Atlantis (2004) - Following Delicious, there was a brief lull, during which I worked with two other students on a short 1 minute documentary for another assignment. This time we were assigned locations on campus about which to make our films. We received the Knight Library. I have not included this assignment; one of the people who was assigned didn't even show up, and I had to do much of the shooting without a tripod, and I felt that the assignment suffered a lot. Edited at the last minute we ended up using a licensed song, and I feel that it was not a very strong showing. However the next week we had a similar assignment: a 1 minute documentary about our herritage, which we had to do alone. I chose my recently deceased grandfather, for whom I have a great deal of affection. Because he had been adopted, I decided to give my imagination fair play, and supposed that he had been from the continent of Atlantis. I'm certain that my grandfather, who had a sharp wit, would have enjoyed the idea. However, I was affraid that this approach might not be appreciated by the class or the professor, whom I supposed might want us to take a more serious approach to the material. So I decided to make a second more accurate documentary. I made the documentaries so they could be shown apart, but could also be connected in the middle if necessary. I decided to use Ken Burns style motion controlled still images, which I fabricated in photoshop for the Atlantis segment, and were then manipulated into zooms, pans and moving montage shots using After Effects. Th professor loved both segments, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had used several techniques that I was to find incredibly useful later on. In the opening "spinning" shot, I am holding the camera at arms length spinning in a chair in one of the computer labs where I had created those motion based movements of the still images. I still am bothered by the low quality of the voice-over which was recorded at the last minute with the camera microphone, causing the sound of the camera's motors whenever dialogue starts or stops. But it is still a fun video, and an example of an understanding of the modern TV documentary format that is still popular today on channels like The History Channel. Click on one of the links below to view the video Click here to return to the documentary menu. |