Category: Component 3

After out meeting with Specsavers teaching us how to implement features with after effects, I was captured with the idea of having a tv shot with our own video playing on said tv.
In order to get a better idea of this, I thought I would experiment with the visual effects I’d like to have playing on the video embedded in the tv, giving it a VHS footage effect to create a more convincing and immersive viewing of the footage.

Looking into this, I came a cross a video tutorial on YouTube;

Following this I was then able to apply the presets and effects to some footage that we’d taken in order to test this theory and see how the effect would work, as this video included free to use downloadable presets and overlays, I implemented these in premiere by going to Effects > Presets (right click) > Import Presets…
From here I could import the VHS colour fringing and grain preset and apply it to my footage, as well as import the image overlay to create the 4:3 aspect ratio border and apply the VHS shake effect to the clips too.

Overall, I’m happy with how this looks, whilst in the final project I may some slight alterations to make the footage appear clearer, and maybe include some more visual distortions to emphasize heavier elements of the narrative, I’m happy with this experiment and feel that this will work well in our project.

During our lessons we were lucky enough to have a visit from some industry professionals who gave our group a brief talk about how we can use Adobe After Effects to add more complex movements and visuals to our video. They talked through a range of ideas we could incorporate, showing us how to use keyframes and create more fluid, natural looking movements with them by using the ease in/out keyframe style. However the feature they inspired me the most with in terms of applicability to our video was the use of masking to integrate videos into an environment.

The example they used was a tv screen; with a base image/video of a still tv screen using a pen tool you trace around the edges of the screen to create a mask. You can then crop this mask out leaving a transparent area where the screen was, allowing you to place another video behind it to make it appear that it is playing on the tv. You can make this appear more natural by feathering the mask edge, adjusting colour correction of both clips and adding a slight shadow around the edge of the screen.

I feel that this could be a really valuable addition to our video if utilised successfully, and would love to include it in order to demonstrate our range of editing skills.

After a handful of previous unsuccessful shoots we made sure to go into this next one with a solid plan, and this definitely worked in our favour. Following a visual shot list from the animatic we made and having set up with some well planned and distinguishable mise en scene we managed to spend our time efficiently and got a lot of successful shots. The advantage of using the school studio also meant we had access to good lighting and a disposable paper backdrop, which proved useful when it came to the finale shots of the narrative wherein our character rips down his notes in a manic frenzy. Overall, I feel this shoot was definitely our most successful so far, whilst not perfect, as some shots may have been more rushed and directing unclear in places, I feel that this will do well for our video and provides plenty of content for editing.

Here are a couple examples of skills I have used within this project using Premiere Pro;

Blend mode –
In order to create the red effect shown in our colour test clip, I created a solid red colour layer above the footage and under the opacity tab changed the blend mode to colour, creating this tint.

Opacity –
I have also used the opacity tool to overlay shots and line them up in order to create a visual match in places, I overlaid one layer above the other and changed the opacity to 50%, allowing me to line up the images and then cut between them to create the visual match effect for the video

Adjustment Layer –
A feature of Premiere which I have found a lot of use for is implementing an adjustment layer above clips, this allows me to apply filters and colour correction to everything below the layer, particularly useful when there are multiple different clips below due to fast edit speeds.

We also completed a risk assessment form for this despite it taking place on school grounds to show are awareness and acknowledgement of risks nonetheless, as we would be spending the majority of our day on this shoot.

As this was a bigger shoot for us and hopefully the last one needed we made sure to fill out a PMA to ensure we were fully prepared for it

Whilst we haven’t yet got enough shots to make a full cut of the song, I was able to put together a small draft of how I might choose to edit and apply filters to this section of the song, using footage from our black studio performance shoot.

This demonstrates how I can apply this to the final product with adjustments to contrast and balance as well as applying an overlay colour tint in some sections. I am still unsure how much colour overlay to use however, as I feel it would be best only to use in small sections to add emphasis, as using it throughout the whole video may become visually boring for the viewer.

After creating an animatic and deciding on what we wanted more specifically for the video, we were quick to book the black photography studio in school and have another attempt at a performance shoot, this time without using coloured lights, as we decided these aren’t essential and could be done in editing later.

This shoot was a lot more successful than all the previous, whilst we had limited time in the studio, having a solid plan and motivation behind us we were able to power through our shot list and produce some better visual content that we can use for our video. (We may still revisit this shoot though, in order to get even more content if needed).

To provide a few extra shots and content for our performance and show some instruments used, I put together a simple setup in my bedroom with a black background as a mini shoot of me playing the violin and keyboard.

Retrospectively;

• this shoot was unplanned and performed alone, unfortunately meaning a lot of shots were out of focus as I had nobody to check the camera for me whilst filming
• my setup wasn’t ideal, as I have no professional equipment the background has folds and the lighting can vary

However, these shots were still usable and clearer (less grainy) than the violin and keyboard shots we got in the drama studio shoot

For this task I decided to draw from my pre-existent knowledge with Adobe Photoshop, drawing and the timeline feature to make a rough animatic for the video. By doing this we can really help visualise what outcomes we’re aiming for when shooting footage, as it is basically a visual shot list for the whole video. I chose to create an animatic in this instance rather than sketching out still scenes as having the imagery synced to the music also allows us to continue using this as reference when editing, not just when shooting the base video.