Production Log

I have already given my experience when actually filming, but there are a few key things to point out about editing. Most of my cuts were for one of three reasons; I was speaking immediately after or before, The sequence was far too long and I wanted to keep the action going, and I needed to time everything to music.

I used group choreography from my first shoot, but I cropped many of the shots and eliminated their music and/or their choreographer Johnathan yelling at all. I wanted initially to have the jump be four freeze frame images and then to continue in real time after the last freeze. Yet the music made it much better to have motion-then a freeze frame at the top.

I was really only playing around at fist with it, but I would say I adopted a style of every cropped shot fitting into rectangles that traveled around the screen with each shot. I sped up the second group choreography sequence to keep with the music and then ended with a dramatic slow shot for the "calypso jump"

My weakness in this project was definitely trying to match the sound and db of the song "Black and Gold" with Alexa's narration. In all, I did not have the best equipment (microphone or camcorder) because of the time constraints with my actor not matching up with when I wanted to sign out equipment. However, I had a clear vision-with a story I was both connected to and knowledgeable about and feel that I executed it to the best of my ability.
My rough cut #1 and final are also on the playlist!
Final Cut Playlist

Raw Footage #2

I went back and worked exclusively with Alexa in the TW fitness Center, because I wanted to get some more turns, jumps and dialogue for a voice over and for her on camera. The lighting was very different from my first night, not necessarily worse, just different. In addition she borrowed the pink shirt which I thought became her signature, so her shirt is different too. However, I knew exactly how I wanted the shots to look this time around and worked like a choreographer. I had a full script written out for Alexa, but I wanted this to feel less like her acting and reciting lines, and more just as if she was telling her story.
Therefore, we took a minute to just talk, I explained the rising conflict and what my message was and we had a conversation about what dance means to someone who has devoted so many years to it. As a result, while the core message of each line stayed the same, the phrasing was rearranged. I think that it gave for a more genuine and satisfying performance from Alexa because her movements where obviously going to be second nature, so I wanted the speaking to match as well. She was very professional, I on the other hand would speak almost immediately after she finished her lines-which was a serious mistake in regard to editing.
Again, everything is on my youtube channel-this time under Raw Footage #2.

YouTube raw footage #2

Storyboard

I understand many people did a reverse-engineered storyboard. But this one was created before I started putting all of my footage together, or even went back to shoot more stuff for that matter. This was drawn and then scanned in on my computer.

Proposal

Proposal:
So I found that I very much enjoyed shooting the dance footage, and after talking to Professor Sanders I finally have a direction to go in. I don't want this to just essentially to be a dance recital film where my goal is to get every dancer seen. We discussed making it a narrative and story of one girl-specifically my friend Alexa Abraham who was for the most part in the front wearing a pink shirt which definitely stood out. The conflict is the perception that dance is a pretty princess activity filled with tutus and fluff. Alexa is going to help me tell a story of the intensity dance has to offer. I know that I want to add different music to the roughly one minute montage-which provide its own challenges because it must remain musical and to the beat. However, I am a musician and a choreographer so I think that if anyone is up to this musical and aesthetic challenge, it would be me.

From my raw footage I was most satisfied with the lighting and acoustics the Travers-Wolfe Fitness Center had to offer. I understand I will have to go back and shoot more, but fingers crossed that the lighting works in my favor!

Raw Footage #1

This is my first set of footage that I shot with a simple point and shoot, free-hand. It is a typical dance rehearsal for the Synergy Dance Company on campus. As a dancer myself I was drawn to the action and skill of this type of time media-although I did not have a clear direction yet for the project. The choreography was by Jonathan Velez and all dancers in the room gave their ok.

Blogger seems to be cranky about uploading videos at the moment so the link below takes you to my youtube channel. These shots are under Raw footage #1. Enjoy!

Final Cut Footage

Photo Midterm- Self evaluation

       I am extremely proud of my work and application of new techniques. I think my biggest challenge was trying not to go over board with color saturation, because I have been trained to always use high saturation so images can be seen on stage and with lights. Considering I do not own a fancy camera and most of my pictures were actually taken years ago, I think I came up with some good pieces. I am particularly proud of my work with the gradient mask and meticulous selections. These were two techniques that I had no exposure to until this class and I found them to be a bit more challenging.

      If I had more time, I may have tried to improve the continuity of lighting in documentation 6 with they guy's arms and hands, perhaps ever scrapping it and starting over. But at least now I have a conscious eye for details such as this which will only help me in the future.

Photo Midterm- Documentation 6

So definitely a neat place, but the lighting is inconsistent as the sky and building were very naturally saturated, and there was minimal exposure on the person's face.

This is just the selection of the area I needed to brighten. The trouble was, his face was really burnt and the increase of saturation only enhanced this

As you can see, this does put light on the face, but it is almost entirely desaturated.

Here I offset the color balance on just the selected areas, getting rid of all red hues and taking it closer to yellows. The result was good although I'm not thrilled with the difference between his upper arm and hand.

Photo midterm- Documentation 1

This honestly was a neat shot to begin with, but it was a pretty rough and pixelated  image. Here we see the use of a noise filter and reducing JPEG artifacts:

Original

Reduced Noise- increased Saturation

I then decided to try out gradients on this picture, maybe to emphasize the red flower. So I first put a transparent layer mask on the background. I did not use black and white but rather played around with a very light beige and a darker tan, to mimic how light might actually hit the ruins.

With a transparent gradient mask

Photo Midterm- proposal

         Five of the six photos for this midterm portfolio were taken on my spring break these past few years.  This was a particular challenge because these photos were not initially intended to be higher quality or corrected later on, and it's not like I can go back to Greece or Paris to capture more. In addition, it was a nice treat to use these images because at the time a had little control over the weather or lighting and this offers a chance for me to add a sense of perfection to the shot which may have been dim and off center previously. Perhaps my biggest challenge, especially with my background as a set designer, with correcting then became not to take it too far and make it seem unrealistic.
        My goal is to focus on a particular technique which I have learned to apply during the course for each picture. Obviously there is overlap, but as a general overview, I applied color correction using the curves to an extremely dim church in Cordoba, I cropped a plaza in Paris to adhere to The Rule of Thirds, I corrected a shadow cast of my friend's face in the Bahamas, looked to erase signs of JPEG pixels and add a gradient from Delphi, and apply a composite of many structures and scenery from Greece. The reason I would not categorize this as a project with a common underlying theme is that my sixth was a complex composite of many images to create a scene from the Hunger Games books. However, I am very proud with its result and therefore it is part of the portfolio.

Photo Midterm-Documentation 4

This was a picture in Cordoba Spain, in a church with considerably poor lighting (plus my crap camera). I'll take you through my layers of adjustments.

Original

Increasing the level of brightness and color saturation

Balancing the reds with increased blues and greens/ using sharpen tool and reducing noise

Photo Midterm- Documentation 2 and 3

This week I applied the Rule of Thirds to two different compositions, the first was a street in Paris in which the grid line mainly helped me crop the photo so the thing that looks like the Washington Monument and the sidewalk edge fell just right.

The next was a scene from one of the Hunger Games books haha. If you've read them you'll appreciate it. If not, it probably looks really strange. But every component came from a different picture of mine, its not supposed to look realistic, but a testament about how the proper selections and adjustments can create the fantastical scene that could never exist naturally.

recognize it?

ocean water that has been saturated

I also put a glass filter on the clock after selecting it

Photo Midterm-Documentation 5

So for my second try, I used pictures that I took in Greece three years ago. You may notice that these layer come from all over the country;  the edifices are from two different angles of the Erectheum in Athens. The hill top is from Delphi, and the background mountains and sky were taken while on a bus passing through Corinth.

First composits

This first one was a product of three abstract photographs we were asked to take: Here you see (or maybe not) a lamp, the inside of my printer, and a dusty fan.

 My idea was to composit them together to somehow make an industrial/futuristic sort of flower vase- I played with the color of the lamp, warped and inverted the printer, and played with the transparency and gray scale of the fan. It's pretty rough, but got me accustomed to selecting and layering!

Painting assignment

This photoshop painting was my first one, and I took 60 minutes making it. I wanted it to resemble a water color painting. I knew it wouldn't be flawless but it reminds me of impressionist art in which it comes into focus at a distance.

 This one took 30 minutes

And 15 minutes

About Me

Hi! I'm Chelsea Cannon and I created this blog for my "Intro to Digital Media Class" so I can share my projects throughout the semester. I'm a freshman at The College of New Jersey and I am an English Liberal Arts major. However, I am considering an IMM minor because writing truly is taking a digital turn and these skill can only help. Plus, it seems like a lot of fun so far!