owens Video 