Peer Comparison

 At first, when filming my shots I was under the impression that I was already a pro and felt quite full of myself. Upon watching the videos of my classmates I came to the depressing realization that my clips were, while better than the average, nothing special in the grand scheme of things. I suppose that is to be expected from someone that rarely takes photos, much less film shots. There were some among my peers that I felt like were waiting their whole life for this very moment, as though this was the very purpose for their existence. They made it look very natural and realistic with shots that were very easy to get immersed in. There were also some that filmed very similarly to me with some complex shots and other very simple yet alluring shots, which also greatly surprised me. I was under the assumption that there wouldn't be many others that had zero camera movement in their shots. For example, there was a shot done by my peer in which he was sitting on a ledge with his feet dangling. It was a wide shot with zero camera movement, yet it was a great scene that one would think could actually be in a movie. It perfectly symbolizes the subject's loneliness and somewhat melancholic mood. 

Similarly, there was a shot by another one of my colleagues that filmed an exceptional POV shot of them lighting a candle, bringing forth light to their surrounding environment. This single action made it feel as though there was about to be a tense scene in which there would be little need for too much light, explaining the reasoning for the usage of the candle. In comparison, I must say that my own POV shot was quite lackluster as it feels rushed and a bit too straight forward with the speed in which the camera pans upwards. Such simple scenes were the ones that really stood out to me. I believe the reason for this would be that it can't be expected for a class full of nothing but amateurs to make a clip that involved steady camera motion, so of course the quality of such shots would drop in comparison to the others. I was also awfully surprised in the usage of an overhead shot by this person. I believed that such a shot was far too difficult given the circumstances and assumed that no one would opt for such a choice. Despite this, it was used and it was done magnificently if I must say. It really emphasized how minor the subject was as well as their surrounding environment.