The Efficiencies of Online Class During the Pandemic

For our short movie project I was tasked to create a small film that detailed a benefit that I have experienced during the pandemic. After some deliberation, I ended up choosing to create a film about the efficiencies of getting to class.

When deciding how I was going to best capture these efficiencies I thought it best to create a contrast between my experience of going to class in-person versus over zoom. This decision is what made up my framework for the majority of the short film. An example of this contrast is me hiking up Cardiac Hill trying to make it into my in-person class versus me walking to my computer to make it to the virtual class.

Throughout the process of creating the short film I realized some of the differences between being the movie producer and the consumer. The producer has to consider many important aspects when creating a visually appealing and impactful film such as camera angles and narrations. In comparison the consumer only has to find the film appealing. The goal of the consumer is not to worry about how to convey a message. It is merely to understand the film and hopefully absorb the message being conveyed.

While designing the short film one thing that surprised me was how difficult it was to find the right camera angle inorder to best capture the scenes and make their transitions smooth. It seems easy at first but creating a perfect scene requires prior planning and preparation as well as an understanding of how the different camera angles can affect the scene. Additionally, the producer has to consider the lighting and audio involved with the scene. Because I wanted my video to emit a positive mood I made sure to have all of my scenes well lit.

I thought that most of the transitions in the film worked well. My favorite was the transition of the car pulling out of the driveway as I rushed off to class and then cutting to the inside of the car as I pulled up to campus. On a similar note, I thought that the two sections of the video (going to class in person and over zoom) fused together quite well. By starting both sections with the wake up alarm in my bedroom the audience instantly knows where the scene is taking place and is able to experience the stark contrast between the two sections of the film.

One element that would have been a good addition to the film is a sound track. The problem that I kept running into was that the music was overpowering the narrations and comments that I made throughout the film. Because of this problem I decided to not include the soundtrack with the film.