Assignment: Filming an Action (2 min video)

Transcript

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Ok, so this is the assignment part of lesson one and the assignment this first week is incredibly simple. What I want you to do is to film one action or some different actions but one continuous developing action that has some interest in and of itself. We’ve been discussing this but I mentioned you need to be outside. I want you to use your tripod and I want you to not move the camera but I want you to find a good setting that essentially is going to best demonstrate what this action is. But what I also want you to do is that once you’ve filmed it once and usually film for about 30 seconds to 2 minutes if you want, I want you to film it from one angle and then I want you to move the camera and find a different angle to film that same action. About the same length of time and if you can get it in two different ways. So for instance if you’re filming cars going under a bridge then you may film it from one direction and move the camera and look at another. And I want you to put thought and think why would I choose this action, why do I choose this area. Part of much what you’re looking at is to think this action that I’m choosing, what can I do to find that’s going to be very, very interesting that’s actually just happening. So I don’t even want you to, you don’t have to go and create some interesting story about this. A lot of this is more of documenting what goes on around you. So I want you to find something that’s not filming yourself but filming things that are just happening that you can capture. When you bring it into your computer, what you’re going to do is on iMovie and on any kind of editing software, usually there’s video tracks and there are audio tracks. I want you to delete all the audio. So all that we’re seeing is that action and we’re not going to be bothered with any kind of audio in it. And what this forces someone to do is just to look at the image. So I know this may seem incredibly simple to you, but As an experiment, see if you can film one thing that will keep someone’s attention from 30 seconds up to two minutes of just showing a continuous shot of one image. And that’s all for this first week. Once you’ve done this, take this, upload it to the internet, and put your link with the class. Send it to your family and friends if you want, or maybe not for this first one. They may think, what are you doing in your filmmaking class? You’re just filming simple stuff. Anybody can do this. But much of this part is of the process of getting out and using the camera, and it’s using it in a way that forces you to think and plan of how something simple, how an action that you’re capturing naturally has interest. And from that point, once you’re through with that, get it online and you can go to lesson two and we’ll start moving forward. Hope you have a fun time filming.