Project 1: Yost Ice Arena

For this project, I chose Yost Ice Arena, home of the Michigan Ice Hockey team. This space spoke to me immediately, as I am an avid hockey fan and love the atmosphere inside a hockey arena.

My goal with this video was to capture a game day at Yost, specifically how the the occupation of the space changes as the game moves along. I also wanted to highlight how the space is used in terms of the game, and how the fans play a role in the game based on the architecture of the arena. Fans are right on the ice, and the noise and presence of fans has an effect on both the atmosphere of the building and the way the players play.

To capture the way this space changes throughout game day, I got to the rink and hour and a half early, the earliest fans can enter for the game. The arena was empty, so I was able to get quality shots of the “Calm before the storm” before the players came out for warmups or the fans filled the stands. When players came out for warmups, I filmed more scenes to show that the ice was now being used, and fans were beginning to fill in the seats. When the game started, I filmed as many clips of the game as I could to capture the atmosphere in the middle of an intense hockey game. When the game was over, I stayed until the stands were empty and it was just the Zamboni on the ice. This signified the end of the game and the end of game day at Yost.

When putting shots together, I tried to use transitions in iMovie that would allow two different clips to somewhat merge together. I would shoot a scene from two different points in the game from the same location, then try to merge them together using the “cross dissolve” filter on iMovie. This allowed viewers of the film to quickly see how areas of the space change throughout the course of the game.

Overall, I was happy with the film I created. Yost Ice Arena is a unique building without a unique function, and though it was hard, I believe that I was able to fully capture this function in 60 seconds. I hope you enjoy!