Composition Techniques

Check out the videos that my digital media class mates made!

Their are a lot of different and unique Composition Techniques. However, the main four are named rule or thirds, framing, unusual angles and leading lines. 

Rule of thirds is placing the subject of attention in either the very left of the shot or the very right, never in the center. For example, when you look into the screen on your camera split it into two vertical lines going down, and two horizontal lines going across. Line up the subject of attention in one thirds of the screen to create an interesting perspective.

Framing is using natural things around you to frame and draw attention to the subject of your shot. It causes the viewers eyes to focus more on what is being framed. This is very important because it makes your shot a lot more interesting. 

Unusual angles is placing the camera in  an uncommon or unusual place. You could put the camera on the ground, looking up, or you could put the camera very high up and have it look down on the center of your shot. This technique creates an unusual and interesting angle to make the shot more special. 

Leading lines is another composition technique. It uses natural lines that lead to the center of your shot. For example, you could put the camera at the beginning of a dirt trail with trees and forest on both sides. The trail then leads the viewers eyes to the very end of the trail or the center of your shot, that could be a person or an object!

Three Shot Sequences

View our video me made in our digital media class!

Sequencing is a very useful thing when making any kind of video. Sequencing is using three different shot types, wide, medium and close up, to make an action a lot more interesting. It uses different camera angles and perspectives. We made and edited our video in Final Cut Pro. In the video that Jasmine, Isabella and I made (above) there is a girl who does the action of opening a door. Although this may seem like an easy, simple, one-shot thing to film, you can make it look ten times better by just sequencing! First you choose what you want to film. After that, you shoot the first part with a wide view! Like in the video above, the wide shot is of the girl walking towards the door. Then, the medium shot is from a different angle, a little closer. In the video the wide shot is of the girl opening the door. Finally, the last shot, the camera was placed inside the bathroom to show the girl coming into the bathroom with a close up view. I persuade everyone to try sequencing while making a video to make it look spectacular!

Wide Shot:

 Medium Shot:

 Close Up Shot:

Practice Story Reflection

In my Digital Media class we made a practice interview video in Final Cut Pro. We interviewed one person in our group and filmed B-roll to go along with the video. We interviewed a student who has played tennis all of her life, Isabella Kotsol. The interview went very smoothly with no flaws. The b-roll footage was also extremely successful as well and we got a bunch of shots of the interviewee hitting the tennis ball with the tennis racket; she hit the balls high and low which made our video very interesting because it showed how much experience she has had in tennis. When we were done filming we went back to class and imported all of the footage onto a computer. 

We made a transcript that presented what questions were asked in the interview and exactly, word for word, how the interviewee answered the questions. The transcript paper also had a transition section where we wrote what the narrator will say in the film to connect each scene together. I was the narrator of our film and we had about 5 different times where it would be my voice in the back ground and some b-roll would be playing on the screen. It was pretty easy to shoot my voice because all I had to do was talk into the microphone on the top of my computer. 

The most difficult part was editing because we only had one class period to do it. We all had to work together and take turns editing, cutting and stitching the video together. We put the b-roll footage and and had to put the audio of my voice into the film and finally our video was complete. It was a little stressful to edit everything and turn it into the server folder on time. We were three minutes late because by the time the bell rang, our video was still exporting into the server folder. However, since our team demonstrated a great amount of team work, we believe that our video turned out very good!

Spherical Panoramas

 I made Spherical Panoramas in my Gifted and Talented Digital Media class! The first step I took was taking 10-15 pictures, rotating in a 360 degree turn. Each picture should be overlapped about 15% with the previous picture to create a perfect, seamless final image! Upload the pictures to your computer and edit them with Adobe Camera Raw. Then, using photo merge in Photoshop, I compiled all the images into a Panoramic image. Then, I warped and cropped the panoramic so that it was a perfect rectangle. The next step I took was resizing the image so that it was 5,000 pixels by 5,000 pixels and then in Photoshop go to Filter> Distort> Polar Coordinates. Then my image is a Spherical Panorama! Then, I used the blur, smudge, and stamp tool to make sure no seams are left. Then I feathered and contracted my image to make it a smooth world. After I have perfected the seams, I put a white or black border and finally my final image was done. I made a professional, seamless, beautiful spherical panorama. 

Click here to see an insane 3D image that you can move around in!