This term I became a professional filmmaker. Well, ok, maybe not a professional filmmaker but I definitely learned some important skills the pros use and grew a lot as a filmmaker in general. I had lots of time to develop my skills as a filmmaker as we made ten videos (and counting) regarding a variety of topics and using many different formats. Throughout this process of film design I also demonstrated and mastered the ISTE standard as well as the curricular competency’s for this project. I’m excited to take you on my learning journey so let’s jump right into it.

The first video we made was the four shot film. This was a relatively basic film as it only was supposed to have four camera angles. When making this video with my group it taught me lots of important skills about movie maker, the cameras on our iPads, voiceovers and more. I didn’t go into any deep learning or growth throughout the process of this video but as a new PLP student it gave some fundamental skills that I would need to succeed.

The next video I created was the ghost town video. This video was a short film we made in a group that had no audio. This is were my filmmaking journey really started for me. We made a lot of mistakes In this video and could have done a lot better. We forgot to bring the costumes we had said we could get, which left our actors rather dull looking compared wth the beautiful ghost town setting. We also took some of our shots in portrait and others in landscape. This is a huge mistake and is super noticeable throughout our video. For this video we also had done very little planning and we were not prepared to film. Although we adapted to not having costumes by borrowing some from other groups who weren’t using them at a specific time it held our group back waiting for the costumes and left us pressed for time. Overall I learned a lot through my mistakes in this video and now never take shots in portrait and I began to develop my skills regarding planning and costumes.

After that I would go onto create the Drumheller museum documentary. We were tasked with finding a creature to talk about and getting an interview regarding that creature. This was the first time I would be making a film without a group in PLP so it wasn’t unexpected that I learned a lot. We were very pressed for time so my time management skills improved a lot. I also began to really improve at using by technology, wether I was editing, filming or recording audio. This was a key video for me as I improved some of the most important skills I would develop this term.

The Alberta people’s video is probably one of the biggest videos of this term. Once again I would be making this video without a group. Because of this my editing, videography and problem solving skills would grow a lot throughout this video process. I had to edit a long video, add voiceover and interviews and get shots to support my script. I definitely made some mistakes in this video as well, like not getting enough b roll. I had to problem solve this by using photos and relying on my friends extensive b roll to help me. This video helped me grow a lot as a filmmaker and person.

For my next video running a remake, I was back in a group. This video is where we learned and utilized things like a call sheet, storyboard and screenplay. We also had to be far more creative with our filmmaking and editing to get some of the SFX we needed. I had to learn how to sync footsteps to make this video work. Over all this video process really taught me some of the filmmaking fundamentals I hadn’t learned before, and my editing and filmmaking skills grew massively.

 Now we move on to the revolution series of videos. The first is our original French Revolution rap song video. I had to make a video in a very short period of time utilizing a screenplay, call sheet and storyboard. Although me and my group did complete the video we really struggled with our time management, our story board was terrible and our final edit was no it great. We made some mistakes but hopefully we could learn from them.

The next video in the revolution series would be the American revolution. We tried to focus a lot more on time management in this revolution video as well as having better costumes and props. We really hit the mark for the costumes and props in this video but we were still ended up nearly running out of time.

The Russian revolution came next and I knew we really had to focus and bear down on two of our main problems. One was of course our time management and we actually improved a lot in this video and I feel like we had grown in this very important skill. As for the story board we were doing an animated video so it almost forced us to improve and grow in this skill as well. We utilized our technology and created an awesome story board and video. This video was also a great example of how I demonstrated the ISTE innovative designer. I had to use a variety of  technology’s in a design process wether it be flippa clip, voice memos or IMovie to solve the problem of making an animated video in a creative way with a very not artsy group.

The final video in my revolution series would be my revolution of choice, me and my group chose to redo the French Revolution in an acted out format this time. We focus on all the skills we had grown in and some we had mastered. We created a script(to replace the storyboard), screenplay, a costume call sheet, costumes, props, edited our video, worked as a team to conquer our project, used technology to stay on top of our time management, and filmed many angles and in many formats. Overall we used all these skills and created an amazing video. This was a video I used the computational thinker ISTE standard in. I devolved the strategy of using things in this video process to solve the problem of my time management which ultimately developed into a solution I use today.

The final video this post will be on is the take your kid to work day video. This was an opportunity to show that I, without a group, could not only use But also master all the skills I had learned and grown in. I stayed on top of my time and used many creative angles and techniques to filming  and editing, planned thoroughly in an organized way and ultimately succeeded in making a successful video. This is a video that I demonstrated the empowered learner ISTE standard in. I used the technology’s I had to actively take art in keeping on track of my timeline and planning to therefore complete my learning goal of making a short video.

There are very few video processes that didn’t use the creative communicator ISTE standard. In all my videos I used a variety of video styles, camera angles, editing tools, and formats to appropriate to my goals as a learner. 

This is the same with the knowledge constructor ISTE standard. In all my videos I curated information from a variety of sources like videos, websites or in person presentation in Order to create the knowledge I needed to produce a creative video that impacted the learning of myself and others.

To conclude this was a huge term in maker where I learned tons of new things. Throughout the ten videos I have improved my skills so vastly and grown so much. From the person who wasn’t quite sure how to edit in iMovie or even use the camera app too it’s full extent, to the person who can comfortably film, edit and plan a detailed short film independently. Of course I used and grew from the ISTE standards and curricular competency’s in this term vastly as well. Thanks for reading about my journey of learning and growth through this maker term and I’ll catch you guys later.