We all know how a good movie should look like, but it is much more difficult to actually make one. To express an idea using video as a media, one should change its mind-set: we had to start thinking in frames, shots and sequences.
After theoretical input from the “Mimicking the world” core team, we spent quite a time on ideation process. We have changed the concept of the video three times — and when we finally agreed on the final idea (satirical commercial with a running man), we started looking for inspiration. We have watched tons of “running” videos and noted all frames that could be useful to us.
Working process
The concept of our video was based on running. So, the shooting process appeared seemed to us rather self-evident: we should shoot a man that is running. So, everything we needed, was a camera and a runner — at least, that’s what we thought at that point. But when we started working on the storyboard, we realised that we have to show dynamics of the video, choose proper locations and actually understand, what is going on in each frame of the movie.
One of the very important parts of the video, is a narration text for the voice-over. We have used some lines from motivation videos on Youtube; the difficult part here was to stick to a rhythm of the motion and not to disclose the final scene which had to change the meaning of the video completely.
Finding location for the video was also tough enough, as the space had to be diverse enough to fit the dynamic concept of the video. It was clear from the beginning that we should film in the forest which was supposed to give shots depth and details. After visiting a couple of locations, we agreed to film in Obergütsch forest.
Filming took us three days — this was the moment when we understood that storyboard and ability to think in concrete images are crucial for a film making. You can just turn the camera on and say “Run” to the actor. Where to run? How to run? How to actually show running? These were the question we had to answer ourselves.
Postproduction was, probably, the most difficult part: going through hours of takes and choosing the best one is somewhat annoying. Cutting and colour correction were made using Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects software.
Presentation
The work was presented in the class for the core team of the course and other course attendants. We have received an invaluable feedback and improved our video afterwards. for the final presentation.
