Creating Video Narratives
Tell us a story, teach us something or share your journey. The objective of this project is to integrate the effective use of digital video into your growing multi-media skill set.
After reviewing several examples of video narratives shot on phone cameras, looking at student work and taking part in a demonstration on phone camera techniques students will create their own “video narrative”.
You will have the option of creating a narrative composed entirely of your own motion images and sounds captured on your phones or DSLR cameras - or combining phone/camera images and recorded sounds and video ripped from the Internet.
But wait… so Its OK to “steal” videos and use this material in my own work? Is this illegal and a form of plagiarism? Is someone going to prosecute me???
At this juncture we need to offer some perspectives on the surprising and exciting directions that art (music, video, web sites, etc.) and technology are taking in the world today, and how this new explosion of creativity is colliding with our sometimes-outdated copyright laws. - Copying has gone on in art and music throughout the ages, from “quoting” in classical music compositions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_quotatio in homage and parody, http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-parody.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composer_tributes_(classical_music)
In much of the last century, these “appropriation” practices were the province of the avant-garde and the fine art world. But with the Internet, the ever-growing speed of computing, YouTube, MySpace, file-sharing, and other recent developments "Appropriation" has have now moved wholly and firmly into the mainstream.
However, if you’re going to be appropriating material from the Internet, you need to read and understand the “Fair use Doctrine”.
http://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
What is absolutely critical is that you re-edit and re-interpret ripped material as a means to create a NEW WORK that is an entirely unique form of imaginative expression.
Students will integrate (both original and if they wish, appropriated) video, sound and graphics using “Final Cut Pro” and “Garage Band” software to form a final project between 1 and 2 minutes in length.
Examples and inspirations of Smart phone Cinema:
You have amazing and powerful technology at your fingertips!
This Bentley commercial was shot entirely on IPhones. Notice that they make no mention of using the microphone on the IPhone. This is because the camera phone is equipped with an Omni-directional microphone designed for receiving and recording ALL the sound in an environment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyYhM0XIIwU
A behind the scenes video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQmzuT0C8T4
There are several international festivals that are centered on films shot entirely with phone cameras!!! Take some time and explore how these filmmakers used their camera phones to tell stories.
http://iphonefilmmaker.com/watch/
https://internationalmobilefilmfestival.com/mff#MFF2017Official
Recording voice-over and dialogue (people talking) is very difficult with the camera mic. This video demo gives an excellent demonstration of a few recording techniques.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02SDsUvCzZU
I like to shoot MOS (MID OUT SOUND!) whenever I can because I like to treat sound as a separate design element. This approach gives me a huge degree of freedom when I’m shooting. Keep in mind that the camera mic is of poor quality and it picks-up all kinds of environmental and hand noises. If you are planning on recording audio in the field consider recording your sound separately on one of our digital audio recorders. The quality is infinitely better and you will have control of mic placement.
But lets not completely disregard the on-board mic. It can be helpful for the filmmaker – especially when mixing “natural sound” with music.
http://www.iphoneff.com/video/golden-harvest/.
You also can omit the camera sound completely! Here, the moving images supplement a story that is predominantly told with sound. http://www.iphoneff.com/video/this-is-lindi-ortega/
Here is another example. Sound and image (shot with an Iphone) are almost completely separate, but thoughtfully integrated.
http://www.iphoneff.com/video/martinus-muse/
Follow this link to a brief tutorial on using your phone camera
Finally, Here are some examples of student work.