Reflection Essay

Over Finals Week, you will compose a short (500 word) reflection essay for your blog.  This essay will reflect on your group's work, struggles, and successes during the course of creating this documentary.

The blog entries are due by Friday, May 3rd at noon.

Please answer every question in detail:

• What was your biggest struggle during this project?
• What aspect of the documentary makes you most proud?
• What aspect of the documentary would you have changed?
• If you had 6 months to work on this project, what more could/would you have done?
• What aspects of the project were you personally responsible for? Please be specific as possible.
• We can all agree that group is frustrating. What did you do to try to promote a healthy group atmosphere? What more do you wish you had done to help the group?  Do you feel like you contributed a fair amount to the overall project?

Presentation Guidelines

Next week, you will be presenting your projects to the class. This is meant to feel like a showcase of all the hard work you put into your semester, and should feel relaxing and stress-free. I will bring some snacks, and you are welcome to bring any food or drink.

Here are a few things your group should address before you screen your film:

• What got you interested in your topic initially?
• What was/is your thesis?
• Is there any outside information we need in order to understand the situation of your documentary?

As audience members, this is your last chance to earn some participation credit for the semester. After each video, we will have a quick Q&A session for the directors. Please try to ask thought-provoking questions that relate specifically to each video.

Our schedule for presentations is as follows:

Tuesday, April 23
Section 045
RA Life
CSF Building
BSU Leadership

Thursday, April 25
Section 042
The Solar Car Team (Elliot, Chelsey, Keaton, Grant, Holly)
Starbucks (Austin, Dustin, Trevor, Quiara, Clare)

Section 045 
AcoUstiKats
Haggin Hall 

Schedule for the end of the semester

Hey all,

I wanted to give you all a concrete sense of how the end of our semester will break down. Below is a day-to-day look at our final few weeks.

Tuesday, April 9: First cuts of your documentaries due
Thursday, April 11: No Class

Tuesday, April 16: In-class editing
Thursday, April 18: In-class editing

Tuesday, April 23: Final cuts in class (your group will present your documentary and do a short question-and-answer session)
Thursday, April 25: Final cuts in class

EXAM WEEK: we will not meet, but you will have a short reflection essay due. I wish you luck on all your exams.

Proposal Elements

Each class came up with their own criteria for Proposals.

In no particular order:

8:00am
Project Goals
Plan for meeting Goals
Purpose
Audience
Tone
Specific elements (dialogue, narration, etc.)
Specific shots (introduction, conclusion)
Organization (transitions)
Music and sound choices
Presence (or invisibility) of directors, interviewers, and narrators
Filters and effects
Identification and title cards
Schedule and (shooting) Timetable

9:30am
Purpose
Issue
Timeline or Schedule
Division of Labor (group responsibilities)
Tone or Style
Content, shots, and interviews
Organization (transitions)
Audio
Filters and Effects
Audience

Media Application Tutorials

8:00am Groups

Holly, Chelsey, Elliot, Grant, Keaton: iMovie
Quiara, Trevor, Dustin, Clare, Austin: Audacity

9:30am Groups

Brandon, Tyler, Brooke, Cameron, Whitney: Movie Maker
Chloe, Muhannad, Charles, Jenna, Katie: iMovie
Meredith, Luca, Jen, Kendall, Rachel: Equipment
Shawnee, Evan, Taylor, Kimberlyn, Kristina: YouTube
Jackie, Carlos, Anna, David, Emilee: Audacity

Understanding Film Terms

Below are some key terms and explanations (with examples) of key film concepts and terms.  

The Filmic Image

• Mise-en-scene: the entirety of the image on the screen. More simply: what the viewer sees. 

• Frame: the imaginary border of the film. Think about it like a picture frame. 

• Shot: a single image of film. Can be any length, but must be unedited. 

• Scene: a series of shots which make up part of a narrative.  

Shot Lengths and Sizes

• Establishing shot: The largest shot; establishes an area the size of a town or campus.

• Long shot: A large shot which covers a space like a street or a room.

• Medium shot: A shot which captures characters from the knees or wait up. Most commonly used shot in American cinema. 

• Close shot: A shot which focuses on a character's face or a specific object. 

• Extreme Close-up: A shot which focuses on a small portion of a character's face/body or a specific object.  

Camera Angles

• High Angle: a shot from above the subject which looks down. 

• Low Angle: a shot from below the subject which looks up. 

• Sideways tilts: shots which are off-center.  

Camera Movements

• Pan shot: a shot which moves left-to-right or up-and-down on a stable axis. 

• Tracking shot: a shot which travels forward or backward.

• Zoom: camera zooms in or out on a subject.  

Editing

• Narrative editing: standard storytelling 

• Montage: clips which are meant to stand in for a story  

Cuts

• Cross-cut: standard cut from shot to shot. 

• Fade: shot fades into black or fades from black. 

• Iris: shot fades into or out of a specific object on the screen. 

• Dissolve: shot fades into the next shot; images are transposed or juxtaposed.  

Focus

• Deep: everything in the frame is in focus. 

• Soft: one specific object or subject on the screen is in focus. 

 Sound

• Narration: off-camera speech designed to give context to the images. 

• Dialogue: on or off-camera spoken exchange between characters. 

• Monologue: on or off-camera speech acts performed by a single character. 

• Music: can be diegetic (characters can hear the sound) or non-diegetic (characters can not hear the sound). 

• Effects: any sounds which are not spoken or musical; similar to music, can be diegetic or non-diegetic.

Media Tutorial Topics

These are just basic ideas for your group to explore. I can add more later, or you can pick your own.

iMovie tutorial
Movie Maker tutorial
YouTube editor tutorial
Lighting tutorial
Where to get cameras/equipment tutorial
Tripod, tracking, and stabilization tutorial
Working with multiple audio tracks tutorial
Filtering, effects, and saturation tutorial
Framing and image composition tutorial