Autumn is like a Monet Painting

This week, I'm taking a break from writing about films, and instead, I'm going to write about a video I put together for our "Capture the Fall" video project.

My favorite thing about autumn is the breathtaking scenery. To me, autumn is like a Monet painting, full of vivacious colors and patterns. I love being able ot drive around the neighborhood and seeing beautiful shades of orange, yellow, red, and brown all around, as well as pumpkins sitting on porches and kids playing around in mounds of crunchy leaves. I was excited when I began working on this project because I had so many ideas. Then, a couple days after receiving the assignment, tropical storm Sandy hit our region; as a result, most of the reds oranges, and yellows around my neighborhood just turned to plain dead. I didn't know what to do at first, but this past weekend, I was able to visit Brookside Gardens.

This place looks exactly like a Monet painting. It's so beautiful during the autumn with the trees that are all different shades of autumn, and the squirrels running around and chattering about while gathering nuts for the winter. The ducks are squawking at the the top of their lungs while splashing about in the ponds, the glistening ponds which reflect the images of the red, orange, and gold foliage that is all around, as well as the bridge that connects the walking trail to the plot of luscious green grass on the other side of the pond. It's one of the most beautiful autumn scenery I have ever seen.

I recorded most of my footage at Brookside Gardens, and the rest in my backyard and Georgian Forest Park. I used my DSLR to record the footage and edited on wevideo.com. I put an "old film" filter on the whole video, a cross dissolve between shots, and found a piece of music that went along with my footage. The shots in my video include:
1. A giant pumpkin that was put in the children's play area. The sign says that the pumpkin was harvested in Bethesda, Maryland.
2. A squirrel running from behind a bush and down the path. I really wanted to film a squirrel because squirrels gathering nuts reminds me of the fall. It was quite a challenge, but thank goodness for the squirrel in this shot.
3. A shot of some leaves in my backyard during sunset.
4. A panning shot of the pond and its surroundings at Brookside Gardens
5. Ducks in the duck pond. This has got to be my favorite piece of footage in my entire video. You can see the ducks floating in the pond, and you can see the reflection of the bridge and some of the trees
6. A duck floating by itself. Again, you can see the reflections in the water.
7. Some holly. This footage was shot in my backyard.
8. A branch of brown leaves blowing in the wind. We are at Brookside Gardens again.
9. An autumn display with trinkets of squirrels, leaves, pumpkins and fall fruit
10. A wooden bridge over the duck pond
11. A lot of pumpkins
12. "Autumn harvest" flowers along with a sign defining "cornucopia"
13. A long panning shot of the landscape at Brookside Gardens
14. Sunset at Georgian Forest Park

I really, really, really enjoyed this project. I think we should do one like it for every season. I had so much fun getting all of my footage, and I am very happy with how my video turned out. I hope you enjoy!