The final assignment I completed this week was my own take on the “hitch cut.” The “hitch cut” is a three shot film where the middle shot is changed in order to produce a different effect. For my project, I decided to use one of the reactions I had gotten from my James Corden video. I thought it was versatile and funny, so I asked him if I could use it for this project and he said yes.

For the middle shots, I searched on pexels.com for some free stock footage. I wanted one piece of footage that would be appropriate for the location, so I found a video of a waiter pouring a drink into a glass. I cut out the actual pouring action and placed it in the middle of my friend’s reaction. Next, I wanted a more humorous reaction, so I looked for a video of a woman offering a present. I found a few options, but I decided not to use them because the first version also centered on a character offering my friend something, and I didn’t want to do the same thing twice. Eventually, I found a video of a woman holding a dog and used that for my second version. The idea behind this being that the woman wanted to keep the dog, but my friend did not.

Since I had downloaded these videos to my computer, I could not edit it on my IPad. The laptop version of IMovie was not as difficult to use as I had remembered it being, but I still think I prefer the IPad version. Something about being able to physically drag the clips is a lot more satisfying to me and I enjoy that much better than using a trackpad.

If I were to do this assignment again, I do not think I would use stock footage. Using it was more convenient than making my own, but it was very difficult to find shots that were specifically what I needed. Even with the footage I chose, I feel like I had to make a few compromises when selecting them. Making my own would help give me precisely what I need.