Production 1: Plushie

This is obviously a short, simple film featuring a plushie toy. Without any time to think or plan, I took some very easy focused shots of the plushie around BBA. It starts looking out a window, continues spending time outside, and ends laying on the pavement looking up.

The video itself isn't anything special, but I was able to use this opportunity to get to know the video camera and remember basic functions in Final Cut Pro. In editing this video in FCP, I created a library, imported my clips, arranged them in the order I wanted, cut them to remove bad beginnings and ends (cmd+b) and created fade transitions (cmd+t) between clips and at the end. I was also able, through youtube-mp4 and separating audio, to add some nice jazz music to be played in the background. The last touch was adding a slight recoloring effect through the entire short film and a dreamy blur over the first and last scenes, which I think work well with the music in exhibiting the right feel.

After being unsure on how to advance my first plushie film, I did my best to capture a simple but coherent story and edit the pacing just right, and I'm happy with the result. My first plushie film didn't have much of a story and was instead of a series of outdoor pan shots; in this film, the story revolves around the care bear trying to make friends, being rejected, being sad, and then finding someone else who is also shown to be lonely. Like my first plushie film, this one is also mostly composed of pan shots (I seem to tend towards doing pan shots) but I diversified by adding some closeup shots as well. I initially planned to film outside, but due to the rain I had to film in the BBA library. This location change was helpful because it allowed me to pull off the two shots from 0:42 to 0:54, featuring the care bear's reflection and the gloomy rain outside. I didn't pull off anything fancy with the camera, only power on, record, power off, not even zoom.

FCPX editing is getting easier already. Like my last plushie film, the editing for this was mostly arranging the clips, cmd+b'ing the clips at the right spots, and adding music and transitions. Instead of using the same transition between every shot, I added fade-in at the beginning, fade-out at the end, and crossfade between the 'sad' scenes only, not every one. I added the same blur effect to some shots that I found on my last editing experience, but customized it so it blurs to a less pronounced degree. For music, I wanted an upbeat song and a sad song, and settled on Hey Ya by OutKast and some sad piano music off YouTube, respectively (Arms of An Angel was too sad for this, sorry!!). I actually think I spent more time editing than I should have, because I had an idea of what I wanted the film to look like but didn't have the editing experience to get that look quickly. For example, I took a long time figuring out how to get the desired 'hold frame and fade-to-black' effect at 0:37 before finally learning about the 'opacity level reduction over time' function. Now, when I need to do this effect again I can do it in seconds. There is only one editing screwup that I noticed after upload, and that's that the final fade-out doesn't fade to black completely. At some point in editing, it did, but oh well, it's a minor issue.

Next time I'm making a film, I've heard it will involve real people. This will make things harder, but regardless the place where I need and want to improve in the most is editing in FCPX. I know the basics, but I feel that mastering advanced effects will make my films more pleasurable. I also want to learn how to use manual functions on the cameras, because the default state isn't perfect for motion capture.

• Brian Gawlik - Celebrated former Cinematography teacher at BBA, passed away from cancer (RIP), legacy now includes the Gawlik Awards and the Gawlik Room.
• Gawlik Room - Private quiet room for scripting and thinking, accessible from News Room and the Jonathan Levin hallway.
• Canon Vixia - Small handheld camera capable of recording 1080p video.
• Clip - A section of a film
• Editing - Modifying the original source version of a film clip(s) to try to make a coherent, enjoyable, and complete film experience
• Event (in FCPX) - Subsections under libraries in FCPX used to categorize clips
• Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) - Professional video editing software designed by Apple, main editing software we use on BBA's computers
• “Fix it in Post” - The shot isn't perfect, but we can edit it to make it better
• Initializing SD Card in Canon Vixia - Load it in, close the door, power on, initialize
• Jonathan Levin - Celebrated former teacher in New York City, was killed, has family around our area, legacy now includes the Jonathan Levin center where BBA cinematography is located
• Library (in FCPX) - Largest subsection in FCPX, can hold events and projects under it for organization purposes
• “Lock it down / or lock it up” - be quiet, act natural, take starting, get ready for the take
• BBA News Room - room between the Gawlik Room and the main computer room, has a greenscreen
• Pre-production - planning, preparation, writing, storyboarding
• Post-production - editing
• Project (in FCPX) - the film in process, the timeline where all your clips and sound files and effects are stored, now in FCPX, saves automatically!
• Scene - sequence of continuous action at the same location in a film
• Timeline - the entire sequence of clips, located in the bottom portion of FCPX, where all the editing happens