After having completed the Macbeth video in May 2003, I was fully charged to do another video. For English class, as a final project I decided to do another video. I started planning and brainstorming. I decided to film a ‘scary’ story I heard back in 6th grade camp. The story was really ‘scary’. I remember Mr. Hess (Cabin coordinator) was an excellent story teller.

I planned out the story as best as I could in my memory, and added a few elements of my own. The filming of this video took place over several days. We did the following:

• Spent ~ 2 days filming the forest scene at Van Saun Park.
• Spent one day practicing for the ‘fight scene’ at Van Saun Park.
• Spent an entire day filming the ‘fight’ scene’ at Garden State Plaza Mall.
• Filming was done using a Sony D8 camcorder.
• Spent about two and a half weeks editing on an iMac at friends house for 5-8 hrs each day.

Things to note:

• Filming was never fully completed because deadline for project was approaching

The following was the result:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1460514921656598622

This was my third attempt at making a movie ever, and second time ever editing on a computer.

Lessons:

• 1 day of practicing a fight scene is NOT enough to make a good fight scene. It should be practiced untill it becomes like fluid movement.
• Planning out what you want to film and how to film it is usually a good idea
• Its a good idea to have a script. This film didnt have any script at all
• The most action you have, the more editing will be needed to be done. Plan accordingly.

Last year I fell upon this website (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/) where the individual showed us how to build a steadycam. I figured, “hmm…$14. I’ll give it a try.” I went to homedepot and bought the parts and in about 30 minutes, I had my very own steadycam.

I decided to test out the steadycam. Two friends and myself decided to meetup for Fajr salah at the masjid and do the filming from there.We met up two more times to get some more cool “steadycam” footage. In the end after editing, the following was the result:

The footage that is from outside the car was done using the steadycam. Was this baby worth $14? Oh yea!