OWF Blog

OWF-One Word Film Project

Summary of directions: We were paired into partners and tasked to complete a one word film project. The assignment included the creation of a short film 60-90 seconds in duration without sound and the film needed to convey the one word assigned to us. Additionally, brainstorming ideas, creating a story board, filming with different angle(s), filming it on campus, and utilizing editing techniques to help with the messaging of the one word in the story formed the rubric for project scoring.  

Summary of our approach: Our word was "Optimistic". First we came up with a common understanding of defining optimistic and general ideas of what an optimistic story could look like. Then, we worked individually to brainstorm and develop optimistic ideas to fit into a plot.  Next, we compared each other's part of the story and chose which part we felt would be selection from each. Once we decided which sections would be utilized, we assembled our story and started drawing. The story board gave us a visual for what we would filming, as it provided the order of our filming clips in and what emotions we were aiming to capture and record. For editing, we used Premier Pro, utilizing its various transition types and editing utilities including color toning, speed adjustment, sniping tool, and frame hold.

What went well and areas to improve: We were happy with the flow of the film in that it appeared seamless with good transitions, and feedback indicated that the film captured optimistic themes. Improvements for next time could include better planning on the duration of each section of the storyboard so that we are able to fit all of the shots into the final video. As we were not able to fit all the shots we recorded into the final video,  the length of the video would have been too long. Also, the use of different videography devices, such as tripod and fluid head, would help stabilize the film as some of the clips appear a bit shaky which takes away from the final quality of the video. While a stabilizer was used, a tripod and fluid head may have provided better results. 

Link to film: OWF_NorlingRader_Ortiz