P8: Produce and edit footage in line with the production plan applying any final effects
Importing all the rushes into the project
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Here is a video of me importing the rushes into my project. After inserting my USB containing the videos it automatically assigned all content into the media tab in final cut pro x so all I had to do was effectively just drag and drop my rushes into the timeline.
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Editing footage
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Here is a video of me editing my footage together. I managed to get a lot more out of my shoot than I planned so the editing process took a lot of time and procrastination in order to have the clip go along with the music which is something I didn't plan for as well as I should've in my pre-production as I had to plan the video before I got my hands on the completed song.
The video includes me editing the title sequence as well as adding visual effects in the form of filters etc. I do a cutting, reversing clips and changing the speeds as well as pasting effect attributes etc all throughout the video which if fully dubbed over. |
Offline Edit (No audio)
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After watching my finished video I am satisfied with it's quality. I know what it looks like with the music and I am even more satisfied with that outcome. I think it looks fairly well produced and directed and I think that any mistakes I made stemmed from the pre-production process and not the post-production.
I consulted with two acquaintances for feedback regarding the music video. One of the people suggested that it would look a lot better with the music to go with it which is understandable as this is a music video and the off-line edit doesn't include any musics so I can address this by simply adding the music which I know flows well with the cuts. They also commented on the style of the edit and said "the fast cuts and transitions add to the menacing atmosphere of the video, they make it seem unstable.". Another person who commented on the video said that he believes the shots of the statues at the beginning are "too bland and don't match the rest of the video, they would look better with a more intense filter". I feel like I can re-visit these shots when I do my final edit and add an extra filter over the colour correction. They also commented on the special effect shot of the black eyes, stating "it was very realistic and incredibly well created. It made the whole piece look professional.". |
Adding audio
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In this video I demonstrate how I add the audio track which consists of the music for the music video to the timeline. I also shorten the audio, fade it in and out as well as position it.
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Adding final improvements
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In this video I include a visual and audio recording of me making improvements to my final edit of the music video based on self critique and the critique of others.
In the video I include adding extra visual effects and filters to scenes mentioned in the feedback I got which is featured above which consisted of me adding and copying over effects as well as tweaking their parameters. I also include a self critiqued improvement on the title sequence which in my opinion stood out too much and didn't fit the video. I changed this by adding the drop shadow and tweaking it to match the lighting of the scene. I also discuss previous use of effects on the title sequence to blend it into the scene. |
M2: Export the final footage into the planned or final format.
Codecs - what are they?
Codecs stands for Compression Decompression and refers to a compression format which compresses the raw footage in order to give a smaller file size by, in some cases, losing some quality.
Which ones are available to me?
Apple ProRes (all versions) - Advantage: Maintains an indistinguishable quality from the raw footage even after multiple encodes.
AVC-Intra Class 50/100/200 - Advantage: Maintains full colour information (4.2.2 sampling).
DV (including DVCAM, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50) - Advantage: Superior picture and sound quality as well as a compact size.
DVCPRO HD - Advantage: Good slow motion ramping ability.
H.264 - Advantage: A standard compression format due to its high compression rate.
HDV - Advantage: Can store 16:9 high definition video on DV tapes.
MPEG IMX (D-10) - Advantage: Less loss of quality with higher degree of compression.
MXF - Advantage: Less loss of quality with higher degree of compression.
Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 - Advantage: Doesn't compress and lose any quality.
Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 - Advantage: Doesn't compress and lose any quality.
XDCAM HD/EX/HD422 - Advantage: Offers higher quality than HDV whilst giving the added benefit of tapeless recording.
Which one will give me the smallest file size at the highest quality video?
I think H.264 will give me the smallest file size whilst maintaining highest quality.
Codecs stands for Compression Decompression and refers to a compression format which compresses the raw footage in order to give a smaller file size by, in some cases, losing some quality.
Which ones are available to me?
Apple ProRes (all versions) - Advantage: Maintains an indistinguishable quality from the raw footage even after multiple encodes.
AVC-Intra Class 50/100/200 - Advantage: Maintains full colour information (4.2.2 sampling).
DV (including DVCAM, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50) - Advantage: Superior picture and sound quality as well as a compact size.
DVCPRO HD - Advantage: Good slow motion ramping ability.
H.264 - Advantage: A standard compression format due to its high compression rate.
HDV - Advantage: Can store 16:9 high definition video on DV tapes.
MPEG IMX (D-10) - Advantage: Less loss of quality with higher degree of compression.
MXF - Advantage: Less loss of quality with higher degree of compression.
Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 - Advantage: Doesn't compress and lose any quality.
Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 - Advantage: Doesn't compress and lose any quality.
XDCAM HD/EX/HD422 - Advantage: Offers higher quality than HDV whilst giving the added benefit of tapeless recording.
Which one will give me the smallest file size at the highest quality video?
I think H.264 will give me the smallest file size whilst maintaining highest quality.
Exporting the footage
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I've decided to go with the H.264 Codec as it resulted in the smallest file size without sacrificing too much quality. As you can see in the video The H.264 Codec resulted in my video being only 526mb in size whilst still remaining good in quality. Whereas any other Codec displayed would result in my video being over 4GB in size without displaying any visible improvements to the quality.
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D2: Justify the creation process against the original production concept plans
My Final Piece
Quality of finished piece:
I think the quality of the finished piece is of a good quality considering the budget and timescale I had which was very low with little to no time compared to what a real production would have. I think the general camera work and cinematography in the video is fairly decent and makes up for the quality which it lacks in certain areas such as special and visual effects. I think the visual effects are what brought my piece down in quality as not all my visual effects came off as realistically as I wanted them to. An example of this would be the bloody tear effect which was obviously fake and not very well done. I can say that I didn't have enough time but realistically it's because I didn't have the required skills to make this effect as good as it should've been and a real production would have a visual effects employee who would be able to pull it off to a high standard. I think my special effects paid off well as the smoke grenades looked very effective, especially in the shed scene.
Conventions of visual/special effects:
The conventions I used for my music video were from the music video genre of trap/rock. These are the following conventions
Comparison to my original idea.
To begin with my original idea seems quite similar compared to what I ended up with as everything I have in my storyboard ended up in my actual video however I added a lot more content which was not in my storyboard which I think ended up making the piece look a lot more professional as I didn't have enough time to add all my ideas and short shots into my storyboard and if I only went with what was on my storyboard the piece would look quite static and unprofessional and short as I only added the most important and crucial planned shots to my storyboard. My original idea incorporated the effect of the bleeding eye much more effectively as it was meant to look entirely realistic however it came off as poorly as it did due to my ambitious goal and my lack of skill in visual effects. All the other effects from my original idea translated almost perfectly into my final piece, especially the black eyes visual effect which I think was very effective.
I think the quality of the finished piece is of a good quality considering the budget and timescale I had which was very low with little to no time compared to what a real production would have. I think the general camera work and cinematography in the video is fairly decent and makes up for the quality which it lacks in certain areas such as special and visual effects. I think the visual effects are what brought my piece down in quality as not all my visual effects came off as realistically as I wanted them to. An example of this would be the bloody tear effect which was obviously fake and not very well done. I can say that I didn't have enough time but realistically it's because I didn't have the required skills to make this effect as good as it should've been and a real production would have a visual effects employee who would be able to pull it off to a high standard. I think my special effects paid off well as the smoke grenades looked very effective, especially in the shed scene.
Conventions of visual/special effects:
The conventions I used for my music video were from the music video genre of trap/rock. These are the following conventions
- Strange outfits
- High quality props of guns/money/drugs
- A disorientating composition of shots which aren't in a timed order
Comparison to my original idea.
To begin with my original idea seems quite similar compared to what I ended up with as everything I have in my storyboard ended up in my actual video however I added a lot more content which was not in my storyboard which I think ended up making the piece look a lot more professional as I didn't have enough time to add all my ideas and short shots into my storyboard and if I only went with what was on my storyboard the piece would look quite static and unprofessional and short as I only added the most important and crucial planned shots to my storyboard. My original idea incorporated the effect of the bleeding eye much more effectively as it was meant to look entirely realistic however it came off as poorly as it did due to my ambitious goal and my lack of skill in visual effects. All the other effects from my original idea translated almost perfectly into my final piece, especially the black eyes visual effect which I think was very effective.
Audience feedback.
What I would do differently:
When it comes to pre-production and planning I would've gone back and planned more shots for the music video as compared to the length of the music the footage I had to work with seemed fairly short. In order to compensate for this I had to take filler shots which were unplanned and which could've turned out better if I went back and planned it beforehand. The other main thing I would change outside of pre-production would be the bloody tear effect which I would do as a special effect in the future as it would simply be more realistic and because after a short analysis there was really no reason to make this effect a visual one instead of a special, however in my brief I needed to incorporate more visual effects than special so therefor I had to compromise and learn to do it myself. I would also have used a tripod for the shots of the character cutting into different positions. This is because I believe it would've turned out much better and more disorientating as it looks cut and unprofessional in my opinion without the tripod. However I didn't take the tripod with me because I planned all my other shots to be handheld as I was going for a disorientating and eery style however I didn't foresee the scene would look so displeasing to me.
What I would do differently under a different brief:
Under a different brief I would've planned my shot list out better as throughout the day of filming I ended up traversing multiple miles with my actor back and forth between locations because we didn't plan out when and where to take the shots at the most convenient time and location so instead I ended up following my storyboard which occasionally led us back to where we already have been and could've taken the shot. I would also make sure to have backup special effect pyrotechnics in order to experiment or practice with in order to get a more desirable effect. However my humble budget for this piece regrettably did not allow for this to take place on or off location.
When it comes to pre-production and planning I would've gone back and planned more shots for the music video as compared to the length of the music the footage I had to work with seemed fairly short. In order to compensate for this I had to take filler shots which were unplanned and which could've turned out better if I went back and planned it beforehand. The other main thing I would change outside of pre-production would be the bloody tear effect which I would do as a special effect in the future as it would simply be more realistic and because after a short analysis there was really no reason to make this effect a visual one instead of a special, however in my brief I needed to incorporate more visual effects than special so therefor I had to compromise and learn to do it myself. I would also have used a tripod for the shots of the character cutting into different positions. This is because I believe it would've turned out much better and more disorientating as it looks cut and unprofessional in my opinion without the tripod. However I didn't take the tripod with me because I planned all my other shots to be handheld as I was going for a disorientating and eery style however I didn't foresee the scene would look so displeasing to me.
What I would do differently under a different brief:
Under a different brief I would've planned my shot list out better as throughout the day of filming I ended up traversing multiple miles with my actor back and forth between locations because we didn't plan out when and where to take the shots at the most convenient time and location so instead I ended up following my storyboard which occasionally led us back to where we already have been and could've taken the shot. I would also make sure to have backup special effect pyrotechnics in order to experiment or practice with in order to get a more desirable effect. However my humble budget for this piece regrettably did not allow for this to take place on or off location.