Expedition Videos.
Hey there! So I felt like I needed to give myself an explanation as to why I put my expedition videos in place. Well... basically the reason why is because I have realized I haven't produced enough content to fill up the entire genius project. I hope to produce a few more videos until then, but just to make sure I have enough content, here you go. I'm gonna show each video, and give information about said video.Video 1 : "A Gouda Adventure"
When producing this video, I was not an inexperienced filmmaker, but it was the first time I have ever worked with a group so closely in one of my videos. Not only that, I also didn't get as much time to work on the project, with only about 5 days to complete the entire project. Nevertheless the end result was enjoyable to watch. This project had many 'firsts' for me. It was the first time I used anything more than the stock lenses, using 1.4 and 1.8 primes lenses. It was the first time I used the latest adobe premiere. It was the first time I worked with active lighting to enhance the scene(along with other cool equipment). Finally, it was the first video I have produced with a script. All previous videos only used a shot list of some kind. So, all in all it was a film to experiment with, and it has serve it's purpose to teach me.. Onto the next video!!
Oh and P.S, here's the behind the scenes for that video.
Video 2 : The Future:
This film, was probably the most stressful of all the films I produced. It took a lot of time, and (in my opinion) didn't give as much enjoyment as any of the previous videos. I cite my main issue as being creative differences between me and a fellow classmate. We are friends, but we have different approaches to filmmaking, decreasing efficiency. But, it did teach me how I should work with people I don't agree with. Anyways... onto the actual film
This video is probably the most inconsistent out of all the videos I have produced. The first three scenes were pretty good, with advanced cinematography and effective visual storytelling. However the last two scenes kind of deter the overall experience. Watch it and see the differences between the scenes. Anyways... onto the next film!!
Video 3 : Animal vs Animal vs Human
This film makes no sense to those who haven't watched the previous animal vs animal vs human videos. Basically we interview the people who created the video and they explain the experience. This is probably the video with the most preproduction and the least amount of visual effects and color grading. Still though.. we won best cinematography so there is that...
The film was recorded on two cameras. And to improve audio quality, we used a condenser mic I bought for music production a year ago. The scene was lit with 5 construction lights(plus the lights already in the room). It took a lot of time to edit. We had 200gb of footage, with about 5-6 hours of footage to look through. This film taught me how to make an interview effectively(even though most people wont understand it). Now onto the final video!!
4th and final Video : AvAvH 3 : Catbear
So this video piece is the most time consuming video I have produced. However, it's also the coolest video(because of fighting and explosions). Unfortunately, all the time spent during filming and post-production really took away the amount of time we spent on a script. The amount of time spent writing a script: 2 minutes. The amount of time editing the video : 100 hours. The visual effects for this video took a lot of time due to it's difficult nature. Every gunshot had to be color corrected and placed in the right spot.
Final Reflections
So, from all the videos. I would say that the most important thing I learned, was probably group coordination and leadership skills. As for all the technical details and visual storytelling aspects, I pushed myself to greater limits in my cinematography and visual storytelling skills, but I didn't improve my visual effects skills. I still feel like I have learned how to integrate myself into a group, increasing efficiency and enjoyment. Before this expeditions, I was an avid filmmaker. But I only worked with 1-2 people during the production of all my prior videos, so coordination and communication was much more simple. During expeditions, I had to learn how to manage 5-7 people in my group(not including myself). This involved a lot of yelling initially, but eventually I had to find the strengths and comfort levels with everyone in my team, so I could best optimize their workload. It took a lot of time to figure out solutions to the many personal problems on set.
As for what I felt like I should've done differently. I feel like I worked a lot of people way too hard in the first 2 expeditions, and I put them way past their comfort zone. I think I would have set lower expectations for people(not everyone has 4 years of filmmaking experience), and put a higher workload on myself. I also feel like I should've spent more time writing the story to all of the films I produced this year. Most of the stories are quite fragmented, and didn't exactly make sense. The final video didn't really even have a story. But all in all, It was an excellent experience I'm happy to have had.
Anyways, that wraps up all the videos. They all took a lot more time than they should have, and I wish I had done them differently... But I'm glad I made them and I hope you enjoy them too!!!