Construction: Editing Day One

After I had captured the first section of my music video, I felt that in order to understand whether I had filmed the right clips, I would edit together a first draft together. The software I used to edit the draft together was Adobe After Effects, below I will leave some proof shots of me editing.

Here are the composition settings I have used for my music video, 1280x720 was the screen size in which I will be using meaning that my final project will be in HD.








 To get the anamorphic  look in my music video, I created a black 'solid' layer, I then used the rectangle tool to create a suitable black rectangle over the video, I then changed the rectangles settings to 'subtract'.

To not get confused when working on the work panel with all the different clips, I had collectively changed the color of the markings to helps identify the music, the introduction and the main music video.

Although not complete, I added a basic color correction to the music video by creating an adjustment layer and adding curves and huw/saturation from the list of options, I made sure that the color green was slightly more noticeable and reduced the amount of blues.








I have rendered together a first draft of the opening 1:40 of my music video, make sure you also watch it in 720p for the best results!

Construction: Day One Of Filming

Today, the 20th February, I had finally been able to start filming for my music video as my cast were available and the weather was fine. We started filming at around 4pm at the chosen location, which was Kettering quarry. At first we thought there would be a slight problem as the time in which we had arrived is usually the prime for many walkers which could interfere with the filming, however, we found an appropriate location in which kept us away from any public footpaths.

At 4pm, I was also aware that sunset would be occurring soon which meant that lighting could be affected, this meant I could only film a certain amount of the music video. Thankfully, I knew what I was doing as I had thoroughly prepared the sequence of shooting, this meant that filming time was significantly shortened but I still did not get all the footage I needed.

In order to complete my music video, I will need another day of shooting in similar conditions. I will need to take note of the weather and also the characters costume and appearance so it perfectly blends.

Research: Playing with the Nikon D3200

Today is the first day in which I can spend time taking clips with the camera which I will use for my music video, I felt to get to grips with the camera I should spend some time researching the different aspects of the camera and coming to terms with the software in which I will use to edit and render. Below is a little video I made showing the capabilities of the camera, you may also notice that I have cropped the height of the video to make it look more cinematic and have also used a color correction.




I also wanted to test out one of the movements in which I will use in my music video, the movement is called a 'camera swipe' and makes the camera seem as if it is swiping to another location. Below is my short attempt at the effect.

Research: In-depth look into the Nikon D3200

In order to capture the best shots for my music video, I will need to get to grips with the camera I will be using for my project, the camera I will be using is the  Nikon D3200. I will need to learn the different interesting aspects in which the camera is capable of creating, so I have made this post for revision and also future reference when using the camera.

Changing the aperture:
Changing the aperture will be an important skill in which I would need to learn, this is because it helps create a stronger depth of field for various shots. I have found a video in which shows how to change the aperture on the D3200.



Below is an extract I found from here describing how to control the depth of field usng aperture:

Although a lens can only bring objects at a single distance from the camera into critically sharp focus, other parts of the scene in front of and behind the most sharply focused plane appear acceptably sharp. The area in which everything looks sharp is called depth of field. Objects within the depth of field become less and less sharp the farther they are from the plane of critical focus. As the distance increases, things eventually become so out of focus that they no longer appear sharp at all. The near and far edges of your depth of field are usually not visible as exactly defined boundaries. Instead, sharp areas imperceptibly merge into unsharp ones. At normal shooting distances, about one-third of the depth of field is in front of the plane of critical focus (toward the camera), and two-thirds is behind it (away from the camera). When the camera is focused very close to an object, the depth of field becomes more evenly divided.

To see the depth of field on an SLR-type camera, you press a depth of field preview button that stops down the aperture to the one that will be used to take the photo. On point and shoot digital cameras, the best way to check depth of field is to take a trial picture and then play it back on the monitor where most cameras will let you zoom it and then scroll around it to examine details.

Often it doesn't matter so much exactly what you are focused on. What does matter is whether or not all of the objects you want to be sharp are within the available depth of field so they appear sharp. There are reasons you may want parts sharp or not. You may want only a part of the setup in sharp focus to give it emphasis against a softer foreground or background. On the other hand you may want everything sharp to show details. To control how deep or shallow depth of field is, you have three factors to work with.

• Aperture size. The smaller the size of the lens aperture (the larger the f-number), the greater the depth of field. The larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field.
• Camera-to-subject distance. As you move father from the subject you are focused on, you increase depth of field. As you move closer, you decrease it.
• Lens focal length. Zooming out to a wider angle of view increases depth of field. Zooming in decreases it.

Each of these three factors affects depth of field by itself, but even more so in combination. You can get the shallowest depth of field with a lens zoomed in on a nearby subject using a large aperture. You get the deepest depth of field when you are farther from a subject, with the lens zoomed to a wide angle, and using a small aperture.


How to do it: NOTE; It can't be adjusted in live view mode. To adjust the aperture exit the live view mode on hold down the exposure compensation button, which looks like +/- at the top-right of the camera.  Then turn the adjustment wheel situated below.

Movie mode settings:

The movie mode setting gives the user a variety of settings which could help them whilst recording, for example a view which shows you sound levels and where the film will be cropped. More importantly there is an option which gives you a range finder. You can change the movie settings by pressing the 'info' button at the top of the camera.

Changing image quality:

Press the info button to the left of the screen, you can browse through a variety of settings but 'qaulity' is located at the top of the list. In order to gain the best shots you must change the quality settings to 'raw'.

Future referencing

Before I go out and start filming I will make sure I watch the video situated below in order to revise all the different buttons and options the D3200 has to offer:

Editing: Changing editing software

After previously saying that I will be editing my music video with the software Adobe Premiere Pro, I have decided to change my idea and use software in which I already have previous experience with, this software which I will now be using is Adobe After Effects.

Adobe After Effects gives me a series of more options in which i cannot use in Premiere Pro, these options gives me more of a variety when coming to edit. i also know a vast amount regarding the software which will help me to edit and navigate around the software which will hopefully produce a more satisfying editing experience.