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Zoom Goldberg Machine

Assignment

Produce and contribute a Zoom-video for a collective class project that will be publicly shared. This is a project we have been trying to figure out for awhile. This is our inaugural effort.

Requirements

  • Record your own Zoom segment of a Zoom Goldberg Machine, like above. Use a ball or any common moving object to trigger three or more reactions as it moves from left to right.

  • The first item must intersect with multiple other items, and send a final exit-item off-screen - -> to the next Zoomer. For the sake of consistency we are encouraging you to use one of the following for your exit-item: white ping-pong ball, white golf ball, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll, light bulb, crunched-up paper, an orange, a banana, or a pencil.

Zoom Goldberg Machine

Backstory

How does a person make a chain-reaction machine with items and the space available at home. I thought up many contraptions to move a ball about, but each was one-step. When I thought about moving to the next step, I no longer had room. I was also struggling thinking of anything that would create a substantial video. So, instead I decided to take the “Zoom” aspect and run with it. Creating multiple independent machines, that when connected through a zoom-like video conference, it would appear as a digital chain reaction. I know this is part of the larger plan, but hey, I made something fun!

Process

Lots of brainstorming! I started by location scouting to find some areas outdoors to build some Rube Goldberg machines, but then I didn’t have any materials with me, poor planning. So the next venture I brought limited supplies to begin simply.

During the first round of recording, I realized that each shot was going to need to be from certain angles, in order to have a fluid motion presented on screen. So I recaptured some elements from multiple angles and thought it would provide options during editing.

Enter editing. As I was going through the source materials, I started to sequence the machines together. While doing this, I also made text frames with notes about what should come next and a direction of movement. Of course I needed to reshoot pieces and as these moved along, I also had to build more machines to fill the next frame.

Once the process was started, linking one frame to the next, it became less of a challenge and more hands one creativity. With more time, I could keep going, and refine each machines movements and fill in more blanks, but am pretty happy with the limited chain reactions it did physically produce.

Time & Stretch

This project took at least a full-day, maybe two. Between filming, building, and editing, there was plenty of downtime and distractions, but it took awhile.

I started by trying out Adobe Premiere Rush recording feature in the app. Works pretty well, maybe even better than the built in video recorder? It also allowed me to instantly start building out the project in the app and syncs right to the Creative Suite. It also imports straight into Adobe Premiere for the finer editing. This was a first for using the process and it works wonders!

As I was moving through the project, I thought it might be clever to build in some shots that utilized zoom-like backgrounds. For this I needed to create a stage, in order to use Adobe Premieres keying effects. This was my second trial replacing backgrounds using the software, and this time I used the difference method. It requires the use of a still image of the background, new background, and then the video. I learned you can capture a still image frame right in Adobe. Setting up the stage was key to success and really taking control of the lighting - lessons learned from my first trial. I think it worked great this time around.

This project required lots of resizing and movement of videos. It also required each video to also have a still frame image to keep it on the screen after playback. When I started editing, I thought I considered every action that was going to be done, but I guess it’s the nature of editing that things may change. I zoomed in on all the frames, and this disrupted my still images - so lots of readjustments. I fine tuned my trimming abilities with each clip and I also figured out how to place the images on the screen by using some math and calculating some X, Y coordinates. It's really about the small progressions.

In all, I feel my Adobe Premiere Pro skill set solidifying and really getting a grasp on some basic effects and manipulation. Next up, strengthening my skills in on screen text (titles/credits).

Tools

  • Recording: iPhone 12 mini
  • Recorded using Adobe Premiere Rush
  • Pre-production: Adobe Premiere Rush
  • Production: Adobe Premiere Pro

Attributions

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