Scope
The scope of this project was to make a package about something that fit into the category "Bright." This package couldn't be more than 1 minute and 30 seconds long. It had to include interviews, commentary and a lot of B Role (shots of people performing actions)Pre-Production
During Pre-Production I was deciding what I wanted my package to be over. I eventually chose to have a package over what goes into making a short film. After I decided what I wanted it to be about I was ready to film. The reason I didn't storyboard or script write at the beginning is that it's a news package and you have to get what you can and then work with that.Production
During production, I was mainly filming. Filming took a couple days, some days felt longer than others depending on how much was going on and whether or not the group I was recording was actually recording or not. Once I finally finished filming B-Role, I then recorded interviews. Each interview consisted of 21 questions about the project they were working on for their final. I interviewed 3 members of the 4 member cast: Carter, Chris, and Espy. Each interview took around 25-30 minutes. On a good day I could usually finish one interview and start the next one before the bell rang. After recording all of the interviews, I was finally able to start writing my story and recording voice overs.While I was story writing, I was just planning what shots I wanted to use and what I would say in my voice overs. This is a key part in the making of a news package because it gives you a game plan to follow going in and makes the editing process so much easier. After I finished writing my story, I began to record my voice overs. In case you don't know what a voice over is, it's just audio that you play over clips, essentially commentary over what you're showing. An important thing to remember about voice overs is that you should match what you say with what you say. An example of this would be if I was talking about the editing process, I would show them editing while I talked about it.
Post-Production
Finally, after I finished getting everything recorded and ready to go, I could actually start putting this package together in Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro is a video editing software used to edit film. First, I imported all of my clips and voice overs. Then, I in and out pointed all of my clips, favorited some clips, and added key words to the clips I thought I would use. When I finished doing that, I started adding the clips to the timeline to get them sequenced properly (put them in the order I wanted them in). Once they were all in order, I added in my voice over. After all of this was done, I played through it a couple of times to make sure my audio was good, and if it wasn't I would adjust it. Finally, when everything was put together and ready to go, I was able to share this project to YouTube as well as on this blog post.Lessons Learned
Looking back on this project, I was able to learn a lot, both technically and professionally. One of the first and most important things that I learned was to shoot in sequences. This is extremely important to the overall quality of your B-Role as well as your finished film (or news package in my case). Shooting in sequences is basically getting a medium shot (waist up) close up of the face, then a close up of the hands, and finally a close up of the feet. This also helps you match up what you hear with what you see. I also learned that story writing is key. Without my story written, I would have been lost when it came to editing and putting the news package together. Like I said earlier, this makes editing it so much easier. I also learned that making sure the mic used during the interview is actually working. If it isn't, your whole interview isn't near as good as it should have been. The audio is a lot worse and it causes me trouble having to bump it up so you can hear it or turning it down if for some reason it's too loud. Another thing I learned is that you always need to follow the rule of thirds. This makes sure that their eyes are in the proper place on the screen and that they're looking in to space. This makes everything look nicer and more professional. The last thing I learned is that when you're shooting an interview, it should be one continuous clip and that the shot should be very tight (not a lot of space where they aren't looking). This makes the interview more professional and overall improves the quality of it.Future Changes & Things to Keep up
After watching this news package, there are a few things that I would change and some things that I wouldn't. I would definitely go back and shoot in sequences if I could, this would make my film a lot better and would have given me better B-Role to work with. I would also make sure that the mic in my interviews was actually turned on and working. Doing this would make my interviews a lot more audible. The last thing I would change is making sure that the shot of the person I'm interviewing is a tight shot. This makes the interview look a lot better. Although I can fix this with the crop tool in Final Cut Pro, it is much easier to do it right the first time.
While there are a lot of things I could improve on, I would keep some things the same. One of these would be the close ups of the screen when they were recording and script writing. This helped me match up what you heard with what you saw. An example of this would be when I had a close up of Carter writing script while I talked about how script writing was an important part of making a short film. The other thing I would keep the same is the way I speak in the voice overs. I think it's very clear and sounds like I'm interested in what I'm talking about, but at the same time it's professional.
Experiences
I've been able to draw a few things from this project that will help enhance my next project. The first thing I'll take away is the group I work with. I worked with an enthusiastic group who knew what they were doing. This made the filming process a lot more fun and made things go a lot smoother. The last experience I will draw from this is staying on task. I think I was able to stay on task pretty well and this helped me finish the project on time. The only thing that slowed me down was confusion and last minute interviews.
Wrapping Things up
Overall, I thought I did pretty well for what kind of B-Role I had (not the best). I'm not that proud of this news packages but I'm definitely going to learn from it going into next year. I definitely could have done better and plan to do so. My projects will only get better from here on out. This was a fun package to make and hope to work with groups similar in the future. Thanks for reading.
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