Reviewing the clips shot
Before we commence any kind of editing, it's vital that we look through all our footage to see what is usable and what isn't. This is to ensure that we will not run out of usable footage halfway through the editing stage, which would be detrimental and highly inefficient for us as a group.
There were a lot of files to go through, but it is important we looked through them all in order to know what we knew we were working with. We had a tactic right from the first day of production of filming far more than we will actually need for the trailer, which therefore acts as a bit of a safety cushion for us, should any shots be poor.
Most shots came out very well, and very usable. However, that's not to say that they were all usable, because some were not to the quality we desire for an A2 production. The poorer shots were caused by a mixture of human error, and natural conditions that were out of our control. Here are a few examples of shots that we would perhaps not use.
This particular shot had good lighting, the framing was good, but it was just out of focus. We decided to fully use manual focus for this production to allow full control over what we were doing with the shots (and where we want the audience to look), but this is unfortunately a consequence we had to pay.
This shot was also out of focus, but my head also managed to slip into the frame. It shows that we must be very careful when preparing shots so that everything was just right and professional-looking.
Without doing a review of the shots we did, we wouldn't have been able to re-shoot the examples I've just shown in time, because we wouldn't have known about the mistake until it's too late to take action on. Therefore, it has taught me to always review your clips in good time before things become too late.
After Effects Motion Tracking
Right from the very start we had a vision of our main character having the number of days left within his field of vision, which would increase or decrease depending on what deeds he performed for the devil. If we had just stuck a number on the video without any movement, it would look basic, unconvincing, and unprofessional. So we needed a way to move the number around in correlation to the deliberate shakiness of the camera.
There is a tool in After Effects called motion tracking. This allows the user to select one particular part of the video using their mouse, and then the program will keep hold of that spot that was selected by following it frame-by-frame. It gave our production a far more polished look. The example below did not make it to the final cut, but the exact same method was used for the numbering system, rather than the titles.
By creating a new Null layer and devoting it to tracking, I was able to simply pick a spot of the video I wanted After Effects to track for me. You can see the tracking tab along the bottom right. After selecting your point, I clicked the play button and the computer calculated how the video tracks around. Since the colour of Beth's hair stands out quite a lot from the background, it was able to be tracked fairly easily. Low light conditions will likely present more of an issue.
After everything had been tracked, it was sensible to prime the layer for smoother tracking by selecting 'Easy Ease'.
A simple text box was created and styled to how I wanted it on the tab on the right. It was then only a case of giving the text layer a new parent - i.e. what the text layer will be influenced by. This was done by simply dragging a line from the text layer to the Null layer on the bottom left.
As you can now see, the text has moved but has stayed fully relative to the position of Beth. This gives a far more natural and easy-looking appearance to the audience, and will give it more of a professional edge. As previously mentioned, we eventually put this to good use on the number rather than the titles, but the basic principle remains exactly the same.
Cutting and Stitching footage in Premiere Pro
One of the most vital parts when it comes to making our footage come to life is the footage editing done in Premiere. This is before fancy effects and colour correction comes into the equation, but it still provides a very important role when it comes to setting the pace and mood of our teaser trailer - and therefore whether it'll fit into the genre we aim to represent.
Here we have one long piece of footage. As one would expect, most of this footage is not needed for the final cut, and therefore it has to be cut significantly. We may even choose to cut out some of the footage in this clip that would be considered usable, to keep the pace and length of the trailer to something that is conventional and desirable.
In order to cut the clips to what we want to do, we press the 'C' key on the keyboard, which brings out the cutting tool. You then click precisely where you want a clip to be cut. In order to do the other end, repeat the same for where you want to clip to end. Because this is a high-drama trailer, I am cutting the footage down into something relatively short.
Once you've cut away the wasteful clips, you then start stitching them together using a simple drag and drop method. To keep things smooth and conventional, it's often good to use a subtle transition between each shot to take away any choppiness the cutting may cause. The one we most used was the 'dip to black' effect. This was applied by simply dragging and dropping.
This process should be repeated with all the clips, and then also applied to the audio as well. Eventually, your Premiere timeline should end up looking something like this. Layers are created when additional audio is added (e.g. music over voice). Colour correction can also be done with Premiere using the colour wheel, but for this production, we decided to use Speedgrade.
After Effects Motion Tracking
Right from the very start we had a vision of our main character having the number of days left within his field of vision, which would increase or decrease depending on what deeds he performed for the devil. If we had just stuck a number on the video without any movement, it would look basic, unconvincing, and unprofessional. So we needed a way to move the number around in correlation to the deliberate shakiness of the camera.
There is a tool in After Effects called motion tracking. This allows the user to select one particular part of the video using their mouse, and then the program will keep hold of that spot that was selected by following it frame-by-frame. It gave our production a far more polished look. The example below did not make it to the final cut, but the exact same method was used for the numbering system, rather than the titles.
By creating a new Null layer and devoting it to tracking, I was able to simply pick a spot of the video I wanted After Effects to track for me. You can see the tracking tab along the bottom right. After selecting your point, I clicked the play button and the computer calculated how the video tracks around. Since the colour of Beth's hair stands out quite a lot from the background, it was able to be tracked fairly easily. Low light conditions will likely present more of an issue.
After everything had been tracked, it was sensible to prime the layer for smoother tracking by selecting 'Easy Ease'.
A simple text box was created and styled to how I wanted it on the tab on the right. It was then only a case of giving the text layer a new parent - i.e. what the text layer will be influenced by. This was done by simply dragging a line from the text layer to the Null layer on the bottom left.
As you can now see, the text has moved but has stayed fully relative to the position of Beth. This gives a far more natural and easy-looking appearance to the audience, and will give it more of a professional edge. As previously mentioned, we eventually put this to good use on the number rather than the titles, but the basic principle remains exactly the same.
Cutting and Stitching footage in Premiere Pro
One of the most vital parts when it comes to making our footage come to life is the footage editing done in Premiere. This is before fancy effects and colour correction comes into the equation, but it still provides a very important role when it comes to setting the pace and mood of our teaser trailer - and therefore whether it'll fit into the genre we aim to represent.
Here we have one long piece of footage. As one would expect, most of this footage is not needed for the final cut, and therefore it has to be cut significantly. We may even choose to cut out some of the footage in this clip that would be considered usable, to keep the pace and length of the trailer to something that is conventional and desirable.
In order to cut the clips to what we want to do, we press the 'C' key on the keyboard, which brings out the cutting tool. You then click precisely where you want a clip to be cut. In order to do the other end, repeat the same for where you want to clip to end. Because this is a high-drama trailer, I am cutting the footage down into something relatively short.
Once you've cut away the wasteful clips, you then start stitching them together using a simple drag and drop method. To keep things smooth and conventional, it's often good to use a subtle transition between each shot to take away any choppiness the cutting may cause. The one we most used was the 'dip to black' effect. This was applied by simply dragging and dropping.
This process should be repeated with all the clips, and then also applied to the audio as well. Eventually, your Premiere timeline should end up looking something like this. Layers are created when additional audio is added (e.g. music over voice). Colour correction can also be done with Premiere using the colour wheel, but for this production, we decided to use Speedgrade.
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