Tea?

10.20.20

As someone who drinks tea regularly you would think I liked my assignment. No. I do not. You see, I only like specific types of tea, and never the kind I brew at home. It just doesn’t taste the same at the kind from the store that is already bottled/boxed. Since I am from New England, I only drink iced beverages. So the process of heating then rapidly cooling tea has never appealed to me. I much prefer to open my refrigerator, pull out my carton of chai, and pour over ice to sip during class. And now I have made four sad cups of green tea and keep forcing my roommates to drink it.

10.22.20

I noticed how important sound is for videos. Whether it be sound effects, music, or no sound whatsoever, the noise makes a huge impact. A video’s entire message can be altered! Since we cannot add sound to our final productions I know that I need to be very thoughtful about how I shoot my video. I think that emphasizing the noises of tea making will be really cool. I will try and have a very quiet environment so that the close ups are accompanied by the bubbling of the kettle, pouring of tea, clink of a spoon, all those nice things.

Do we make good tea or just make tea? There are some steps that are not necessary for tea, but make tea better. I don’t know if I should include them or not.

10.27.20

My board received criticism for being too in-depth, I have a lot of steps. People found them unnecessary and some parts took away from the lesson. Instead of making good tea, it seems that I should just make tea. So no fancy preferences, just the brewing. Steve was confused about the two water containers but I have a kettle and a teapot. The tea pot can’t be put on a stove and I prefer using the electric kettle for ease and efficiency. So I pour my hot water into the teapot after heating it. THEN, I pour the steeped tea into my mug. My peers all steep the tea in their teacup. No one had very strong opinions about the multiple containers for the liquid, but I am concerned it will cause confusion. My goal in future iterations is just to be very clear that the different containers have different functions.

My peers also suggested a more neutral background, and I already have a filming place in mind. They agreed with my comments that I wanted to shoot from an above view, but just reminded me to keep consistent framing. They also agreed that the sound of tea is the most satisfying. After sitting in studio with Gia in front of me practicing her balloon dogs, I most definitely prefer kettles bubbling over the sound of squeaky balloons.

10.29.20
Framing and camera work seems to be a consistent problem across all of the tea group. We found the task to be pretty easy, but our angles need work. There was also issues with keeping the video steady for some of us. While I didn’t have all my clips included, my peers pointed out some that they were looking forward too. It reminded me that I still need a shot of the ingredients at the beginning of the video. They also want me to reshoot the scene where I show the color of the tea (signifying it completed steeping).

As a group we discussed the passage of time and how we plan to show it. Jess had a good idea of tapping her watch, while Jayden included his iPhone timer. According to the professors (hi gang!), the inclusion of a time teller is fine to have. For my video I want to find something less glaring than the iPhone timer. Next time I am at HomeGoods I will search for a little bedside clock of some sort. That way my supplies have consistent colors and it wont be distracting.

I am excited to film a more finalized video and have a very strong vision. I am a very aesthetics based person, so having a clean and cohesive look is important to me. Anything that breaks the video’s ‘rules’ stands out to me, like having a a black phone screen when the rest of the materials are white.

11.03.20

Answer on medium: What did you learn from the peer review of video drafts? What ideas do you have for revising/improving your video? What is informing your thinking?

The main take away for today’s session was my camera angle. Due to tripod limitations, I shot my video on a table with the camera slightly above. It seems that a video shot directly above would be clearer for a beginner tea maker. So my final version will be a bird’s eye view instead. I think that working in groups of only tea makers made us blind to the points of confusion that ‘strangers’ would face when learning. It was very helpful to have fresh perspectives critique us and point out things I had glossed over.

Due to election stress I did not have a few clips that I plan on adding, so the reviewers pointed that out. I had included little notes in the video just mentioning that there were parts missing, but it was good that people agreed. Yash requested a shot of the water measurement, but I am unsure how to include this while maintaining my point of view.

I had asked a few questions in my video about how I might show the completed tea color and the main suggestion was improved lighting. That should be an easy fix since I just bought bulbs for the lighting project and I’m sure I can construct some sort of hanging contraption. Unfortunately, Georgia did NOT like the sound of my spoon. To me, that is a quintessential tea making sound. But as a viewer her opinions come first. I will try to make the sound ‘nicer’ and gently tap the spoon instead.

11.05.20

When it came to my final video, I decided to change some major things. Originally, I was going to have an above point of view. However, after shooting an entire video I realized it was hard to see some of the steps. I am restrained to the materials I have, which includes a very janky tripod made of tissue boxes.

Instead I shot from across the table, despite the imperfect background. Thankfully my kitchen is mostly white! I added the missing scenes, deleted a few steps, and edited it all together. I’m pretty happy with the outcome of this project and I learned a lot. The biggest thing that changed my outlook is when Steve told us that there was a difference between showing and teaching. That made me realize I needed to reassess my approach to the project. I paid more attention to my hand motions and pace. I also tried to imagine myself as a viewer and what I would want to know.

After that, it was fairly easy to do the rest. I could visualize the shots in my head and how I wanted to edit them. Then I had to smoosh it all together at 4am on Saturday. Not because I procrastinated, but my friend was visiting so I was showing him around the city. Although I changed everything last minute, this process of drafts and peer reviews is a much better method than my normal rush to finish at the end. I’m trying. I really am.

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