After learning many editing techniques, we were asked to create a One Word Film in pairs, and luckily for me I was able to work in a group of 3 as the class has an odd number of students. This One Word Film is meant to resemble a certain word that needs to be identified by the viewer, but with no sound at all. Meaning that us students needed to try and figure out how we could tell a story of our assigned word in between 60-90 seconds with just visual techniques and actions.
At first, my group and I began to brainstorm different ideas on how we could represent and illustrate the word “loving.” After several failed attempts a certain idea came up. This idea involved two students, one girl one boy, the boy would be alone studying fidgeting with a paper, then the paper would fall. As the paper laid on the ground, the girl would grab the paper and give it back to the boy. They would smile at each other and show a connection that would resemble love. Unfortunately, as we pitched the idea to the teacher, we were told that the relationship between the two students didn’t make much sense as the viewer has no context whatsoever of whether the students knew each other or not. We then tweaked the story and made the two students' study together writing notes down from the same laptop, in order to show a previous relationship that was not there before.
We then began creating our storyboard. This helped us immensely with how we would take certain shots and overall structure the story. There were some shots before we started our storyboard, that we were confused on how to angle/take. The storyboard allowed us to visualize and better compose these shots. It also gave us a layout on how we would edit the project.
The editing aspect of the project was interesting. It makes you realize an estimate of how much time it takes for a full-length film to be edited. Our group used Adobe Premiere Pro, which is complicated at first but after you use it for a while you get accustomed to it. We used many cuts and techniques that we learned, trying our best to make it look good and seamless. After watching the final product, it did, but there were things that we needed to execute better.
Collectively, this project was a lot of fun and gave me a much better perspective on how films are planned out. Personally, I believe that my group had a very good composition and selection of shots, but I’d say that next time I would want to be more creative and incorporate more challenging shots. This is so there is more meaning and to give the audience a more enjoyable and engaging experience.
