Conspiracy Theory Edit

For our Post Production assessment we had to make a 4-5 minute film about a conspiracy theory just by using other people's clips.. The video needs to demonstrate pace, a convincing argument, and good audio mix. We had the option to work with another student on this project, so I had worked with Jordan Griffin. The conspiracy theory we chose create our video about was Water Fluoridation.

Link to finished edit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D98NBr2wHY

Research: 

To begin this project, we had to do some research into Water Fluoridation. We have looked at many different sources such as articles and news reports to help us gain a better understand of what Water Fluoridation is.  From what I learnt Fluoride is a chemical which is put into water supplies across the world because it has benefits for dental hygiene. People believe that Fluoride is a deadly chemical which has serious affects on people, like Dental Fluorosis, bone damage, cancer, and damage to many tissues in your body and brain such as the Pineal Gland and the Thyroid Gland.

To get a convincing argument across, we need to show more than just the negative health affects of Fluoride. We need to show how it can benefit people as well because it is well known for helping people's dental hygiene. We need to tell the audience that Fluoride has a benefit but that benefit comes with a price. If we did not show the negative side of Water Fluoridation the audience would not be convinced that it is bad.

Something we need to consider on this assessment is how music and footage can affect the viewer. Juxtaposition will also needed to be used in this edit, it is important because of how that can affect the viewer. I will be showing some examples of juxtaposition in this blog further down.

Editing:

Above is a screen shot of the project selection in Avid, to show how we have been managing our data on this assignment. I have our footage saved to an external hard drive and I will be saving the project file onto a hard drive so we are able to transport footage.

One problem we had encountered was that since we started this project on a Windows PC, it would not open on a Mac. We could only continue our edit on Windows PC.

Above is a screen shot of our progress on our first edit of the film. In this edit, we had many clips which had relevant audio but the audio to these clips wasn't very good for our film. For example, we had one clip which focused on the importance of water and the subject of it was good, but the audio had birds chirping in the background which was very distracting for our the viewer. We have decided not to use this clip in our final edit.

For our final video we are going to use a clip from the film Dr Strangelove (1964) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM

We think this clip will be more effective at introducing water fluoride because it begins to explain how it can be toxic for humans.  After this clip we can cut to the news reports and begin to bring the argument across.

As we can see on the sequence, a lot of the audio volumes had to be lowered so we could hear both the video audio and the music in the background. We will be doing this again with the second edit.

Above again is a screen shot showing our progress so far on the second edit. In the first minute of the video, we want to tell the audience about the importance of water. We want to tell the audience this so they are reminded about how vital water is, then when we come to show the clips about water fluoridation the audience will know that according to this conspiracy water isn't safe anymore.

To create Juxtaposition in our edit, we are going to show both human uses for water and natural uses of water.

Above is an example of two shots from the edit. One shot shows machinery from a water treatment plant, and the next shot is of a natural waterfall. I thought that these two shots juxtapose together because they are opposite yet similar images.

Above is another example from the edit, the first shot of the video shows someone writing down about the importance of water. The text describes how water is essential for all life on earth, and the next shot that it cuts to is of an Elephant drinking water. I felt that these two images juxtapose together will because it shows how it's needed for life to continue. Since the Elephant is known to be a hunted species it represents how life is fragile and water is needed for everything.

Creating a good audio mix is something I have found quite difficult, as I have been adding key frames to audio to help dialogue be heard over the music it's hard to keep the music at a consistent level.

Above is our finished timeline, our finished edit was 4:45 (Not including title & bibliography) and the limit for the assignment was 5:00 edit.

There a lot of new things I have done in Avid on this assignment, one example of this is creating titles. Before this, I hadn't used the title tool in Avid so I was not sure of how to use it. We needed to create titles so that we could show all the sources we used to create the video. Overall I found that it was quite simple to use but it was quite difficult to figure out how it fit in the timeline.


Feedback:

For this assignment we asked some of our classmates for their opinion on the final cut of the video.

"I think it's really good and it does get the argument across. I would fix the audio so it isn't so loud because at parts it really jumped at me." - Michael Connell

Reflection:

Since starting this project I think I have gotten to know the basics of Avid a lot more, because in the first few weeks of University I haven't been getting into Avid and I have found it difficult. Doing my rough cut of the film really helped me out with getting to know Avid.

I think that our final video had some issues. I don't think the sound mix was quite good, listening back to it parts sound louder than others and sometimes it feels like it's a little too loud for the audience. From this I have learnt to take more care with audio mixing in future and it has taught me to get other people to listen to my audio mix to see if it's okay for other people to hear.

I feel like our final edit did get the argument across, we used a mix of relevant dialogue from Dr Strangelove (1964) and various news reports found on YouTube. Using this clip helped make the video seem more emotive because it blended will with the background music we had used.

From this project, in future I need to know that I will have to be careful with how I manage my data. During the rough cut I had lost a minute of my edit because Avid crashed and I had forgotten to save the project. Although a minute of the edit doesn't seem like much that minute took almost an hour and a half to edit. This will teach me to keep saving projects regularly in future. Also this has made me realize the importance of creating back ups so if my computer were to crash, I would have an extra copy of my work in case I lost the original.

Colour Grading in Avid

Today in Post Production tutorial we looked at colour grading in Avid, before this tutorial colour grading was quite a new subject to me and I wasn't sure of how it can be used. I have used colour grading in previous work in college but I did not use it correctly. After this tutorial I feel I have a better understanding of how to use colour grading.

The above image shows a still from one of the clips I was colour grading, and the before and after is visible on screen. As we can see the original look of the shot was very blue and it looked flat, but colour grading makes the footage look like it has more depth and it looks like the colours are more realistic for our eyes.

Something new I have also learnt from this lecture is the legal limits for material that is going to be broadcast. This legal limit can be shown above in the Y Waveform image. For example if the Luma is adjusted incorrectly, the green wave form will be in the red boxes appearing as a white waveform. This is not correct for broadcast material.

This legal limit can be controlled in the HSL controls and it will prevent it peaking into the white waveform.

Before you can edit the colours in the footage, you will need to change the luma adjust so that shadows are black and the shot appears brighter. This will make the footage look like it has a more depth and it will prevent the image from looking flat. Gain is the highlights, Gamma is the midtones, and setup is the shadows. Each of these are essential for beginning the colour grading process.

 

To adjust the colour of shots either a colour wheel or curves can be used. The way colour works in video is by opposites, for example if a shot had a lot of blue where it was meant to be white you would need to add more yellow to the shot to remove blueness. By white balancing the camera during production, the colour grading process can often be a lot easier because the camera will pick up white better.

Personally, I found it easier to use the colour wheels than the curves. I found that colour wheels had more control over the different tones where as curves were harder to control. I think that most people would find curves to be the easiest option because they show colour opposites to make colour correction easier.

Below are some shots which I colour corrected, showing the before and after on screen.

Editing Multi-Camera Footage

In Post Production Tutorial we have been looking at editing multi-camera footage in Avid, this was my first time editing multi-camera in Avid and I found it difficult at first but eventually I managed to understand the technique. Personally I found editing this video would be easier than using a vision mixer to cut between shots because it allows you to correct any mistakes in the post production stage.

To start this process, you need to find a sync point in each of your clips. Finding a sync point allows your footage to be synced up and you can cut between shots with ease.

By enabling the quad split in Avid's command pallet, you can group up to 4 different camera feeds in the preview screen. By using the quad split you are able to group all the clips together by the chosen sync point so it will all play together correctly.

After that is done, multi-camera mode needs to be enabled so you can edit your footage in a vision mixer style. The shortcut for multi-camera mode is shift-control-m. When you play your sequence, you can chose from the 4 different camera feeds in the quad split by selecting them, selecting a camera feed will edit the clip into your sequence. By doing this you can save time instead of cutting between four camera feeds in one timeline, and it can save a lot of confusion by using just one video track instead of four.

This editing technique would be useful for editing from Gaucho our scene for Production Technology, to film the scene we used 2 cameras so it is a multi-camera shoot.
Our previous edit of this scene had audio issues which wouldn't allow us to sync the audio, also acting mistakes caused problems for the continuity. Now that I have learnt multi-camera editing, I feel more prepared for our reshoot and I feel more confident that we can edit it correctly this time.

Editing our practice Gaucho scene

For our Production Technology Module we have been put into groups and we were asked to each from a scene from a theatre script called Gaucho. In our groups, we had to film and edit a practice run of our scene. This was filmed as a multi-camera production.

Link to edit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN4hJDnY5HA

We edited our scene in Avid because we will need to edit the scene in Avid when we edit the final cut, we didn't have any big problems with editing the scene in Avid and the edit went smoothly. One issue with our edit was clips were cut too short just by a few seconds accidently, and the edit had a unnatural fast pace because our edit was quite rushed. In future, this has taught me not to rush my edits because it will affect my finished project in some way, and it has taught me to check if I am cutting clips accurately before placing them into the timeline. It was difficult to sync the audio up because we only used one boom mic and two cameras on the production, so the audio was not consistent.

Soon we will be reshooting this practice scene and creating another edit, so with what I have learnt from this edit I will apply it to my next edit.

Editing Scene 34

In Post Production tutorial we have recently been editing scenes from a script to practice with editing software so we can become comfortable with the editing process. In editing this is a job which people do and editors may just be given the script and the clips to edit without knowing much about the film project and I feel like this has been good preparation to understand the role of an editor.

Link to my edit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuZcVS71MP4

First, we had to read each page of the scene to gain an understanding of what was happening. Next we had to watch each of the rushes. I found it easier to watch the rushes and also read the script so I could visualize the script better.

One of the challenges of this project was we didn't know what shot was what because the clips were not named, so we had to watch and listen to the rushes. Another issue was particular takes had bad audio, so a solution to this problem was we could have dubbed the audio and synced it to another take. I find this was interesting and good preparation for my projects because I can run into these kinds of problems myself.

Above is an image showing my file organisation on the Mac, here we can see I have organised my files into clips, projects, sequences. This way everything I need is where it is and it is easier to locate.

Above is an example page of the script we edited the scene from. We had to edit the scene to fit the script, so the voiceovers had to be in the right places.

Above is an image of the project I was editing this practice edit in. I was not able to use Avid for this edit because there was problems with Avid on the Mac lab.

I found the project was easy to edit eventually because I was able to memorise the script myself and this will be important for the role of an editor. My biggest problem when editing the scene was Audio, I was not sure of how to keep the Audio levels at a more consistent rate so in future I will need to learn more about how to control my audio levels.

Avid video effects

Today in Post Production tutorial we were learning about video effects in Avid and how we can use video effects in Avid. Before this tutorial I was not away of how to use video effects in Avid so this information has been useful to me.


We were given some clips from the film Nightmare Before Christmas (1994) and we were told to edit them like a trailer. Here are some screenshots from the tutorial, I had found that the Superimpose effect was useful and this effect is similar to Cross Dissolve in Premier but it has more control. At first this effect was quite hard to use because entering in the keyframes was difficult and the end result wouldn't be how I wanted it to be. After a while of practicing with the keyframes, I was able to use the Superimpose effect a lot better.

 

Above is the superimpose in the effects menu and the effect controls, we can see the level bar on the right which controls the effect. Below is an image of the superimpose and we can see the two images on the video timeline.

 

Above is a different kind of effect in Avid, this effect looks like a page turning. This is quite a novelty effect and it doesn't look very professional, but using it provided me with good practice and more knowledge in Avid.  

 

 

 

Above is a screenshot from other effects I have been practising with, this effect is called Kaleidoscope. You can edit the effect in multiple ways with the controls as shown on the left hand side, in the effect editor. I don't think I could use Kaleidoscope effect because in my own opinion I think Avid has some effects which don't have a great practical use, but it is good to have software with lots of effects. It has been good to practice the effects in Avid for when I come to edit my own projects.

Organizing Data

As an editor, it is important to make sure that your data is organised and if your data is not organised this can lead to a number of problems.

One problem that can be faced when data isn't stored correctly is that it can be lost. For example, you have kept footage on an SD card and loaded it into an editing software such as Avid Media Composer, once the SD card is removed from the computer the footage will be lost. Lost files will appear blank in Avid and the time line will be bright red, the preview screen of the timeline appear with the text "Media Offline".

Data can be organized by saving items to the computers data drive. Folders should be created too, so you can organize your shots, music, animation, project files etc. By having separate folders for your data everything is kept from becoming cluttered and you will find it easier to edit because you will know where each item is stored. Also by organizing your data and saving it to the computer's hard drive you can reopen a project file at a later date and continue to edit. 

Backing up data is extremely important for an editor because it means that you still have a copy of your data even if it is lost. As an editor this is essential, because in the professional environment if you lost data that means you could lose a job. Something as simple as a computers hardware failure or a computer virus could affect your data so it is important to have your data backed up.  

Juxtaposition

In today's lecture Juxtaposition  was discussed and this theory of film is new to me as I haven't heard of it before. I think the idea of it's interesting and I found it interesting how somethings in film can be portrayed without showing any context.

The Kuleshov Experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWRyHeMHYcA

In this clip, they show a close up shot of a man with the same facial expression but add different clips before this close up shot. By showing different shots such as food or a body in a coffin, we create the context ourselves by what we are watching and we create the emotion that is being shown. When we see the body in the coffin we assume that the man is feeling sadness or sorrow. From an editing point of view this is important because of how we can create context and emotion out of something so simple such as two different shots.

Hitchcock Explains the Kuleshov  Effect to Fletcher Markle. 1964 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96xx383lpiI

In this video Alfred Hitchcock explains the Kuleshov experiment in a clear way and he explains the effect it has on us the viewer. He explains how we add the context and emotion ourselves just by observing what is being shown on screen. This shows how individual shots do not have meaning, and it takes a sequence of shows to express something. From an editing perspective this is what they do, editors string together a narrative and bring life to a story.

Juxtaposition in film is a new topic to me and I understand how it is important for filming making because it affects how the viewer sees things, and it affects how the viewer could feel about a subject.

Timing To Music

I find it interesting how music videos are edited. Music videos are usually edited to fit to music which makes the video fit the song more because the edit is cut to the beat of the song. If the music video isn't edited to the beat of the song, the video could potentially become boring for the viewer and they could lose interest.

Here are some examples of this I have found in music videos.

Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy music video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2zKARkpDW4

I think this music video is interesting and well edited because the pacing is not fast paced but the footage fits along with the beat of the music. From 1:16 on wards in the music video I think the edit becomes really effective, and we can clearly see how the visual content has been edited to match with the music. For example between 1:32-1:43 the music fades out into white noise and the visual content matches this, and as soon as this noise is cut we see another shot of a light blue sky when the guitars begin to play.

deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire - Ghosts N Stuff - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7ArUgxtlJs

I found that this video has a lot of shots which are timed to the music. At 0:39 we see a cut in time as the clips are cut to show show the ghost moving forwards, these clips are also cut to the beat of the music. At 0:43 we see a shot of a hallway and the ghost is attempting to run through the walls, each of these shots are timed to the beat of the music again as the ghost hits the wall on time with the drums.  At 1:42 - 2:00 we see a lot of shots which appear blurred and out of focus, but the motion of these shots fits in with the beat of the music again because the actor in the ghost costume is walking to the pace of the song. Each shot at this point has been edited to fit in with each change in the music.

In college I made a music video for the song Rudimental - Not Giving In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9puljO3CY

In this video I had tried to make the footage match with the beat of the song, but looking back on this now I don't think it really achieved that. I think that there should have been more motion esppically around 0:57 to 1:15 because the music is still fast paced at this point, but the footage on screen is very still and having more motion could have helped it become more interesting. Since starting University and learning about pacing in editing I feel that my understanding of this editing skill has improved a lot since I was at college.

Audio Effects in Avid

Below is a screen shot from an Avid project we have been working on in Avid during Post Production tutorial. We were given all the audio tracks and video separately and had to arrange them together. One new thing I have learnt from this Post Production tutorial is audio effects, for one part of this video we had to use Reverb effect. I had some previous knowledge about Reverb from doing music production in my spare time, but I was not sure of how this effect could be used in film. I have learn about how this effect could be used, for example if a sound effect was being continued through another shot a Reverb could be used to show that the sound is echoing throughout a location.

Below is an image of the Reverb I used in Avid. I found this relatively simple to use, the controls are very clear and everything in the Reverb is set out neatly. Next time, I would like to look into other audio effects. I will conduct more research into what Audio effects are available and think of ways I could incorporate them into my own projects. 

Thoughts on Avid

In post production tutorial I have been introduced to a new video editing software called Avid. Before starting University, I haven't heard of Avid and only edited videos in Adobe Premier. Since I didn't know about Avid, I had assumed that Premier was a popular choice for editing in the industry but now I have learnt that Avid is widely used and if I were to take on the role of being an editor the chances are I will need to learn Avid.

Below are statistics from editing software within the media industry. As we can see, Avid is dominant and shows how it will be crucial for me to develop skills within avid if I want to peruse a career as an editor.

Why Film Editors Love Avid Media Composer - https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/why-film-editors-love-avid-media-composer/

Here I have found a link which provides lots of useful information about Avid in the film industry and it provides lots of detail as to why it's a popular software. It's popular within the industry for being a professional software and the software is very technical and can perform things with accuracy.

From my minimal experience with using Avid I can understand why it is popular within the film industry. I can tell that the software is sturdy and strong and when compared to Adobe Premier. I feel as if it's more difficult to make mistakes within Avid because of how it's sturdier than Premier, in Avid you can't accidentally drag clips out of place because of how the clips are controlled by using the splice feature.