Video Project Thoughts

This week we had to tell a story through video. I decided to tell the story of a MUB Building Manager because I feel like many people, including myself, thought they really don't do much and spend most of their time just walking around. So I contacted Carol Tuttle, who is their boss, and set up a time yesterday where I could follow two of them around during their shift/rounds and video them doing what they normally too. Needless to say, i was wrong, and they defiently do have many more responsibilities than most people think.


This defiently wasn't my first time using video, so I wasn't worried about the quality of my shots, or what shots I wanted. Through experience, I usually just think of the shots I want literally 10 or 15 minutes before the shot, and just position myself in a way to get them. I decided to use a SCAN camera because one, i don't have alimit on when I have to return it like the Multimedia Center, and two, I figured there wouldn't be many if any of the Multimedia cameras left. The general manager was pressuring me to use one of the really good cameras from SCAN's collection, but I decided to go with a simple and old handheld canon. I did this because I wanted to prove that the size or price of the camera shouldn't affect what type of shots etc. you can get. Instead, it depends on the mind and creative spirit of the person behind the camera.


So I followed two building managers for 40 minutes, doing a 10 minute interview with them at the end. i think it went well. One issue I came across was the ability of the canon to adjust focus when I zoomed. At some points, I really wnated just the hands of one of the building managers, or just their feet, and whne I zoomed in on those body parts, the picture became blurry for longer than I anticipated before adjusting its focus. As a result, I missed a couple decent shots as a result. Also, some of the shots of me walking behyind the building managers are alittle shaking because I had to walk alittle quicker than my normal speed to keep up with them.
Overall, I think the project went well. I have a nice story to tell, and the building managers were really open about showing me what they did on a daily basis and for being explanatory during the interview. Now, it's just a matter of cutting 40 minutes down to 10 minutes. That might be the most difficult part for me. I using final cut instead of Imovie because I just don't like some of the features of Imovie. Also, I know how to use final cut better than I do Imovie. Plus, the SCAN server is 16 tera bytes, which is alot larger than the space I have on the Multimeida Lab. Therefore I don't have to rent out a hard drive and carry it around with me.