A required video assignment this week was the Have a Conversation With Yourself assignment.  On a whim, I decided that I would talk to myself about the recent cold weather.  To make this video, I used the trial version of Adobe Premiere Elements 13 (hence the watermark across my video).  This assignment was rather tricky at first, as I had no real experience with this program before.  I watched this tutorial, however, which was a great help.

To begin, I recorded myself using my laptop’s webcam.  The reason I used to my laptop instead of having someone else film me is because to create the best effect, the camera needs to be held as still as possible.  Unfortunately, the video quality suffered somewhat because of this.  When recording myself, I was very careful to leave in pauses where my “twin” would be talking.  This proved to be a good idea, as it made editing much simpler, and eliminated any overlap of the speaking parts.

Here are the clips imported into Premiere Elements:

Recording the clips was the easy part.  The difficult part was matching them up as closely as possible.  Overall, it took me about 45 minutes to get the clips as closely matched as possible.  Here are the clips after they were edited together:

With the clips in place, all that was necessary now was to make it so that both versions of me were visible at the same time.  This was done using the “Four-Point Garbage Matte” effect.  This effect allows you layer clips on top of each other, and then remove part of the top layer so that the bottom layer can be seen below.  This was the effect that needed to be used to create this video.

With all the editing complete, I exported the video to Youtube.

This video assignment was worth

For the Chipmunk Style video assignment, I decided to use a scene from the television show Breaking Bad.  In this particular scene, Jesse (the young man) is angry with Walter (the older, bald gentleman) for causing him to panic over something as seemingly insignificant as a fly.  Jesse tells Walter that he thought that the contaminate was something like Ebola, rather than a fly.  The fact that this television series referenced Ebola over 4 years before it became a global security concern is interesting to me, and is main reason why I wanted to make this video.  I also wanted to see how Walter and Jesse would sound chipmunk’d!

To start off, I downloaded the clip using Savefrom.net from this Youtube video (The clip is not censored):

With the clip downloaded, I imported it into Movie Maker.  Once the clip was in Movie Maker, I saved the audio from the clip as a standalone mp3.

I took the sound file from the movie and imported it into Audacity.  I raised the pitch to create a “chipmunk” effect for the voices.

Now that the voices were high-pitched, I exported the sound file and placed it back into Movie Maker.  I muted the audio on the original clip so that only the chipmunk version could be heard.

Finally, I exported and uploaded the finished video to Youtube.

This video assignment was worth: 

While browsing the DS106 Assignment Bank, I came across the Animated Classic Reading video assignment.  The premise of the assignment is to use animated characters to recite a famous piece of literature.  Using the program Plotagon, I created an animated classroom setting where one character is reciting the first half of Marc Antony’s funeral speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to another character.  My original intention for this assignment was to use an old web-based program known as Xtranormal, but unfortunately it was discontinued nearly a year ago.

When I first read this play in 10th grade, this particular speech captivated me and was my favorite of the play.  After seeing this video of the scene from the 1953 adaptation of the play, I was even more impressed with the speech.  I was between this scene from another Shakespearean play, Macbeth, however, my sheer love for Julius Caesar prevailed and I ultimately had to recreate the Marc Antony Speech.

Using Plotagan was incredibly simple.  After selecting the characters and scene that I wanted to use, I inputted the speech into the program and assigned it to the correct character.  Some editing of the punctuation was necessary in order to make the speech flow as smoothly as possible.

With all the text in place, and after previewing the video, I was able to export the video to Youtube!

Here is the completed video:

This Video Assignment was worth 

Keeping with my theme from week 10, my Return to the Silent Era video assignment features a scene from the 2008 film The Dark Knight.  The particular scene that I “return to the silent era” was the final scene featuring the Joker in the film The Dark Knight.  This scene is particularly important as the film reaches its climax as the Joker reveals his endgame to the Batman.  Returning this film to the silent era  detracts from the intensity of this scene somewhat, but the overlying mood can still be felt throughout.  My inspiration for using this scene comes primarily from my love of the movie, but also from my desire for continuity between this assignment and my work from the previous two weeks.

To create this video assignment, I used the program Movie Maker.  The scene that I used was taken from this Youtube video:

I downloaded this video onto my computer using the Saveform.net.  When the scene was finished downloading, I ported it into Movie Maker.

To create a silent movie-esque look, I applied a black and white filter to the scene.  I also removed the sound from the clip and replaced it with a silent movie sound track that I found here.  With the video and audio effects in place, the only thing that needed to be added were the title cards.  I found a blank title card on Google and used it as my template.  The most time-consuming aspect of this assignment was inserting the title cards into the scene.  I included what I considered to be the most important pieces of dialogue in the scene on the title cards, as well as tried my best to match the cards up as closely as possible with the dialogue.  With all the title cards in place, the Movie Maker editing window looked like this:

With the title cards inserted, the video length was increased by over a minute!  With all the editing done, I uploaded the video to Youtube:

This video assignment was worth: 

The inspiration for this video assignment came from none other than my mother herself!  I came across a USB drive in a folder on the kitchen counter, and asked what my mother what it was for.  She told me that the USB contained lesson plans from a friend for the social studies class she recently began teaching at the local community college.  The only problem was, she had no idea how to access them!  Thankfully I was home visiting for the weekend, and was more than willing to whip up a tutorial to help use her USB.

My tutorial is split into three parts: The introduction, the explanation of how to insert the USB, and the explanation of how to access the files on the USB once it is inside the computer.  Each part was filmed in a different way.

The first part of my tutorial was filmed using the webcam on my laptop through Movie Maker.  You simply record the video, and it imports it directly into Movie Maker for you after it is recorded!

The second part was filmed using my iPhone.  No screenshots for this, I simply recorded the video (horizontally!) and then uploaded it onto my computer and in to Movie Maker.

The final segment was made by using the screen capture software Expression Encoder.  First, the video had to be recorded.

After recording the screen capture, the file had to be encoded and exported in to Movie Maker.

With all three parts recorded, all that was left was to import the clips into Movie Maker and do a little editing.

Finally, the completed video was uploaded to Youtube!

This Video Assignment was worth

My trailer for the The Complete Package video assignment is for the discontinued comedy show Reno 911.  The show is a “mockumentary” style show that follows a fictional police force operating out of Reno, Nevada.  The show is a satire of the police, and is extremely hilarious.  What makes the show so impressive to me is that much of show is unscripted, meaning that the actors improvise many of their lines on the spot.  Sadly, the show was discontinued for one reason or another, so all that is left of the show are highlight videos on Youtube and other websites.  It was from these highlight videos that I created this trailer!

I downloaded 6 separate videos from Youtube using the Savefrom.net, however, to keep the trailer at a reasonable length I only used 4 of the clips.  Links to the full videos that I used are linked in the order that they appear in the description of the my video if you wish to watch the full scenes!  After downloading the clips, I imported them into Movie Maker and began editing.

With the unedited clips imported into Movie Maker, the total length of the trailer was nearly 12 minutes long!

12 minutes was far too long for a trailer, so I had to trim the clips considerably to reach a reasonable length for the trailer.  I also was forced to omit two of the clips that I downloaded, as they would not make sense if they were trimmed so that only part of the scene was shown.  The movie with the final edits looked like this in Movie Maker:

With the trailer complete, I exported my video and uploaded it to Youtube!  Disclaimer: This trailer features some profanity as well as violence, so if either of those things bother you, I suggest not watching!

This Video Assignment was worth: