Over the last week I have been compiling my footage together and this is the outcome. Today I will be evaluating this rough cut and outlining what the other tasks I have to complete.
First of all, here is the video. Because I shot in 1080p it meant I had to export it in this setting in premier pro which meant the file was too large to upload to Vimeo. So instead I uploaded it to Vidme.
The first thing I corrected was the transition between each of the clips in the beginning. The cross fade was less harsh and worked better the beat and tempo of the song. The sepia effect remains along with the slow motion on every clip.
I think I will remove the clip of the dog as it is very brief and I can't extend it as this was a random, unplanned shot that I took so there is only one take of it. I will also remove the pan at 0:23 as again it was just a random shot and I feel the next shots after it are very quick and disappear before the audience has time to take in the scenes. By removing this pan it will allow me to expand the shots of the couple cuddling and walking, thus establishing their relationship. In this part of the song I feel there are too many short clips which is slightly jarring considering the pace and tone of the music. I will remove some shots of the scenery as it isn't needed.
At around 50 seconds in there is a black flash which needs to be corrected. The problem is, is that I slowed down all the footage until the beat kicks in so now the clips are too short and slow to establish anything. In my final cut I will make sure that the clips at the beginning are longer by removing all shots that I don't think are necessary, such as the pans of the surrounding areas in the woodlands.
The shot of the couple playing poohsticks also needs changing as there is a continuity error- the clip doesn't show the couple dropping the sticks. Again, this is because the footage has been slowed down and I didn't check it when I was adding in this effect, an error on my behalf.
When the beat kicks in, the colour suddenly changes to normal with no effect, which I think is very harsh and gives a very jarring affect to the audience. My idea is that on every beat, the colour gradually returns to the screen, meaning the sepia tone will fade more and more on each beat. This will be an effective way to introduce the colour back again.
When the male opens the cupboard, I placed a stabilizer on the footage to reduce shakiness, however I don't like the effect given. I think I will remove this effect as it gives the impression of a low production value which is common in the indie genre. This will have a positive effect on the star image as it shows the audience that the band doesn't need a big production studio to create visuals for their songs. The use of a small camera is all they need to capture their feelings and meanings behind the lyrics. This is established through the use of natural setting and lighting, which is evident in many low budget indie videos.
The footage of the close up on the weighing scales also has the stabilizer effect, however I like the way it looks so it will remain on this clip.
The long shot of the beach will have some special effects added to it using Adobe After Effects. I downloaded some tutorials from Youtube as guidance on how to create it and I am confident it will look realistic and help to add to the idea that the couple are some of the remaining people on earth. The effects hasn't been added yet but this will be done by the time it comes to my final cut.
At around 2:40 there is an abundance of different clips that I'm still deciding upon. I feel it has just been sequenced together for no apparent reason like when they're in the car and it gets darker through each clip. I will most likely change this for the final cut so that there is reason to why it is sequenced in a certain way. Also, a car drives past one the clips which defeats the purpose of the storyline, so these will be replaced with more clips which hint to the plot, such as stocked up cupboards of canned and dried goods.
I feel the rest of the video is acceptable bar a few shots that I will tweak or replace.
Now what I need to do is add the smoke to the beach scenes as well as the final shot of the house. My idea is to add in smoke to the background as well as make the house look a little more disheveled with a few broken windows or maybe even a large hole in the road - it just depends on what tutorials I can find and how achievable they are (I saw one for a meteor strike but I feel that might be harder to achieve, although there's nothing wrong in trying)
So that's my second rough cut. The next time I upload the video it will be the final thing and all corrections and effects would have been made and added.
Until next time,
Toni
A few notes:
ReplyDeleteI think you cans see a car ahead of your parents' car in the early shot of them driving? Will this not affect the tone of the video if they are meant to be the last people on earth? You can certainly see this at 2:51...
The transitions between shots in the early stages need to be slower, to reflect the tempo of the track. Conversely, the pace of the editing is a little too slow once the tempo picks up - a lot of the shots in the kitchen, for example, are way longer than they need to be (for example, the scales at 1:41 - you hold that shot for 10s when it should be a max of 1!) Many of the shots seem to be edited off the beat.
A lot of the actual shots themselves are very well framed and are in themselves effective. However, you still need to tighten up the editing to match the tempo; some of the edits between shots seem a little arbitrary. Try to link the editing to the rhythm; I think it needs to be more formal. There is also a lack of consistency with the transitions - sometimes you cut and sometimes dissolve - this is also quite jarring
There doesnt seem to be much consistency in the slow motion - you use it sometimes but sometimes you don't. I think that in the earlier sections the whole thing should be slo-mo, at least until the tempo of the track picks up.
I'm still not getting the structure of the narrative - the early part of the video just seems to be very haphazard in the way that it's put together (the shots don't seem to have a great internal logic and there are several of the lanscape pans which don't seem to add much; some of these are out of focus, which is concerning - e.g. 0:54, 1:24).
Your montage at 3:08 is okay but would be more effective if you hit the beat.
You could probably do with playing about with the contrast for the colour sections; they're a little washed out. You might also want to animate the shift from black and white to colour (this is easy to do).
I would have liked to see more footage at the beach.
I'll be honest - I don't think what you've got is strong enough to stand on its own at the moment, although it would certainly work as an effective strand. I think you need to shoot a performance strand as well, to tie it together. This would allow you to demonstrate a knowledge of how to shoot performance as well as giving you footage to cover some of the longer shots (and particularly issues of focus). I think your chronology needs to be clearer - don't go with the "last people on earth", it's not working, go with "a day in the life" (dawn to dusk, you could easily shoot a couple of estabilishing shots of the house and some footage in the evening).
Basically, you could do with about 60-90s of performance footage seeded through your narrative. Take a look at Charlotte's from last year (although there are issues with this - it's not perfect, but it offers a structure). I would say you could get what you need from a 2 hour shoot with a performer as your singer (find an interesting location to shoot him, multiple angles, emotional performance).
At the moment, what you've got isn't going to get you much beyond mid L3 (so around 26/40) but with a tighter, more logical structure, more considered editing and a clearer focus you could easily get it into L4.
I'll chat with you a little more about this on Tuesday.