Final Cut 3

This last piece was my Rough Cut 5 fine tuned a bit. I personally loved shooting this one, and I thought it was definitely strong enough to stand on its own as a separate piece, where the other two did not. I made a few more tweaks to this, matching some of the shots from the playground tunnel a little better so it flowed, as well as adjusted some of the timing on the shots so that it would work better for me. I was very pleased with how well this one turned out, and that it didnt need a whole lot of work to make in to a final cut. After all of these experiences, I think I learned the most from editing and filming this piece, and would gladly do something very similar to it again in the future.

Final Cut 2

After seeing how well the first Final Cut went, I decided to try to blend another two projects together to make a single piece. The other two that I felt were less likely to stand on their own were the 2nd and 4th Rough Cuts. I arranged the pieces this time to show more of a circle of life, adding in the images of the duck carcass I found near the grouping of ducks that appear in the sequence. Im not too sure that this one came out as successful as the first one, but it definitely did the trick for me. Although it isnt as strong, it does have some interesting images in it that I wasnt able to fit in either of the two rough cuts, which Im glad got to be used.

Final Cut 1

This first final project was a combination of my Rough Cuts 1 and 3 meshed together, because they both seemed to be portraying a similar story in my head. With a few tweaks to the content and cuts here and there, these two projects came together perfectly to add another level and way of thinking to this piece. This video turned out very well in terms of how I had planned for it to be, and I couldnt have asked for it to flow more smoothly.

Rough Cut 5

This was my first major attempt (and most succesful attempt) to get a string of various shots through some objects. I had the most fun putting this together, and editing some things to match some action in strange and obvious ways. The playground and bridge shots worked very well together to create shots that focused on the object that we were looking through as well as the objects that were through the objects we were looking through. With that mouthful, I believe this one turned out quite well, and makes a strong contender for a final cut.

Rough Cut 4

This shot started out when I saw a squirrel running around the grass in a park near the beach. While one of my concepts was to look through things, I thought it would be interesting to do a film through the eyes of a squirrel. This ended up with a lot of low angled shots, except for the ones of the ducks actually out in the lake. I had to have the camera somewhat far away from the beach so I wouldn't scare the ducks off, which made it next to impossible to get a low angle. I tried to have some fun with the editing of the ducks in the water as they went behind the rock in the center and on and off screen. I wish I had more footage of the area to have played around with it even more, but it held up in concept and the idea of the film went through as planned.

Rough Cut 3

This video was one of the hardest for me to put together with in camera editing and mental images. It started out with this tree like stick jutting out of the sand as if someone had put it there, I don't believe it was firmly in the ground seeing as it was so close to the shore line. My original intention was to make this a piece on the garbage and industrialization that had taken over the beach, with several shots of garbage on the sand and in the streets. Not much of the original concept held through except for the few brief moments of a sign post that remained. This gave me the most struggle, and I wish I had more time to change a few things around, but I think I made due.

Rough Cut 2

This second cut was my first idea for a project. As I began my walk I noticed that the snow was finally starting to melt, leaving giant puddles to try to avoid as I made my way around the city. Eventually I had enough shots to make a progression of increasing amount of water on the sidewalk. When I made it to Lake Michigan, I had enough of shots to make a metaphor of the tides rising to take over the city streets. This was a lot of fun to shoot, and a lot of fun to throw together. This was my first attempt at getting footage of things shot through the water, the first shot I actually got is the one above with the sun glaring off the fresh water. It actually turned out pretty successful, in my eyes.

Rough Cut 1

This was my favorite piece to create, it all seemed to come together in my head. I had taken some great shots of multiple angles of the cracks and holes in a bench that I found. As I kept walking, I saw a grouping of trees that had been cut down, seemingly by man. When I was sorting through my footage later, I laughed at how the trees that were cut down might in turn be made in to a bench, so I made the connection to the two strings of shots. Adding in some footage of a very small plant that looked tree like, I was able to capture the entire life cycle of this tree that I imagined. The fact that I had a few shots of static was helpful in making this seem like a bit more of a narrative story.

Capturing Strategery

Much like the first drift, I ended up abandoning (to some extent) my strategy for capturing film due to some issues with finding material to record. The first strategy that I maintained was capturing images through objects, which was quite easy and fun to do. The second strategy was to film objects through water, but after spending at least an hour without more than 30 seconds of footage, I decided to just get other shots involving water to try to salvage the concept. I think my strategy worked for the most part, but if I had to do it again, I would attempt a different way of going about it.

Drift 2 Strategery

Since my last drift failed at making the square I intended to make, I chose to try it once more. This time was far more successful, and I was able to make a nearly perfect square. I ended up going a completely different direction than last time, giving me some new and interesting environments to shoot. Hopefully the third drift will let me cover another different area of Milwaukee to make a full circle of area explored.