Over the past couple of weeks, my Video Editing class has been learning about the process of making a video, including the shooting and editing procedures! This is a class offered here at Lincoln Lutheran to learn and build on our videography skills! In the video below, you will see one of the pieces that I created as a Junior in this Video Editing class!
While there were a variety of ways to go about creating a video of a small moment within my life, I am pleased with the strategy that I undertook. When I first heard the general topic for creating this video, I knew that I wanted to choose an action that occurs more regularly within my household. By capturing this breakfast meal that we often eat together as a family, a lot of great memories are encompassed for the future! I also decided to take this project in the direction that I did because I knew that the possibilities for great close up shots, shot/reverse shots, point of view shots, and many others were endless! In all, I knew that I could thoroughly capture this topic with a variety of intriguing angles!
Not only do I enjoy the direction of this video, but there are also a few moments within this piece that I especially like. There are two distinct frames that I enjoy! The first scene occurs right at the beginning of the video, in which my mom is reaching into the fridge for the milk. The camera is placed in the fridge and shows her opening and closing the door. When the door is finally closed, the scene fades into the title screen! I enjoy this portion because I believe this fading into the title screen is very intriguing and flows well! I particularly like this portion because of the ambient noise. You can hear the fridge opening and closing, and then it slowly fades into the music as the title screen is shown. In all, I really like this opening scene! Secondly, there are a couple of frames in the middle of this video that I also enjoy! I enjoy the scenes in which I show my mom pouring the pancake batter onto the griddle from a side angle view, the scene immediately following in which there is a close up of the pouring, and then a more wide-angled shot to show the whole scene! I believe that these three clips work together with great cohesion to get the whole view of the story!
In general, creating this small moment held a couple of challenges. For one, I struggled to find the perfect background music for this piece. I had to find a song that was upbeat, yet had a very mild tune to match with the simple storyline. By facing this challenge, I learned that it may take some time and searching to find a fitting song. Another challenge that I faced was avoiding abrupt cuts. In this video, I included clips of my mom making pancakes, the family at the dinner table, cleaning up, as well as making bacon. To avoid these abrupt cuts and changes in clips, I had to make use of a couple of transitions, as well as find the right clips to lead into the next topic! Again, by facing this challenge, I had to learn to recognize these cuts, and take some time to find the right inserts!
When asked in regards to what I would do differently, there are a couple of changes that I would have made in the filming and editing processes of this video. To start, I think that I should have prepared a little bit better for the filming process, and what shots I wanted to capture. In the end, this would have allowed me to have full coverage! By being more prepared, I would have gathered a few more establishing shots, clips of my family laughing and interacting, as well as gathered a few more shots to avoid any abrupt cuts. By having an idea of what shots I wanted to capture, I may have gathered a couple more wide-angle shots to balance out all of the close-up shots. As stated earlier, I wish that I would have spent a little bit more time capturing my family interacting with one another, rather than the actual cooking process. This would have added greater emotions and variety to the piece. Lastly, I believe that I could have taken advantage of the ambient sound in the background of a couple of my clips when editing, rather than having the music play.
In the end, I am very pleased with the outcome of this complete video!
