Video Blog - REPORT!!!

Q1 - The challenges and tribulations of being a group assignment.

The challenges and tribulations of this assignment were mainly brought about by our lack of previous video editing experience, specifically in regards to figuring out how to cut out certain parts of the video, and saving it in a format readable by each group member’s computer. Nevertheless, we managed to overcome these adversities fairly quickly through unification of ideas and trial and error using Windows Live Movie Maker.

Another tribulation we had some difficulty with was time management and being able to get together to film and edit the video. Since we wanted everyone to be included in the filming of the video, we decided the best time to film would be during a practical class, and edit in our own time after that. Fortunately however, we were able to come to an agreement as to when most group members would be able to do specific parts of the assignment, which helped the entire process run as smoothly as possible.

Q2 - The movie making process

Firstly we had to come up with an idea. We had a team meeting and decided that Avatar was a good review to do in video format. We brought a camera to class and filmed a few seconds of ourselves mentioning facts about the movie. We edited and published the video in about 2hrs when all of us were together one afternoon. Logistically it was quite a challenge to get everyone together.

When it came to cutting the video it was constant trial and error. We found it difficult to get some effects to work and to have the program respond in the way we wanted it to. We used Windows Movie Magic .

We had a meeting and decided on what things we wanted to achieve in the video and how it was to look. The biggest obstacle was the program. It was unable to do some things because the program was too unsophisticated. But we managed to get something we were happy with in the end considering the resources we had.

In particular, text editing was a pain. It was a constant struggle to have the text centred and in line and happening at a particular time and then changing at another time. There was no automated way to have the text re-align and change, it had to be done manually.

Music wasn’t so much of a struggle. It seemed a little easier to insert and edit. In the beginning we wanted to have a beginning song and an end song. However due to some technical problems, we had to change the song altogether. And at the last moment decided that we would have it play in the background as it was easier than fumbling with the program to get it to fade in and out.

Cutting the video together was extremely limited by the software also. There are two moments in the published version that we couldn’t fix. The video pauses on a single frame but the audio continues. It was caused by ‘trimming’ the section to get a smaller clip. For whatever reason, the program outputted the final result of paused frames that we just couldn’t remove.

We are now more comfortable with the software, but were annoyed at its limitations. Next time we will use different software.

3. How does the video relate to your blog?

Our video is a review by us (bloggers about movies) talking about facts about the movie Avatar which we all agree upon being a top movie. We chose Avatar as it is a movie we all agree upon being great, unlike some other movies which we may have trouble seeing eye to eye on. So a video on some important facts about a movie we all enjoyed makes it much more enjoyable to make and watch.

As Avatar is one of the highest grossing and popular movies of all time and we had not done a written review of the movie. We decided reserving a video review of the movie facts as a special ‘tribute’ to this amazing movie.

Our blog is about reviews and information on movies recently released and old great movies, so the video does the blog justice. Us movie lovers telling the readers of our blog certain interesting facts and information they might not know of the movie. For example the amount of money that this movie grossed or the camera lenses used to film this epic.

Also since our target audience of this blog are movie-goers, lovers and movie fanatics. We thought making a video based upon our blogs topic would keep and increase our fanbase.

Thanks :)