As the majority of the footage I need is dependent on weather, I was able to shoot tonight with both the 600D and the X20. After the previous unsuccessful shoot with the Fuji X20, I wanted to see if this was down to the particular conditions, or whether the lack of manual controls (including lack of manual focus) means that the clips are soft.
After reviewing the footage from today, I found that the Canon 600D was far more successful than the Fuji X20. Only the final close-up footage was successful to use in the final video, meaning that this camera is in a further niche. Although, as I had two tripods available, this meant that I could simultaneously film on both cameras, meaning that I was able to obtained the aforementioned successful footage from the Canon 600D.
As the Canon 600D is college property, in order to use it I need to book it out over several days, leaving a limited time in which I have to film. Because of the low-light capabilities of the camera, I decided to focus today on shooting the sunset and night-time footage. As each sunset is different, I was keen to capture as much footage as possible so it can be shortened down into a time lapse clip. After the sun had set, I continued filming, focusing on the moon which will be a reoccurring element within the chorus, with the intention to film the moon in various stages (at least 4) to portray the transition of time. Similarly to the sunset footage, these natural shots are entirely dependent on weather, and luckily tonight was a clear night, with a clear view of a waxing crescent moon.
As the moon is a distant object, the focal reach of the 18-55mm kit lens caused the moon to appear quite small in the frame. Because of this, I switched lenses to my Tamron 70-300mm lens, which will zoom in far enough to define the moon as well as fill the frame. The exposure of the camera was also very important, as it is a bright object, requiring a lower exposure in order to maintain this definition. This also demonstrated the need for planning; as there was a possibility that I would be shooting footage of the moon, I needed to have taken a zoom lens with me to achieve this.
During the practical pre-production shoots, I found that having only one tripod meant that I could only shoot one piece of footage on each camera at one time. As I found that the Fuji X20 really retained true colour in my test footage, I decided that it would be effective to have it filming the sunset at the same time as the Canon, resulting in two differing yet similar pieces of footage which I can review later. In order to achieve this, I booked out a tripod from College, resulting in two tripods, hence allowing two simultaneous clips to be captured. However, because of the Fuji X20's automatic autofocus, the bright elements in the night sky confused the camera, causing it to constantly shift focus, meaning that all 5 clips that were shot with this camera were unsuccessful. I will bear this in mind in future shoots, using the X20 only during the daytime.
Wednesday's green screen shoot, resulted in a 1:24:57 long clip which needed to be edited down into clips which I can use. The way in which the green studio was set up meant that it would have been an ineffective use of time if I created a new sequence for each take, meaning that the first review of footage would be fairly surface level, to contain where the aspects of performance were.
I created the table below which isolates each piece of footage, which I then determined to be usable or unusable, with a comment as to this decision.
After reviewing the footage, I trimmed the original clip for each of the times noted in the table above. This resulted in 25 clips which I can then further review and compare.
Further Review:
After condensing the original video into the 25 clips above, I re-watched these clips critically, isolating only the best areas of each video. This resulted in a further refinement which I can transfer directly into Premier Pro. As I have been very critical with this particular review, I considered my intentions outlined in the storyboard when selecting these edits, but expect to return to the 25 above to complete the video and ensure variety.
These notes were composed in the iOS app Paper by FiftyThree, which enabled me to keep each of these timestamps in a digital journal, remaining far more organised.
In order to remain organised for the session in the TV Studio, I have written myself using the multi-platform software Evernote, which I can access at any time through my phone or a computer. I hope to get as much usable footage from this session as possible for the final video, so that another session may not be needed, giving me more time to edit and refine the piece.
After the first double exposure test, I researched into online tutorials which could refine the double exposure effect. Once I had experimented myself into refining the double exposure technique (evidenced in the second double exposure test) I found this double exposure After Effects tutorial below on Youtube.
Described as 'medium difficulty' this tutorial used techniques which I have used in the past, as well as some which I haven't yet come across. Free footage was also available with this tutorial, and I decided to use the tree, dust, and lens flare footage to see if I could get a final result similar to that in the video. I used my own green screen footage of James. Documented below is the progression of my own work following the tutorial, compiled in the online software Canva.
Whilst the end result perhaps does not have as much definition on James's facial features, there are definitely certain aspects to this video which I will continue to refine:
• Using 'Add' to blend the background into the double exposure, creating a more harmonious composition.
• The use of a pan in the background footage, and then duplicate this in a new layer and fragment it, adding depth to the overlaid footage.
• Creating an edge blur by manipulating the blur and shrink/grow transformations within the screen matte to further blend the double exposure with the background.
Below is the results from an After Effects I attended. As I intend to use After Effects heavily, these sessions will further my knowledge of this software and aid the editing process.
This session covered animation and key frames, using shape and text layers to create various moving parts in a title sequence. Using the transform tool I manipulated: opacity, rotation, scale, anchor point, position, skew, and blur to create varying effects. In order to create smoother transitions between these effects I used Easy Ease on some of the key frames, which removes any jitter in the movement between each key frame.
Anchor Point & Rotation: The yellow star has been manipulated using both the anchor point and rotation transformation tools, with the anchor point the location which the star rotates around. By selecting the start and ending point with two key frames, this caused the star to rotate once around the anchor point.
Scale: Using 3 key frames for the large circle, I used the scale tool to grow and shrink the shape. Setting the shape from 0% (invisible), grow to 140% (larger than normal size), then down to 100%, causing the shape to grow to larger than normal and shrink back to normal size.
Transparency: On the smaller circle, I used two key frames at the beginning and the end of the clip to make the shape appear from nothing. In order to achieve this, the value of the first key frame was 0%, and the second key frame's value was set at 100%.
Position: Used on the "Title Text" text layer, here the position transformation moved the text layer from out of the frame to the centre of the frame, using two key frames and motion blur to smooth this transition. This transition can be created through placing the object in the start position before moving it to it's final position, and the software blocks in this movement automatically.
One thing I found with the previous multiple exposure was the final result appeared quite flat and stencil-like, with just the sheer outline masking the time lapse clip. In this test I wanted to experiment with creating depth within the original green screen footage.
Despite being only 4 seconds long, this clip took around 3 hours to edit, which I believe will decrease as I become more confident using After Effects. Because of this, I am keen to refine the technique and various effects which create the final result to hopefully lessen the time spent creating each double exposure in the final video.
In order to emphasise the impression of 3D on this 2D footage, I created a vignette which will draw the focus to the centre of he frame, where the action is happening. Also, the vignette will lesson the appearance of the double exposure 'floating' in the sequence.
In the previous experiment, Displacement Maps were used to alter the time lapse footage in an attempt to add depth and interest to the background footage. Here I used a Displacement Map on the green screen footage layer, so the face will displace the background footage, and add definition to James's features. Whilst this does create depth, this looks almost Solarised, which results in a loss of realism in this sequence. The Displacement Map was effective in adding depth to this piece, I will be experimenting with adjusting shadows and highlights to create a more natural aesthetic.
