Reflection - May 25, 2010

Today was our second last day of editing in class, and was also the first day we finally managed to begin editing.
We began the lesson by capturing the footage we had filmed over the weekend. Whilst it was capturing and we couldn't really do anything, we decided to use our time most efficiently by writing down all of the shots we watched so that later on it would be easier later on when we were rearranging our clips to see what we had and in what order.
When it had finally finished capturing, we set straight out on putting the music in and then working on the beginning. We did the beginning relatively quickly and without too much difficulty because we had carefully planned it out prior to the lesson. However, we spent the first five minutes working on the wrong beginning because we had forgotten we'd changed it. This wasted some of our precious time, but it was not such an issue because we are now all familiar with how to use Final Cut Pro, unlike in the first unit.
When arranging the beginning, it was quite difficult to make it really flow. We wanted it to look like Harry was running and then jumped off of a roof top / bridge. It was hard because he did not actually jump off, but we filmed as much as we could to make it look like he could. To make it look the most realistic and best, we played around with the speed in some areas speeding it up or slowing it down. We also often changed the angle of the shot, for example sometimes it would be a front view and sometimes it would be from underneath him or behind him. In the end, I am very happy with the beginning we have, I like how the scene transitions in time with the music, which is quite hard to do but we managed to.
As it was my first day back on Final Cut Pro in quite a while, I learned a few more things and my mind was thoroughly refreshed. I learned that it sometimes would not let you change the speed of a clip if it was on top of another clip on a different layer. I had encountered this problem many times last unit and couldn't understand why and now I do.
I really enjoyed being back editing the project, but I also realize now that we do not have a lot of time to complete the project and I will have to start staying after school sometimes. In order to finish the project by the deadline of June 8, my group will need to improve on decision making skills and sometimes compromising and not always have your idea put forward. Because if we continue to argue over every detail, the film will never get done. I think I will have to start taking charge of the situation because it is getting out of hand and the project otherwise will not be completed or not completed well.
Today I feel I was most like the IB Learner Profile risk taker because it was the first day we could finally begin editing and I didn't have time to really think through my actions, but instead I just had to take a chance and try my best at getting as much as possible done of the music video.