Composition Techniques

There are four main composition techniques. Rule of thirds, framing, unusual angles, and leading lines. These composition techniques make a video 10x better! These are probably one of the most simple composition techniques; leading lines can be found in nature, to do rule of thirds you just need to adjust the camera angle, unusual angles can be preformed by setting the camera low, high, or anything interesting that you can think of, and lastly framing can be done by either hand, or nature. Each definition for these composition techniques, are easy to remember. I would suggest using these four as much as possible when filming, it WILL make a difference

Rule of thirds- When your subject is where lines would intersect if there was a grid on your screen. This composition is always used in interviews.

Framing- Your subject is residing in between something, such as in a clump of trees that open in the center. The center is where your subject should be.

Unusual angles- Unusual angles are used to create change in your video, so the whole video isn't shot from one angle.

Leading lines- These lines can be found in nature, you are supposed to strategically place your subject so that the lines are pointing to them, this helps focus on your subject because the viewers eye will naturally follow the lines, straight to the subject.

Three Shot Sequences

Sequencing is an arrangement of clips, that displays an action that is happening, using different shot types and angles. For an example, kicking a soccer ball can have a three shot sequence; a ball sitting on the field, then a person running to kick the ball, then a shot of the ball being kicked. Sequencing has four types of shots, Wide, Medium, Close, and Extreme close. A three shot sequence does not always have to be Wide, Medium, Close. It can be Wide, Close, Extreme. A sequence that isn't allowed is Wide, Extreme, Medium because you can't go backwards.

Wide shot- Any view as long as there is no parts cut off of the subject, you can see their feet and the top of their head.

Medium shot- This shot is slightly closer to the subject that the Wide, some parts of the subject can be cut off, but the camera is far enough away so that you can still see most of the subject.

Close shot- The Close shot displays a small part of the subject

Extreme shot- The Extreme shot is of a very small detail on something, whether it is of the subject or the action that the subject is doing.

Practice Story Reflection

Our most recent project in my GT class, is our practice interviews. We made these videos in order to practice for our newest project "Elder Words of Wisdom". The purpose of our project is to interview elders in our community, and ask them to share words of wisdom with us, the youth. So in order for us to make the best interview we could possibly create, we needed practice.

We already got into groups of three for our final interview so we stayed in the same groups for our practice ones. Then we were supposed to select a topic to interview a member of our group about. My teams topic was "Mikela's college plans". My teammates were interviewing me about my plans for college, because I have most of my plans mapped out. They asked me questions about my plans, like which college I would like to go to etc. While I was sitting in the famous interview position, a rule of thirds composition while the interviewee is looking at the interviewer, who is strategically placed out of the camera shot, but also close enough to the camera so the interviewee is looking near the camera.

Our interview went smoothly, but then a wild B-roll requirement came, and it was time to shoot that B-roll. We shot clips of me reading, or practicing my writing, or researching the college I would like to go to on the the computer. That may have finished, but there was still plenty of work to do; we also needed to finish writing our transcripts and record our narrators voice. The next day however was the deadline, AND WE STILL NEEDED TO EDIT! Fortunately for us, we finished editing, and exported our videos a minute before the deadline. Our team was one of the few to make it in on time.

However something else was still on my plate... The class critique. My class had to review each team's video, and naturally I was feeling a bit insecure about the video, especially because I was the one getting interviewed! Another thing that worried me was the new grading scale, it looked like the normal one, but something was off about it. Maybe it was the fact that 3s would be rare, and a three on regular rubrics was a B! I didn't want to get 1s and 2s because I try to get A's and I have never gotten a C or D in my life, and I certainly haven't gotten an F. But in this new rubric 1s and 2s aren't bad. So I didn't panic as much when my team got mostly 2s on our audio and visuals; BUT WE GOT A 3 ON OUR STORY!!!! SUCCESS! The best part was our final grade, we got a 4/4!

Polar Panoramas

To create a Polar Panorama, that are like my first one, follow these simple steps!

1. Find a nice spot for your panorama, interesting horizons look the best.

2. To take the pictures for the panorama you take at least 10 pictures rotating 360 degrees.

3. After editing your pictures, you upload them into photoshop and merge your photo’s.

4. Next you need to resize the image to a perfect square, make sure your width is the same as your height.

5. Then rotate your image 180 degrees.

After distort your image with Polar Coordinates and you will have your finished Polar Panorama.

These steps are the same as the Spherical Panorama, but you have to rotate the Image 180 degrees. There are also several new word definitions that we learned.

Composite - Multiple rectangular pieces combined & distorted to become triangular in 1 finished image.
Polar - A circular image that resembles a planet; the horizon line creates a North and South pole.
Spherical - A distorted panorama that becomes a circular image with the earth becoming the outline.
Panorama - 10-15 vertical images taken in a 360 degrees rotation with a central horizon then merged.

As you can see in my second panorama I had to edit my self into the picture. The process was generally easy, and the instructions were easy to follow.
First open your photo in Photoshop, make sure you copy the image so it unlocks.
Then, to start you must access the Quick Selection tool. To find the Quick Selection tool, go to the toolbar and click on the fourth tool down. Select the brush size you want.
To select the parts for your image, you “paint” over them
To clean it up, click on the minus button, and “paint” over the parts you do not want to keep.
When that step is completed, go to refine edge to contract or feather the selection
Copy and Paste the selection onto another layer.

Spherical Panoramas

These are two of my Spherical Panorama's that I created. I particularly like my second picture, I think it looks like a rabbit hole! If you want to create your own little rabbit hole, just kidding it isn't going to look the same. All the while if you would like to make a Spherical Panorama, these are the steps...

1. Find a nice spot for your panorama, interesting horizons look the best.
2. To take the pictures for the panorama you take at least 10 pictures rotating 360 degrees.
3. After editing your pictures, you upload them into photoshop and merge your photo’s.
4. Next you need to resize the image to a perfect square, make sure your width is the same as your height.
5. After distort your image with Polar Coordinates and you will have your finished Spherical Panorama.

Final Photomontages

These are my photomontages... I created them. My inspiration for these were form David Hockney.  I had to take a series of pictures, with each one overlapping another, a bit. Then in photoshop I put them together and got this as my end result.

Magazine Cover

This is my finished project that I created in a class I took. This required a long project that involved talking pictures, working in Adobe Bridge. We also worked in Photoshop. We had to do a contour of ourselves and paint inside of it. We also were required to make up headliners for our cover.