Reflection
The Process of Learning Premiere Pro
In the 7th video titled "Adding B-Roll to the Time Line" the narrator shortened the clip in the source panel so that when he dragged it into the timeline the clip would already be cut the way he wanted. He did this by dragging the play head in the source panel to the place he wanted the clip to start and pressed "I" on the keyboard to mark that specific part of the shot. I had actually never seen this before and previously struggled with cutting clips the way I had wanted in the timeline, so this served as a great tip to learn.
Another thing the narrator taught me was how to customize my interface, in the video titled "New Projects" he moved his cursor in between the panels and was able to make them bigger or smaller depending on the movement. A very tiny detail but one I appreciated greatly, for my personal adjustments I had my source and project panel in a much smaller organization that was off to the side, while my program and timeline panel took up the majority of the screen. This allowed me to focus more on the actual video, rather than be distracted by the other parts of the interface.
The Experience of Creating the Clip and its Intricacies
The actual creation of this project was actually quite pleasant, I was able to easily arrange clips into the timeline, fix the audio, and form a storyline for the video. First I had imported my clips, then I had created a "draft" of the clips I wanted to use in a rough chronological order, after that I further cut down and sometimes lengthened clips to ensure everything was fairly shown on screen. After this I moved to sound, I de-hummed and lowered the audio of the b-roll to give spotlight to the interviews, and I completed the assignment by adding the lower thirds to the manager interview and a few finishing touches as the garnish to the project.
One of my favorite parts of creating this project was working to finish a part of the video, then being able to playback my work and see what I had accomplished. A huge success I had in the video-making process, was having the actual program of Premiere never lagging, breaking down, or deleting/losing my b-roll and interviews. This was one of the biggest problems I dealt with when I was creating different projects. It did not matter if I was on my computer or the school's MacBooks, but it would always randomly break down and sometimes get rid of all my progress. The only solution being using a friend/family's device or just enduring the complications. However, having the program run smoothly with absolutely no software issues was very surreal, it allowed me to get the project done within the assigned time limit (compared to the recurring issue of completing it late), and was an overall amazing success.
Something I did struggle with however was finding some of the clips in the project panel. For example, I would scroll past a clip that looked interesting for a shot later into the video, but when I would actually try to find the shot it felt as if it had disappeared. It felt as if I was endlessly scrolling through clips and wasting time that I could be using to progress. Although it wasn't a major deterrent it was certainly a nuisance reduced my efficiency.
Conclusion and Takeaways
After the completion of this project I had realized quite a few things that I need to keep in mind moving forward in this class. The first being that the work ethic I used for my previous projects is nothing like the ethic I need for Media Studies. I was used to a breakneck and rushed pace, but after working on this assignment for a little bit I realized it wasn't like that at all, there were no distractions, no uninterested teammates, and a properly working computer. In this class I hope to be able to put more heart and character into my projects and focus a little bit less on the mindset of "just finish" that I had been operating off of from before. How I believe this assignment may help me with my portfolio is that it will reimmerise me into the details and difficulties of Premiere and hopefully, along with more projects, improve my skills a lot more.
