Promo Video - The Edit

Equipment

The equipment which I used for editing my footage is a 27" Mac. The processor is quite old so it is hard to view the playback in real time in the program Adobe After Effects.

Having a big screen is good for editing because you can see every little detail and makes it a lot easier for motion graphics, key framing and masking.

It is not essential that you have a big and beefier computer, it does make it a lot easier, but work with what you have.

Programs

The programs that I used you may not have, so don't fret just skip over that section. There are a lot of programs which can really give your film the 'next level look' but if you don't have the programs or can not afford them just go with the basics.

There is a lot of free editing software around these days, for example for Windows there is 'Windows Movie Maker' or for Mac there is 'IMovie'. I have tried to use 'IMoive' but to this day I still can not figure it out.

The programs which I used to edit our promo video was 'Adobe After Effects', 'Final Cut Pro' and 'Magic Bullet'.

I would recommend you use 'Adobe Premiere Pro' rather than 'Final Cut Pro' as it is a more advanced editing software, the latest version of 'Final Cut Pro' which I used is very basic and looks a lot like 'IMovie'. I would have used Premiere but my version became corrupted.

Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro is a basic video editor, it is great for putting together your rough edit and putting your video footage with music which you can then export into After Effects for colour correction and special effects.

Adobe After Effects
After Effects is magic, it truly is. After Effects does pretty much everything, in AE you can make motion graphics, animate 2D and 3D animation, key green screen, composite items into the frame, colour correct and so much more. I would advise you to take a class in AE, or self teach yourself from Youtube.

You can download a free 30day trial of any Adobe product from 'here'

Magic Bullet
Magic Bullet is the easiest to use colour correction software I have found. It has pre-made presets which work in After Effects and Premiere Pro. This program will save you hours of fiddling around with key frames, colour pallets and curves. I strongly recommend you try this product.

The Edit

First thing you want to do, is go through the footage and start re-naming the files. This will make it a lot easier for when you come to editing.

Watch all the clips, and move any unusable footage to another folder, do not delete these just in case you need them later on. Do not do what I do and save things to the desktop, as when you move that file later, it will say 'Missing Clip' and will take ages to put all the items back into the timeline.

Back up your files! I can not express this enough. Copy the files onto a hard drive and disconnect it from your computer once done, or if you don't have a hard drive, copy and paste it into a different location on your computer. I learnt the hard way, and lost a whole days footage as the files became corrupt when importing into Avid.

Now load up Final Cut Pro.

Import your clips File -> Import -> Media
This will automatically import into a new 'Event' which you can rename. Now clip on the clip you like and drag it into the timeline, from there you can start editing your footage.

Some useful tips on how to use Final Cut Pro:

• Press B on your keyboard and you can slice clips in half, click on the ones you don't like and click delete.
• Press V on your keyboard and use the 'Position' arrow rather than the 'Select' arrow. The reason is because if you move a clip with the Select arrow, it will move all the clips around it with it, this can really mess up your music track if editing to sound.
  

• Fade in can be found under the transition tool bar on the right of your screen, you will have to use fade from colour and stretch it over your video 
  

• Zoom is at the bottom right of your screen
• Render is in Modify -> Render All

When you are ready to export from Final Cut (This took me ages to find as there is no export) you need to make sure you click in the timeline (where you dragged your clips too) or otherwise all the options will be greyed out

Click on File -> Share -> Master File

It will then look like it is doing nothing or you wonder if it has completed or even started at all. 

Click on Window -> Background Tasks. This will bring up a window which tells you what is rendering or exporting at that time.

If you want to colour grade your film or add special effects keep reading, if not you can export your file and test screen it with your close friends, see what they say as it is always good to have fresh eyes view your project. 

Be open to critique as the film may make sense to you, but if someone has no clue what your project is (your target audience) then you will have to either reshoot or reedit. 

Once you have exported the file, Open up After Effects.

Click on File -> New -> New Project

It will look like nothing has happened but on the left panel right click with your mouse and select New Composition 

(Make sure you always save constantly while using After Effects, The amount of times I have lost a whole days work makes me want to cry)

It will then open up a box which asks you to input the aspect ratio of what size you filmed in. If you filmed in 1080p then select the preset HDTV 1080 25, if you want to make your film anamorphic then select this under 'Pixel Aspect Ratio'. If you don't understand any thing of what I just said, just select Preset HDTV 1080 25.

The next thing to change is the Duration. You need to make this how long you want the film to be. I would advise making this 10min as it is easier to edit with more room either side and you can change the film length once you are ready to export.

One you have imported your file, you may find you need to cut the video up again to make edits/colour correction. If you have a fast 'top of the line' computer you could have edited your footage in After Effects and skipped the first step in Final Cut, as my computer struggles with After Effects, that was the only way.

Also After Effects does not work with sound files (or not very well) so if you are editing with music you will need to start in Final Cut Pro.

Once you have separated the files you can start adding special effects, I will show you what I did in After Effects for our Promo Video.

I used After Effects to composite 3 videos together making it seamless and look like the main character was in 3 places at once. This was hard as I had to key frame a mask for 2 files, as the male character walks in front of the video in clip 1, and the main characters shoes stretch across the frame. It is hard to explain by words so I will show you in pictures.

Here is the mask (The yellow lines) I had to trace around the male character for the 2 clips which were overlaid on different layers.

Orignal File 1:

File 2 and 3 to overlay File 1:

For creating masks with an object in File 1 walks in front of File 2 & 3, you must have the file you want to overlay the original clip be on top. Once done, then click on the down arrow of the clip you want to overlay (file 2 and 3), 

click on Transforming -> Opacity change to about 20% so you can see the original file below. This makes it easier for creating Masks.

Select the pen tool and now trace around the subject from file 1which will be walking in front of file 2. Make sure you are tracing in File 2. Using the Command key, click and hold with your left mouse you will be able to create curves. 

Start the mask trace at the beginning of the clip so you can later animate the mask.

I have made the original file 1 black, so it is easier to see what i'm trying to explain

Now you need to key frame the subject, so when he moves, the mask moves with him.

To do this zoom in on the timeline so you can see every frame. The picture below is the zoom button, this is located down the bottom left of your screen next to 'Toggle switches/Modes'

In the left hand panel make sure you click on all of these buttons highlighted in red in the picture below. This is creating keyframes at the start of the clip, if you do not select these, you will find when you have animated your mask, nothing will be saved and you will have to start all over again.

Now for every frame you will need to tweak each point, you might be able to skip a few frames if the subject is not moving much. Just remember there is 25 frames in 1 second. If your mask covers a period of 10 seconds thats 250 frames you need to edit.

If you have over 100 key points per frame as I did, thats 25,000 edits you need to make. This takes a long time and is very tedious. If you have 2 videos that need separate masks like I did, you will want to cry.

Once You have finished your masks, you might want to feather them. Feathering an item makes the mask not as hard and ridged, feathering makes the 2 clips look natural and fade into one another. You can see what a mask looks without being featured 2 pictures below. See how he has a white glow around his leg, this makes it look very fake if it is not feathered. 

The outcome will look something like this: 

You may wish to change the opacity of the other subjects which I did, as they will take away the focus from the main subject and action. For my film the reason for incorporating these Gas Mask figures was to symbolise death, and being given no choice. 

Colour Correction

Before you start colour correcting, think about the feel of your video. Are you trying to make it cold and grungy or warm and fuzzy or are you taking the audience on a journey. Your colours must represent your story. 

For our Promo Video, we wanted to take the audience on a journey, we started with cold colours, very blue and the blacks crushed. Once she finds food and warmth the colours become more natural, vivid, and warmer. 

Once you have finished with your edit, while still in After Effects, open up the 'Effects Controls' you can find this by clicking on the clip you want to edit and next to 'Project' in the top left, click on 'Effects Controls' 

With Magic Bullet installed, right click anywhere in the 'Effects Controls' and click on 'Magic Bullet Looks' -> 'Looks', it will then add Looks into the Effect Panel, click on Edit.

Once you click edit, it will open a new window. 

You can either choose a preset filter on the left hand side like below:

Or create your own style with the functions on the right, You just simply drag the item into the subject, camera, lens or background tabs, you can then click on each one and edit them.

Once you press 'Okay' (bottom right), you will then be taken back into After Effects.

Another tool to play with is Magic Bullet Mojo.

This is my favourite tool of Magic Bullet suit as it really punches the blacks. To get Magic Bullet Mojo, right click on the effects panel and click on Magic Bullet Mojo -> Mojo

Play around with this tool yourself, but I will show you my before and after colour corrections using Magic Bullet.

Original

With Magic Bullet Looks (My favourite, but we needed it to be more grungy)

With Magic Bullet Mojo

With Magic Bullet Mojo & Looks (Final)

You will now need to export from After Effects so you can then import the file back into Final Cut Pro to add music.

In After Effects click on Composition -> Pre Render

Click on 'Output Module: Quicktime' this will pop up in a separate window, make sure all your settings are correct, then click okay. Also change the 'Output to:' to where ever you would like to save the file

Once done click Render

Your file will be quite large, mine was around 25GB, I then imported the file into Final Cut Pro, added the music and exported with a compression so that the file was around 1GB.

Now all you have to do is upload the video to Youtube and you're done!

Watch our Promo Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS5b7xKjbpY

Promo Video - The Shoot

Read the previous blog 'Promo Video - Per Production'

Outline

Filming a promotional video is a lot more work than one would think. This is the way people are going to perceive your brand so it must be perfect. The smallest things showed/said in your video can either gain followers or lose followers.

People would much rather watch a 3 minute video then read a page of your website, it takes a lot less effort and is a lot more enjoyable. Especially in the modern western world where your target audience generally do not read for enjoyment. You need to think about the end result, how it will look in the edit, rather than just rocking up without a shot list and a camera in hand.

You need to work out how long your video will be, It should be less than 5 minutes, never over. even 5 minutes is too long, I would say if your video is between 2.30 - 3 minutes then your onto a good thing.

Obviously your first promotional video will be a lot longer as you are wanting to engage the audience, take them on a journey then tell them what your campaign is about, this should be max 5min.

Scheduling on the day

No matter how much scheduling is done in pre-production, something will always go wrong.

Scheduling should be done in pre-production but things will never go the way you plan, if you know this going into it, then you will be ready for what ever comes your way.

The worst thing that has ever happened when I have been on set was the crew managed to burn down a rental van, and also the generator. We then had to get the area evacuated for the fire crew to make sure the generator which was full of petrol didn't explode.

For scheduling our promo video, we had a very hard time as everyone working on the project worked full time, we all had different days off which made it even more difficult. Finding an actor and equipment which was not in use was very hard, as neither Jesse or I had our own gear.


Things to keep in mind


As we were filming in the middle of town, we had to choose a day where there would not be an influx of drunk people walking through the shot, or stealing our gear.
Depending on what town you live in, the best days to film would be Monday or Tuesday evenings.

Always take a torch with you. This will come in handy as if you drop something in the night, will  make it easy to find, but manly if you have a tissue and a piece of white paper, you can wrap the tissue around the torch to make the source of light soft then bounce the light of the paper onto your subject. This making it look like a natural light source rather than being a direct over blown circle of light on their face.

Remember to pay for parking. The last thing you want is to have your car disappearing on a tow truck before your eyes.

Remember an umbrella, the last thing you want is to have to buy your friend a new camera.

If you are not paying your actors or crew always bring coffee, caffeine or chocolate. They have given up their time for you to stand in the cold, the least you can do for them is feed them. A fed crew is a happy crew. When I worked for The X Factor, I spent 50% of my time at the barista truck. It was heaven.

If you can not get power at your location, go location scouting at night with your camera to see how the natural lighting will look. You might have to rethink your location

Always make a shot list, not just a written shot list but a storyboard. How is the character going to be framed? Trust me this will save you a lot of time.

Never leave the house without this, this is your storyboard where you write what happens in the shot, the location and sketch how the character will be framed.

You can find templates of storyboards by searching
'storyboard template' on Google images.














If you don't have permits from the council, be very careful and do not block of walkways or roads, the last thing you want is to lose your location or put a bad name on the film industry.

Here is a great website which lists what type of permit you will need and who to contact within New Zealand.
http://www.filmnz.com/production-guide/permissions.html

Don't film stores, their logos or other people. One day this could come back on you, and you will have to remove your video. By then you have most likely moved the video files off your desktop and corrupted the files. If you do have to film stores or other people, make sure to get a written talent release form signed by the people you film.

Be realistic on your filming times, don't tell an actor they will only be needed for an hour. Always quote over and if you finish early everyone will be happy.

Take a skateboard with you. If you need a tracking shot and can not afford a camera dolly or slider, this is the next best thing.


Make a signature 

For my film work I always have a signature which is present in my short films, they will always have a gas mask somehow incorporated. Peter Jackson (Director of The Lord of the Rings) will always be in his movie as an extra, this is a fun way to make the films your own.

See my showreel below:

Talent release form

Never make a film and not get an actor to fill out a talent release form.
Here is the talent release form I made, you can make it your own:

THIS WILL CONFIRM that I …………………………………. have agreed to be:

photographed/filmed, and that the ‘How to Own A Sweatshop’ and/or its successors will own any and all rights in said photography/film of me on the film/video tentatively titled ‘How to own a Sweatshop’

This will permit ‘How to Own A Sweatshop’ to proceed with the said photography/film and I now waive, as to ‘How to Own A Sweatshop’ and its successors, assigns and licensees, all personal right and objections to any use to be- made of me, my name or my personality in connection with the use of photography/film containing my photograph, for any and all appearances in or part of the project “How to Own A Sweatshop” and performances thereof, accompanied by any narration and dialogue whatever, and the publicity in connection there with. The material can be used for television, print, on-line, marketing purposes and future mediums. I understand that in proceeding with said photography/filming ‘How to Own A Sweatshop’ will do so in full reliance on the foregoing permission.

Dated:

Signature:

Print Name:

Address:

Producer:

Date:   

Screenshots 

As I have mentioned in the pre-production blog about what worked and what didn't, here are some unedited screenshots of the raw footage before colour correcting/changing the aspect ratio.

Promo Video - Pre Production

Video Overview:

The video itself will be filmed in Auckland, New Zealand, with european actors to make the video relatable to the western world. We have been saturated with images of overseas poverty, we tend to tune out when we see images from Tearfund/World Vision. By capturing images from around a western society this will be more involving and relatable for the audience.


Coming up with the idea:

Coming up with the concept for the promotional video was pretty easy, but we soon realised once we got to the edit studio, we had to recreate the whole video as the video portrayed a different message which we were trying to avoid.

It's quite hard to create a video on the subject of prostitution as depending on the route you go down, you can offend a lot of people, or make it look like the women was subject to kidnapping rather than selling herself for money. We knew that even with a promo video, this idea is going to be hard to get funded as it is taboo to speak about in many cultures.

We had to be very careful as we wanted to show the pain and hurt she goes through, the life she leads without actually showing the prostitution act itself.

We need to create a film where the audiences puts one and one together. We wanted the film to be relevant for western culture, rather than the Tearfund and World Vision commercials which we see every day of people in different countries, We have become so cold towards this imagery that we need to create a relatable video, in a western culture. I'm in no way attacking this type of imagery but wanting to create a different style. 

I have a style of filming, and it is quite abstract. See my showreel below:

Creating the idea:

First thing we had to do was decide on a style and colour grade we would use. Once we decided on this we could start thinking about what we would put into the video, how we would frame the subject and what aesthetic we would run with.

I started drafting up a few storyboards of how I wanted the film to look. My film aesthetic is lots of close up and extreme close ups, this giving us a better perspective of the emotions which the character is feeling.

The main thing I had to when creating this script was that we need to see the environment which the character lives in. We need to see the cold streets, the lights casting from the overhead street lamps, and the long dark alleyways. This letting the audience have a greater sense of knowledge, showing them how dark and dingy her surroundings are.

We also wanted to show she was only doing this to afford the basics in life, like a cup of rice. We want to show how little money they make and how they are treated badly.


Shot List

Bellow is the attached documents which we wrote for the film:

The next thing we had to do was sort out who would be the actor, who would be doing what on the shoot day, locations and where we would get our gear from.

We ended up having to re-shoot our project, as a lot went wrong on shoot date 1, but we will cover that on the next blog 'Promo Video - Shoot Day'. So here is the production outline for both shoot days.

Location Scouting: Shoot 1

Location: Alleyway

The locations we sort for our first day, was a dark and dungy alleyway. We found one down a notorious red light street right next door to a strip club. This alleyway was great as it had a red street light at the very end illuminating a dark and dungy stairway. With the ripped posters and bright 'SEX' light next door, made for a great location.

On the shoot day this turned out to be a very bad location. The bouncers from the strip club did not like us outside with a camera filming, and the street light at the end was not working. Our camera also did not have a great sensor so you could not even see anything apart from black.

Location: Street

The location we used was in Point Chevalier, Auckland. I have filmed on this street before during spring. The trees conjoin in the middle making a beautiful arch of old oak trees.

The problem with this location was that it was in the middle of winter so all the trees had lost their leafs, the street had no street lamps so we could see nothing, and the only light source was from our car headlights.

Location scouting: Shoot 2

We learnt a lot from shoot 1, things what not to do, and what to look for. We spent the rest of shoot 1 (after the camera died 10 minutes into filming) to actually go around the city looking for proper locations, which we should have done the night before shoot 1 but we were to busy. 

We decided we needed a better camera and lens, better locations with more light.

Location: Alleyway

We found an alleyway just down from where the original alleyway was. In the middle of Auckland CBD was this side street, which was perfect as had ripped posters, garbage bins and abstract looking street lights. 

The only problem we had at this location was a lot of pedestrians walking through our shot, and the dairy owner next door did not appreciate us filming outside. We also had parking enforcers telling us to get of the street.

Location: Street

We found a great location which was still in Auckland CBD region, this was the Upper Queen Street overpass. This was a beautiful spot as it overlooks the motor way with cars zipping under us, and also has the Sky Tower in the background. We filmed at the perfect time, as the next week was covered in roadworks as they made the bridge bigger.

Location: Dairy

We knew this location would be the hardest location to be able to film in, as we never had any permits while filming outside, or knew any contacts who own a supermarket or dairy, and had no money to give them for their time/letting us use their store.

We asked one dairy owner who flat our refused, which is fair enough.

We walked down Karangahape Road at midnight, trying to find an open dairy. We came across 'Xpress Mart' which is run by the nicest man you will ever meet. He let us use his dairy as a location, and just wanted to know how the footage would be used.

Location: Studio

We needed a white studio to use for when we speak about the project, we wanted a clean backdrop with us being well lit, this would be a contrast from the promo video.

We sent a few emails to people we knew who had access to studios, unfortunately we hit a dead end.

As going to film school for 3 years, and working on external projects for my university, I sent a few emails to the HOD of Unitec Performing and Screen Arts. We got 2 emails back saying they would love to help, but unfortunately when we gave them our dates of filming, they would only reply after that date saying sorry just read your email now do you still need a space.

So we had to rough it, We ended up just moving our lounge around and filming on a blank cream wall, which we later colour corrected to make more white.

Film equipment

This was our biggest problem, as neither of us own a camera, lights or even a tripod. Thankfully we had a few mates who had a camera.

We didn't have any lighting equipment so had to use all natural lighting.

Shoot 1

We managed to beg a friend for their camera, the morning of the shoot we were told that the camera was not charged, all the files still on the camera and that they had to use it that night. We understood, and got on Facebook begging to ask for equipment, or anyone with a camera.

The actor for shoot 1 had a camera but not a tripod so this worked out great as no one else we knew had a camera. But once we got the camera, the batteries had not been charged so we only got 10 minutes worth of footage. We then got into edit and found that the camera was not that great in little light so all our footage was blurry and too dark to use.

As we didn't have any lights, and our street location had no street lights, we had to use my car. This meant we could not use any wide shots, as it was obvious the light source was coming from a car.


Shoot 2

We managed to get a great camera with a 50mm lens from my good friend at work Wayne. His partner had leant it to us, and in the end made the film look amazing.

We were told they didn't have a tripod so we had to source this from someone else.

For lighting we went out and brought a $7 torch. We then wrapped it with tissue paper to make the light softer and spread the source.


Studio

We had to film the studio shoot on a different night as we were still waiting to hear if we could use Unitec's studio.

We ended up having to shoot in our lounge using the overhead lights and a laptop with power point scrolling though our presentation, prompting us on the next topic we were to speak on.

We had to borrow another friends camera (Stefan) from the other side of town, and then pick up their tripod from the complete other side of town.

In the end it all came together.



Actor availability 

Trying to find someone to act for us was very hard, as Jesse and I both worked full time, and had different days off this made it hard to schedule an actor, and also the camera equipment.

We managed to get a good friend Jessica to act in shoot 1, she was great!

For shoot 2 our friend who we messaged for shoot 1 was back in Auckland, and really wanted to get involved. We used Natalia Abbott who was so passionate for the campaign it showed through her acting.


Film crew roles

As we have very little time outside of work, we found it easier just to use ourselves for the filming. Xavier did all the production, cinematography, editing, colour grading while Jesse directed the shoot.


See our next blog 'Promo Video - Shoot Day'