Digital Video Learning Journal by Michaël Foussard

Class 1 : Creative Challenge

Create a Vacation Commercial using found video and audio assets. Edit the video so it is 15 seconds long.

Selecting the assets

For this first assignment, my idea was to create a commercial for a virtual company named "France By Bike", so I looked for some bike's footage and some french clichés (vineyard, Arc-de-Triomphe, Paris...). I selected 9 videos on videos.pexels.com, renamed them and finally used 8 of them. That's pretty a lot ! But I wanted to make something dynamic and synced with the music I found on jamendo.com.

I am already a bit familiar wit Adobe Premiere Pro, so I didn't encounter difficulties. I first cut the music to shorten it (15 seconds long !). I kept the beginning of the song and the end and adjust the transition to be in musically in time... Then I put the video clips one after another, adjusting their length to sync the cuts with the music. I did it visually, aligning the clips with the waveform.

Adding effects

  1. I used an adjustement layer with Lumetri color on the first clip (white and black + vignette). I also time remapped this clip.
  2. I created a "glitch effect" on the second clip to emphasize the idea "You need a break!" : For that, I simply duplicated the clip 2 times and used the screen mode and the color balance effect to separate the RGB channels. Then I rather randomly created several keyframes for the scale, position, rotation and anchor point, and it was done.
  3. I used the multiply and the screen mode again on the third shot to superimpose the screen and the plane clips. I scaled up the screen clip and keyframed the position to add movement.
  4. For the last shot I duplicated the clip 2 times and synced each layer with the waveform.
  5. I used the Horizontal Mirror for the plane and the vineyard to keep the movements consistent.

The final touch : adding the logo

I created the logo in Illustrator (thanks to the previous Skill Builder course, I dare to use it more often!) using simple shapes and the pathfinder. Then I exported it in png format and animated the scale and position. I added the slogan with a title.

class 2 : adding my own things

Create a short video (30 seconds maximum) adding your own clips, audio and graphics as well as adding transitions, effects and titles to your Class 1 Assignment.

First of all, I opened some of my video directories to find some footages I had already shot. I knew I got some interesting clips in this video I shot some months ago...

I added the Arc-de-Triomphe clip, because of the duration for this assignment. I wanted to be more obvious about the country I promote. I also needed 2 more clips to keep the montage dynamic enough. I shot them especially for that with my smartphone. I adjusted each clip with the music and added 3 more titles with slogans.

I alwys prefer to use simple cuts than transitions. I tried to be the most precise I could even when I did "jump cuts". I could have recorded a voice-over but I felt it would be "too much".

CLASS 3 : final thoughts

The beginning...

I started shooting videos long time ago. I used a VHS Camcoder long time ago and even made my first edits with an editing table. It wasn't easy. It was long and fastidious, and I gave up.

Nowadays, with smartphones and DSLR, everybody can shoot video, and I consider it's a really efficient media to inform and communicate... if you make good videos. I watch a lot of tutorials to improve my way of shooting and editing video. I love working under constraints and that's the major reason why I signed up to this course. I previously followed a Mooc by Gobelins School about making videos with a smartphone and gave a try at some Week-end Challenges on Vimeo.

One of the most important things this course reminded me are :

"MAKE it Short !"

Editing a 15 seconds or 30 seconds video is not that easy and is a good exercise : you have to think in term of rythm and keep in mind that your goal is to focus the attention of your viewers on your message.

"Keep it simple !"

I spent my time on syncing clips with the audio (being a musician is helpful, but everybody can count until 4 !) rather than playing with transitions presets. I believe a good cut is more than a complex transition.

"Pay attention to detail !"

There are some rules to follow if you don't want to disturb your viewers' eyes. Because of the length of the assignments, I could pay attention to these details :

  • being consistent on the movements on screen
  • syncing the logo animation with the audio
  • using effects to tell something (ex : white&black on the first clip)
  • using glitch effect on the second clip
  • using blending modes on the third clip...

What I found interesting in the way the course was presented is to start with royalty-free footages. I think it's a good start for someone who never edited a video. Then adding our own video gives us a direction. We don't have to find a new idea but simply develop our first one. Great learning scenario that I will re-use !

TO CONTINUE LEARNING, I AM ENROLLED IN THE NEXT...

SEE YOU THERE !

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