Our first task in Media Studies was to create a short, one minute film. We were to use a diverse amount of camera shots, different editing techniques, and to create a cohesive narrative. We titled our film “The Phone Call” as it was the central premise of the film and was crucial to the main conflict. My contribution to the project was as the editor and also the cinematographer. I filmed the shots and edited the shots together, adding music and sound effects.
Before filming, my group and I made a story board to plan out angles, sequencing, and audio. For the most part, we followed the storyboard, making sure we planned everything before we did it.
A big concern of mine with filming was the audio, more specifically the dialogue audio. Since we do not have professional microphones, the audio received from the phones we were filming with would be low quality. My solution to this was to have all the dialogue spoken on a phone. The phone was recording the voice and I implemented it in editing.
The largest part of my role was editing. I added music, extra sound effects, and dialogue. I also had to string the shots together with transitions. I learned a lot about film editing through this process such as how editing can display a certain mood and feeling that leads to a certain genre. One example of this was a shortened length in shots which led to a tense and fast paced feeling.
Looking back, the process of making this short, one minute film was rather difficult. I learned how important it is to plan all your shots through storyboarding and to execute these shots effectively. Though the audio was of less quality than I hoped, it was still improved by my idea. All in all, it was a great learning experience
Link to Film: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NTFymFvD30jT2mNIgV6Gi9bfHeHQnfRi
Carlos' AS Media Studies Blog 