Already this semester, we have shot and edited two 30 second videos at home. The idea behind both of them was to film simple, everyday tasks but to make it interesting through our filmmaking.

For my first short film, I decided to film myself washing my hands. This ending up being more difficult than I had anticipated, but that is probably mostly due to the fact that I filmed it before I had to go to work, and the film really could have benefitted from a little more time spent reviewing the clips while I was shooting. Mainly I was disappointed with the shot of the towel. I feel it looks messy and poorly planned, but I’m still not entirely how I could improve this shot given the layout of the room and the height of my tripod. I couldn’t see a way to film my hands in front of the camera, but maybe this is something I need to look into a bit more.

For the second film, Paul told us that we needed to film ourselves making a bed. Given that I wasn’t completely satisfied with my first project, I decided to allocate a bit more time and be more careful about my framing. I was a lot happier with the end result this time, as doing just another take than I had last time really made a noticeable difference to the end result. My favourite shot in this project was the one in which I placed the camera on the bed and shook the doona over the mattress. While the camera did move a little and I struggled to get the focus right, the concept itself is one of the more creative shots I’ve taken in a long time.

Both of these exercises have already helped me to be a little more considerate about my framing, and encouraged me to take my time when I’m shooting, rather than rushing and ending up with a result that I’m less than satisfied with.