Final Cut In Avid

Today I finished my final edit in Avid. I had no problems cutting the video together as I am very familiar with Avid, therefore, I felt this was only a small part of the project. I wanted to get this done before the Easter break so I can come back early and start on working with After Effects. 

Cutting the video together in Avid Media Composer

The last few days I have been putting together the video. I aim for the video to be around four minutes long at a point where the music can come to a stop. I have used the different camera angles and cutaways to create a build up throughout the song, and when I am happy with my final idea I will then incorporate effects onto the cutaways. 

I offloaded the footage and put it on the MXF server, because I used a Black Magic camera I firstly had to open the footage up in Davinci Resolve and then put it into Avid so if I choose to color grade the video I can later on put it back into Resolve. I then created different bins so I could split up my footage as I filmed lots of different camera angles and cutaways, this made it easier for me when I came to cutting the clips together as I knew exactly what I wanted and where it was to find it. 

The list of Bins:

Footage in the bins:

Cutting together the footage with the soundtrack 'Teardrop' by Massive Attack: 

Filming in the Studio with the Green Screen

Today I had booked out the studio from 2 o'clock onwards. I aimed to finish by 4 o'clock / 16:15 at the latest as Andy told me wrap up time to clear away the equipment would be at half past four.

Andy had set up the lighting and green screen so I met him outside the studio with my friend Felicity who was going to give me a helping hand and the two dancers Luke and Sam. Before we started, I set up the tripod and camera, the dancers got dressed and Andy went through the health and safety rules with us. Felicity controlled the camera whilst I directed the dancers, we connected the Black Magic camera to the TV screen so the dancers and myself could see if they were in shot whilst dancing.

We did a few takes of Sam and Luke dancing with different camera angles, longs shots to close up shots and also filmed the two dancers standing still with Luke's arms open so we could use these as cutaways.

Surprisingly we had finished early at around half past three. Sam and Luke were great especially dancing without slipping on the green curtain. They had three different dances for the song and we filmed these at different angles. I had loads of footage to use and decided I had got everything I needed.

Practicing creating fire in After Effects

Today I followed a tutorial from YouTube on how to create fire / flames in After Effects. I started from using fire particles on a solid and tweeking layers and layers of effects. I didn't find it too challenging, however, it was very time consuming. The fire looks very realistic and you can do all sorts of effects on the fire. This is the type of flame I would like to incorporate into the film. The flames will be smaller on Luke's hands and arms. 

Studio Risk Assessment

 

 

Booking Out the Equipment - Equipment Risk Assessment

Meeting with Andrew Thorpe - General Manager of School of Media and Communications

Today I had a meeting with Andy to discuss my plans for filming in the studio. I ran through what I wanted to film with the two dancers. Andy spoke about how he was planning on staging the lights similar to the images I had sent him of Rihanna's music video, lighting up the green screen background and aiming the lights down on the dancers from the left corner of the green screen lighting up half of the dancers body and face creating a shadow on the other side. 

Andy went through the risk assessment for the studio with me, only one problem that did worry me is the green screen curtain that falls down from the ceiling and covers the space of the floor. Andy emphasized that dancing on the green screen curtain can be very slippy, therefore, the dancers have to be very careful when dancing on it.

Plans for Filming - Studio Lighting

Andy Thorpe asked me if I had any examples of how I would like the lighting to be in the studio. One example that came to mind that is similar to what I want to lighting to be like is the music video 'Umbrella' by Rihanna.  

I would like to have quite a dark surrounding with back lighting and lights shining down lighting up the skin / body of the dancers. The first image shows quite harsh lights lighting from the back drop - I want the green screen subtly lit not as harsh as this image but I like how the light is shining from the left corner of the image bouncing off Rihanna's skin. The second image is how I would like the backlighting to be lit, subtle so there is still darkness showing a contrast of the dancers skin and darkness. The images do not show the exact way I would like the lighting to be lit in the studio - It's just similar to what I have in mind. 

I haven't decided what I will be doing with the background green screen in After Effects at this time, but I know I can key out the green to black. In After Effects when I work on the powers the dancers will have such as the flames on Luke's arm, the fire will stand out brightly with darkness of the room and the shadows created by the lighting from the left side of the studio. 

Booking out the TV studio

On the 3rd of March I emailed Andrew Thorpe (the general manager of the School of Media and Communications) to discuss booking out the studio to film the dancers in front of the green screen. Before I emailed Andy I checked the online booking system for the studio and saw the Monday and Friday of week commencing the 16th of February was free. 

I spoke to Sam (dancer) and asked when herself and Luke would be available to film, Monday the 16th after two o'clock was the best time for them both and was perfect for me. I then emailed Andy to ask permission to use the studio and if that time and day suited him too. 

These are the emails Andy and I exchanged regarding the studio. We decided to have a short meeting on Friday the 13th February to discuss my plans for filming. 

My Idea - Inspiration and Initial Ideas

Teardrop by massive attack is one of my favourite songs and when we were told we could do a music video I knew I wanted to use this track. The idea of having people dance to this track came quickly to me as at the time we were given the briefs my friend Samantha Ellis a committee member of ‘Dance Exposé’ was choreographing dances for a dance show which was coming up. I watched the show and thoroughly enjoyed it - the talent was incredible. I felt inspired to use dancers in my project as watching the dances sent shivers down my spine. I thought about using two dancers and how I could incorporate effects so I could work in After Effects. I spent a few hours researching effects in After Effects on YouTube to give me a few ideas I could work on. I came across a video where two boys were filmed having a fight and when they came close to each others both had ‘super powers’ so they held out their hand and threw their powers at each other.  I then kept watching similar videos with people using After Effects to create a power for themselves and I came across a few videos of people holding out their hand and fire lighting up on their hands and body.

Searching tutorials and videos on fire in After Effects made me realise I could be capable of doing this. Conveniently it also suited the lyrics for my song as in the chorus lyrics reads ‘teardrop on the fire’ and therefore, I could really making a meaning through the use of special effects to connect to the song.

Therefore, for my project I would like to have two dancers dancing in the darkness with the man struggling with his power as he sets a light and the woman feels like she can’t fight to stop the fire from lighting but at the end they both stand still and feel the rain fall putting out the fire and creating a sense f peace.  I will use After Effects to create the fire and raindrop motion and possibly other effects if I decide the woman dancer will had a power. My first step will have be filming the dancers in front of a green screen then importing this into After effects before I work on the effects.

The Youtube Videos below are the links I used in my Proforma to use as an example of what I would like to create and some also include tutorials:

Fire on Arms and hands - above is a short tutorial. 

(This is a video of two guys fighting and using After Effects to create powers - this is an example of how I could use effects to cover a whole body in fire) 

Above is a tutorial I watched for beginners where you can create a fire motion from scratch in After Effects. 

Above and below are other effects I found interesting when doing some research on YouTube. I could think about incorporating these motions into the dance. Below are raindrops - this is an example of what I could do for the ending when the raindrops fall. 

My Project Proforma