The Daily Creates this week seemed really sound-based, which I didn’t really buy, but I enjoyed the readings this week quite a lot. 

All of my daily creates are here.

My response to The Reality Principle is here.

My response to Writing Movies for Fun and Profit is here.

My first Stop motion Video!

response to first video

Video Create the day rating

Video Create favorite word

Video Create hiccups 

“copy that gold leader” in which I wanted to see what type of Green Screen effects were possible on the computer.

reading response The art of film

Overall, I like my first video. Now I’m looking for inspiration of my next one. I tried out some green screen effects, but have decided that I probably won’t use them. I’m thinking a baby documentary on the Ann Arbor squirrel. I’ll have to see if I can get enough footage in the right orientation to do it. I was also thinking about weiring something related to a fandom (probably Doctor Who) and recording the responses I get to it throughout the day. Looking for inspiration!

My first video was a stop motion which I always wanted to try out. 

I used my Ipad as my camera and set it up on the stairs and used hammond as my subject for the movement. I really like the quality of the pictures and in general the photos were consistent enough to piece together a stop motion video.

I actually felt I took to many pictures and the beginning of the video actually consists of every other photo that I took. 

One thing to be noted about stop motion was that my Ipad automatically focuses for each picture which means some of the lighting changed or the follow photos looked a little off compared to the others.

I also ran into some trouble transferring photos but once I got them onto my computer via photo stream it became easy to manipulate them in imovie. Imovie took a little playing around with to know where all the controls were but that is due to the fact I’d never used it before.

I rather like the jumping around of the final half of my movie I think it’s more interesting than the first half.

Lastly, I like the film and it’s baned from being played in Germany due to copyright restrictions. 

Otherwise known as the day that heyStorytellers became one of my 8 most visited websites according to google chrome.

Now onward to reading movies! Oddly enough last semester for my Art of Film class we read Understanding movies. I would have to agree with the evaluation that most spaces and placement on a screen have a common connotation. It is not to say that the “rules” of screen placement can’t broken it is simply a polite and effective way to convey stories that most people can understand. Breaking the rules on purpose can add something to a scene.  

One example of a rule is the 180 degree rule. Which simply means that the way an area is filmed means the camera does not cross an imaginary line and show things on the oposite side. This “rule” exists simply because crossing that line creates visual confusion. Now it’s not to say you can’t break it, it’s just helpful not to.

Now like most art forms movies have their own language that once you know what words mean and how they are constructed it demystifies certain aspects of movies (like learning a magician’s secret) but also allows you to better talk about and understand movies.