I really wanted to highlight my love for instructional videos, as this may be something I pursue in my future career (plus, it’s portfolio gold!). I still need to record a voiceover, add some transitions, and trim another minute from the video. When editing, I usually start with the basic information I want to include and then refine it further. My goal is to piece together the story before focusing on the finer details.

There are some lighting issues in the video that I wish I could have fixed, but I might cut that entire scene since it looks terrible. I also want to add music to make the video fun and spunky to watch. Maybe I’ll include on-screen lines to show where to sew, but I’m still figuring that out. Additionally, I’ll include timestamps to help viewers find specific parts of the video easily.

BLOG: Make a blog post describing your final project idea and your plan for completing a rough cut by the last class. 

Our group met on Thursday, 11/7/24, and decided to film our ‘water bottle fiasco.’ We took the professor’s advice to make the storyline more engaging by adding more characters who misplace the water bottle. Jeremy took the lead on storyboarding, ensuring continuity and refining the final details. I sketched a quick storyboard to map out the shots we needed. During filming, Jeremy directed since he knew the script inside and out, while Hailey and I took turns recording. It turned out to be a really fun project!

Now, each of us will edit the footage in our own style. I’ve shared all the necessary files over Slack, and I’m excited to see everyone’s unique take on the same footage. I’d love to make a bloopers reel as well, but with so many projects on my plate, it might have to wait.

Storyboard Sketch/Scan:

Final Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N_d1q6DrjDAf3ZxYSdbpIzPlmV8_AVwBF6F2xSPTD_c/edit?tab=t.0

Music by – https://pixabay.com/users/dannymurillo_poduction-36890779/

Write your own 1-2 page script of your group story that you are to share with your group (and with me via Slack) before next class. You can do this all on Slack. In class next week your group will come up with one script that you will also send to me to read and give feedback. 

Please describe your group’s one-minute video story/script. What will you need in the coming weeks to shoot/capture video?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zLmhhbCutVbJ-183XsiS4DlLtdq0x9-Gi5BLxAsMkn0/edit?usp=sharing

Blog: Create a 30-second sequence that uses at least three Premiere effects or that delves into the possibilities of AI Cinema using RunwayML and any other AI tools. Apply these effects to video either for story or for abstract experimentation. The point of this assignment is to play with techniques and see if certain effects can be used to generate ideas for a final project.

For this project, I focused on effects in Premiere Pro, using tools like digital glitch, curvature, and wave warp. These effects help express a character’s thoughts or emotions by distorting the visuals. For example, wave warp can mimic dizziness or nausea, while digital glitches suggest confusion or anxiety. This pulls the audience deeper into the character’s experience.

Unlike traditional cinema, which focuses on capturing reality, digital effects create a more subjective world. They allow filmmakers to represent what a character feels, not just what’s physically there. These techniques blur the line between reality and emotion, offering new ways to engage viewers by combining visual storytelling with personal perspective.

Do: Work on a rough cut of your job/hobby profile. We will critique in class.

Blog: Make a post discussing your experience of shooting the job/hobby profile. Were there any challenges? What worked well?

If you have not yet shot the interview and B-roll, how do you intend to shoot it. What will you ask? What visual evidence will you capture?

Interview with Alex Speaks – Hobby: Cheerleading

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/mood-of-summer
License code: 9QHKW9H35NX0KZFQ

Blog Prompt : The challenge with any documentary is capturing the “visual evidence” for a meaningful narrative made out of fragments of video.  Search for a scene in Devil’s Playground (below) that has visual evidence for the central question of the documentary: Amish or English? Describe the visual evidence. Is it effective? Might parts of the scene be staged? How can you tell? What other scenes stand out for you (use screen grabs) and why?  How does visual evidence help with the storytelling? Are there times when the visual evidence is in conflict with the need to tell an engaging story? 

One scene, in particular, felt obviously staged: when the main character is openly using “drugs” in the living room. If they were serious about turning their life around, it’s hard to believe they would incriminate themselves so easily. On top of that, based on what I’ve seen in crime documentaries, the bag of drugs looked fake—more like the stuffing you’d find in a Beanie Baby than anything real. This raises a key issue with documentaries: balancing truthful visual evidence with the need to tell a compelling story.

Documentaries often rely on bits and pieces of footage to create a meaningful narrative, but scenes like this make it hard to tell if what we’re seeing is real or staged for effect. In the fiml Devil’s Playground, certain scenes seem set up to highlight the film’s central question: will the characters choose the Amish way of life or the English world? In this case, the drug scene feels like it was added just to create drama. While it makes the story more entertaining, it also risks making the film seem less believable.

This shows how documentary filmmakers sometimes struggle between telling an engaging story and staying true to reality. When scenes feel exaggerated or fake, it can make viewers doubt the truth of what they’re seeing. Documentaries work best when real moments guide the story, but when filmmakers add too much drama, it can feel more like entertainment than an honest portrayal.

For a documentary about local nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to focus on their emotional and physical struggles while keeping it real. Since I can’t film inside a hospital, I’ll rely on interviews, personal footage, news clips, and photos as “visual evidence” to share their stories. Instead of capturing them in a clinical setting, I’ll show nurses at home after long shifts or connecting with family remotely, which really highlights the isolation they faced.

As noted in the reading, “behavior is visual evidence,” and “making documentaries… means filming the behavior of people.” I’ll get into how these nurses coped with their experiences and the toll the pandemic took on them. Their personal narratives will drive the film, giving a genuine look at their challenges and triumphs.

I also plan to incorporate symbolic visuals like empty streets and discarded protective gear to further illustrate the pandemic’s impact. By showcasing the human side of this crisis, I hope to convey the resilience and dedication of nurses during such an unprecedented time.

Blog: Discuss the digital effects of one or two works listed above. What kind of spaces are depicted in these various videos? Digital effects work on the data layer of the digital image, by the manipulation of pixels. Effects, such as green screen, manipulate the color and ordering of pixels. Compositing is the layering of multiple images or tracks into a whole. Glitch effects come from the damage of code in media files. How is the realism of traditional cinema (its truthfulness in capturing images of bodies in a three-dimensional world) altered, enhanced or challenged by these techniques?  How might you use digital effects in your montage assignment?

Digital effects play a key role in shaping the spaces and realism of videos, allowing creators to go beyond what traditional filmmaking can achieve. Green screens, for example, replace real backgrounds with digital ones, transporting actors to places that don’t exist. This challenges the realism of traditional cinema, which usually captures real-world settings, by introducing a controlled, artificial world.

Compositing layers multiple images or video tracks, blending live-action footage with digital elements to create environments that feel real but are constructed. This blurs the line between what’s real and what’s fabricated, altering our perception of cinematic truth. Glitch effects, caused by damaged digital files, disrupt the image and can symbolize breaks in reality or emotional tension.

For my montage assignment, I would most likely use digital effects like color correction to adjust the tone of the scene or dim the lighting for mood. I might also use effects to make certain items pop, drawing the viewer’s attention to key elements. Additionally, incorporating a green screen layer could help place characters or objects in a unique background, adding depth to the overall visual experience. These subtle changes would enhance the visual impact without taking away from the realism of the scene.

Sounds sourced from Freesound along with a few personally recorded audio clips.

Miryssa Casas & Zach Heller

Hallway Horror Dreams!

Miryssa Casas & Zach Heller

Blog: Discuss the framing and editing in the clip below (it’s an opening from an episode of the show Shameless). What is the scene communicating? What is happening visually? How does continuity editing help narrate the family dynamics? What are the visual anchors within the chaos of movements?  How can a family gather at the table, discuss plans and eat breakfast in under 2 minutes!?  No need to answer all these questions, just address what you see.

This scene captures the chaos of getting a family ready for the day, but with a twist. It opens with Fiona, the main character, wiping fog off the window. As the camera comes into focus, we’re positioned behind her, watching her reflection in the mirror. Fiona turns around, and the camera shifts to a front view, following her as she moves through the house, waking everyone up. The shot follows the 180-degree rule, and we’re now positioned behind Fiona again as she interacts with the rest of the cast. A door slams, and in a quick cut, we transition to the family sitting at the dining table for breakfast.

Breakfast is pure chaos. The electric bill is due, food and supplies are running low, and everyone is scrambling to eat. We see Fiona adding water to the milk jug, trying to make it last. The family then passes around a box, each person contributing money for the bill. Finally, there’s a match-on-action cut where Fiona catches a tossed cell phone. So much all in one!

When homework time turns into nap time.

We are taking dehydrated tomato peels and turning them into tomato powder for cooking.

Blog Post:
This is an exercise to illustrate how continuity editing and framing are used to make a space and build a narrative. Select one of these scenes from Duel.

What kind of continuity edits are used to build the scene?  Try to use continuity terms:

• 180 degree rule
• 30 degree rule
• Cut in / Match on Action (from wide to close-up or reverse)
• Motivated POV shot
• Shot Reverse Shot 
• Empty frame
• Graphic Match
• Parallel action/ Crosscut

Describe how the arrangement of shots make a believable space. How does the framing focus attention to narrative detail? Discuss the role of sound in supporting the spatial relationships made in the cuts. If possible, comment on how the continuity editing in the scene (the spatial and temporal relationships from shot to shot) builds the tension of the story. What narrative information is revealed and concealed in the scene through the cuts?

Miryssa Casas & Zach Heller

Blog: Post these screen grabs in sequential order to the blog. Then for each image provide a description for the kind of shot (long shot, medium shot, close up, shaky, pan, etc) it is. Use Class Notes- Framing for reference. Discuss how the scene is held together as a narrative whole through the camera framing and editing.

Framing and shot types are important in storytelling because it helps the audience set the scene, portrays feelings, and establishes characters throughout the story. In the next few photos, we will be going over a variety of shots in a scene from the Sweetest thing, a 2002 romantic comedy, and explain why its important.

In the scene above, we have a medium close-up shot, capturing her hands up to her chest as she animatedly describes her date to her friends. The director uses this shot to emphasize her exaggerated expressions, highlighting her excitement and joy.

The next scene shows all three friends sitting around a table at the restaurant, enjoying lunch together. The setting provides the perfect backdrop for their gossip session. This helps the audience establish the setting/environment of the story.

If you haven’t seen this movie before, this scene unexpectedly breaks out into song and dance, as hinted by the chicken wings above. The director uses a medium long shot, with two of the friends in the foreground, shown from the knees up, while the third friend is in the background, being held as she playfully walks across a table. If this doesn’t scream fun then I don’t know what will.

The director uses a close-up shot here to emphasize the character’s reaction as she says ‘eww,’ while someone nearby is in the middle of a handstand. The entire restaurant pauses when she speaks, amplifying the impact of her statement.

Lastly, this is an interesting shot as it captures the full body but intentionally excludes the heads. The director focuses on highlighting a specific dance move that primarily involves the legs, which is why the camera avoids showing any faces.