The idea of separation was the given theme to the video project. Separation is not an easy theme to capture with out being cliche.The ideas that were first tossed around were cars driving away from each other, and driving away from someone. Although those above ideas effectively communicate the idea of separation they've been done time and time again. Finally the idea came about as a sort of separation between who you are in public versus who you are in private. The two have very separate qualities to them and if done probably are easily distinguishable from each other.
The difficulty filming came when trying to find the right angles for certain shots. Deciding between a close up or a far away shot was hard to determine. With the strict set time on every video it was important to make sure that everything filmed could be useful. Two different cameras also made things a challenge. When using the camera there was the ease of being able to use a tripod without the assistance of anyone else, but the project required first person shots as well. The camera didn't work well for the first person shots so a cellphone would work well. The cellphone had the disadvantage of taking a long time to up load the footage that was taken. The surprising part was the quality that the camera on the cellphone had. When getting to the editing stage there wasn't much difference between the cellphone footage and the actual camera footage.
Trying to convey the idea of separation between public and private wasn't easy. When acting or filming sometimes it is better to exaggerate then to keep toned down. So there are several things that can be easily exaggerated when doing comparisons of things done in private verses public. Sneezing,coughing, and even the way someone sits can be easily over exaggerated to really drive the point across on the idea of separation.
There's also another way to portray separation and that is through the setting. Setting is as important as anything else when it comes to filming. A bar is a much different setting then say a couch in your home or a bedroom. The bar shots were difficult because there wasn't much to work with when it comes to the lighting aspect. The shots in the bar had to be tight because there wasn't much room for the tripod either. The bar also had a massive mirror behind it, and so any possibility for a front shot of the bar was eliminated. The living room shots were much easier for space, but the lighting was also a bit temperamental. The camera that was being used picked up a pattern in the curtains that was in the shot. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but the pattern actually caused the camera to be a little distorted.
iMovie was the editing software chosen for the project. iMovie is unique because on the surface it looks simple, but further into the editing process it becomes clear that iMovie has a few tricks up its sleeve. The software in iMovie allows the user to do all sorts of effects that are unexpected for a lower video editing program. The user can do limited chroma key effects, and it even has some interesting audio editing abilities as well. Luckily though the only audio editing needed to be done was the removal of footage audio and replacing it with whatever else was needed. A big draw back to iMovie was when working on the project it was very difficult to put the project on a jump drive. Now video editing is known to be time consuming and it is expected to take an extra few minutes to move any files around, but moving an iMovie file that is being worked on sometimes took 20 minutes or more to save. This process takes away valuable editing time and can become frustrating quickly.
Even though saving the files from iMovie was a chore its title options were good as well. Normally an entire different software is used to make titles, and can be a headache on its own. imovie already has a good amount of titles ready to go and not to mention they are easy to work with for anyone who has never done much editing work. The filters that iMovie offers are a little lack luster. There were a few shots that could have used better filters but there was not much to choose from.
Communicating the idea of something through video can be difficult but it is becoming the more accepted standard. When writing sometimes it can be hard to know just when the right time is to stop before loosing the readers attention, and with people's attention spans growing smaller and smaller this can be critical to getting across a successful message. You want to have the biggest impact in the smallest amount of time possible. Images are more memorable then words, and can have a bigger impact. This is always a plus when trying to convey an idea or message. Given the time constraints for the video it kept the video focused and didn't allow for any nonsense which could cause the viewer to either miss the message or simply not take it in. Photographs are even more challenging because there is only one chance to get it right, and you have to compress one whole idea into a single image.
Sharing on social media wasn't too hard at all. Vimeo is friendly when it comes to user rights and such so they didn't challenge the use of any unlicensed music. The Vine video was a bit of a struggle. Six seconds is not a long time to work with so it does require a bit of work to edited something down to that. Vine also doesn't have a good option for loading videos from a computer so the video had to be sent to a cellphone where it could be uploaded from there.
https://vimeo.com/159112667
