Road to the Finish Line

So, as I mentioned before, I am OCD. Things have to be a certain way for me otherwise I get stressed out and even physically get sick. I can't "half-ass" anything because even the thought of it makes me lose sleep at night.

That being said, the caliber of work that I produce has to be always above and beyond what is expected. Needless to say, Windows Movie Maker didn't quite "cut" it for me. I went and got Adobe Premier Pro to work on the CLAM projects.

Warning to technology challenged people like me, Adobe Premier was like alien language to me... I had a friend from Turkey who sat with me on the computer for hours trying to teach me how to use it. God bless Skype :) Okay, I think slowly but surely I'm also becoming a tech geek.

The biggest challenge wasn't the video editing program though. Once I got rolling, I seemed to pick it up quickly. My biggest problem was arranging the videos. For that, storyboards helped a lot.

I don't know how many of you physically made storyboards, but if you haven't I highly suggest you do it if you ever end up doing a project like this again.

Before I even started gathering everything for the projects, I went out and bought three big bulletin board type of foam posters. My initial intention was to put materials that I would need for each video such as the pictures that I would use.

But in the end it turned out to be more than just storyboards. I put down ideas, notes, businesscards, phone numbers that I needed, scripts for my narration, video permission slips, etc. Basically, these storyboards were with me every step of the video editing process.

My friend would peek at my boards every day to see what I had changed :) She was livid when I said I would throw them out after I was done with the project because I would have no use for them. Actually, she is the one who suggested that I should give them to my professor after the project was over so he could use them as examples for his future classes.

So, I decided to also post them here. Easier access you know??








I hope this helps the future CLAMMERS!

Gizem

Final Projects are Finally Here

It has been a long and to say the least, torturous journey for me to compose the final videos. Don't get me wrong, I have learned A LOT! Not only did I get to learn about the Suryanis, I learned more about photography, how to effectively record videos, and also to use video editing programs. On top of it, I also got a small job. My friend saw my videos and asked me if I could edit her wedding videos for her.

I'm going to keep this blog simple and post the videos but I'm also going to blog about the road to the finish line.

So, here goes, well, everything that I have been working on for the past four months.






This is the Personal Video. I decided to keep the Personal Video personal and just include narration and my photography. I didn't want to include any interviews because I wanted to make this video from my point of view. This video is about what I have learned and what I will be walking away with now that this project is done.









For the Professional Video, I balanced the content it with narration, interviews and photographs. I think I had the most fun with this video. It was so much fun trying to get Iso, our friend, to just sit still and be serious for a few minutes. He was sweating pearls by the end of the interview because he was so nervous.









The Public Issues Video proved to be the most difficult. As you will see in the video, I got to interview the Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the US. This is a great honor. Though it wasn't easy to get an interview with him. Not that he wasn't willing, but being the Archbishop of the US and all, he is a busy man with not a lot of free time.

We met twice for the interview. The first day we got to know each other and I told him about my project and things that I would ask him during the interview. That way he would have an idea of what he would say. Also, it gave me some time to research the issues that he mentioned.

The interview ended up being more than an hour and a half.... Ever try cutting 90 minutes of material down to five? Yeah, well, it took me two days and more than nine hours of editing just the interview, not including time spent on working on the editing of the whole video.




Though, this was the toughest video, to me it has the most meaning. I am leaving to go to Turkey on Sunday and if I ever get a chance, I want to visit Mor Gabriel Monastery. I promise, if I do get to go there, I will post a blog with pictures.

The thing is, I loved this class way too much. I got to do the things that I have been wanting to do but haven't had the time to because of school and work. I cannot express how much it makes me happy to have learned about photography and film. I'm going to continue on learning more. Now I'm saving up to get a Mac Book Pro :) I think I'm addicted :)


Well guys, it has been a long and difficult journey but very VERY rewarding. It has been great to get to know you all through this class. Hope we will keep in touch and chime in on the future CLAM students from time to time!

With Lots of Love,
Gizem