Media Composition as Artistic Involvement
“Create a video project.” Many of us hear this prompt and think, “wow, there are so many responsibilities.” In particular, a recent project of mine forced me to explore parts of myself that I had forgotten. On top of that, I was tasked to visually articulate these personal details. While creating any form of media, many processes and tactics are used. Whether the project is extensive and complicated or short and sweet, it is critical to always analyze the many moving parts that producing involves. Naturally, production methods split the workload into three sections: the three stages of production, equipment and education, and artful involvement.
These three parts of producing any media encapsulate countless smaller tasks that weave the success of the project as a whole.
During my time pre-producing my project Perspective, I found that my story’s origin was broad and expansive. I wanted to incorporate the four-year growth of a young man in a two- to five-minute short story. After battling with the story for an excessive amount of time, I was able to create a cohesive storyboard that captured my ideas effectively while also giving me room to grow. But of course, with any new project, mistakes are made. I was crunched for time and attempted to add scenes that were beyond my ability. A number of issues–financial, scheduling, availability–meant I underestimated the amount of time needed for pre-production.
Without intensive work involved in this stage of production, every other stage becomes more difficult. But there was only so much I could do. After realizing my challenges, I found that with a realistic perspective on my project, I could alter scenes and tactics to better suit my situation. After assessing my own goals and abilities, I could better understand the difficulties I was facing. Several intensive rounds of pre-production later, I was finally ready to start filming.
Referencing the storyboards and shot lists I had created, I was able to quickly film my story. I ran into several roadblocks that stopped me, including the availability of my peers to assist me as well as the availability of my talent for the project. Although I believed it would be easier to use my younger brother as my main talent for the project because I had a personal relationship with him, I failed to realize and remember that he has an intense academic schedule that prohibits him from having hours of free time everyday. On top of availability, the great state of Minnesota is bipolar when it comes to weather conditions. When filming one day, patches of grass would peek out from acres of snow and reflect an image of early spring. But a week later, on the next filming day, feet of fallen snow made us feel like we were in the dead of winter once again.
These errors of continuity led to reshoots and shot changes. On any film set, changing the storyboard and even the screenplay during production is a dangerous game to play. With the pressure of time on your shoulders, making mistakes in the screenplay during split-second decisions arises most often. Finally, the tasks of post-production are some of the easiest and most difficult to complete. Even though all you have to do is sit in a dark room and work quietly on a computer, hours of frustration and disappointment are almost always involved. The shots you enjoyed the most appear to be slightly out of focus, or your talent is wearing a hat in one scene but not the next.
Post-production is an exciting part of the process but it leads to difficult realizations that the project has holes. During editing, the filmmaker can do what they do best: improvise. During my time editing Perspective, I was able to challenge myself by creating sequences out of shots I had not intentionally shot for that purpose. Improvisation is key.
Production could not exist without other critical aspects of filmmaking, including equipment education and artful involvement. Of course, media in general does not require an artistic eye, but simple tactics of shot composition and pacing in editing creates a natural and more enjoyable final product. During any attempt at production, equipment plays a crucial role. There is always something the filmmaker can do because they have experience, and there is always something they could do better if they had the equipment.
Handheld stabilizers allow filmmakers to capture moments of erratic movement, but they are also very difficult to use. I found that during my project, I had written several scenes in which a stabilizer, an instrument used to create smooth shots, would be critical for the shot to take place, yet I did not have access to one for financial or timely reasons. Without this part of equipment, my story was changing, and with that, the artful purpose of the shots was changing. For example, an attempt to have an extensive shot of an individual walking through a high school would have best been achieved with a stabilized camera following behind them. With the purpose of remaining close to our character, the quick yet clean camera movements would have held purpose. Instead, still shots on a tripod replaced these tactics, incorporating a disassociated relationship between the camera, or the viewer, and the character. This disconnect is only one example of how equipment limitations can affect the composition of the story in a positive or negative way. While planning any production, using equipment for a specific purpose will change the feeling of the screenplay.
The end of every project is exciting and bittersweet. Your personal reflection will almost always include critiques and new ideas that you wish you had before you even started writing. The technical and creative side of creating a film is both exhausting and rewarding, and cannot be one without the other. Aspects of technical production and artful creation go hand in hand in creating any form of media, and in our ever-changing environment, new forms of each appear constantly. No matter what, I can confidently say that after every project I have ever created myself or been apart of, I have learned something that I had not known before that I use on my future projects. So no matter what you make, be proud. There is never not room for a new story.
This piece is part of a series written by college undergraduates enrolled in off-campus study programs through the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). HECUA programs offer students a chance to think deeply about the issues that matter most, and we’d like to share a piece of that experience with you. Every student post on the HECUA Medium page considers a theory or reading that intersects with that student’s lived experience. For more information about HECUA programs, click here.
