CCR Question #3 Draft

When I first started, I did not have good production skills for me to properly make my own film. I only knew film-making terminology but had little to no experience of film production. The main shortcoming I had with this project was that I was the only member of my team working on the project. Because of it, I had to resort to learning how to make a film on my own and ask other people for advice for film production. Overall, I had to rely on myself for producing my film to the best of my abilities.

While I did my project, I learned a lot about editing. After shooting all the scenes I needed for my film, I had to start editing the film. This was one of the aspects I had no experience of doing for filming. Additionally, there were several issues such as inconsistencies of color in each shot and audio that I wanted to remove from the video. I then asked my friend who acted in my film for some instructions on how to edit for a film. He taught me a lot of things about video editing with video editing software, Sony Vegas Pro, that he uses for his videos. He first taught me the basics of video editing such as adding incidental music into specific parts of the film and splitting the video to remove or add specific parts of the video to the film. Then, he taught me how to change the color of the film to deal with color inconsistencies in shots or change the atmosphere of the film. After that, I wanted to add more effects to the film such as vignettes and cinematic bars on my own. Because of it, I decided to look up methods online to add video effects to my film. I also incorporated some of my knowledge of animation from watching 3D computer graphics videos online by using keyframes to position or resize effects at specific parts of the scene.

One of the other skills I have learned was camera working. Initially, I had sufficiently had knowledge of camera shots and angles but I never had put them into practice. When I started filming, I first struggled to think about different camera angles and shots that would help show or accentuate the meanings portrayed in the film. However, after reflecting back on my research with film openings, I was able to think about the plot and the messages portrayed and decide what camera shots and angles would be appropriate. Another additional problem I had while shooting was that there were some shots that I could not do with just a tripod, which is one of the things I had for filming. Because of it, I had to practice holding the camera with steady arms to film different camera movements in the film such as the camera moving up from the side of the bed while also tilting down to face the main character. These hand-held camera shots were not the best, but it has taught me to consider getting different equipment to tackle different shots before shooting to avoid issues involving camera shots, movements, and angles.

Overall, I have learned a lot about film production from my project. My skills have grown significantly by asking my peers and self-learning from my mistakes and online research. The two major skills I have learned are editing and camera work. Without actively reaching out to others and self-learning these skills, I would not have been able to finish the project on my own.