Because of the extreme conditions during the other editing night, we had to do a check for the subtitles as well as some of the editing that we have done the night before.
After running a check through the NUS video's subtitles, I went ahead to continue editing the CNM video. The CNM video still did not have an audio file to go with it so I had to look for one. Freeplaymusic.com was one of our choices as it offers music that is free for all non-commercial uses. Thankfully, Wang Yi, my group mate, found a good light-hearted tune to go with the CNM interview video. Thanks, Wangyi!
We also had a lot of problems with some green screen errors. We did not realise it when we added the background before but upon previewing the video, parts of our friend's body disappeared because she had an accessory on. And the guitar in the 'Music Conservatory' scene also disappeared! We panicked and called Jia Xiang for help.He taught us how to do masking and tracking, such that the mask will follow the subject and cover up the green screen errors. It's really amazing how something like that could save our work.
Now that the audio is in, the backgrounds are done, all we can wait for is the presentation.
Cheers!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Final Assignment: Editing through the Night
A post before I collapse onto my bed.
My whole group managed to get permission from Mr Dennis Ooi of the CNM department to use the CATI lab through the night for video editing. I ended school at 4pm and started editing from then on.
We have already mixed some of the beatbox sections and have a basic beat based on a metronome to follow. We set the metronome at speed 92 and followed the beats accordingly to put the videos in. After we were done with the beatbox section, we had to start working on the rap section of the video.
To our horror, we realised that 2 of the files were captured to a corrupted format. The file could be viewed on a video player but could not be open in Adobe Premiere Pro. I ran to the MDL to borrow a DV camera and a firewire to do exporting into Zhiyun's laptop because it was near 5pm and the lab was about to close.
At midnight, we managed to get a couple of friends to help with the recording of the voiceover for the rap. We recorded in the playroom because at that time of the night, it was the quietest place to be.
After we were done with recording the voiceover, we continued working on things like green screen removal and touching up of the missing bits on the people due to lighting problems or very bad reflections. I never knew doing manual tracking is such a tedious task. I had to use an extra video mask in order to cover this moving object that shows holes showing the green screen.
After touching up, we experimented with adding background for the videos. Our first issue was with the difference in colour between the background and the subject. As we want our focus to be on the subject, we decided to either tone down the saturation of the background or to blur in totally.
I did some blurred background while my friend tweaked the colour on After Effects. In the end, we decided to go with the desaturated background as the blurred one made the buildings seem unreal and worse, something that our audience, the freshmen, could not relate to.
At about 3am, we were all very very tired. Zhiyun and I both started the day at 9am and was really suffering from severe fatigue at that point of time. The conditions of the room did not help as the room was small and stuffy and at 3am the temperature in the room went up to 32 degrees. The air-conditioning was off because it was centrally controlled. And the door have to be closed if not there will be an alarm. It was just terrible.
But we pulled ourselves together and edited as much of the video as we could.
In the morning, we had a rather satisfactory version of the video, with some ends untied.
I think it was a night well spent. Despite the extreme conditions.
My whole group managed to get permission from Mr Dennis Ooi of the CNM department to use the CATI lab through the night for video editing. I ended school at 4pm and started editing from then on.
We have already mixed some of the beatbox sections and have a basic beat based on a metronome to follow. We set the metronome at speed 92 and followed the beats accordingly to put the videos in. After we were done with the beatbox section, we had to start working on the rap section of the video.
To our horror, we realised that 2 of the files were captured to a corrupted format. The file could be viewed on a video player but could not be open in Adobe Premiere Pro. I ran to the MDL to borrow a DV camera and a firewire to do exporting into Zhiyun's laptop because it was near 5pm and the lab was about to close.
At midnight, we managed to get a couple of friends to help with the recording of the voiceover for the rap. We recorded in the playroom because at that time of the night, it was the quietest place to be.
After we were done with recording the voiceover, we continued working on things like green screen removal and touching up of the missing bits on the people due to lighting problems or very bad reflections. I never knew doing manual tracking is such a tedious task. I had to use an extra video mask in order to cover this moving object that shows holes showing the green screen.
After touching up, we experimented with adding background for the videos. Our first issue was with the difference in colour between the background and the subject. As we want our focus to be on the subject, we decided to either tone down the saturation of the background or to blur in totally.
I did some blurred background while my friend tweaked the colour on After Effects. In the end, we decided to go with the desaturated background as the blurred one made the buildings seem unreal and worse, something that our audience, the freshmen, could not relate to.
At about 3am, we were all very very tired. Zhiyun and I both started the day at 9am and was really suffering from severe fatigue at that point of time. The conditions of the room did not help as the room was small and stuffy and at 3am the temperature in the room went up to 32 degrees. The air-conditioning was off because it was centrally controlled. And the door have to be closed if not there will be an alarm. It was just terrible.
But we pulled ourselves together and edited as much of the video as we could.
In the morning, we had a rather satisfactory version of the video, with some ends untied.
I think it was a night well spent. Despite the extreme conditions.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Final Assignment: Digitizing DV tapes
The first part of the whole post-production process would be to capture the DV tape footage into digital format. We booked a computer at the MDL today just for this purpose.
Digitizing is simple but it takes a lot of time. Especially when we have 4 DV tapes to convert. We have 3 and a half tape worth of footage from the hidden camera in the corner, and half a tape of actual footage for our CNM video.
We sat in the lab for very long...
..converting..
...converting...
It was a very simple but painful process because we could do nothing but watch the footage run in real time.
Then, we had to get a copy of the video out of the computer only to realise that it stands at 20gb per file.
I decided to borrow my brother's 250bg hard disk drive and return the next day to get the video.
I never knew a video file could be this huge.
Tomorrow is the actual start of the editing. My group is quite worried about the deadline so we decided that we would stay over night in school on Friday just to do more editing.
Digitizing is simple but it takes a lot of time. Especially when we have 4 DV tapes to convert. We have 3 and a half tape worth of footage from the hidden camera in the corner, and half a tape of actual footage for our CNM video.
We sat in the lab for very long...
..converting..
...converting...
It was a very simple but painful process because we could do nothing but watch the footage run in real time.
Then, we had to get a copy of the video out of the computer only to realise that it stands at 20gb per file.
I decided to borrow my brother's 250bg hard disk drive and return the next day to get the video.
I never knew a video file could be this huge.
Tomorrow is the actual start of the editing. My group is quite worried about the deadline so we decided that we would stay over night in school on Friday just to do more editing.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Final Assignment: Filming
After my koto ( Japanese tradtional musical instrument ) practise, I rushed to the playroom to set up the equipment for the shoot. Zhiyun and Wang yi worked together to set up the green screen while Rae and I put up the camera and lights. I read a lot of tutorials online the night before about setting up lighting for the green screen and tried my best to create even lighting for the green screen so that editing would be very much easier when we get down to it. We were quite efficient as everything was done before the cast arrived at 12 pm.
We arranged the shoot such that those who finish their parts the most quickly and more efficiently would get to leave earlier. We have some alumni from the previous years and some of the students from other parts of NUS amongst the cast. This is because this is not just an FASS project, but a NUS one. Thankfully everyone was very co-operative and waited patiently for their turn for their section of the video.
The first part of the filming process was to record the sounds that we will re-mix into a beatbox. Everyone was running out of ideas of what kind of sounds to make and we ended up with a lot of possible sounds. Then we proceeded with the scenes for the rap. We got the people to lip sync to the rap because we figured that it would be very tough for them to memorise the rhythm and rhyme of the rap well.
Jia xiang was present too, because we contacted him earlier for him to appear in our video, as well as to check if we are doing things right. Although we did warn and tell our friends to avoid wearing colours such as white, yellow or green , which will make them 'disappear'into the green screen, he was concerned about some of the props that we were using.
In one of the scenes, we got one of our friends to play a guitar in the background. The guitar, as most guitars do, has a glossy surface and Jia xiang told us that it might disappear when we do 'green screen removal' on the video editing software. My group thought about it and decided to continue filming with the guitar as it was an essential part of the video. Editing might be a lot more tidious but we believe it is worth it.
We also changed several scenes such that a lot of the props would be replaced by computer graphics. For example, Nilar was supposed to 'push' a real book off her head. But we did a few takes and it just looked weird and thus we decided to use computer graphics for this shot. We did the same for some other takes as well.
At the same time that we were doing this filming, we had a very innovative and creative idea. Throughout the whole shoot, we had a little DV camera at the corner of the room, capturing our whiole filming process. We plan to use this footage as part of our CNM video.
Utilising the time for one video shoot to do two, I thought that was really pretty ingenious. Nevertheless, we are still worred as to how the video will turn out. I never knew that video filming for such a short video would take so much time. In the end, we filmed for 7 hours and left the playroom only at 830 pm after clearing up the place.
We arranged the shoot such that those who finish their parts the most quickly and more efficiently would get to leave earlier. We have some alumni from the previous years and some of the students from other parts of NUS amongst the cast. This is because this is not just an FASS project, but a NUS one. Thankfully everyone was very co-operative and waited patiently for their turn for their section of the video.
The first part of the filming process was to record the sounds that we will re-mix into a beatbox. Everyone was running out of ideas of what kind of sounds to make and we ended up with a lot of possible sounds. Then we proceeded with the scenes for the rap. We got the people to lip sync to the rap because we figured that it would be very tough for them to memorise the rhythm and rhyme of the rap well.
Jia xiang was present too, because we contacted him earlier for him to appear in our video, as well as to check if we are doing things right. Although we did warn and tell our friends to avoid wearing colours such as white, yellow or green , which will make them 'disappear'into the green screen, he was concerned about some of the props that we were using.
In one of the scenes, we got one of our friends to play a guitar in the background. The guitar, as most guitars do, has a glossy surface and Jia xiang told us that it might disappear when we do 'green screen removal' on the video editing software. My group thought about it and decided to continue filming with the guitar as it was an essential part of the video. Editing might be a lot more tidious but we believe it is worth it.
We also changed several scenes such that a lot of the props would be replaced by computer graphics. For example, Nilar was supposed to 'push' a real book off her head. But we did a few takes and it just looked weird and thus we decided to use computer graphics for this shot. We did the same for some other takes as well.
At the same time that we were doing this filming, we had a very innovative and creative idea. Throughout the whole shoot, we had a little DV camera at the corner of the room, capturing our whiole filming process. We plan to use this footage as part of our CNM video.
Utilising the time for one video shoot to do two, I thought that was really pretty ingenious. Nevertheless, we are still worred as to how the video will turn out. I never knew that video filming for such a short video would take so much time. In the end, we filmed for 7 hours and left the playroom only at 830 pm after clearing up the place.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Final Assignment: Props
Raemarie ( Sorry Dr Julian, I am used to calling her Rae. And from this post onwards, she would be Rae ) and Zhiyun went to buy some props for our shoot on tomorrow.
I was in charge of making sure that we get the room and equipment for the actual shoot. I booked the equipment from the Media Development Laboratory 3 days ago and got permission to use the Playroom on Saturday for a whole day video shoot. The others made sure that everything else is in order and that the cast will turn up on the day itself.
Today, I had to make the props while Rae and Zhiyun did a recording for the cast to refer to while we film them tomorrow. After the recording is done Zhiyun and Rae will be back with me to do the props too. We had to make a few things in order not to spend too much money on the props.
We bought clown's noses and paint to colour it orange like we wanted it. The noses were originally red ( due to the fact that most clowns have red noses ) . The main reason behind the noses was that we wanted something that would identify our cast as NUS ambassadors, or rather, students of NUS rather than normal people. We considered orange or blue shirts, but it was all to common. The idea of using an orange nose surfaced and we decided to use it because besides acting as an identity for NUS students, it also adds on to one of the points that we want to convey; NUS's students are actually very fun !
Besides the noses, we printed out and made a pile of flags to use as props in the video. The whole process of making props was tiring and time consuming. I do believe this would be worth it after the actual video comes out.
It seems like we are using more and more time. And I have lesser and lesser time to blog.
Well, I'm looking forward to the video shoot!
I was in charge of making sure that we get the room and equipment for the actual shoot. I booked the equipment from the Media Development Laboratory 3 days ago and got permission to use the Playroom on Saturday for a whole day video shoot. The others made sure that everything else is in order and that the cast will turn up on the day itself.
Today, I had to make the props while Rae and Zhiyun did a recording for the cast to refer to while we film them tomorrow. After the recording is done Zhiyun and Rae will be back with me to do the props too. We had to make a few things in order not to spend too much money on the props.
We bought clown's noses and paint to colour it orange like we wanted it. The noses were originally red ( due to the fact that most clowns have red noses ) . The main reason behind the noses was that we wanted something that would identify our cast as NUS ambassadors, or rather, students of NUS rather than normal people. We considered orange or blue shirts, but it was all to common. The idea of using an orange nose surfaced and we decided to use it because besides acting as an identity for NUS students, it also adds on to one of the points that we want to convey; NUS's students are actually very fun !
Besides the noses, we printed out and made a pile of flags to use as props in the video. The whole process of making props was tiring and time consuming. I do believe this would be worth it after the actual video comes out.
It seems like we are using more and more time. And I have lesser and lesser time to blog.
Well, I'm looking forward to the video shoot!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Assignment4: Pre-production Document ( For Final Assignment)
Our group had a group meeting just to put this document together.
There are a lot of things we needed to finalise before the document can be presented in class. We have had several discussions before and we have an idea of how we wanted to film the video. However, we needed to come up with several items before we can produce the document. Some of these items would be :
1. Script ( of the rap )
2. Equipment
3. Props
After a 2-3 hour discussion, we had an outline of our rap, at least roughly what we wanted to do in the final project.
Raemarie wrote most of the rap while the rest of us tried rapping it and changed words here and there if the rhyming did not work out. It was good practice, both for our English and 'sense of rhythm'. Perhaps we can all look into a career in rap music.
The main reason why we decided to do a rap is due to the difficulty in finding suitable music for this kind of projects. A lot of the copyleft or freesource music are usually limited to academic or personal use and not for public usage, like uploading on Youtube or the OSA website.
Therefore, we decided that it is the safest bet to write our own rap and add a rhythm to it.
Basically, the rap would sound like this:
Then, we created a list of people we could call and planned when we needed to buy the props, since we have planned what we needed.
I realise the importance of this document, because if it was not necessary for us to do this document, I would have no idea what to do first before the actual shoot. I learned from this assignment that it is very essential, especially for video projects like this, to have a plan long before the actual shoot to plan what we would need and possible problems we might face in the future.
From what I see, the final assignment seems pretty feasible and should not be a problem. The only possible problem I could see was the coordination of the audio with the video since we plan to do a voice over.
But well, that problem can be solved later. We need to start making props soon.
Time is running out.
There are a lot of things we needed to finalise before the document can be presented in class. We have had several discussions before and we have an idea of how we wanted to film the video. However, we needed to come up with several items before we can produce the document. Some of these items would be :
1. Script ( of the rap )
2. Equipment
3. Props
After a 2-3 hour discussion, we had an outline of our rap, at least roughly what we wanted to do in the final project.
Raemarie wrote most of the rap while the rest of us tried rapping it and changed words here and there if the rhyming did not work out. It was good practice, both for our English and 'sense of rhythm'. Perhaps we can all look into a career in rap music.
The main reason why we decided to do a rap is due to the difficulty in finding suitable music for this kind of projects. A lot of the copyleft or freesource music are usually limited to academic or personal use and not for public usage, like uploading on Youtube or the OSA website.
Therefore, we decided that it is the safest bet to write our own rap and add a rhythm to it.
Basically, the rap would sound like this:
We’re famous for our world-class education
A wealth of knowledge, so much information
This year we’re one-oh-five
We’ve seen a lot of students thrive
Eleven faculties. Let’s break ‘em down now:
Design and environment, Science and Dentistry
LKY School of Public Policy
Arts and Social Sciences, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory
Medicine school, Law, Engineering
Business school and Computing
But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
On our hill, there are still things we can enjoy
If you ever need a change in scenery
Campus-wide you’ll see we’re swathed in greenery
Just wanna hang with your friends? Sit around and have some coffee
Otherwise pick a food spot and throw a party!
All year-round there’s a plethora of activity
Bazaars, fairs and arty acts at UCC
There’s soccer, swimming, tennis, rugby for the sporty
And other less vigorous ways to maintain your mind and body
The friends you make here come from all around
So much cultural diversity in our humble university town
Lost in translation? We think not
Two words for you: Melting Pot
It’s here where life goes way beyond the books
Please don’t be fooled by our ancient roots
We welcome anyone and everyone from far and near
Then, we created a list of people we could call and planned when we needed to buy the props, since we have planned what we needed.
I realise the importance of this document, because if it was not necessary for us to do this document, I would have no idea what to do first before the actual shoot. I learned from this assignment that it is very essential, especially for video projects like this, to have a plan long before the actual shoot to plan what we would need and possible problems we might face in the future.
From what I see, the final assignment seems pretty feasible and should not be a problem. The only possible problem I could see was the coordination of the audio with the video since we plan to do a voice over.
But well, that problem can be solved later. We need to start making props soon.
Time is running out.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Assignment 6: Filming the raw clip
I managed to get my brother, although rather reluctantly, to agree to be my main lead in the superhero video. Because it is the weekends, I also manage to get my mom to agree to be in my video.
Shooting was tough, because I did not want to reshoot any of the scenes if possible. And because I was doings several reverse action scenes, these shots have to be planned properly in order for the video to look realistic, even with the ridiculous powers.
I shot the scenes with my mother first because she had to go out later in the afternoon. After that I got my brother to continue filming with me and to go out of the house for several location shots. I was glad that I was using the Sony HD camera from the CNM department instead of the DV cameras from the MDL, it was lighter and more handy compared to the ones from the MDL.
Although it was a 3 min clip, there are so many scenes and several close-ups to make the video more interesting. I realise from previous experience, videos which are taken from the same angle would appear very boring and very dull. It will also put this distance between the actor and the viewer of the video which will make it seem not as realistic.
Thus I took several different shots of the same scene to provided a rounded angle. I wanted to try the Batman angle to show a bit of awkwardness, afterall, superhero effects are not exactly something most people are comfortable with. But the Batman angle did not look good and I decided to cut it out of the video. I tried various kinds of shots like close-ups and medium close-up and some further establishment shots. Afterall, I have learned all these in class and should put it to use.
I also decided to mute most of the videos and to find a freesource royalty free music to go over it. From my experience doing the NUS video for my group which depended heavily on sounds, sounds is very important to the viewer when watching the video, thus, I decided to put music to, firstly, give the video a suitable mood, and secondly, to let the audience concentrate more on the visuals and leave the audio as something complementary.
After a whole day of filming, I spent the whole night viewing the videos and deciding on what to use for the actual video. I'll edit the videos into order and decide if I need to reshoot anything the next day.
It's another tiring day of filming. Hopefully something good comes out of this.
What am I talking about... something will. (^_^)
Shooting was tough, because I did not want to reshoot any of the scenes if possible. And because I was doings several reverse action scenes, these shots have to be planned properly in order for the video to look realistic, even with the ridiculous powers.
I shot the scenes with my mother first because she had to go out later in the afternoon. After that I got my brother to continue filming with me and to go out of the house for several location shots. I was glad that I was using the Sony HD camera from the CNM department instead of the DV cameras from the MDL, it was lighter and more handy compared to the ones from the MDL.
Although it was a 3 min clip, there are so many scenes and several close-ups to make the video more interesting. I realise from previous experience, videos which are taken from the same angle would appear very boring and very dull. It will also put this distance between the actor and the viewer of the video which will make it seem not as realistic.
Thus I took several different shots of the same scene to provided a rounded angle. I wanted to try the Batman angle to show a bit of awkwardness, afterall, superhero effects are not exactly something most people are comfortable with. But the Batman angle did not look good and I decided to cut it out of the video. I tried various kinds of shots like close-ups and medium close-up and some further establishment shots. Afterall, I have learned all these in class and should put it to use.
I also decided to mute most of the videos and to find a freesource royalty free music to go over it. From my experience doing the NUS video for my group which depended heavily on sounds, sounds is very important to the viewer when watching the video, thus, I decided to put music to, firstly, give the video a suitable mood, and secondly, to let the audience concentrate more on the visuals and leave the audio as something complementary.
After a whole day of filming, I spent the whole night viewing the videos and deciding on what to use for the actual video. I'll edit the videos into order and decide if I need to reshoot anything the next day.
It's another tiring day of filming. Hopefully something good comes out of this.
What am I talking about... something will. (^_^)
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Assignment 3: Presenting NUS/CNM
I presented my CNM promotional video today. All of us could not present both the videos because there were simply not enough time.
Here are some of the comments that I have received and will take into serious consideration today.
About CNM video:
More actions could be added to the 'moulding' process of the doll. Things that will 'enrich' the doll could be done.
Some suggestions was to use video editing software to add things into the doll. Possibilities could be things like objects ( CDs or Information) flying into the clay doll.
I will take this into serious consideration.
I am just glad that this video is over.
For now.
Everyone, please take a look at the these 2 videos on youtube. Thank you!
CNM Video ( Creating and Moulding your Future ) :
NUS Video ( Be part of the AwesomeNUS) :
Here are some of the comments that I have received and will take into serious consideration today.
About CNM video:
More actions could be added to the 'moulding' process of the doll. Things that will 'enrich' the doll could be done.
Some suggestions was to use video editing software to add things into the doll. Possibilities could be things like objects ( CDs or Information) flying into the clay doll.
I will take this into serious consideration.
I am just glad that this video is over.
For now.
Everyone, please take a look at the these 2 videos on youtube. Thank you!
CNM Video ( Creating and Moulding your Future ) :
NUS Video ( Be part of the AwesomeNUS) :
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