Brainstorming
The idea for this project was to make a short film with certain requirements that had to be met. The requirements were to use an obvious source of light, use a hat in some way, use the quote "lights out", and the use of a water bottle in some way. To accomplish this we had a story line of a softball player who was hit with a baseball bat. This story line made it possible to use all of these requirements and execute the video fairly well. We were able to incorporate these things by using a flashlight as the obvious source of light, the red hat to show who the antagonist was, using the quote "lights out" when the antagonist hits the protagonist, and using the water bottle as an easy access point for the antagonist to attack. Overall I think we did a good job as working as a team to brainstorm how to incorporate these requirements.The Plan
Our pre-production went by really fast because the idea for our film was decided in one day. We came up with the idea on the first day of the project and the following two days we wrote the script. Our original production plan was to have the filming done in three days. We were going to film scene one on the first day, scene three on the second day, and then scene two on the third day. This did not happen though, we ended up not finishing the first scene on day one which then pushed everything back. It took us a total of ten days to finish filming this film which obviously was not the original plan. By the time we finished filming we had only three days until the deadline. Because we only had three days I ended up staying after school the last day to finish this project.What I Learned
One thing I learned is that you can never plan enough. That is one thing that I would change if I could do this project again, I would definitely go into more detail on our storyboards, I would make a shot list, and I would make sure that all of our shots had good audio because a lot of our dialog was covered by the wind. I learned that it is always good to pick a solid team. I think our group worked really well together. If someone had an idea we listened, If someone did not agree with a shot we shot it multiple different ways, and we always communicated our opinions. I think these things set us up to be successful.
For Next Time...
If I could change some things for this project I would change how some of our shots didn't flow together quite right. I would also change the fact that we broke some of the main rules of filming such as: The 180 degree rule and the rule of thirds. I would also change the fact that we didn't plan out what we were going to do in detail. I think this would have helped with the fact that we didn't get all of the shots that we wanted. I would not change the group that I worked with because we worked very well together and we had complimentary skills to enhance our video.
Overall
I think that overall our video turned out fairly well but there are definitely things that I can improve for my next projects such as: getting better audio, making sure that we follow rules like the 180 degree rule, and making sure that we get all of the shots we need. These three things will definitely enhance my upcoming projects. I think that this project has shown me how I can improve and what I should check when filming.
