The Hitchcocks

 Edit Test - Ending Scene Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUra0yxt_m4&ab_channel=AndrewRyan Edit  When I look back, I see the use of green screens or blank shots without the hooded figure could have made the editing process a lot easier. I started off by masking Dylan for the portion of the clip that I wanted to use. This was just a simple mask that I could overlay the other footage. Dylan also gives his cigarette to the hooded figure so I had to mask around the hand so there were two masks layered on top of each other. I manually masked around the hand with a few exceptions of using the automatic tracking feature and fixing it's mistakes.   For the background I had to mask both sides individually because the hooded figure was always on screen. So when he was on the right of the screen I masked the area and then used the frame hold feature to keep the video still so I could use it as a background for the masking. I also made sure the files were named accor...

  Colour Correcting The colour correction for this footage was a big job, as two of the three narratives were shot in darker lighting and the third, set in the woods, was shot in daylight, it took  lot of adjusting to make the shots taken in the woods darker and bluer, making them look as though they were shot later in the day, while also preserving the greens and oranges of the trees and leaves. It took a few attempts to achieve the look we wanted without going overboard. We did the colour correcting on a 4K monitor, but constantly tested the images on a 2K monitor to see how the colours translated on a lower resolution screen. This proved to be a vital step in our process as at times, what appeared to look good in 4K actually resulted in a loss of detail in the low lit areas, such as the tree trunks, so we needed to adjust the shadows and contrast to ensure as little detail was lost as possible.           Original       ...

 Week 8 Update For class this week, Sinead and I were present for it. We showed Maria our work and plans for the coming week. Sinead had the footage and worked on the Logging of the video files and I helped out if needed to make sure everything was named and in their relevant folders. We showed Liane's test footage of the use of the long exposure photos we took for the dark scene. We also presented some of the footage that we took in the woods.  After class, Sinead and I worked on the colour correcting of the video files as well as looking through the footage to see what shots we wanted to use and which ones we didn't. For the shots that we didn't think we needed to use, we avoided colour correcting them to differentiate from the others. But we did not delete them in case we needed them in the future.  Sinead and I edited a test shot of Dylan yawning in the forest. Initially we had a very bleak view of the woods, dark and moody but we felt like a lot of the depth and deta...

  I proposed an idea to try and overlay photography over our footage for this scene to make it feel more surreal and contrast it to reality to show the viewer that this is an insight into the protagonist's mind. To achieve this, we used long exposure photography. This is when you reduce the shutter speed to allow more light into your photograph. Because there's more light, the image captures movement and if you or the light moves, it leaves an imprint of where you were before. We used our LED lights to create a light painting effect while Dylan moved to leave different impressions of himself around the image. Then I brought the footage and the photography into Final Cut, and for the first part I had the image come in and out of the footage, then for the rest I left it there the whole time, both times lowering the opacity so that the footage is clearly seen through it. I cut between the footage to different angles to make it feel a bit disjointed.  I reversed the side profile c...

 For our first day of shooting, we decided to film the party scene. We asked a few friends to come over, including some of the artist's friends to make him feel more comfortable on camera. We shot this at Andrew's house. Sinead rented a camera, tripod and two lenses from the college to shoot with. We borrowed LED floodlights from friends in the course, and Sinead also made LED lights wrapped around cardboard cylinders for extra lighting.  We asked everyone to come as if they were going to a real party, we used bottles of alcohol and pint glasses of water as props. We rearranged the room so that the couch was centred with the table in front and took out anything that wasn't necessary to take up space. We placed the floodlights behind the camera, facing Dylan, and we chose the colours green and blue as it gave the sense of uneasiness. We also used Sinead's lights behind the couch and at the artist's feet to create depth in the shot, using the colours pink and white. C...

 Shooting Party Scene  and Dark Room Thursday 11th November 2021 I borrowed a camera from the college equipment store on Sober Lane to shoot the music video. This camera, the Nikon Z6, is a full frame, mirrorless DSLR with 4K filming  capabilities. it was perfect for the job and worked extremely well in the low light conditions we were shooting in.  I also borrowed a wide-angle lens, as we were shooting in Andrew's living room and there were going to be a lot of people, there wouldn't be enough room to get a wider shot with the standard lens. We lit the scene using a variety of coloured LED lights. We borrowed two led panel lights from a friend and coloured one blue and one green to light the overall scene. We then used two lighting rods I fashioned from LED strip lights and poster tubes, one coloured pink for the highlights and one coloured purple for the background.  First we filmed Dylan rapping on his own, then we brought everyone else in so we could shoot t...

 Video Shoots We decided to split up the shooting into two days. Thursday 11th of November for the dark room scene and the party scene. We decided to film before we went out so it ended up being an actual party in the end but during the filming we were not drinking.  Day One I organised the room and moved around the seating areas to try and make it ideal for the shot. The room wasn't the largest so we removed one of the couches in the room to make room. Unfortunately Kate was not here on this day so we had to focus on the lighting too. We kind of unanimously agreed that we wanted kind of a green and blue colours with pink accents for Dylan's 'Princess Dolan' logo. Sinead created light sticks that we used for more lighting accents. We borrowed coloured flood lights off a classmate to use to set up the room's mood. We took a few shots of Dylan singing his song alone. This would be the overlayed onto the sped-up clip with people walking around him. I do realise that we...

 

  Making the Lighting Rods I had an extra set of LED strip lights at home and I decided to make 2 lighting rods with which to light our scenes.  I had a couple poster tubes lying around and used those as the rod structure, wrapping the lights around them. I then purchased a 12V battery holder from RS Components (8 x 1.5V AA batteries = 12V). I cut the plug off the LED strip lights and soldered the battery holder onto the wire.  The lights could then run off the batteries and were portable, leaving us free to mobilise with the lights and use them wherever we needed to.

 

 We had a group meeting on Wednesday to make a definitive plan for when and where we will be shooting our video. We have confirmation that the artist will be appearing in the video, and we have the final version of the song mix complete. We will be trying to get the bulk of our filming done next Thursday and Friday, we will be renting out equipment from the college and borrowing an LED floodlight from one of our classmates to set the tone.  We discussed feedback from our presentation, organised transportation to our locations and are set on what our plan is going forward. 

Will need permission for generator in a public area. Idea for party video - fast forward the background, have the main character in real time. Shoot the video in 2k/4k - to maintain the quality when zooming out. Actors to give 110%. Bring back ups for everything that affordable, including mask. Scout Locations. Film in certain parts of the woods. Look at REM for inspiration.