Editing practical - The Spy. Results and process

This the point when we actually edit the recorded videos, this blog will go over my thought process and creative ideas when editing the clips that we recorded into a short video. 

 Stage 1: Assembly & Editing

This is the first step of creating a video. I imported the clips into Premier Pro, I looked into the master shot and assemble the entire sequence into chronological order (Because I was one of of the directors, I already had a script in mind so no changes were made to the sequencing). This is the part when I learn the basic controls and interactions and interface of Adobe Premier Pro. After that I got started on editing. I first removed the original audio and then started trimming bloopers and unwanted parts out of the clips. This is to cut out unnecessary action, sounds and cut time.

Stage 2: Color works & Effects

Adjusting color is very important because it keeps our video's lighting and color consistent to the context. First I adjusted the light level for every clip, this is to make sure each of the clips blend into each other seamlessly. Next I added some color filters which makes the colors in the video more vibrant and less flat. This process takes a lot of time because our clips are recorded outdoors which made the lighting inconsistent. 2 clips in particular are way too dark and way too bright but in the end I managed to make them match with the other scenes. This is also the point when I learned how to work with pixels and color contrast and brightness measurements. After that I added one fade in from black at the start of the video to seamlessly begin the short sequence. I decided to not use many transitions (even though it could help show off my skills and understanding) because I believe that it just won't fit with my vision of the sequence, I use only straight cuts to completely immerse the audience like a movie or a film you see at the cinema.

Stage 3: Audio design

By far the most tedious part. This is mainly due to the clips audio being unusable due to unwanted noises. I have to match sound effects for every major actions (frame-by-frame), add a suitable ambience sound and find a fitting sound track. I actually picked two different footstep sounds for the two spies. Spy A has grainy and dirty sounding footsteps, I tried to highlight the inexperience of Spy A. Spy B has clean and swift sound of high heels, encoding confidence and professionalism of Spy B. I decided to pick up a tense music track on YouTube, as well as background white noise to fill in the gaps when I cut the sound effects (each FX clips have their own white noise, if I were to not use another layer of white noise, the sound will just cut off and create a very unnatural sound).

Stage 4: Graphics & Titles

I learned how to create a text element as a clip on the video. I picked a classy looking font to represent the swiftness and cleanness of the spies, which we can see being used for famous spy/special agent movies like James Bond or Mission Impossible. I then made the text italic which symbolizes movement and an underline to make the text encode stability. I made the text completely red to really draw attention since the entire sequence is composed almost entirely with black, white, green and blue.

Stage 5: Fine tuning

At this stage I went back to re-watch the entire sequence again and found some things I wanted to change. I decided to change the color filter, which made the shadows darker and highlights more vibrant, I think that this way I can further highlights the tension and the shadiness of the action on screen. I also applied a fade in for the music at the beginning which syncs up with the fade in from black of the clip. I also added a faint dark vignette to draw more focus on the center of the screen. Finally, I dimmed the color of the final title and added the text "Season 1" under it, treating the sequence as an opening title and sequence for a TV series.

Results:

After every stage, this is my final video product: