Tag: Cell Phones

Thanksgiving Film Trailer Project

For our final project in NMAC 3145, we had to make a Thanksgiving themed film trailer. Since my family doesn’t really do Thanksgiving (it’s only the 6 of us in my immediate family and then an aunt, uncle, and cousin in my extended family) so I picked a theme that’s universal for even those who don’t actually celebrate Thanksgiving during the Thanksgiving week: Traffic!

The requirements were to make it look like a trailer as much as you could, to have layered audio, and for it to be Thanksgiving themed. I managed to do those things! I did mine in the style of a drama but so that it’s a spoof comedy, of sorts. The contents are humorous but when styled like a drama, it’s even funnier. Hopefully you guys think so, too!

(We were also supposed to have a script to turn in, and I’m not sure where exactly, so I’m just gonna put a read-more below the video and post it there. You guys can ignore that part!)

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Photo Advertising Assignment

This week for NMAC 3145 we had an assignment in which we had to do an ad campaign for some product we use doing 6 photographs.

I decided to do my project on my favorite k-pods: Green Mountain Sumatran Roast.

The idea is to pretend that you’re an advertisement firm hired to promote the product, so I have to think about the goal in this photo advertisement. I’m selling coffee that’s single-serve, fast-brewing, convenient coffee that still tastes good. My target audience for this is the person that’s always on the go and doesn’t need a whole pot of coffee. A good idea would be young business people or students, someone that’s likely unmarried (no need for a whole pot of coffee for just yourself) and likely needs to get their coffee in the morning as they’re on their way out the door to class or work. Ads like this would be best in magazines, online ads, and in public spaces like bus stops and on subway platforms, because the person likely to be the type that commutes and those are the types of items a commuter likely runs into.

My theme for my photo shoot is ‘getting ready for work’. It’s early, still dark out, and the person using the product is making coffee in between showering, getting dressed, running around getting everything ready for the day, ect. The idea I’m trying to sell is that with the convenience of Green Mountain Sumatran Roast in a k-pod for the Keurig, she can make her coffee and have time to drink it while she’s getting ready because it’s that fast and convenient.

Because I’m one person living in a house with 6 other people, the only time I could make use of the kitchen as a photography studio without people in and out was the middle of the night, which is also why I’m the photographer and subject in my project, because everyone else is asleep in the middle of the night.

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3-Frame Story

This week in my NMAC 3145 class, we approached the idea of telling a story through photographs alone. The idea is that you don’t use any words to tell your story, but I’m going to address the restrictions that caused me to have such a haphazard sequence of shots.

Simply put, I was going for comedy, so I made a choice about a GREAT idea and didn’t think up any alternatives. My original idea was going to be my sister Dallas standing at the base of a tree, then beginning to climb the tree, and then splayed on the ground after falling from the tree. However, both Tuesday and today, I didn’t get home until after dark, so that wasn’t doable. I thought for a while that I was not going to be able to get anything lined up to fulfill the requirements. Last minute, I got this idea and I rushed to my sisters’ room where Dallas was nearly asleep (Graysie was still up, but she doesn’t own heels so she wasn’t an option), and begged her to get out of bed and let me take just THREE pictures of her for my assignment. She really did mean just three photos, so this is what I got and what I had to work with.
I’m sorry that they aren’t better, but I edited the color and lighting so that they matched and they are framed as well as I could get them in one try. Here we go!

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Photographed Shapes Project

This week in NMAC 3145, we had to take photographs of objects all of one shape and the shape I chose was circles.

Taking photos with a cell phone is hard.

The shape photography assignment was an exercise in frustration. We all know how frustrating it can be to take photos of anything, but that was absolutely the worst. Using a cellphone to take photos is going the extra mile of frustration, because it is nearly impossible to take good photos of anything up close with a phone. I have never seen a cellphone camera that offers manual focus in any of the settings, so trying to focus on things up close is practically impossible, meaning that you have to take dozens of photos to find the shot you need. It drove me crazy.

I ended up taking about thirty photos and it was all multiples of the same items. The only thing that I took a photo of that didn’t end up in this set of six photos was a pumpkin, and I decided it wasn’t really a circle. I chose circles at random. I had no long, hard choice in choosing to photograph circles. I like them and I wanted to take a photo of things I had on hand, and my key chain of Captain America’s shield is a circle. I ended up finding plenty of other things that are circular that I just couldn’t get a photo of. Things too far away, for example. Things I couldn’t stop and photograph because I was driving or walking and running late. The things I ended up choosing where my Captain America shield key chain, the top of my vitamin bottle, one of the wheels on my car, the lid on a bottle of lemon soda, a cupcake, and the logo on my purple converses.

Honestly, the choice in which six photos I would choose came down to ‘which is the least blurry’, because after taking photo upon photo, there were some items I just could not get clear. They would focus and then when I tried to snap the picture, it would re-focus and blur. That happened so many times. There is a reason most of the things I take pictures of with my cellphone are full sized things that aren’t close to me. Maybe some people with better phone cameras have less trouble than I did, but I pretty much gave up and chose what was clearest without any further creative side to my choices.

A Day In The Life of Me: A Learning Experience In Cellphone Videography

In my NMAC 3145 class, we were tasked with making a short ‘intro to you’ video with a camera you own, meaning for most of us, our cellphone cameras. Now, having never used a cellphone to film anything that wasn’t going on Instagram of Snapchat, I was not super sure of myself in this one, and it shows.

I’m not the best cinematographer with a professional camera, nonetheless with a Samsung Galaxy S5 that I bought refurbished because I’m too poor to buy a newer phone, but I’m not entirely disappointed with my finished product.

My biggest issue was trying to film myself with my phone. I had only my own arm-length to use. I tried propping it up, but other than in my car, where there are softer surfaces that allow for propping more easily without sliding, it was very difficult. I had wanted to include some video of me doing yoga, since I am a yoga lover, but not a single place in my home has enough room to lay out my mat and prop my phone somewhere that it can film me.

Also, as you can see, I did not know that filming with the phone upright would make it do the vertical black bars thing. On Snapchat and Instagram, that’s how you film. Also, on the phone screen itself, if yo turn it on it’s side, THEN it has black bars.

All in all, it was a very good learning experience that I would love to try again some time with a different subject than myself so that I can film a lot better than just from arm-length.

Do you guys have any experience in cellphone videography? Be sure to comment and tell me how well it has worked out for you!