A few weeks ago I finished a short video called Snow Day. It depicts a young girl and what she imagines a great snow day might be like, and then shows the reality of what her snow day really turned out to be. Going into the day of shooting, I had some basic ideas of what shots I wanted to do and the basic story line I wanted to get across.
Lesson #1: Create a very detailed shot list and a script BEFORE the day of the shoot.
Because I didn't have everything laid out in detail, I missed a couple shots I meant to get simply due to my own forgetfulness. This hindered the storyline and my end product.
I got a really great pan of my backyard covered in snow. I was really excited about the shot until a closer review of what I captured on film revealed a hair stuck to my lens, very obviously ruining the shot.
Lesson #2: Make sure your equipment (especially the camera lense) is thoroughly cleaned and functioning properly prior to doing any filming or taking any shots. Again, this hindered my end product and made it less professional looking.
Prior to filming this video, I had another idea to make a short film depicting different students in my grade simply living and being themselves. I then planned to put some sort of sentimental music in the background and create a sort of tribute to the class of 2010. This was the extent of my idea when I went into filming. Needless to say I ended up with hours of useless footage of my friends doing homework, talking, and looking generally awkward and uncomfortable in front of the camera.
Lesson #3: Generally, most people are not comfortable in front of a camera, so the only way to truly capture people in their 'natural habitat' is to be creepy and not let them know you're filming them. This requires not only a quality camera with a very high zoom but also a complete disreguard for your reputation as a normal, non-creepy person. These were two things I did not have and, thusly, I was unsuccessful.
My inexperience as a film-maker/director/editor/writer was very apparent to me throughout this entire process. However, judging by the three very important and pretty basic lessons I learned above, every film, whether a success or a failure, leads to new discoveries and a wider knowledge base for the next project.
Lesson #1: Create a very detailed shot list and a script BEFORE the day of the shoot.
Because I didn't have everything laid out in detail, I missed a couple shots I meant to get simply due to my own forgetfulness. This hindered the storyline and my end product.
I got a really great pan of my backyard covered in snow. I was really excited about the shot until a closer review of what I captured on film revealed a hair stuck to my lens, very obviously ruining the shot.
Lesson #2: Make sure your equipment (especially the camera lense) is thoroughly cleaned and functioning properly prior to doing any filming or taking any shots. Again, this hindered my end product and made it less professional looking.
Prior to filming this video, I had another idea to make a short film depicting different students in my grade simply living and being themselves. I then planned to put some sort of sentimental music in the background and create a sort of tribute to the class of 2010. This was the extent of my idea when I went into filming. Needless to say I ended up with hours of useless footage of my friends doing homework, talking, and looking generally awkward and uncomfortable in front of the camera.
Lesson #3: Generally, most people are not comfortable in front of a camera, so the only way to truly capture people in their 'natural habitat' is to be creepy and not let them know you're filming them. This requires not only a quality camera with a very high zoom but also a complete disreguard for your reputation as a normal, non-creepy person. These were two things I did not have and, thusly, I was unsuccessful.
My inexperience as a film-maker/director/editor/writer was very apparent to me throughout this entire process. However, judging by the three very important and pretty basic lessons I learned above, every film, whether a success or a failure, leads to new discoveries and a wider knowledge base for the next project.