For my project brief 3, I chose to interview my friend, Anna, who is a fashion design student. She is a Chinese who has been living in Melbourne for more than 6 years. From the first time I asked her, she rejected me as she is really camera shy. However, after persuading her over and over again, she accepted my request. Surprisingly, she took the project very seriously, eve more than me. She was very particular about the angles of shooting and we spent two whole days filming the footages.
What’s cute about Anna is that she is only 150 tall. Although she is a little too petite, she has a very strong fashion sense. Her clothes are always over-sized as she always has difficulties looking for XXS-sized clothing. To solve the problem, she began altering clothes based on her fashion knowledge and making them into her own unique style. The title “Fashion Killa” is extremely suitable for Anna as she could easily digest any fashion style, creating a style that she can call her own.
The most successful part for this video, personally, I think, would be the background music which matches with the footage. There are two parts to the video – one a joyful introduction and the other a slightly emotional description of her difficult journey. I had managed to find two background music pieces for both scenarios and they fit very well.
On the other hand, the most challenging part for the project was lack of planning. I did not do much planning before the shooting, I just shot whatever that came to my mind and it was a disaster initially. I didn’t have an exact concept for the project and Brian advised me to have only one main concept for the video. Therefore, I had to re-do everything again. Moreover, unlike the project brief 2 we did, I did not know about Anna very well in comparison to myself. Hence, it was tough for me to make any decisions before interviewing her.
This is my second time doing a self-portrait. I felt more comfortable using the software Adobe Premiere Pro. I learned many other editing techniques from the project this time. This is also my first time doing a voice over for a video. When incorporating the recorded voice over, I had to ensure that the interviewee’s voice is loud and clear, and that the background music does not overpower the voice audio. One other key learning discovery from the project was the combination of footage. We had to use both found footage and original footage. It was a little tough to find any fashion footage that matched with my video. Therefore, I chose to edit the found footage first, and then worked on my original footage to combine the two together.
Overall, it was an excellent practice for me. I was able to learn how to use three different softwares – Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition and Adobe Premier Pro. Also, my filming, directing and editing abilities have improved over time. By practicing more, it would eventually be a great learning experience for my future in the media industry. Lastly, I would like to thank Anna who had spent the past two weeks with me shooting and interviewing and I hope she will be proud after watching the final video.