Plushie
This Plushie assignment was my first "real" video creation. Like I mentioned in my About Me page, I have created horrible, mandatory video assignments but I only cared that the required information was in them. When we were told to get cameras and head out to film, that's exactly what I did. I didn't plan anything out or have a story in mind. I grabbed the bunny stuffed animal and took random shots in random places. I didn't realize I should have thought something through until I came back and dumped my footage onto the computer. I saw how shaky my footage was. There were shots that I wanted to slow down but it was so shaky that if I did that it would actually give someone motion sickness.
I have experience with cameras, especially being that the one I used I personally own. I have not, however, used any editing tools other than iMovie, so learning Final Cut Pro X was definitely challenging at first but once I learned where everything was, I realized it is like iMovie in a way and I then knew how I could use it. I didn't play with any visual effects though, but I am excited to in the future. There is not much I feel I did well, other than my camera settings, being that I shot in manual. I also liked the way I focused during the shot where the door opens and the bunny is sitting in the bathroom stall.
Plushie 2.0
This is my second attempt with the plushie endeavor. While working on the 2.0, I realized I learned a lot more from the first than I originally thought I had. Before I shot anything I now created a storyboard. This outlined what I was planning on shooting, what order the shots would be in, and how the story would play out. This was very helpful and kept me focused while I was out shooting. I knew what I had shot, and what I still needed to shoot. Then came the editing. After my first video, I think I have learned a lot about Final Cut Pro X. Now this doesn't mean I am ready to be a professional editor, but I do know more about the software. In this new video, I tried to fade the music a little better, and use transitions for text. This made 2.0 so much better than the first. From a camera perspective, I think my shots were much less shaky, and I even used different angles. There is still one shot especially that I wish was more still, but I know I will get better, especially once I am not holding the camera with bare hands. There was also one shot I forgot to change my white balance for, so it is a little warmer than the rest of the shots. This was a mistake I did not realize until I had gotten back to edit, and I will make sure to catch it sooner. I also realized after seeing some others, that while I did include a title, I never included something at the end. I will try and add some sort of finisher next time, even though I did like the way it closed on "He passed!" for Plushie 2.0.
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