Remembering what it was like to be in middle school is not something I like to do often. I was awkward and ugly, to put it simply. Having to look at old pictures from seventh grade through eleventh grade was a fun trip down memory lane but I never want to be that person again!

How I Did It:

This assignment was very simple, so simple I couldn’t figure out why it was rated 4 stars out of 5. The hardest part was having to get all the pictures together. I went through my Facebook and Myspace profiles to gather the most horrendous photos I could find from my adolescent years. I then went to Twitter and took screenshots of Tweets from 2013 to add into the slideshow. I put all the pictures into Windows Movie Maker and added music. I changed to duration of the pictures from 7 seconds to 5 so it wouldn’t be on one picture for too long. The last thing I did was add a transition animation to each picture and add captions to the ones I felt needed a little explanation. This was the easiest of the 5 assignments I did this week and it was definitely the most nostalgic!

Watching makeup tutorials on YouTube is probably one of my favorite pastimes.  There are so many different ways to do your makeup and a wide variety of products that could be used.  In this video I decided to do a sped up video of how I do my makeup everyday.

This 4 star assignment was very simple. All it required was to show how to do something using a time-lapsed video.

How I Did It:

I first filmed the video using the camera on my iPhone. I then uploaded it to Windows Movie Maker. There wasn’t any editing that needed to be done in terms of trimming the footage so all I had to do was add the background music and save the finished video so it could be uploaded to YouTube.

The Work Itself 

“Have A Conversation With Yourself” is a required video assignment. Its instructions are to “have a conversation with yourself! Film yourself talking, then change clothes, hair styles, etc and then film the other half of the convo. Edit this in any movie editor program (I used Pinnacle movie maker) To overlap the two scenes so that you are talking to yourself! Play around, to figure out the most efficient way! Also, timing is everything in this! Make sure when talking to leave breaks for your other self to respond!”.  It is 5/5 for a difficulty rating. A friend filmed two separate times talking and then I used iMovie to edit and publish the video to YouTube. My video is “Decisions, Decisions“.

The Story Behind The Story 

I am trying to decide whether I should watch Sunday Night Football or study for a biology test. My biology test is in two days so half of my reasoning is I could watch the game and still have time to study. My other half says I should study as much as I can because it will be a very difficult test. My friends will be having a party while watching the game and I have not been over in a few days. However if I did watch it, I would feel guilty the next day and after the test because I did not study as hard I could have. This is a typical college student dilemma. What would you do? My final decision is…I’m watching the football game!

The Process, Narrated 

A friend filmed half of the project at a time. I talked about my reasoning to watch Sunday Night Football in the first half of the film. Once I was done talking about football, I changed clothes, changed seats, and talked about my reasoning to study. Once my friend and I were done filming. I sent the video from my phone to my email. I downloaded it and imported it into iMovie. In iMovie I matched the dialogue together to create a smooth conversation. I had to edit and drag time frames all around the iMovie workspace to do so. Once editing was finished, I shared it to my YouTube channel. Here a few photos to document my process.

I have a secret obsession… I love watching YouTube videos about anything makeup or fashion related. I can spend hours going through all the different kinds of videos people have uploaded and most of the time if they’re good at raving about all the good things about a product, I will probably buy it. I haven’t always been into makeup but recently I’ve started to love it. It’s a way to express your creativity and put time and effort into your appearance. When this assignment gave me the chance to be a ‘beauty guru’ for the day, I excitedly took it!

This 3 star assignment was fun and simple. All I had to do was choose an item and make a video review of it. To go along with the makeup routine I posted earlier, I decided to review one of my favorite makeup products.

How I Did It:

After deciding what product I wanted to review, I used my iPhone to record the video. Once the video was recorded I used Movie Maker to edit out the parts of me starting and stopping the recording. I added a title and credits screen to the beginning and end, respectively. After this all that was left to do was to upload it to YouTube.

This assignment (3.5 stars) was one I’d seen done many times before. It required me to tell a story using flashcards. A lot of these types of videos I’ve seen are about sad topics or bad thing that have happened in someone’s life. I knew that I wanted mine to be about something happy and positive. It’s the beginning of the holiday season so I decided to make mine about that.

How I Did It:

I first started by writing the different statements on flashcards. I then recorded the video on my Iphone and uploaded it on my laptop. Using Movie Maker I trimmed the video to get rid of the movement in the beginning and the end which was when I was starting and stopping the recording on my phone. I then added music. The background music used in the beginning was supposed to be similar to the background music used in these kinds of videos. I then faded out the first sound clip and faded in a Christmas song to fit the theme of the rest of the video. The final step was to upload it to YouTube.

Well, it’s the last day of these couple of weeks, and I am thoroughly exhausted. Working with video is tough work. But you know what makes it fairly simple for the most part if you know how to actually get the video to post?

Vine.

I watch Vine compilations all the time, but I’ve never gotten the app myself. There are a lot of people who are really creative and know what to do in just 6 seconds. I am not one of those people. But I tried anyway!

For the Moving Object assignment (4 stars), we had to make a vine of something moving. It’s pretty much your standard stop-motion, except you’re using tiny little video clips, instead of pictures. It’s actually pretty fun, and simpler than I thought it would be. I decided to go with a moving smiley face, because it seems like a lot of other people have done moving or spinning things. I mean, technically my object(s) are still moving, just in a stranger way.

Process:

This is really simple. Just download Vine (it’s free). Sign up for an account if you don’t have one (also really simple)

and press the camera button in the top right. From here, you just have to touch the screen (the length of your clip depends on how long you hold it, so for my short little clips I would just very quickly tap the screen). Once you’ve recorded 6 seconds of footage, it’ll take you to a screen asking if you want to edit it or add a caption.

If you hit next, it’ll take you to a screen that I don’t fully understand, asking you where you want to post your Vine.

I think you have to choose a category for it to go in, or else it won’t post, but I don’t know. I just clicked things and hoped for the best.

The Work Itself

This video assignment is titled “Instant Replay“, its instructions are to “choose a video or clip of an action, and then pick a part of the original clip and slow it down to create an instant replay.  Show both the original action as well as the slow-mo instant replay! Video editing software, like iMovie can come in really handy for an assignment like this!” It is rated 4/5 stars in terms of difficulty. I downloaded a YouTube prank video and imported it into iMovie. I edited the video to the proper length I wanted it and then edited the actual slip action into a slow motion replay. My video is titled “Caution: Wet Floor“.

The Story Behind The Story

Pranks are fun if you are the one pranking, but not so much if you are being pranked. I have been apart of some great pranks and thankfully have been the pranker more than the pranked. However this prank tops all of mine. My aunt buttered the floor while her son was showering. As you can see, my cousin wipes out and remains down for the count. Let it be known, do not get on my aunt’s bad side or what happened to my cousin could happen to you!

The Process, Narrated

I found a video on YouTube of a prank. I downloaded the video and converted it to a QuickTime video via http://en.savefrom.net/ . I then imported it into iMovie and edited the video to the beginning and ending of the action. I highlighted the section I wanted to put into slow-motion by dragging the yellow bars left and right and then clicked “modify”, then “slow motion”, then “50%”. Here a few photos of my process.

The 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is beloved by all. It’s sometimes credited as the beginning of the cult-ish nature of Jane Austen works. And, of course, it has a lovely, completely unnecessary scene of Colin Firth in a wet shirt.

Really, though, this adaptation is really great. To be honest, despite being an English major, I hadn’t read or watched any Austen until a year ago. Heck, I haven’t read most “classics”. I’m just about to start Animal Farm and I’m just happy we’re doing an exigency reading and not a historical reading of it, because I’ve never studied it before. Anyway, Austen.

For the Chipmunk Style assignment (3.5 stars), I decided to take this iconic scene from the 6-hour series and alter it. But, I also wanted to take some creative liberties with it because, honestly, if BBC can add a wet Colin Firth for no reason, then I should be allowed to tweak the assignment a bit. I just wanted to have Darcy be high-pitched and chipmunk-y. It’s a lot more fun that way, as well as adding a bit of a challenge to the assignment.

I also chose the proposal scene because it’s such a serious moment, when these two characters are opening up to each other. It’s so dramatic, there isn’t any background music, it’s just their raw emotions. And there’s a fair amount of Darcy talking, as well as Elizabeth. And I just like the way Darcy stomps around the room like an anxiety-ridden child.

Process:

First I found the clip on Youtube,  and used Clip Converter to download both the .MP4 and the .MP3 file.

I opened the .MP4 into Windows Movie Maker, and the .MP3 into Audacity.

In Audacity, I listened through the audio, selecting only Darcy’s parts and changing the pitch to something that sounded comedic, but didn’t get too distorted.

Then I saved it and put it into Windows Movie Maker like I have in previous assignments, lined it up with the clip, and added the title and credits. Pretty simple!

This assignment (4 stars) was a fun way to get into the Christmas Spirit! It required me to pick 25 Christmas movies and make a countdown using clips from these movies. Although it became harder and harder to think of more movies, I managed to pull together clips from 25 different movies and put them all together in this video.

How I Did It:

I found clips for all the movies on YouTube (links to the clips can be found in the list of movies used).  I then individually uploaded the clips to Windows Movie Maker and edited them down to short snippets of the movie clip. My goal was to have the entire video be 5 minutes or shorter, but I was unsuccessful and the final video was 6 minutes long, which isn’t too far off from my goal. Once I had the clips in order I went through and added the number and title of the movie in the upper left corner. The final step was to save the movie to my desktop and to upload it to YouTube.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Home Alone

Elf

The Santa Clause

Unaccompanied Minors 

Just Friends 

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This Christmas

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

A Charlie Brown Christmas 

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol

Frosty The Snowman 

Fred Claus 

Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas

A Christmas Story 

White Christmas 

The Muppet Christmas Carol 

The Polar Express 

Bad Santa 

The Mistle-Tones

The Year Without Santa Claus 

Jack Frost

Scrooged

Home Alone 2