Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th May 2014

After, having compiled all the videos and editing them. I went through my video and noticed that the beginning wasn't standing out and wasn't charming. I thought over and over and finally something clicked. I reviewed my friends video from the previous classes about football and towards the end of his video, a boy is playing with a  football and shoots the ball on the camera. This would be a wonderful idea to start my video! So I decided to borrow a part of that. I quickly called my dad and told him what I wanted to do and he was also amused and interested by my idea. The point was for me to shoot the ball abit close to the camera in which my dad would dramatically shake the camera as if the ball hit it. Unfortunately this never worked out, until I accidently hit the ball exactly at the camera and when I viewed how the video came out and it was mind blowing! So I decided to use it.

I applied the video to the very beginning of my video and it looked terrific. Immediately after the ball hits the camera, I made the title of my video I appear with a bang! "lets play!" I have no words for how good it looked. I then looked at my video again and saw that my video is still not lively and laughed out loudly as I had forgotten to put music. I searched through my songs and found it really difficult to find songs that suited my video until I found some very peaceful and relaxing songs that brought an amazing mix and flow to the video clips. I was now steps away to finish making my video. It was the audio that I had to insert to my video talking about the importance of play. I took the recording and applied it to the video. Unfortunately, the challenge I faced was that the audio was too long hence the ending had been cut out. I wondered on what I could do to fit in the whole audio so I tried recording again but still it was too long. Finally, I came up with a solution to slow down some of the video clips, so that video duration of the video extends hence the audio will fit. Fortunately, it worked out right! I still double checked the video, and noticed that the part of the brainstorming of play was not too exciting and interesting so then I borrowed the idea from step up 4 whereby each person would say a word about play such as fun, and another says recreation and another says happiness etc. I shot this on Tuesday during our c.t lesson, and the compiled all of the video clips of each person with their specific word given about play. When I reviewed it, it sounded and looked amazing as if a professional camera-man had done it. Lastly, I sat back and reflected on who were the people involved in the video-making and decided to add credits to the very end of my video in order to appreciate them.

I viewed my video, and I had no words to explain how good it was. I then made my parents and some friends of mine view the video and got very good feedback such as "excellent!".. "message well brought out" and others said " good use of appropriate and relevant transitions". I then evaluated my video to the design specs and luckily most were met! I was very ecstatic and excited, to show it and spread it to the world so that everyone would be able to see it and the message about play could be spread! It was a very proud and memorable achievement of my life! Now all that was left was to market my video!

Saturday 24th May 2014

Today was the D-day of my video. It was finally a weekend and was able to record my neighbours playing various activities, since I was not able to do this at school. I went down to the compound and called some of my neighbours who play daily, however, some were not available and had gone out. But without wasting time, I told them to play normally and act as if there was no one there and play naturally. Though I gave them some instructions of cheering, celebrating and to show some of the components of play, so that my video is appropriate and shows a message. It was fun to do so and took many video clips in which I later picked the best ones. Some of the activities that I videoed were football, hide and seek, cycling, and other fun games.

The challenge was too shoot the video nicely for example when they were playing football they were moving from right to left, running, jumping therefore to capture this was very hard and required me to move a lot hence the most videos were not shot as good as I wanted. Secondly, was the fact that some people were not cooperating and didn't follow by the instructions for example, I told them to celebrate with their team mates if they score but they would forget, making me start the video all over again, as it would spoilt it. They would also not express themselves and some were shy in front of the camera. Lastly, was that when I would shoot a video, I wouldn't have a continuous recording but would pause it then play again hence a single mistake would make me start all over again. I overcame these challenges by taking various video clips therefore if some were not good, I would always have another one in spare therefore I would choose the best one, out of all. I also asked one of my neighbour to video me playing before I would shoot the video of them playing, in which I showed them what to do exactly when I shoot the video, in which they clearly understood.

After the tiring afternoon, I returned home and compiled all the videos and picked the best ones only to realise that I only needed about three or two so that my video would not become that long. I then added the clips to my video editing software on my phone and started editing and organizing the video. Later, I went through my design and checked on what I still have to do. I then realised, I still had to insert pictures to my video and the audios explaining the importance of play. I quickly went on my computer and sent all the pictures that I had gathered on play earlier on when I was researching and sent it to my phone via email. I then applied the pictures to the video and kept smooth and eye-catching transitions to the video to create a good flow. Out of all the days so far, today was the day that I really did a lot in the process of making my video and I am very proud about what I have done. In general, I am very delighted!

Wednesday 21st May 2014

I realised that I would have to wait till Saturday 24th May 2014 if I were to shoot the video of my neighbours. Therefore as I was looking through my designs, I decided to video the things that would require indoor places and exactly found that. It was the scene on the obstacles of play. So today, I videoed the various obstacles to play such as watching television by shooting various video clips with short phrases. The challenges of today were that I was very disorganized and at certain times, my dad who was videoing got angry at times e.g. after the recording was done I would say that I wasn't heard then when it was recorded again I would say that this shouldn't have been seen, or you stopped it too quickly etc. This made us repeat the shooting over and over again therefore to overcome this I gave the camera-man (my dad) all the instructions before he would start shooting. This prevented things that I didn't want to occur in the video clips.

Today was very fun and interesting as taking part in the video was a very joyous thing and lot of laughter and ecstatic moments happened in the process of today. I also learnt and improved on a lot of things such as acting skills, decision-making skills, costume skills, videoing skills and rehearsing and practicing skills as I had to practice to make the recording perfect without mistakes. This was done using sample videos and correcting them. Meanwhile, I also continued editing the videos and adding them to my final video by adding transitions and music. In overall, I am happy with the work I have done so far, baring in mind that I have 9 days left and still have to shoot other parts of my video and add other necessary things, edit and market my video.

Saturday 17th May 2014

I was very excited for today, since I were suppose to start videoing my video today since I had free time as it is a weekend. For today, I wanted to video my neighbours playing different stuff such as football and hide and sick in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, this was not possible as it started to rain and was not able to shoot the video. Though, to not miss out on anything, I was able to shoot the first scene of my video which was about me brainstorming play using words on a piece of paper. This was done indoor at my house.

The challenges I faced was to not make any mistake when the recording was going on. This was because I had to do this fast since there was a given time span according to my design for this scene. This caused mistakes in spelling, work was not neat and handwriting would sometimes be hardly visible. I solved this by first making a sample brainstorm which I would copy when doing the final recording. This avoided me from making mistakes. In addition was the issues with the camera-man who was my dad which I totally accept and thanked him for his great effort. Since I was brainstorming, for the paper to be visible, my dad had to stay with the camera right above me in a very uncomfortable and tiring position for about 1 minute 30 seconds. I would often stop and tell him to start again when he was not videoing properly or was shaking too much, though I finally shot the video and some of the challenges that my camera man faced can still be seen through the movement and poor stability of the video. To overcome this, I shot the video in fast motion so that the mistakes of the camera-man would hardly show and would also make the scene shorter than it was.

I was very jubilant and delighted by what I had done as I was done with the introduction  of the video. Before today, I didn't know when and how will I go about this, however, by today I got the motivation to shoot the rest. In addition, since I am using my phone for the videoing, I decided to download a editing video software called KineMaster which I found very fun to use and had all the features that windows movie maker has. This made it easier for me to edit the videos I shot and have already applied the video I shot today to edit and start making the video (Introduction) This will make me not have to compile the videos I shoot and then edit at the very end. Therefore I am already working on shooting the various scenes meanwhile editing and applying them to my final video. Can't wait too shoot the rest!

Friday 9th May 2014

Today I organized and got up a list of the people who will be ready to be the team who will help or take part in making my video whether it is for doing as little as saying a word or as much as saying a speech for the whole video. This included my friends (classmates), family members like my dad and my neighbours. For all of them, I showed each person my design stage and explained to them what he video is about, why and how am I going to play. Some of the people came up with great ideas and suggestions which would be very useful for the video such as someone playing cricket in slow motion to start of the video and songs such as twinkle twinkle little stars as the background music which will more or less suit the theme. I also decided that I will be the camera man in all the scenes that I will not be taking part in.

Some of the challenges that I faced included, that some people who I asked to participate or help in the process of making my video refused and were not up for it therefore it made It even more difficult to do find others. Secondly, was that some people knew what the video was about but didn't know how, when and where we are going to do this, therefore I had to show them sample videos to depict some of the stuff I want and showed them my plan to get an image of how this is going to happen. What I really liked about today was that most people already were so enthusiastic and passionate about participating in my video and moreover they gave me so many creative and imaginative things to do in my video which really made me joyful and in the mood to take the videos at that very moment! There are no improvements that I have to necessarily make though there will be some few changes whereas I wont spend time rehearsing on the video but we will just take practice clips on the same day that we will shoot the video hence we will correct and make the possible changes before we shoot the final one.

Thursday 8th May 2014

It was the second day that I managed to work on my CT video. As usually there is no video without some content or information passed on therefore this is exactly what I did. However I didn't have to do much as most of this was already in my investigate stage research therefore I took a notebook and summarized what I needed from my research for the video. I also did further research on things such as fun facts which I will need at the end of my video. Todays challenges were that there were a lot of distractions in class and in addition it was difficult to pick out some key points from my research as I am very bad at doing so e.g when I was highlighting key things, I would usually highlight the whole passage not baring in mind that my video will not have a lot of information or it would become boring. Therefore, I overcame this by seeking the help of my colleague, Yavan and urged him to read through my work and told him to tell me what are the necessary things that should go in my video. This helped me synthesize my work. What I really liked about today, was that before todays lesson I was blank and more or less confused on what I will add to my video to support the video clips therefore after today I was confident about my work and had well structured my information so that when I am applying it on my clip, it is just a click away. To conclude, what I have to improve on is my time-management skills as I realised that the exams are coming next week therefore I have to rush up on some tasks to cover up on what I will miss during exams e.g Rehearse on the video. So next time, I will work on planning on each scene and getting my crew for the rest of the video!

Wednesday 7th May 2014

Today was the first day of the create stage! We were finally started making our video. So today, I got most of the resources I need for the making of my video including a HD camera which will be excellent to shoot the video, the people that are going to take part/ act out some of the scenes in my video, and arranged places to shoot the video. I also installed windows movie maker on my PC at home to further use later on for editing the video. However I was not able to get a tripod stand to keep the camera on so I can shoot he video steadily. However, I will try get that or borrow from someone who has it, by the end of the week. In addition, I also asked my brother Adnan whether he can be the camera man and he replied with a yes. Getting most of the resources brought a great sense of relief, as now I have all the resources and materials but now I just have to build the building. The only challenge that I faced in todays task was to find people who can volunteer to participate in my video as most were busy with their own videos and more or less they didn't want to act. However, I overcame this challenge and eventually found 12 people (most are my classmates)  so far who can help in the making of my video. I was able to do so, by using my persuasion skills by explaining to them about why I am making this video and generally talked about the problem, project- planning skills as I had  to plan on who will do what and assign everyone their own roles and decision making skills as I had to choose appropriate and relevant people and resources for the video . To conclude, today was generally a wonderful day, got all my resources, and moreover I am glad that I am following the plan which is really essential to the success of my video. Am looking forward for the next tasks!