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!