Blog Post 83 - Stage 3 - Completed Video - Evaluation

Following on from the formative feedback that I received and commented upon in Blog Post 81, this meant that I was now at the point in this stage of the assignment whereas I feel that I have taken my design as far as I can and therefore conclude that I have completed the video element of the assignment. As with both Stage One and Stage Two of this assignment although in the past number of blog posts I methodically explained how and more importantly why I went about the design process, I think that an overall evaluation is also very important to see the bigger picture of the design process.

At this stage I think it is very much worth reiterating the original specification in regards to that of Stage One of the assignment, which is below:

"Create a short (1 minute) promotional video for your finished package. This must be edited in Premiere, and you may import previously created elements from Photoshop or Illustrator. You will be expected to demonstrate, at minimum, import images and video, setting up a Premiere project with the right frame size and frame rate (and widescreen), trimming clips, adding transitions to clips, and adding titles over clips."

Going through this specification in a check list type of fashion, I can conclude the following:

Create a short (1 minute) promotional video for your finished package.

I can confirm that the length of the promotional video that I have created is that of exactly 1 minute long (1:00) because in Blog Post 81 - Exporting you can see that in the Export Settings screenprint this states the total length of the clip to be that of 1:00 minute long. Also, another piece of evidence of this is in Blog Post 75 - Trailer Conclusion where you can see the end of the trailer title has been set to that of exactly 1:00 minute on the timeline too.

This must be edited in Premiere.

I can confirm that I used Premiere, and being more specific I can confirm that I used Adobe Premiere CS6. Evidence for this can be seen throughout the blog with various screen prints showing that Adobe Premiere was used for the design, compilation and production of my promotional video.

You may import previously created elements from Photoshop or Illustrator. 

I can confirm that although I did not import exact elements from the previously used Photoshop or Illustrator parts of the assignment (Stages 1 and 2), I did take inspiration from my previous work that I had carried out. For example, I decided to make use of the same font style that I discovered and used for that of both Stage 1 and Stage 2, which can be seen in Blog Post 15 - Title, Blog Post 42 - Title and finally Blog Post 75 - Trailer Conclusion.

Import images and video.

I can confirm that I have imported a range of images and video. The most common of these was the importation of video clips, which I have documented throughout the blog, however for a specific example then Blog Post 67 - Scene 1 documents how I went about importing the first scene for that of the promotion video. For an example of important images into Premiere, this can be found in Blog Post 75 - Trailer Conclusion and also Blog Post 66 - Trailer Conclusion.

Setting up a Premiere project with the right frame size and frame rate (and widescreen).

I can confirm that the Premiere project that I set up was of the right frame size, frame rate and widescreen, and futher information regarding this can be found in Blog Post 52 - New Project whereas I set up the project file to the correct specification of DV PAL at Widescreen 48kHz. These details can also be confirmed in Blog Post 81 - Exporting which shows all of these details regarding the frame size, rate and widescreen being chosen.

Trimming clips.

I can confirm that throughout the project I had trimmed clips, and made use of the Mark In and Mark Out points in Premiere to ensure that the selection that I have made has been as precise as it can - the use of trimming has been made numerous times throughout this blog, however for a specific example Blog Post 65 - Editing and Compiling Original Footage Part 2.

Adding transitions to clips.

I can confirm that I have added transitions to clips which can be seen in Blog Post 79 - Video Effects and Transitions whereby I documented the different transitions that I have used. Also, in Blog Post 55 - Video Transitions I explained and researched into the different video transitions that are available in Premiere so that I had a good prior knowledge of the transitions in place prior to commencing with my project.

Adding titles over clips.

I can confirm that I have added title over clips which can be seen in Blog Post 75 - Trailer Conclusion and also Blog Post 66 - Trailer Introduction whereas I created custom titles that held the details of the title of the film, the tag line and also the cinema release date information too.

You will submit this video as a Quicktime movie file encoded with the DV codec.

I can confirm that the promotional video that I have produced has been exported from Premiere in the correct format of a QuickTime move file, and has also been encoded with the DV Codec. For evidence of this, Blog Post 81 - Exporting goes into full details about the exporting of the video in the correct format and also in the correct codec too.

With the above specification points being successfully carried out, personally I wanted to try and go above and beyond this specification and I feel that I have also done this too. Personally I think that the element whereas I went the most over and above the specification was in regards to the Original Footage that I recorded myself. As picked up in Blog Post 82 - Formative Feedback, I was very keen to ensure that I could seamlessly combine that of original footage and that of footage previously released and seen on television. Even harking back to Blog Post 5 - Initial Ideas when I started this assignment I felt like I wanted to try and include my own car - the Ford Capri - into the assignment project and this I was successful in doing for both Stage One and Stage Two of the assignment, and now also Stage Three too. In regards to the Original Footage this was a lot of work to ensure that the end result was worthwhile and of a professional appearance too. Further information can be found in Blog Post 62, 63, 64 and 65 which document the process of the Original Footage that I recorded however in total I had to make use of three different vehicles, and two other willing volunteers to aid with driving and filming. Personally I feel that this was the element that I went the most over and above the specification as I did not have to go this far at all as I could of simply downloaded more clips from online and put these together - but the fact that I wanted to include my own car drove me on to ensuring that I make the right decision to carry out recording my own original footage. 

Moving onto other areas of going over and above the specification, I also made use of different Audio Effects within the production of my promotional video with further details being able to be found in Blog Post 78 - Audio Effects. another area of going above and beyond the specification is that of the Audio Transitions which can be found within Blog Post 78 - Audio Transitions. Also, for further research in Blog Post 56 I looked into the different Audio Transitions that are available in Premiere, as well as looking at the different Audio Effects available in Premiere which is covered in Blog Post 58 too and by doing this this ensured that I had a good prior knowledge of them prior to beginning the production of my promotional video.

Another element whereby I went above and beyond that of the specification is that of the Video Effects that I was able to apply to my promotional video, and details of this can be found in Blog Post 59 - Video Effects. Also, looking back to Blog Post 59, this was where by I looked into a range of different Video Effects that were available to me in Premiere and by doing this this ensured that I had a good prior knowledge of them prior to beginning the production of my promotional video.

One other element that I had to ensure I was confident with was that of resizing the different clips that I had imported - this was import in relation to the different sources that I had got the different video clips from however by resizing the clips in source viewer this meant that I was able to ensure that the scale was correct and so that the end result was as professional as possible and looked like a seamless production.

Although I did not personally use this in my own production of the promotional video, in Blog Post 60 I looked into that of Green Screening and that of the use of Garbage Mattes and Colour Mattes - as mentioned this was not something that I felt necessary to use in my own promotional video however this was certainly something that was above and beyond that of the specification and certainly if I had the right situation for something that would warrant the use of the a green screen effect then this would be something that I could of certainly used.

To finish off this evaluation, I have decided that I will re-iterate another part of the specification which details that of the online blog project logbook which I feel is also important too:

"The logbook will show your complete project design process through images, annotations, sketches, notes, references, etc. It will also act as a design log where you record:

• What you are doing for each stage of the project.
• What works and what doesn’t.
• Why you have made decision x etc.

You should consider the logbook not only as a record of the actions you have taken, but an ongoing evaluation of your progress. You should also ensure that you also consider:

• The success of your final designs in terms of what works and what doesn’t.
• What you would do differently next time.
• What you would spend more or less time on next time, etc."

In regards to the above statements set out in the original specification, I feel that at the end of Stage Three of this assignment it is also important to evaluate my progress in relation to that too. Personally I feel that in the past 32 Blog Posts for this stage I have ventured into enough detail in regards to that of the what does and does not work and why I made each decision, for example in Blog Post 65 - Design and Filming Original Footage Part 2 I explained all of the different reasons as to why I decided to create the original footage in the way that I did, and also how this would also link into the other different stages of the promotional video too - for example whereby in Scene 1 there is a balaclava clad gang and then in Scene 2 you can see in my original footage the driver and criminal is wearing a balaclava too. If I was to be very specific in this evaluation, though, I don't actually think I can name my favourite element of the promotional video as I really do the entire video. However, if I was to be pushed then it would be the original footage that I filmed - I really enjoyed filming this with the different cars and also getting wiling volunteers to help with being criminals and with this in mind the original footage was my most favourite element.

In regards to what I would do differently next time, this is something that could be also linked into the time element too. Although the quality of the video clips that I am using from that of being sourced from YouTube are more than acceptable, it would be great if I could get the similar quality to that of the original footage that I recorded which was that of HD footage. With this in mind, if I could of found a way to source the footage from the previous series of Ashes to Ashes and Life On Mars then this would of meant that the footage would of been of a much higher quality. I am not saying that I am disappointed with the quality of footage that I had used, however if this was something that I was doing again then this would be something that I would be looking into. Another element that I would look into doing again would be of one of the drive past scenes. Although I feel that it works well as it is, when the Ford Capri drives past I do think that I accidentally moving the camera upwards a bit too much when panning and this meant that there was a slight jolt. In the speed of viewing back this is not noticeable however as I know it is there then this is something that I would probably like to change if I was doing this again. 

In regards to timings, this is something that I had briefly touched upon in the previous paragraph however all in all I feel like I have managed my time well. As you can see in this blog, to begin with (just like in Stage One and Stag Two of this assignment) I started of my looking at and documenting my research into the different elements of Premiere and my reasoning behind this is to ensure that I had a good understanding of the program and how it works prior to commencing on working on my promotional video. However I do think it is worth saying that a fair amount of time was spent doing this as opposed to working on my promotional video, however in a way I am glad that I went along this route of working on the assignment. All in all I am very pleased indeed with the way that this stage of the assignment has come out and I partly feel that it is to do with the order of the work that I have adopted but ensuring that I have a good idea as to how the program works and how I could use different elements in my promotional video. In regards to the time scale for filming of the original footage, all in all this took around two hours in total once the cars had been sorted out and volunteers briefed and readied, however the longest part for this stage would definitely be that of the blog, but in relation to the Premiere program itself it would be sourcing the clips and ensuring that they are ready to be used in Premiere. 

In conclusion, at the beginning of this assignment I was very keen to ensure that all of the different stages that I produced were of a professional appearance and could be passed of an a professional piece of work of a real film package. As previously mentioned I was very happy with that of Stage One and Stage Two of this assignment, and once again I am very happy with the end result to that of Stage Three too. Personally I feel that the end result is professional and for the entirely of the minute long production the clip flows well too. There are a few small elements as mentioned above that I might be tempted to change in the future if I was going to do this again however these are only trivial details.

To end, here is a copy of my finished one minute long promotional video trailer which I have uploaded to YouTube to watch in this Blog:

As a final conclusion, I am very happy with the entire production package that I have created for this entire assignment and in regards to looking at the bigger picture I am confident that the different skills that I researched and learnt during this particular assignment will be able to be put to good use in the future.

Blog Post 82 - Stage 3 - Completed Video - Formative Feedback

Feedback Received

Having now completed my design for Stage Three of this assignment and in the last blog post I exported my promotional video trailer to be able to be played outside of the program of Premiere, in a similar vain to that of Stage One and Two, I was able to gain some Formative Feedback. Although this was not planned in the specification like that of Stage One or Two, this is something that I personally felt was a really good idea as another pair of eyes is always beneficial in case I had overlooked something quite obvious, or just made a mistake somewhere along the design stage. With this in mind I decided to go ahead with my own Formative Feedback and asking if fellow peers would be able to past comment on my promotional video.

With this in mind, here is a scan of the written feedback that I received from one party, Sam, who was good to talk to and run through what I had done and reasons why as well as answering any questions. Overall I was very pleased indeed by the feedback that I received from Sam and I was especially pleased that he liked the trailer too. Certainly the extra effort to film the original footage sounds like it was appreciated which made the effort worth it. There were not any suggestions made be Sam in the form of improvements, and with that in mind unlike that of the previous blog posts I will not be including a blog post that will take form of a Modifications Blog Post, as I do not personally think that there are any changes that I would like to make.

With this in mind, the next Blog Post that I will make is that of the Evaluation of this Stage of the assignment which will form the last blog post of this blog.

Blog Post 81 - Stage 3 - Completed Video - Exporting

Rendering

As previously mentioned at the end of Blog Post 79, now that I have edited, compiled and added various effects and transitions to a whole host of both sourced footage and original footage, and most importantly now that I was happy with the end result of this work, I was able to move onto exporting my promotional video. At this point in time it was very important to revert back to the specification that was set out for this part of the assignment, as to ensure that I made the correct decisions when exporting the video. In the first place, I feel that it is worth mentioning the reason as to why I am exporting the video - by exporting the video this meant that I would then be able to play my video back using software such as QuickTime Player or VLC Media Player, and would save having to open up the Premiere file to play the video as this is not ideal.

Looking back to the specification it stated that "Create a short (1 minute) promotional video for your finished package. This must be edited in Premiere, and you may import previously created elements from Photoshop or Illustrator. You will be expected to demonstrate, at minimum, import images and video, setting up a Premiere project with the right frame size and frame rate (and widescreen), trimming clips, adding transitions to clips, and adding titles over clips. You will submit this video as a Quicktime movie file encoded with the DV codec." and therefore this is something that I will definitely adhere to when exporting my video. In particular, I must ensure that my video is the right frame size, frame rate, widescreen, QuickTime Movie File and with a DV Codec encoded.

Export Settings

Prior to exporting my promotional video, I decided that I would just revisit and play back my video once more to ensure that I was happy with all of the different elements that I had in place and there was not anything that I wanted to change. Navigating to Sequence -> Render Entire Work Area this meant that Premiere would render all of the clips and audio in the timeline, and this was necessary due to the changes that I had been making. Once done, this meant that I could then play back my video to get a true idea of what the end result of the video would be.

Once happy, I navigated to File -> Export -> Media... which meant that I was now presented with a large screen that gave me with a whole host of different options that I could go ahead and change to my choosing. To begin with, it was important to stick to that of the assignment specification and for this reason I went ahead with choosing the Format to be of QuickTime with the Preset being PAL DV Widescreen - both these settings match that of the assignment specification as can be seen above. 

Encoding Sequence

Also, I decided to make use of the use Maximum Render Quality too, as this meant that Premiere gives a better quality scaling, although the one drawback is that of an increased rendering time, although the extra wait should be worth it from the results of the increased quality. In regards to other options that I could change on the Export Settings, one of these was the Source Scaling, which is in relation to the appearance of source footage in the output frame. I decided to choose that of Scale To Fit as I felt this gave the best appearance and did not unnecessary skew the appearance of the video unlike that of the other option to stretch to fill.

With these options chosen, and the video then encoded, I was then able to play this back without the need of Premiere. To test this I decided to make use of an open source piece of software called VLC Media player, which when tested allowed me to successfully play back my video and therefore I can confirm that the exporting of the video had been a success.

Exported and Playing in VLC Media Player

Having now exported my video this means that I am now ready to move onto my final part of this stage of the assignment, which is in regards to the evaluation of Stage 3.

Blog Post 80 - Stage 3 - Copyright

YouTube and Copyright

The issue of copyright was something that I really had to take into consideration when creating my promotional video, and it is for a few reasons that I decided to wait until my video was complete to compile a blog post on this matter. The first reason was that a during the creation of my promotional video the copyright issue was something that I had to ensure that I was not falling foul of from different sources, and therefore it was important that I knew exactly what I was dealing with.

Within my promotional video although I decided to record the majority of the footage myself, there was of course elements that I had to use that were subject to that or copyright laws. One way that I thought about sourcing the video clips that I wanted was by taking this footage from the DVD release of the different series of Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars, however I would fall foul of the copyright law as this would mean that I would then be able to freely distribute these how I would like.

KeepVid

With this in mind the issue of copyright was something to take into account, but luckily in my position of being in education these strict copyright laws do not apply and I am able to use these for educational purposes. As you will have seen from that of the previous Blog Posts I was able to gain access to the video clips that I needed by making use of the video sharing website YouTube, and it is worth bearing in mind that there were indeed copyright issues to deal with (for further information please see Blog Post 8 whereas I visited this in more detail) however YouTube does have information in regards to the Creative Commons license that are available for some content. However, as the footage that I was going to use was that of being originally from the BBC this meant that copyright was still an issue. However, this would only be an issue if I was doing this in industry, however as this is for educational purposes this allowed me to use this.

To get hold of these videos, though, I was able to utilise a video download website called KeepVid - www.keepvid.com - which allowed me to insert the URL link to the YouTube video, select the quality and if I would like just the video or audio, or both, and then download.

Having now discussed the information in regards to copyright I can now move onto the penultimate stage of this assignment which is in regards to the exportation of the Stage 3 - Promotional Video.

Blog Post 79 - Stage 3 - Editing and Compiling - Video Effects & Transitions

In the last blog I talked about the different audio effects and transitions that I made use of in the making of my promotional video. In a similar vain, the following blog post will be in regards to the different video effects and transitions that I have made use of within the manufacture of the promotional video.

As previously explored in Blog Post 59, I researched and explained the different Video Effects that are available in Premiere, and also in Blog Post 55 I looked into the different Video Transitions that are also available too.

Film Dissolve

The first Video Transition that I was going to use was that of the Film Dissolve, whereby I was going to use this to create a seamless transition between that of the Introductory Title and the first scene of the promotional video. To make use of the particular video transition and to create the seamless fade, I must admit that a slight modification to that of the title sequence was needed. This was due to the fact that I had made use of an imported (static) clip and used a Title to overlay the Mirror Man text (further information is in Blog Post 66), however this did pose a slight issue. The reason for this was the when the film dissolve was put in place the Mirror Man title text was still remaining. Fortunately there was a fix for this as the MirrorMan title could be extended slightly and then once the film dissolve was applied this meant that there was a seamless fade to this introduction to the promotional video and therefore I was happy with the end result.

Film Dissolve

For the rest of the Transitions I must admit that I mainly made use of that of the Film Dissolve, which can be seen on this screenprint here. The reason behind using film dissolve for the majority of the transitions is that I personally felt that this was the best transition for that of the promotional video as it gave the most professional and seamless appearance. Not all of the placements were exactly the same, though, as for example the length of the transitions were altered with a specific example being that of the fast car chase scenes whereas the transition was going to be swift and snappy. Another transition that I also made use of was that of the Cross Dissolve, which gave for a slightly different dissolve effect however this was still professional and seamless in appearance which was what I was striving for.

Speed and Duration 

In regards to Video Effects, I must admit that for some of the footage I made use of adjusting the speed and duration of the clips. Although during filming I had tried to make the car chase action as swift as possible, there was always going to be limitations and with this in mind I decided to make use of the useful feature of adjusting the speed. By right clicking on the clip and navigating to Speed/Duration this meant that I was able to adjust the speed. As can be seen here, for one of the scenes I decided to adjust the speed to 125% of it's original speed and I also decided to Maintain the Audio Pitch too. I decided on 125% for this particular clip (Scene 3 - The Alternative Angle) as this was a clip that needed the element of speed including, and by maintaining the audio pitch this meant that the audio would not be distorted and be at the same realistic level/pitch too. Throughout the promotional video for the car chase footage I decided to speed up the majority of these clips ranging from 110% to 125%. It was very important to ensure that the end result was not too realistic, though, as an unbelievably fast take off or drive would not result in a professional finish to that of the promotional video which I was looking for.

Adjusting Contrast

For another Video Effect, I decided to make use of the Contrast Adjustment, which is found in the Colour Correction area of the Video Effects drop down folder. I decided to increase the contrast of the original footage that I filmed by +10 as I felt this benefited the overall look of the footage, and brought out some more of the colours and overall gave a more contrasty effect. I decided to just adjust the contrast of the first part of original footage as this appeared to me much for a cloudy and dark day, and by making use of the contrast adjustment this meant that I could ensure that these scenes were looking as good as they could. For the second part of the original footage overall I was very happy with that of the appearance and decided that there was no point with making colour correction adjustments for the sake of it and decided to leave them as they are.

Having now talked about the different effects and transitions that I have used within my promotional video I feel that I am now at a stage that I have finished my promotional video and the next blog post will in regards to exporting the video. However, before that I will be explaining the issue of copyright as this is something that I have yet to do and need to clear up.

Blog Post 78 - Stage 3 - Editing and Compiling - Audio Effects & Transitions

As previously explored in Blog Post 58, I researched into and reported on a range of different Audio Effects that were available in Premiere and in Blog Post 56 I looked into the different Audio Transitions that were available as well.

As mentioned in these previous blog posts I was definitely intending to use some of these in my own promotional video, and now that the promotional video is nearing completion it is now the time to make use of these.

Exponential Fade

The first Audio Transition that I decided to make use of was that of the Exponential Fade. This was one of a number of different audio transitions that I researched in the past however for this situation I decided to use it to fade down one part of the background music for two reasons. The first reason was that of fading the music down as to ensure that the speaking scene (Scene 5) was able to be clearly heard, but also as it was after this speaking scene that I wanted there to be a change of background music too. With this in mind I decided to have an incredibly subtle fade to this first piece of background music, as I really wanted the end result to be as seamless and as professional as possible. With this in mind I decided to start the exponential fade at the beginning of the speaking scene and carry this onto the end of this scene. By doing this, this meant that there would be a gradual fade of the music and in practise this meant that the spoken words were also very much audible too.

Constant Gain

The next Audio Transition that I was to make use of was that of Constant Gain. This was once again one of a number of different audio transitions that I researched in the past, and in this situation I decided that Constant Gain was the best for a few reasons. To begin with, following on from the Exponential Fade from that of the first piece of background music, after the speaking scene of Scene 5 this meant that I was now in a position to introduce that of the second piece of background music. As this was directly after the fairly quiet speaking scene I did not wish for this to be an instant appearance as this would not have been professional or seamless and therefore not the result that I was looking for. With this in mind the Constant Gain audio transition was used to ensure that the introduction of the new piece of the background music was faded in smoothly and seamless over a short period of time.

Exponential Fade and Constant Gain

For the next Audio Transition I decided that I was actually going to made use of both the previously used Exponential Fade and that of the Constant Gain too. The reason behind this is that I wanted to create another seamless transition between that of the end of the last piece of the background music that I discussed, and also that of the spoken element of Scene 12. I decided to do this as the spoken element of this particular scene is very important and therefore it was critical to ensure that there was a seamless transition between the two as I wanted there to be a smooth transition between the too. When placing the Exponential Fade it was very important to take into consideration that of where the fade would begin. This is due to the fact that I wanted to ensure that I kept the last line of "I Fought The Law, but the law won" and so that the fade did not cut this off. All in all, though, I was happy with the way that this fade worked and it created a seamless transition between the two. 

Exponential Fade

The next Audio Transition that I decided to use was once again that of the Exponential Fade. By using this audio transition I wanted to end that of the promotional video by ensuring that the audio was faded out smoothly. As can be seen here on the screenprint, this is shown by the exponential fade being used to fade out that of the booming sound effect. I chose to fade this out as I felt that a more professional ending would be that of a smooth fade out with that of the title conclusion remaining on the screen. This could also be looked at from the other direction in that if there is no audio then the viewers will be more inclined to read what is on the screen and take not of it - therefore hopefully they will remember the title and also the release dates so they will go and see this potential film in the future.

Audio Gain

In regards to Audio Effects, I decided that I wanted to put more emphasis on that of the boom sound effect and I thought that it was a little quiet at this point in time. With this in mind I decided to adjust the Audio Gain of this piece of audio. For this I was able to Right Click -> Audio Gain... and this meant that I could Adjust the Gain by 10DB. It was important to not go overboard with the adjustment, say but increasing by 50DB as this would result in a total distortion of the audio and totally defeat the point of the audio gain being adjusted. By adjusting this by 10DB this mean that there was a noticeable increase in the volume/gain of the booming sound effect however with minimal distortion issues. I also used this same technique for that of the gun shot sound, too.

Having now discussed and explained how and also why I went about using different audio effects and audio transitions within the promotional video, this means that I can now move onto discussing the different Video Effects and Transitions that would be used.