Did you ever have to make a video that involved working in a group, having to edit and
construct a project with a very limited and restrictive amount of time? It’s not as easy as you
might think and it’s definitely something that is not just “a walk in the park.”
Throughout the creation of the original video that each group was prompted to do,
there were many struggles that were faced and complications that were encountered. In order
to successfully create a well-edited version of a video that is made out of all sorts of clip
segments, quite a bit of footage must be filmed. Even when starting to doubt the footage that
you are filming, you will probably still be wondering if you will be able to use anything that is
worth while. Whatever you do, do not panic! Even the footage that you may not think you will
use at all, keep it just in case you need a back-up plan. It is very likely that the footage you
thought would not ever be necessary to keep, will eventually be used at some point within the
video or even to wrap up the ending portion. Whether the short clips are used to fill space or
time, it is always good to keep all footage undoubtedly until the very end of the project.
When given a video project that has to follow a certain subject line, you must
understand that creativity is the first and foremost guideline that you must follow. If your
video does not show creativity, the audience who watches will start to assume that your work is
supposed to be following an original format, making it very dull and uninteresting to watch
and follow.
The most difficult task that was faced throughout this whole entire project was probably
the very limited amount of time that we were given to complete all necessary objectives. When
you do not have a wide array of time to record or film, you are limited on your creativity skills
as well. Now-a-days students have other things on their agendas other than school, making it
very strenuous to be able to jump all around town in between other daily priorities. Not only
do most students work full-time, but they have to balance their course workload from school as
well. Not to mention, life is just very chaotic in general and the media continue to speed up as
new generations are being detected.
While editing and posting our video for the class to view, as a group there were many
things that had to be cut out. On a positive note, we had a lot of footage that was originally
filmed, but it was more difficult deciding on what footage would and would not be used for
this project. There are many disagreements when it comes down to working in a group, as
everybody may not have the same opinions or outlook on things.
Putting together the video was not as complicated as it actually was thought to be at the
very beginning, when this assignment was actually introduced and discussed in class. The
video was used as a communication tool, instead of a written document or an array of
photographs. This was very effective in a way that a lot of people are visual learners. Also,
when a video is created, people start to pick out different parts that could not be described in a
writing assignment. The creativity that is used while creating this project, helps viewers in the
audience to see perspectives of many points of view. This helps to bring the audience to realize
that not everybody has the same scope or frame of mind.
As a class, we rolled into a specific self-portrait section where a short and edited version
of the video had to describe who each person was individually. The uniqueness of each person
was described in a very distinctive way, introducing the main character of each video with the
subject of separation. Now, separation is very different from time, which was the original
subject matter that our group was given. But when you think about it, the clips that were
filmed for our project could be separate as long as we had evidence that our theme tied in at the
very end or in different sections of the video that were maybe not as noticeable.
As the self-portrait video was being created and edited, there were many questions that
had to be asked. First, will the audience be able to understand the essential character to the
fullest extent? In order to grasp the viewers’ eye and attention from all aspects of the spectrum,
the level of creativity must meet above and beyond most expectations. When you are trying to
relay information about a specific person throughout a personalized video, it is very difficult to
show every single aspect of their life. This means that you should not leave out important
factors that uniquely disperses a person from a very large crowd, setting them apart from many
people that they may share similar values or interests with. If a person is not shown to be
exclusive in many ways, people will not show interest in the qualities that they do have to offer.
Throughout this whole project, there were many objectives that we had to face and
many things that caught us off guard as a group. In the end, we found that teamwork was a
huge factor in the success of making this video, as we each person took on the responsibility of
completing different tasks on top of their own that they were already assigned to. It was very
helpful to have one group member that was already very familiar with video editing and
experience with iMovie. She was able to direct and guide each one of us, successfully forcing
the completion of each small task to our advantage.
We were able to find both our strengths and
weaknesses throughout the completion of this project, helping each and every one of us to be
somewhat more successful than we were when we first started. Not only did this group project
help us open up to our classmates that we did not know so well in the beginning, but it showed
us that working under pressure can actually be very rewarding and entertaining as an end
result.
