This video embedded above was made for week two’s homework assignment, which simply required us to make a video of us ‘making the bed’. This was one of those tasks that was easier said than done, I had no idea how to film myself making the bed. The video begins with my lamp randomly switching on – ingenious idea by my partner, pretty tacky, am I right? But it made for a mildly amusing intro and outro shot, so I was like ‘hey, what the hell’.

Throughout this video the camera constantly changes perspectives, jumping back and forth from me, to the bed, me, to the bed. The idea of perspective – what it means, how it should be used, how it can be used seamlessly – is all uncharted territory for me. From the time I began filming this video I was contemplating: what perspective should each shot be? and why should it change?. Ultimately I just ended up changing perspectives/shots based on what was the most visually interesting, but i’m not sure if thats how it should be done and i’m not sure if it really works. I definitely noticed, when I watched my video back, that the shot changes were really obvious, they didn’t flow together seamlessly . I think this is a combination of two things: 1 – the changing of shots/perspectives is unmotivated and 2 – the angle of the shot change is either too minute, or too extreme to allow it to feel natural.

How can I master this? you ask. Practice? Ask Paul? Watch more Antonioni? – These are on my to do list.

 

Until next time,

Louise Alice Wilson

 

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