02.12.13 / Weekly Refection / Web Narratives
After more than eight unceasing hours of editing, my journey piece for web narratives is complete! The relief and sense of accomplishment are sort of masked by sleep deprivation and the onset of what I think may be a migrane, but I am undeniably triumphant, nonetheless.
I'll share my piece here after it is presented in class this afternoon, but for now I'll illustrate some of the successes and failures of the assignment process, from my initial idea to the finalized product.
THE IDEA: Talk about a struggle. Conceptualizing the idea of my piece was the most challenging part of the process. I spent nearly a week formulating the idea before I even felt comfortable picking up my camera. Being only a novice at video was difficult to overcome and the anxiety that accompanied this realization was brutal. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to construct a piece that was mysterious and, for the lack of a better word, haunting, but I had no idea what theme I wanted to convey.
I began by selecting several familiar tunes that could potentially work for my undeveloped concept, and then, it hit me. I had figured the impossible out. Music, after all, has always been my starting point source for inspiration. My idea, still in its prime, was to create a piece constructed around the struggle of an insomniac's journey to leave the zone of the unconscious mind. I established a shot list, began considering serval different proses, original and copyrighted, and finalized the direction I wanted to pursue. And so began my venture of shooting video.
SHOOTING: Thank goodness I had written out a list of possible clips, or else I would have been in a world of trouble. That goes without saying, but let me reiterate, my anxiety level was through the roof! I spent four nonconsecutive days shooting and gathering video. Many of the sequences came directly from my shot list, others presented themselves along the way. One very important lesson I can take away from this experience is the importance of a tripod when a scene calls for clarity and consistency. I discovered that I have an unruly shake whilst filming. This, unfortunately, derives itself from a number of factors, whether it be the weight of the camera or lens, my attachment to shooting still photographs, nerves, or the amount of coffee I've had on any given day. I do drink an inappropriate amount of coffee, I will admit. But from here forward, I promise myself I will use a tripod whenever my body is incapable of doing the work. But my lack of tripod use is superficial compared to editing the piece.
EDITING: The remembrance of how editing began makes me want to dig a hole, curl up in it and remain that way for the rest of the semester. Okay, well it wasn't that horrible, I guess, but I was a little embarrassed by my lack of Final Cut Pro skills. My memory of the program is somewhat repressed and distant, but after about an hour, I finally figured out how to set a scratch disk. I told you it was bad. Editing, from that point on, was extremely difficult. It didn't get any easier. I blame this debacle on (but rightly take responsibility for it) the upwards of 160 small, 20 seconds or less scenes. I was, as you can imagine, overwhelmed and completely lost. But it proved to be easier once I established an opening sequence. I can't say I am 100% satisfied with the outcome of the final edit of my piece because it does need work, but I am at least 83.99% content with what I have produced. I'll probably come back to it at a later date an make improvements, but for now, it is what it is.
Like I said, I will post the final piece after it has been presented to my class this afternoon. I hope you're excited!