Project Description
Duration
5 weeks
Roles
Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, VFX, Pre-production, Sound, Lighting
Tools
Premiere Pro, Procreate
The objective of this project was to produce a short film for inclusion of the Museum of Vancouver (MOV). Our task was to creatively document the unprecedented times of Covid-19 through our own personal experiences.
Pre Production
Concept
For this project, I wanted to focus on the positive outcomes that I experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. One thing that helped me through this difficult time was finding a new hobby in crocheting. The message I wanted to illustrate behind my video is that although Covid-19 has brought challenges, it has made me realize self growth and has allowed me to discover new experiences that I soon found a passion for. I wanted this film to feel lighthearted and inspirational to those who watched it.
Brainstorming / Art Direction
I approached this project by brainstorming possible experiences that reflected the positive aspects of my pandemic experience. Some ideas included film photography, snowboarding, and crocheting. I thought showcasing my new hobby for crocheting had the most potential as there were many creative ways to visually represent my story as well as it most resembled my at-home Covid experience. I began composing my draft treatment with potential locations, narratives and shots I wanted to include to visually portray my story.
After finalizing my draft treatment, I began curating a moodboard of how I wanted the tone to look and feel. I wanted the aesthetic of my film to be warm and lighthearted. To achieve this direction, I chose a colour scheme that included warm pastel colours for my video colour treatment. I think these colours also compliment my personality and add to the theme of personal experiences. Another creative direction I wanted to include was the use of hand drawn graphics and doodles.
This also adds to the personal creative approach while also staying in the artistic theme of the video.
Storyboard
Once finalizing my art direction, I began planning and creating a shot-list of how I wanted to film my story. I created a draft storyboard with the different shorts I wanted to film along with my narrative. I also planned what types of
effects and sounds I wanted to include with each scene.
Based on feedback from peer reviews, I revised my storyboard and treatment to further develop my story to better represent my experience.
Production & Post Production
Rough Cut
During the production stage, I filmed my shots over the span of two days. Most of the scenes were shot in my bedroom, however, I did have to visit my craft store to film some shots for my b-roll. Based on my revised storyboard, I made sure to film multiple shots for each scene to make sure I had different options to select from in post-production. Once getting all my footage, I bagan the post production process by roughly combining potential scenes together. Additionally, I also experimented with how I wanted to approach the animation in my film.
In terms of background music, I wanted to go for a more chill and relaxed song that reflected the calm and peaceful feeling that crocheting was for me during the pandemic.
My rough cut that I shared for feedback did not include all the shots I wanted, as well as title sequence, colours, and font choice.
Feedback/Constraints
Some feedback that I received from my peer reviews was that overall the narrative of my film was quite strong; however, some of the shots didn't really convey the context very well. Additionally, some of the sound and lighting of some of the footage was inconsistent. Based off my rough cut, it seemed that my shots did not feel cohesive or unified. After receiving this feedback, I filmed some additional footage of my actual crochet work to establish more of my personal experience with crocheting.
Final Stages
I completed the post-production process of this project using Premiere Pro. Taking into account the feedback from my peers and teaching staff, I was able to implement and revise ideas for my video. I added some more footage of my crochet work to create amore dynamic and interesting visual story as well as adding the visual effects throughout the film. For the hand drawn animations, I used Procreate on my iPad to illustrate the doodles. I drew two different layers and stitched them together, to imitate the subtle movement in the animation. Once I exported the pngs, I overlayed them on top of my footage in Premiere Pro.
As there was a time constraint on my schedule I wasn't able to reshoot the footage that had inconsistent lighting. To resolve this problem, I edited the color grading of my film to create a more warm and yellow tone that was depicted in my art direction. This also helped to unify all my shots together.
Conclusion
Reflection
Overall this project was a fun and challenging experience. I am proud of my final product and I felt that I was able to express a more positive light on the Covid-19 pandemic through my narrative, footage, and art direction. I was able to learn new technical skills and appreciated how valuable feedback is from peers. I really enjoyed playing around with the hand drawn animations as I felt that it really expressed my personality and depicted my overall art direction of my film. Although it was challenging to learn remotely, I was able to adapt to constraints and pushed myself to develop the best film that I could.