The video embedded above was made for week one’s homework assignment, which simply required us to make a 30 second video of ourselves completing an action. I decided to shoot my everyday ‘makeup routine’, but as you can see from the video below I barely made a dent in that endeavour. It’s seems obvious to me now, but at the time I didn’t realise that shooting a 10 minute process for a 30 second video would indeed be overkill. Only once I sat down to edit did I realise “oh _____, I’ve got waaaaay too much footage” – this was Lesson No.1, don’t overshoot things. It’s much better to shoot only what you need rather than waste time overshooting scenes, as this leaves you with much more footage than you ever required.

The original concept of this video was to focus on my hands as I completed my routine. Drawing attention to the way in which the hands move and behave as they complete various actions. I wanted the video to be less about the makeup, or the end goal (looking ‘better’), and be more about the arbitrary tasks we make our hands do, and how they do it ever so well. I don’t think I adequately achieved this as there are various elements that come into focus other than my hands (such as my face) which detract from that narrative. The video is also quite short which limited my ability to hammer the point home. I think this lack of narrative clarity, was a result of inadequate planning –  which was Lesson No.2. If you haven’t sat down to plan exactly what it is you want to achieve and exactly how you will go about it, your final product will end up being a bit of a mess.

Overall, Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 are related to each other. If you don’t go through adequate pre-production, such as clearly outlining your concept, or storyboarding each shot, you ultimately end up with a muddied concept and shots that aren’t that great. If you want your final product to be ‘pro’, you’ve got to put in the ‘pre-pro’, you know?

 

Until next time,

Louise Alice Wilson