Possibly one of the largest stages of this project, the short film sees the theme of the project really brought to life, combining the other two stages of this project together to create the full campaign. At little over 1 minute long, this cinematic piece shows off the outfits displayed in the four photoshoots, as well as a "working from home" outfit, in a narrative surrounding the lockdown lifestyle. This includes dressing formally from the waist up, working in the garden and being in your own home. I say being IN the home but due to government guidance and restrictions at the time of filming, being indoors with another household was not possible and so the closest I could get to this was filming in the garden; another area of the home people typically escaped to during the 2020 lodckdowns.
Throughout the production process I had to really try to maintain the quality I was aiming for whilst achieving the look and aesthetic I was going for. I was further able to achieve this through post-production methods, some of which are displayed below.
To edit my film I am using Apple's Final Cut Pro X software which is their equivalent to Adobe's Premier Pro. With intricate and complex tools to allow users to edit their videos to a professional level, this software is among the programs used within the industry.
The screenshot above shows a variety of features. The main timeline shows a stack of clips on separate tracks, with the bottom track hosting the audio for the film, Nothing Burns Like The Cold by Snoh Aalegra. This choice of song is down to the style of the beat, sounding somewhat classy; something you would find in a slick advert for a premium product or service. Not only that but it just stood out to me one day when I was listening to music in the car on a journey. I often find that the best ideas come at the most random of times, and this was most definitely one of them.
To fit the style of the film genre as well as my own personal editing style, I cut and adjusted each video clip to match the beat of the song. This was partly done by identifying the beats in the audio levels displayed on the audio track, as well as through constant and repetitive listening to sections of the song. Furthermore, the general movement and flow of the video had to match the mood of the audio, therefore meaning a number of clips had to be artificially stabilised in the software. Many of these clips were handheld yet considerably smooth, but it didn't quite match the smoothness I desired for the look of the video.
As mentioned previously, some of the clips had to be adjusted accordingly and so their positioning had to also be changed. The screenshot above shows this, where clips have been stacked to fit the beat of the song. These stacked clips appear on different parts of the screen as the beat hits in the audio track. This is achieved by adjusting their position along the X and Y axis, as shown by the box to the far right of the screen. In some cases still images have been used instead of moving image, and the same is done with them.
Once all the clips are in place and the video flows as desired, the next step is to colour grade the film. This stage is a lot like editing photos with lighting adjustments and colour changes, but instead you apply it to the whole moving image. Extensions have been downloaded to provide ease of use with the grading process as it can be quite tricky with the baseline FCP tools.
The base correction track is applied over and between the media files that I want to adjust. After placing, this track is adjusted with the colouring tools found in the top right of the screen. Each tab here allows me to adjust settings like exposure, highlights and colour. Once a base edit is applied to the general collection of clips, the base correction track is cut at each clip interval using the Blade tool, (B on the keyboard), to separate the correction into individual clip adjustments. From here I am able to play with the appearance of each clip and change them to create the desired appearance.
The colour grading stage can often take some time as it requires playing with each clip to not only achieve a successful image, but also to ensure continuity across the whole video. This is also why this stage is often the final stage of the editing process before a final film review.
(1) Snoh Aalegra - Nothing Burns Like The Cold (2017) [Lyric Video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hNT2wtVIBI (Accessed 15/05/21)
(2) Cabinet Office (2021) Covid-19 Response - Spring 2021 (Summary) At: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021/covid-19-response-spring-2021-summary (Accessed 22/03/21)
Comments