Editing

The editing of this footage wasn't really that planned. I went through everything I had and chose the best version of each shot to start with.

I then put the shots into the timeline in a rough order that made sense and was interesting. I played around with the order of the footage and then I matched it to my music. I wanted the cuts in the visuals to match with the changes and signficant moments in the piece of music so that the whole thing married together.

In the end it was a fairly simple edit but I think it works well and will look good with all the effects in it. The next thing on my list is keying the footage, ready for the compositing.

The Shoot

This shoot was probably one of the quickest shoots I have ever done.

We arrived and set up, which only took an hour or so because we had planned the lighting set up a few weeks prior and then my model arrived. She was really nice and helpful and was really good at pretending to catwalk.

We were using two cameras, one for the front view and one for a profile shot, so it was just a case of shooting the different distances. I had decided to do a full length head to toe, a head to knee, a head to hip and a head and shoulders shot so I had options and a variety of shots. I did two takes of every shot so that I had choices, I realise two takes isn't a lot but because it was just a walking on the spot shot, it wasn't really necessary to have loads of takes.

The piece of music I have for this is 1 minute 41 seconds, but because I will be cutting between shots I didn't need each walk to be that long, so we did 30 second walks. In the end it only took about 20 minutes for the whole shoot and I had 16 pieces of footage to play with.

I was so happy with the footage and with the model I had managed to get, I think that having someone feature in it who actually looks like a model will add that extra production value to the whole video.

Tomorrow's shoot

Tomorrow is the day that I will be shooting the footage for this project. I am really looking forward to the shoot, but am a bit nervous because I want it to go well and want the footage I get to be what I have imagined in my head.

It shouldn't take too long to film as the model only has to walk on the spot for 30 seconds at a time in time to the music. I will definitely make sure that I film lots of takes from even angle/distance so that I have lots to choose from (something I have learnt over the years).

Nisha will be assisting me on the shoot as I am using 2 cameras so that we can shoot two angles at the same time. She will also be helping me transport the equipment to the studio and set up when we arrive at 10am. The model Lizzy will be arriving at 11am and then we will shoot until I feel I have everything I need.

Fingers crossed!

Parashoot Risk Assessment form

Test video with number of effects

Now that I have tested all of my effects, I wanted to do one final test video which featured all of the effects, or as many of them as I could with the footage I have. This video uses the moving background, the green screen footage, the black and white grading and the rotating 3D text. I couldn't do the underwear removal effect because, obviously, my model in this test video is wearing full clothing. I also didn't do the rotoscoping effect with the colour grading because it is time consuming and I didn't feel it was necessary to repeat again for the sake of a test. Below is one frame with the rotoscope effect on.

3D Text test

This test shows how I will use 3D text in my video. I used 3DS Max to create the text and then did the animation in After Effects using the cylinder tool. I like the effect, although in my final video I think I will try and make the text look more 3D, because I don't think it is that easy to see on this test video.

Thoughts on my project so far

So far I am really enjoying this project. I am glad that I chose to do visual effects that I haven't done before, because working on the test videos has been challenging but rewarding (when something goes right!) I think the best decision I made was to give myself time to plan and test all of the effects, because it has made me feel more comfortable and confident about the final effects for the final video. At this point the last effect I need to test is the rotating 3D text effect. I am confident that using the skills I have learnt while doing these test videos, I will be able to produce a project of a high standard for the end of the year :)