🍌 From Bananas to Wizards | Vibrant Video

In this project we learned a bunch about movies, from history to practical skills. I’ll start with the first skill then work my way down past some banana madness, all the way to the grand finale involving a wizard, a penguin and an iPad

Movie history

We also learned some movie history. I won’t go too in depth on it, but you can read (or at least try to read) my notes on the history here:

Click to open PDF

💡Fun Fact: Did you know that one of the very first videos was of Thomas Edison sneezing?

Source

Skill 1: Think Like a Moviemaker

For this skill we worked individually to create a short story about a hobby. I decided to make my video about my art skills. If you’ve read my About Me page then you know that I have a website for my artwork, go check it out: fraserartist.wixsite.com/home. I used Clips to organize and record an intro as well as make the voiceovers. In the video I used an art piece that I made for my friend Isabel, and because Procreate automatically makes a Timelapse of your art process I was able to export the Timelapse and use it in my video. Here’s my final hobby video:

 

Skill 2: Framing Shots and Developing Angles

This was my favourite video that we created: a silent film. I collaborated with my friend Nolan and my sister Kaia to create this cinematic masterpiece “🍌The Great Banana Chase 🍌” We filmed it by making our actions slower than normal then sped up the video in post production to replicate the style of old silent movies. We also used an iMovie filter and title cards from Clips. Coincidentally, the music we used was called “Monkey Machines” (funny since monkeys eat bananas…) We filmed using several still camera angles including: Wide, Medium, Close Up, Birds Eye and Worms Eye to help tell the story. 

Source

Without further ado, I present to you The Great Banana Chase:

Also check out these photos of us setting up the shots for The Great Banana Chase:

 

Skill 3: Planning and Shooting

In this skill we used the brand new iMovie update which includes a storyboard feature and cool title features. Our (Luca, Sepaus and I) goal for this skill was to create a tutorial video using the DIY storyboard feature. To plan out our tutorial video we used a template in pages:

Click to open PDF

Then we filmed in the school trying to use some different angles, but it was more challenging because we were trying to teach how to speak a Portuguese, so there weren’t a lot of angles that would make it look good besides wide, medium and close up. We also used some stock videos of Brazil. If you ever wanted to learn Portuguese, now is your chance:

 

Skill 4: Making the Most of Effects

Finally we created a video featuring special effects. We first wrote a treatment, which is a short description of the movie, you may read it below:

A Magic Wizard wishes to steal an iPad from the PLP (Prodigy Learning Program) room to use for his wicked magic. While he makes his way through Seycove School for Young Magical Prodigies, he comes across a powerful guard who blocks his path down the great hall to his iPad. Persistent to reach his target, he uses his magical wizarding powers and his penguin sidekick to distract the guard. The wizard directs the guard’s attention to the penguin who holds his attention, during this time the wizard creates an illusion masking him as a different person wearing inconspicuous sombrero and a moustache. The guard is fooled by this great deception and the wizard is let by. 

When the wizard reaches the PLP room, the door is locked, so he once again uses his magical powers to walk right through the wall. However his sombrero disguise does not come with him. When the guard walks by the classroom, he recognizes the wizard as he does not have his elegant disguise. The guard confronts the wizard, who flys off into the distance.

We then developed a shot list, pretty self explanatory a list of shots you film for the movie:

1: [Wide shot back angle] Wizard magically opens door the door

2: [medium shot side angle]  Wizard talks to penguin “Dr. Penguin, I need to steal one of those magical iPads from the Prodigy Learning Program’s room.” “You will help me to reach the room and get away with the great ipad so I can use it for my wonderfully wicked magic”

3: [wide shot side angle] guard sees the wizard

4: [over shoulder] from guards perspective, the camera follows what the guard is looking at. 

Looks at wizard

Pans left

Looks at penguin

Blurs right (Jump cut)

Looks at different wizard.

5: [Wide angle Side shot] Wizard and guard talks to each other 

6: [medium shot] Wizard tries to unlock the door

7: [Wide shot looking through the window] Wizard runs straight through the wall (Jumpcut)

8: [Medium shot] Wizard tries to find the all great and powerful iPad

9: [close up shot] taking iPad

10: [shot through window] Guard sees the wizard stealing stuff, comes to confront him

11: [Medium shot] Wizard talks to penguin

12: [Wide shot front angle] the guard is pounded by an avalanche by the penguin

We filmed the shots then edited it all in iMovie to create this final special effects video “The All Great Magical iPad Heist (feat. The Wizard):

 

Challenges

In addition to the films above, we also created a minimum two short “Challenge Videos.” Nolan and I (with the help of my sister) collaborated for the angles challenge, making ourselves the size of gnomes:

I also individually did the Green Screen challenge, creating an Apple Watch out of paper and green screen magic:

 

I really enjoy making movies, so I had a lot of fun with this project. I also learned some pretty cool history that I never knew before.

💡Fun Fact: Did you know that the tornado in The Wizard of Oz is actually a huge piece of fabric?

I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t learn a lot of new techniques in regards to actually filming and editing, but I did learn a lot of interesting movie history. One thing I think I need to focus on in future movie or video making projects is to plan out the film before I shoot it so I can ensure that I have all the footage I need. I will remember to apply the skills I did learn in the future and I look forward to growing my film skills in future projects. 

Let me know what your favourite movie or video was or any other thoughts in the comments below! ✌️

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