Visual storytelling with video

Assignment 1:
Hand in the camera survey form to accompany watching the DSLR movie (10pt)

Assignment 2:
Create a 20-30 second short video clip that demonstrates your ability to use the DSLR to achieve narrow to wide depth of field. Use a friend as an actor. This is for testing purposes.

Assignment 3:

(Inspired by Chapman's Dodge College) Character Portrait with Video

The goal of this assignment is to shoot a short, 30-60 second video that captures the strong emotions of a single character. 

Students will determine a character to highlight, location/setting, and will shoot the character with a variety of camera angles, shots, and use a range of depth of field settings to portray the character. 

Students should use minimal audio, only an occasional sound effect or two. Emotion should be captured through the visual and not rely on the audio. When complete, upload to youtube and share with me.

Make sure to include an establishing shot, and follow with a variety of compositional angles and framing to capture the emotions. Think about the appropriate use of zooms or pans, and rack focus. Think about how to end this mini-scene. Edit in FCE, and output using Quicktime, h.264 format.

Assignment 4:

Create a 30-60 second short video clip that captures someone telling a dramatic story important to them. Capture their emotions about the topic of their discussion. Consider appropriate b-roll to use with the story they are telling. Consider audio capture. Make sure again that you capture various angles and use appropriate camera framing. What you want to end up with is an interesting visual, rather than a talking head for 60 seconds. 

Edit using Final Cut Express. Output in QuickTime format, h.264.

Assignment 5:

All stories have the basic components of a strong hook, inciting incident and mostly fall into 3 strong acts, with resolution at the end.

Read the article linked here for a better understanding of story structure.

Think about a favorite movie you have recently seen. Write reflectively about this movie using the plot points from the article as a guide. In your movie, see if you can pick out the 8 plot points. Write a 1-2 pg paper and share it with me as evidence of story structure learning.

Assignment 6:

Write a script for a short movie, 3-5 min in length. Show where the plot points are in your script. Turn in your script for review and feedback.  (Share with me at cleather@lgsuhsd.org)

Assignment 7:

Create a shot sheet to support your script. Create rough storyboards to determine camera angles when helpful. Determine actors needed. Create a schedule for shooting, editing.

Shoot your work and edit it. Turn in when complete as final project of the year.