Annie Jr.: Project Outline & Reflection

Background

Between this year and last, I've done several client projects. Similar to what this project would be, I filmed last year's PRT musical (The Little Mermaid Jr.) and edited it for both a DVD and for YouTube. This year, I was asked again by Mrs. Davis, the PRT Theatre teacher, to film Annie Jr. and editing the entire hour-long show. Since I had already completed a very similar project last year, I knew how I would film both video and audio for the show, and I was able to learn how to improve the quality of the audio from last year's show as well. For audio recording, I used three ZOOM mics and placed them around the front of the stage: one in dead center, one on the let, and one on the right. I did this because last year, I only had one ZOOM mic in the center of the stage, but when one of the actors would be speaking off to the side of the stage, it didn't pick them up as well as everyone else. The three mics solved this problem. I filmed video the same way that I did last year: I had one camera recording a wide shot of the entire stage for the entirety of the show, and the other I operated to get close-ups and pan shots during the different scenes. 

Editing the Production

Editing this show took a total of 22 hours, very close to the amount of time it took me to edit The Little Mermaid Jr. last year. I went scene by scene, adjusting audio, color, and camera shots accordingly. I set up the timeline by placing audio beneath, the main, still-shot camera on the timeline, and the moving camera above it. That way, whenever I had a good shot with the moving camera, I would use the Blade tool to cut it, and then Disable whatever I didn't want from that camera angle (e.g. while I was moving the camera to position it for the shot, or quickly zooming in and out during the scene to get a good shot). You can see this in the timeline below (yes, this is the entire project)! 

You can see the main, still camera is visible throughout the entire show. The cut up line above it is my moving shot, and the audio tracks are beneath everything else (I doubled the audio to slightly increase the overall sound output). The orange markers placed throughout the timeline are chapter markers, which I used for the DVD. Each marker represents the beginning of the next scene, so viewers can easily jump to whatever scene they want by using the DVD menu (I also added the start times for each scene on the YouTube video in the description of the video). Before the Saturday show, I also filmed some pre-show, backstage interviews with members of the cast, and that can be seen as the single shot at the beginning of the timeline. Once I was finished editing, I burned it to a DVD that would be copied for every member of the cast, and I also exported the full 1080p version onto YouTube. That file was over 8 GB!

I also created a pretty cool YouTube thumbnail to match the project, including my logo, the PRT logo, and the Annie Jr. and PRT Theatre logos, and a background shot from the actual show.

Reflecting on the Project

I was very proud of both last year's final video and this year's. It takes a massive amount of work, time, and effort, but it's worth it when you're able to look back and see that your hard work paid off. Collaborating with Mrs. Davis, determining how to record the show, and meeting deadlines all played a part in this project.