1/9/11

Today was the day of the challenge shoot. The challenge was to be able to complete filming a scene of a student cheating and another student accusing him, along with generating a simple assembly edit within the time period of one class. We were given brief instructions as to what the dialogue was and which shots to utilize in this short scene. Then we set of to do the filming.

The first thing we had to do, after gathering all necessary filming equipment, such as the camera and the tripod, was to find a suitable location. We first scouted around the literature floors but we were denied access to any of the classrooms as the teachers feel that we may be disruptive to their classes. Our group finally settled down in the library. We thought this was a good filming environment as the area was quiet and calm, so that we would be able to hear the dialogue of the actors clearly. After establishing the filming location, we set up the equipment to film. This was when we encountered another problem. We have discovered that we took the wrong camera, which was the cassette tape based camera, instead of the memory based camera. However, we decided to bypass this issue as the time limit was tight and we did not have time to go back and swap the camera. As two members in our group has had previous filming experience, the shoot went smoothly and successfully. There weren't any major disagreements on the setup of the shots and we worked cooperatively to get the job done.

Once back in the multimedia lab, we imported the footage captured in the camera into the computer via firewire cable. As we have been using the cassette based camera, the importing process took longer than if it were a memory based camera, and we discovered that the video resolution was SD, instead of the HD quality that the memory based camera offers. Once we had all of out clips imported into the computer. We scrubbed through the whole sequence and isolated the takes that were the most suited for editing, and getting rid of the excess takes. We then used the basic tools in Final Cut Pro of cursor and razor to cut and assemble a basic assemble edit in which we completed right before the lesson ended.

I thought this was a productive class and we have spent our time wisely in organizing the time we spent shooting and the time we spent editing. We have also been very cooperative and that has made the process a lot more efficient. However, we could improve on being more responsible in a sense that we would double check that we have the correct equipment before setting out to film. Something to keep in mind for the future.