By Ella Smith
To be honest, I found filming my ALM102 introduction assignment very challenging and testing however rewarding and exciting at the same time. I have always had a love for videoing and editing videos; for example, my family, friends or the landscape. However, I have never spoken on camera and shared it to the internet and therefore the filming of this video really put me out of my comfort zone. I assume that it puts me out of my confront zone as it makes me feel vulnerable to my larger network of “friends” online if they don’t know me personally. Thus, to showcase my “authentic self” and love for editing I split my video into two sections; with my first section including an introduction of myself where I enlighten to the audience my studies and career aspirations. My second section includes my interests such as my family and friends, dancing, the beach, camping, festivals, music, food, my dog and overall just having a good time.
I didn’t plan my video in writing until I had to sit down and speak to the camera because as soon as I got the criteria of the assignment, I knew I wanted to do something creative which engages my audience but also gets them excited for my coming video assignments! After thinking for a while I decided that I wanted to display my editing skills, from there I begun to make my interests edit. This involved me going through all my videos that would suit this section and if it had identifiable people in it, making sure that I would be able to attain their signatures and permission to be in it. As this slowly developed I then begun to write my script however, I really put this to the side as I didn’t realise how nervous and insecure I became to sit down and speak to the camera. A million thoughts filled my mind as I started becoming particular on minor things such as my appearance, lighting, backgrounding etc. Every time I begun to film the lighting was never and it always washed me out I then settles for my kitchen bench as there are downlights behind me that didn’t wash me out too much although I wasn’t too happy with the final lighting in the end. I lent my computer on three thick books with my computer brightness up, I placed my phone resting on my computer with my script behind as a prompt if I needed it. The overall sound I am quite happy with as I am luckily able to film on my iphone XR which has very good sound.
I filmed myself speaking through my script 5 times but as I was very nervous to film and record this section, I felt as I though I was stuttering and I was looking at my script a lot. Therefore, I had to go through those 5 recordings and filter out the best parts of each one. Due to this, it meant that I had to edit my video to ensure that if there were snippets from different and that they flowed.
Overall, my greatest challenge was my insecurity to post this video, to allow people to see me in a different light. However, I really do enjoy the subject and how it does make me push myself to participate in things that I am not used to consequently, I put my uncertainties behind me and begun to film!
Hope you enjoy !
ELLA'S BLOG 