We looked at every single group's recap videos today. I appreciated the decent audio recordings in a lot of the videos. However, I felt that some groups overdid the color effect by adding too much color during post-production, which made it look unnatural and garish. Although I experimented with colors in FCP and managed to nail a natural color tint that sets the mood, the video showed to the class was actually the footage whose colors were manipulated only in-camera, but not in FCP.
I felt that we, as a group, could have done a lot better than the footage we had, especially for the "rule of thirds" one and, of course, the sound effects. A tracking shot for the "rule of thirds" exercise was not appropriate, but at that time, I was thinking, "most of the shots we filmed adhered to the rule of thirds, so let's just forget about it and film a tracking shot." I better follow the guidelines next time. The sounds, on the other hand, were satisfactory. I was intent on learning how to record audio instead of caring about the results, therefore I was content with the sounds that we had.
In my first post, I stated that this was a just-get-it-done-and-forget-about-it recap exercise. Well, I should get rid of that mentality and approach exercises in a more serious manner from now on.
After the viewing, there was one thing that I had to disagree with the teacher - on the sheet, it stated that students should strive to create a documentary-styled shot. Seeing the words "documentary" and "feel", I immediately thought of cinéma-vérité more on the Dogme 95 side, but not on the documentary side. When I filmed, I thought we were to film in Dogme 95-style, but I was wrong. I had cinéma vérité categorized into two styles: one which was the "documentary-documentary" feel, which the teacher asked us to shoot in the style of, and the "documentary-dogme 95" feel, which I felt was superior to the "documentary-documentary" feel (These are not official terms; I just made them up).
Here are two examples:
1. The "documentary-documentary" feel, as seen in Cloverfield:
2. The "documentary-dogme 95" feel, as seen in The Office:
I have to say that the "documentary-dogme 95" feel is more tasteful than the Cloverfield feel. In my opinion, the "superior" feel has more spirit.
*UPDATE (i forgot about the IB-learner qualities): Throughout the lesson I was knowledgeable, reflective, open-minded, principled, communicator... well, everything apart from caring or risk-taking, because we didn't have a chance to work in groups.
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Good job on your reflections so far. I particularly appreciate your personal response to what we are learning and your research outside class. I can see how the 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary style in the 'Office' clip appeals more to your sensibilities. It is certainly appropriate to the subject matter -- just as the 'Cloverfield' example is suited to that particular film with its high production values. The key is to use the style that is appropriate to your story and your subject matter.
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