VIDEO AND SOUND PRODUCTION - PROJECT 2

Week 5 - Week 9
See Zi Yi 0340094
Video and Sound Production
Project 2 - 30 seconds Digital Magic

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Week 1 (17/04/2020)

For Project 2, we were required to produce a Zach King-inspired video after analyzing his videos. Here are some of his videos which I like the most and hence shortlisted them into my list.

I am very intrigued at how the Youtubers turn objects from paper/sketch into real-life objects hence I chose one of the tricks to be included in my Project 2, which is the second one.

Week 3 (01/05/2020)

PRE-PRODUCTION

For this week, we were required to come up with a plot segmentation for our Project 2. Below is my plot segmentation:



Feedback: 
Mr Martin approved the idea.

Week 5 (15/05/2020)

For this week, we were required to come up with our storyboard by breaking down our story into shots according to shot size and come up with a storyboard, which can be either hand-drawn or digital, below is my attempt:



Feedback: 
Mr Martin gave quite a lot of feedback such as advising me to fix the shot size as well as camera angles.

With the feedback, I came up with the second storyboard as seen below.



Feedback: 
Overall, the feedback:

- The shot size introduced for a few shots introduced is too tight.
- There are a few shots which are very incomprehensible to the viewers, e.g. Scene 2 Shot 6. The table isn't registered to the viewers' mind, hence it's hard for them to know what's going on.
- Always display each shot clearly.
- The smaller the shot size for the effects shot (magic trick), the easier it is for the viewers to spot the trick.

I fixed the storyboard again, and below is my third attempt at it.



POST-PRODUCTION

With the storyboard, I proceed to conduct my trial shot. Below is my first trial shot.

Feedback:

"It is nice, please try to edit one of the effect sequences. Her body shouldn't move while her hand touch the blackboard, just freeze and let the stuff the props in her hand." Mr Martin said the video should be exported as H.264, Youtube full HD 1920×1080 pixels on Youtube. I only have to reshoot if I can't fix the effects shot in post-production. And if I were to reshoot the entire video, it should be this 1920×1080 pixels, but I can stick to 1280×720 pixels if my phone doesn't have that setting. 

I tried to fix it and below is my second attempt.

Feedback:
"When her hand reaches to the blackboard, she should stay still, so you can just put the toilet paper/mask in her hand. just continue to shoot the whole shot. you can edit out those unnecessary part in post-production."

"I meant freeze is her action, so the movement can look seamlessly while pulling out toilet paper/mask. You don't need to freeze it in post-production".

" Just cut out a few frames to make the action smoother. Or cut out the frozen section (I guess is less than a second) and speed it up"

I shortened the necessary parts as suggested and below is my third attempt.

Feedback:

Mr Martin asked for my Adobe Premiere Pro project file to check what's not going right for the effects shot. He then offered to give feedback through ZOOM since it's not convenient to be carried out on WhatsApp. During the session, he clarified the steps to shot the effects shot and that I will have to retake the part. Mr Martin also suggested how to improve my video from shot to shot. Detailed explanation on how to utilize the rule of thirds for a better composition, how to avoid jump cut by changing the camera angle, as well as choosing the right shot size was given. However, I was given the choice to either reshoot the effects shot or the entire video as he commented that my work is average and acceptable, it's now up to me to decide.

I took his advice and proceeded with reshooting the entire video because I thought if a lecturer is kind enough to correct my video from shot to shot, not mentioning during non-working hours, why shouldn't I invest more effort on improving it? I would like to see how far can I go as well.

Hence, before I proceed with reshooting, I showed Mr Martin the changes which I would make for my video. Below are the pictures I consult him with.

Fig. 1.0 Adding the table as part of the shot
to inform the audience about its presence in the beginning

Fig. 1.1 The rule of thirds to avoid overlapping of subjects

Fig. 1.2 The rule of thirds for comfortable spacing between subjects

Fig. 1.3 No changes - over shoulder shot

Feedback:
'Your composition is way better now. WAY BETTER!!! You can compare to the previous version, it is like totally shot by a different camera operator." However, since the sequence of my shots is from Fig. 1.0 to Fig. 1.2, Mr Martin mentioned that there would be a jump cut from Fig 1.1 to Fig. 1.2. I was advised to change the shot size of Fig. 1.1 from a wide shot to medium-wide/medium shot in post-production.

I made the necessary changes and below is my final video.

Feedback:
Mr Martin said in scene 1 shot 1, there shouldn't be a toilet paper roll in the living room. Hence, I should take a snapshot of the shot, mask it in Adobe Photoshop and import it again to Adobe Premiere Pro. I should also:
- Add ambience sound for the background, different for the living room and kitchen.
- Add a pop-up message in the beginning.
- Dub my dad's voice according to the video in a quiet room.
- Add the necessary sound effects.
- Add title and captions for the video, it’s alright to have it exceed 30seconds as they won't be counted as part of the content.
- Colour correct it.

Below is a work in progress snapshot of Project 2.

Fig. 1.4 Working in Progress

FINAL VIDEO

Here is my final video submitted for submission.