Thought Piece 4

The first thing in this part of the reading that really stood out to me was that shooting people rather than scenery is very important. Stockman mentions how you need to think about what you would want to watch or look back on. I think this is a very important thing to remember because, as he says in the beginning of the book, if you wouldn’t want to watch it then you can’t expect others to willingly watch it. So, I think I will try to apply this thought into my projects for this class by making sure I focus more on the people that I am videoing rather that what’s around them. I think having some shots of the things around them that show more who they are will be helpful, but that I need to make sure that it is mostly the person.

            Stockman eventually goes on to talk about how your videos need to make you stand out. He did say this specifically in reference to application videos, however I decided to take it past application videos. It reminded me of when I was told to try to think of different ideas, ideas that people might not have done before or that had not been done recently or commonly. I think having new ideas and different video topics will definitely make people more inclined to watch your videos and I believe that adding different or creative perspectives or shots will make people even further inclined to watch your videos. People love to see new and different things that they may not have seen before, and I think that this is very important to think about in video because people want new and interesting things to see. People like a variety and change, they don’t want to see the same thing over and over.

            The first big step in editing is to cut out all the bad shots or “cutting the crap” as Stockman says it. He mentions doing this once you’re on the editing platforms, but I think that this can also be partially done in the camera. There’s a lot of times, at least with photo, that I can tell when I look at it on the camera that it’s not a good shot. I would have to assume that this idea would also apply to video. I think that sometimes, watching back on your camera can make you know then and there if the clip would be worth saving. I do, however, also believe that this would be a learned skill for me for video since I have a lot more experience with photo. But I think that being able to do some of this deleting in camera can help make the editing process faster or smoother. I also do think that it will take a lot of practice in the editing process to narrow down my good clips vs my bad clips but I am confident that I can pick it up quickly.

            Finally, the last thing that stood out to me was having your ending tie into the ending. I think this statement may be more applicable to movies and fiction videos. However, I think having a video that is cohesive all the way to the end keeps your viewer engaged and interested in the piece. I think that applying this to the types of videos we are doing can be a cool component to keep the viewer thinking even after the video is done and make your video memorable to your audiences.