Follow The Rules: Video Project

A video can accomplish something that no other visual or audio source can. A video is the most specific visual possible, besides being there to see something live. A picture can capture a singular moment, but a video can capture many many moments and provide a more accurate representation of an idea or vision. Making a video is not easy. It may be fun to come up with ideas and to record a video, but putting together the final product with editing and following strict guidelines can be a difficult task. It can be hard to not let personal creatives ideas and opinions get in the way of the goal of the video, or the task that must be completed. If somebody asks for a video a certain way, they do not want anything different and do not care about the personal views or thoughts of the editor. This project was a very good way to learn video editing, video filming and following strict directions.

When hearing the concepts and the format that these videos had to be in, it was somewhat alarming. It seemed very hard to follow, especially when using software that was new to most of the class. It seemed like a tall task to attempt to learn how to use all new software, then edit a video following specific guidelines for a grade. Working with the first group was the easy task. It is easy to be in a group where people are easy going and don't take it too seriously, but at the same time understand that a big grade is at stake. Everything was flowing very well with the group and the project was progressing in a great way. When somebody from another group dropped out and somebody had to switch groups, it was worrying. It seemed as if the group would be far behind.

Fortunately, this would not be the case. The new group flowed together so well and was able to bounce ideas off of eachother so effortlessly. Everybody seemed comfortable with each other and felt as if they had something to prove. It was known that the group was supposed to be very far behind the other groups due to having spent less time together, but the group ended up finishing before everyone. There was a chip on the groups shoulder, and even when offered extra time to finish the project, the time was declined. The problems faced by this group were not due to creativity or lack of communication, but due to technological problems. It can be very difficult to work with editing software that is unfamiliar. It is also hard to get a whole meaning of a concept across to an audience within a short 45 seconds to a minute. It seemed as if the group wanted to do too much. There was too much content for the amount of time that the group was provided. Things that were very entertaining unfortunately had to be cut out of the video for more important things pertaining to the concept of the video. This can be somewhat of a good problem to have. There was so much good content, that some had to be cut out, but that just means that the stuff that was left is is the very best content that the group had to offer.

At first, the group did not account for the time it took to put credits into the video. It is obviously so important to give filming, acting and music credits to the proper people, so it was vital that they were included and not left out of the video. In total the credits would take only about ten seconds, but in a video that is less than a minute long, that is a big chunk of time taken up that was not accounted for.

The filming of the video went great. The group was able to finish filming in ample time and everybody enjoyed themselves while doing it. It was obvious that the group had a fun time being around each other, even in a working environment. It was easy to communicate and to not take things too seriously, even though the project was for a serious grade. It is important to not take things too seriously, because that would cause the group to be stressed out, and being stressed out would cause the group to make silly and careless mistakes, and get angry with each other out of frustration. This would mess up the synergy of the group, so it is best to keep a very loose working environment, with still a main objective at hand to stay focused.

Uploading the video was a somewhat easy task. Uploading it to Twitter was a hard task because of the video format, but uploading the video to YouTube was an easy task. It is as easy as dragging and dropping the video off the desktop into the upload area was all it took. Writing the title and the description was easy too, just had to give proper credits to the music used in the video for copyright purposes.

This video project was easier than anticipated. It was not hard to fill a minute of time or to film, but very hard to follow the strict guidelines provided for the class. Guidelines are very important to any task. Following the rules provided in a class is a good way to prepare to start following guidelines given by clients. Although some parts of the video were difficult, it was completed. All the things that were supposed to be done, got done and the checklist of what the group had to complete was completed. This project was a good learning experiment to teach video filming, editing and following directions. Many went into this class not knowing how to do any video editing, but now have a basic knowledge of using some video software. It is a good skill to have and will make for a fun hobby in the future of editing videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUhRzZZXv0U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slmgpqxSFeY