Project 3 the assignment was “Shoot and edit a short video (1-2 minutes in length) responding to a prompt selected in class. You can think of these prompts very openly—a one-word spring board. Use this prompt to begin your conceptualization, but feel free to think of it very abstractly. Through your video, you can define the word, but also think about how you can challenge that word, or abstract that word. CRITIQUE for your videos will be on Thursday, 03/13—our final for this modular.”
I chose to use animation software to create something abstract. I spent some time finding the perfect software as I am a beginner and I didn’t want it to take long for me to master the program. While I was searching, I thought of ideas.
My word was “Old”. My first thought was old people. But, that wasn’t creative enough. Then I was thinking about using my Dad’s old photography equipment. I was going to run with that idea, and when I found a program by Autodesk (which I was able to get a free 3 year license with my student email account) called “Motion FX”, I downloaded it and checked it out. It uses your webcam to record stills or movies and has fun special effects. My plan was to hold my Dad’s old camera close to my webcam and move it around while changing the effects every few seconds. Well I couldn’t get it to work with my hands or fingers not in the shot, so I threw in the towel.
Next plan was to still use this program, but I covered my webcam so the shot was black, and I used the trackpad and made designs with my finger. I wanted to make it look like fire that gets hotter and hotter and then finally goes out.
I picked the music by looking through my itunes collection for a song that was exactly as long as my video, initially looking through my classical/naptime playlist because I thought something without words would work best. The song I ended up picking, was a fluke. I saw that it was the exact length so I tested it out and it just seemed to fit. It wasn’t the theme that I planned, but I really like the way it worked out.
The video itself has a few quirks…some of my transitions didn’t work the way I would have liked, but it was my very first time working with iMovie and after getting in a couple of fights with it, I’m mostly pleased with my final product. I will probably play with it again when I have more time and see if I can perfect my movie.
icantpaint 