April 21, 2014 11:50
This week I looked at MediaBistro from Youtube and looked at a video on someone’s media beat about a NFL player who is into fashion. The players name was Brad Smith, who is a wide receiver and kick return player for the Philadelphia Eagles. I thought it was interesting doing a sit down interview with a pro football player to find out more about his personal life rather than his professional life. The interview was very good, it was around two minutes and 19 seconds, which is an ideal time to do an interview. They also had B-roll that included pictures so that the interview wasn’t two talking heads the entire time, because then it would be boring.
I liked learning about Smith’s personal life, and the person doing the interview did a great job at capturing Smith’s character with his answers. You saw his personality in his answers, and saw a different side of him that you may not have thought he had. When he was talking about Men’s Health and the experience he had, it looks like he has more fun with fashion than he does with football. He also talked about a clothing line he is coming out soon with for babies that he’s done with his wife. All of this information was probably new to a lot of people, especially football fans that may not have known that Smith has that kind of activity going on in his life. It was a good interview that really sent out some crucial information.
Posted April 21, 2014 11:50
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April 14, 2014 11:53
In this week's blog, I read about flattery in filmmaking, and how much is too much to people? The author, Patrick, talks about how he was traveling a lot to share stories close to their hearts with other people. He was in Washington one morning when he opened up his email like normal and people were telling him that a website he had done had been done again by someone else, almost copying the same way that Patrick had done it.
He goes on to talk about how we help people without actually knowing it. For example, we spend money at certain businesses and it helps out the business even if we don’t pay a lot of attention to what our money actually does. Patrick didn’t even know the answer to the question, “How far is too far?” This is in response to a saying that goes, “Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.” He did add something that Einstein had once said, and that was, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
Patrick talks about how in filmmaking, we try to inspire other filmmakers with our storytelling, but it turns into something more. We would see other stories that were more than “inspired than us.” We could see our work and our passion in others works, almost identical to what we did. He compared this to Ice Cube when he was questioned about “Ice, Ice Baby” and “Queens Under Pressure.” What we can take away from this is that what we do does matter.
Posted April 14, 2014 11:53
March 31, 2014 11:56
This week was about writing documentary scripts and ways to help you write it before you even start shooting, and after you shoot what is needed. A paragraph that I found very helpful was, “A well-written script should be able to ‘capture your imagination’ and help you visualize what the audience will experience on the screen.” This is true even in news stories that I’ve done before. The video needs to help connect to the audience and be visually appealing to them and simple to follow and understand.
Before shooting, I found all the bullet points to be helpful. They were to research, to create a list, get style, write a shooting script, and get creative. All of these help, especially to me is to research and get creative. That’s where all the little gems can be found that other people might miss out on.
Once shooting is complete, the author provided more tips to help out with your script. These are to log your tapes, review the BIG picture, create scenes, build a roller coaster, make a villain and hero, have a beginning, a middle and an end, and finally have a script template. These tips are helpful because it helps start your script out without actually having to write something down on paper. It helps you review what you’ve done so far and what can be improved or taken out to help your film come out better.
Overall all of these tips were either very helpful or a review, but it’s always good to learn and revisit ways of improving video quality.
Posted March 31, 2014 11:56
March 24, 2014 11:56
The promo articles and video that we had to watch and read were very helpful in trying to figure out what a good promo video is and what needs to go into making a good promo. The video was a little dry, but it got its message across. The quote that I really enjoyed from this video was “Talent is an illusion created by people with no discipline.” I really like this quote because people will make excuses for why nothing gets done in their life, when in reality they have the talent, but have no motivation to use it for anything. What really kept me in the video was the video itself. It matched what the narrator was saying and it was a different variety of video that made it fun while it was being serious. This video really helped think about ways to create a good promo video, and to keep the audience interested in what you’re telling them.
I enjoyed the article a little more, because the author told us a lot about what exactly goes into a good promo video. The author starts it off by saying that “Quality=Attention Span.” Nowadays on the Internet people become so uninterested so quickly unless a person is famous. If you’re not famous, it’s tougher to keep the attention span of the audience. The author also said to make the promo more than a sales pitch. Tell a story with it. The three things that were said to have a good promo is really good quality, telling a story, and adding humor into it as well.
Posted March 24, 2014 11:56
March 10, 2014 11:56
This weeks readings on audio were a little more complex and talked about situations and real world issues that one can deal with when working with audio. The first link was a man talking about audio mixing and the second link was an article on the use of music in news stories and if they are ethically good to use.
The first video on audio mixing and the questions that people asked were interesting, and were questions I hadn’t thought of. One question that stood out was the room size you needed if you were to audio mix, and as long as you have a good calibrated room, you would be able to mix down audio and do what you need to do. The other question I remember fondly was the one about what mic is best to use on vocals. The man in the video said his favorite, but also that vocalists voices act differently towards different mics, so they would have to find a mic that fits their voice characteristic.
The second article was about music in news stories. This is an issue that I have heard a lot of, and even heard about it more during the MMJ workshop this past Friday. Music is a tough thing to use in a news story, because you could be taking away from the story or misinterpret its meaning. Like I read, music in news stories is like athletes on steroids. It gives you the performance to do better but in the long run it hurts what you’re trying to do. I totally agree with the comparison to music.
Posted March 10, 2014 11:56
March 3, 2014 00:51
This week the blog readings were on audio and different audio techniques. The first two articles on H4/zoom mics and the natural sound articles were very familiar to me, but it was a nice refresher. I really got in depth with the first article on zoom mics, and I did learn a few new things about the microphones that help get good audio for videos or packages. The H4 mic is by far my favorite. It’s not very difficult to use and it’s very efficient and to me it gets the best audio out of everything I have used.
When I learned about NAT sound back in my freshman year, I thought it was a waste of audio and took away from the story. Now that I have been working with it for a couple of years, I was very wrong. I love using NAT sound whenever I can, and the article about NAT sound really helped remind me the proper ways to use it and what to think about when gathering your NAT sound. It was a simple article and a good stepping stone about how to use NAT pops and sounds.
The last article was very interesting to me. When learning a couple of tips from professionals, it was cool to learn a couple of easy tricks to make your audio better. My favorite one was the one with the water cooler cup, where you cut out the bottom and stick your mic in there and tape it. You get more ambient sound that way and that is really cool to me that you can use other items not in your camera kit that can help your story be even better!
Posted March 3, 2014 00:51
February 10, 2014 10:56
All three articles read this past week really helped understand the different shots that we need to get when shooting video. The first one was a very basic review about the types of shots to get, and what each shot could mean to the audience. I liked the fact that it gave five beginning shots to think about if you are a beginner, because you can make a relatively simple story by using those five different shots.
The next article was a little bit more complex. It was a more advanced look at different shots you can shoot, and it had descriptions on how to shoot these different kind of shots. I found it interesting that back in the old days, the only shot used was a long shot. I never really paid attention to that and when I read that it got me thinking. Film and video have come a long way since it was only used to take people to different locations. Now it’s used to capture emotion, establish a new location, and get up close and personal with the characters of the film. Some of the names of shots I’ve never heard before, like the master shot and the insert shot. When the author was talking about reaction shots, I feel like those are the best ones to get, especially when something big just happened in the movie.
The last article was about video promoting and how one guy was able to do it so well. I always thought people got lucky about what they post online and get viewers that way. I didn’t think it was this process to build up an audience. What I really took away from this article is that if you have an idea, you better deliver it before someone else will.
Posted February 10, 2014 10:56
February 9, 2014 22:09
February 3, 2014 12:09
All the readings about improving how you shoot video and capture audio is all a review for the most part to me. The article I really liked reading was the UT Austin article, because I understood it all because that’s almost exactly what Kurt Lancaster taught us in his EMF 225 class, as well as mics we learned in Dr. Hoskins announcing classes. It was just great seeing that big schools use the same kind of style and tools to shoot good video and audio, as well as the good things to do rather than the wrong things to do. The lighting and framing were all very familiar to me as well, because I’ve been doing this for three years now in classes or at NAZ Today.
The last reading about tips from Darren Durlach were also very good, and I really liked the three C’s that he talked about. The three C’s are character, connect, collect. I found this interesting because of how easily he sums up being able to tell a story. You need the right person to help tell the story, you need to connect this story to the audience on a personal level, and collect enough content to put together a great story.
Overall all of these readings were review, but helpful nonetheless. These are the kind of tools that people should walk away with if they want to become great storytellers. Even I know I’m not the best storyteller, but I do feel like I get better every time I put together another story.
Posted February 3, 2014 12:09
January 24, 2014 12:06
This week’s readings were interesting to me and I liked reading about them more than last weeks. The first one was on brevity of storytelling, and I loved the example of the veteran and what most people think of them. Then the author talked about a workshop where people tell their story in six words or less. I could understand this to an extent, because whenever I put together a package for TV news, you have to be short, concise, and be able to tell a good story all at once. So I can see this as a different viewpoint.
The second reading was about scripts and actors once you are about to start your film. A lot of the tips the author gave in the article were more common sense than anything. Like the tips about how to get an actor, I figured those were the easiest ways to get that actor. I liked how the author went in a timeline on different components in the process of making a movie. There’s getting the actors, make sure the actors like you, and getting extras for the film.
The final reading was on being able to pay and finance your project so that it could become a reality. What really made this an important article was that the author showed how things use to be done in financing and distributing compared to what people can do now to get their movie out into the world. What really caught my eye was that nowadays you can use any camera almost to be able to make a movie, whereas in the old days people had to pay tons and tons of money just to basically get a down payment on an expensive camera.
Posted January 24, 2014 12:06
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