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
- I used an adjustement layer with Lumetri color on the first clip (white and black + vignette). I also time remapped this clip.
- 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.
- 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.
- For the last shot I duplicated the clip 2 times and synced each layer with the waveform.
- 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
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 !