ASSIGNMENTS
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Assignment #1: Series of still images with 8 shot sizes & different angles.
Product: 8 shots, stills
Process: high shooting ratio (shoot more than 8, keep only 8)
Constraints: 1 of each shot size, 1 of each shot angle
ECU, CU, MS, LS, XLS, low angle, high angle, dutch angle
Challenge: remember that these “sizes” are relative to human scale – does your camera’s perspective have to be yours? What if it’s a younger version of you? The POV of an ant? a fish? a pebble?
Assignment #2: The Single Shot Video.
OPT 1) Part A: 30-sec with deep focus; Part B: 30-sec of same subject and shot size, using depth of field and focal length to shift understanding of space and/or action.
OPT 2) Part A: 30-sec completely still, focus as you choose; Part B: 30-sec of same subject and shot size, using something in the lighting, mise-en-scene, or some other non-human action to shift our understanding of space or action.
OPT 3) 1 60 second shot, completely still camera, you propose your idea Thurs, Sept 1.
Challenge: what is “stillness”? does “stillness” need to be boring?
Assignment #3: Material Exploration
PRE: Come up with/find 5 ways to create a digital moving image that involves at least one additional step to pressing the “record” button on your camera and uploading the video. These can be as high tech post-processing, but please think of 2-3 low tech options.
Challenge: think about digital media, cameras or post processing, what can you do with it that nothing else can do? How do you use it? Does a movie have to be shot with a camera?
PRODUCTION: “shoot” 60 seconds of video using at least 3 of your methods
POST: for each method:
bring in individual files of each labeled with your name_1.mov
bring in individual pieces of paper, numbered to match the file, with a haiku (or same number of syllables as a haiku) about your feelings about the method on the front, and a detailed (reproducible) description of your (or found) method for creating your image
Assignment #4. Montage intervention. Use intellectual montage to intervene in a classmate’s assignment #3
Assignment #5: Three 20-sec shots consistent in subject, action, and location, recorded at three different times of day, find a way to put a glitch in the routine
SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS CLASS PROGRESSES
Assignment #6: Using what you’ve learned about lighting and mise-en-scène, create a single shot that transforms a location to set a mood, create a mood, or tell a story.
Assignment #7: Shoot and edit together 2 different entities/creatures/beings in separate spaces, so they appear to interact with each other in the same space, demonstrating your understanding of screen direction, eyeline matching, continuity, and lines of action; then re-edit to intentionally break one of these “rules” for a specific aesthetic, narrative, or conceptual reason that you can explain.
Assignment #8: Using your understanding of composition and movement, use pixilation, stop motion, or timelapse to create a 60-second video
Assignment #9: Use camera movement to change our understanding of a space, object, or situation. You could reveal a mystery, a hidden truth, a means of operation. *Include a storyboard of the sequence
Assignment #10: TBD
MIDTERM (video): Project of your own devising, with story board, group “helpers”
MIDTERM (technical): vocabulary and shooting/comprehension test of shooting and editing vocabulary
FINAL: culminating project: using the technical and theoretical skills acquired, create an original two minute video.