28/08/19 - 30/09/19 (Week 1 - 6)
Video and Sound Production
Exercises
INSTRUCTIONS
WEEK 1: Introduction to Adobe Premiere Pro
August 28th, 2019It was the first class of Video and Sound Production, we all greeted and introduced ourselves to the new lecturer, Mr.Razif. Both lecturers briefed us through the module information booklet and discussed about the final project of the module. Some of the senior's project were then shown to us as to understand we may expect from the class.
Getting to know Premiere Pro
Before moving straight to the software, we learned about how important a single minute is in a good animation or video film as the camera angles doesn't always remain at one point but changes its' perspective to create a stronger composition and thus more interesting for the viewers.
Our first exercise was to getting to know Adobe Premiere Pro. We were to download 10 footages of video clips taken by our seniors and to edit using the basic feature on Premiere Pro. The video clips consist of different camera angles within the same location and scenario, and it is our part to combine the clips together to complete the short film. In this lesson, we learned techniques such as:
- Add marker (M for keyboard shortcut) helps us bookmark a specific time of the video, this can be real helpful when it comes to choosing the time to trim unnecessary parts of the video.
- Mark In (I for shortcut), like the marker but this time it marks where the video starts.
- Mark Out (O for shortcut) marks out the ending of the video, the rest of the unselected/unmarked parts will be trimmed not will not be included in the video sequence.
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| Importing the ten video clips into Adobe Premiere Pro. |
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| Adobe Premiere Pro: Editing & combining the footages into one video. |
Introduction to stop motion
As an introduction to stop motion, the activity was for us to observe different stop motion videos done by different people on the Internet, and pick 3 of our favorite animation.
FRESH GUACAMOLE
The most impressive point to mention regarding this animation stop-motion is the sound effect and the creativity of turning weapons into food recipes. I am personally a foodie who likes cooking and gets the references the producer showed in this stop motion project.
DISTORTION
Again sound plays an important role in this video and the best part is having the stop motion video moving smoothly just like a regular animation. No one would probably noticed if this was ever a stop motion video edit unless the title is shown to them. The transformation of the little small blocks are real creative, from blocks into a hand, a ditto, a face, leg, an egg, and that didn't even matter because creating a video basing entirely on that one block was more than impressive. Not to mention the calming colours on the background of the video made it comfortable for us viewers to keep watching and not get an eye strain.
GAME OVER
Combing our daily lives items with the retro game characters and recreating the classic game animation everyone knows and love. The amazing and nostalgic soundtrack made a huge impression to most viewers as it revives the memories of the good old times.
WEEK 2:
September 3rd, 2019Video editing: Reenacted footage from a Netflix series
Today we learned new features such as the Ripple Edit Tool, we learned how to unlink video file from its audio source and to arrange them into different audio tracks to create the overlay effect and hence shortening the total time on the video by eliminating unnecessary scenarios.
After putting together the things we've learned, I've edited and trimmed the film accordingly to Mr. Martin's instruction, that is a sharp 50 second time frame:
Matching audio sound
This activity is considered an introductory exercise for Adobe Audition as we learn ways to import files, and understanding how equalizer works by experimenting on the Parametric EQ effect on the software.
We were firstly given samples of 7 sound files all with the same music but in different equalizer settings (frequency, gain). The objective of this exercise was for us to match the sound of the 6 different tracks to one of its original sound via the Parametric EQ effect.
The edit for different equalizer tracks are as below (starting from track 1 until 6).
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| EQ 1 settings |
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| EQ 2 settings |
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| EQ 3 settings |
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| EQ 4 settings |
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| EQ 5 settings |
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| EQ 6 settings |
First stop motion idea
My first stop motion idea is to revive memories. I will do a mix medium type stop motion video as I am inspired by the visual style and the idea behind the "Game Over" animation. It is surely not based on a showcase of adobe skillset but a revival of the legendary age of games. I was evoked by the idea behind the way they remind people of their good old times. Good memories are never meant to be forgotten, and that is what I want to do.WEEK 3:
September 10, 2019Shooting practice: Framing
As an exercise on practicing video framing, we were given storyboards on the different type of angles and frames as an example for us to recreate. During this activity, we were paired up into a group of two to film together.
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| Storyboard page 1 |
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| Storyboard page 2 |
Below is the compilation of the shooting practice on framing:
WEEK 4:
September 17, 2019There was no class today. Online replacement class was arranged for us instead. The exercise today is to match the colors and lighting of the edited 50 seconds video film from week 2 with the given image below:
I first identify the color range of the image above and noticed the strong contrast in the image with a little detail from the low midrange lighting, heavily tinted in green, and lastly low in saturation.
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| Learning about the Lumetri scope & the histogram. |
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| My adjustments for the color matching. |
After spending some time with the adjustment, I came up with the first edit:
WEEK 5:
September 23, 2019Matching sound source 2
Today we continued with an exercise similar to the previous one, matching sound source. This time we are to imitate sound source to effects of people talking on a telephone, in a closet, and lastly a stadium.
First, we started off with the telephone sound edit. To get the sound right for an old quality telephone audio, I increased its treble so that the speaking sound of the lady in the given audio could be more clear. Second was to experiment with the bass audio. By lowering the bass, the audio now sounds less realistic in person but more realistic as an imitation to the poor quality of the old telephone. To further reduce the audio quality to match the telephone sound, I reduced the mid range in the equalizer parameter very low so that there could be a huge difference between the mid range and the treble. As an addition to the sound effect, I added the hard limiter and increased its maximum amplitude by a little to further achieve the effects I wanted.
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| Figure 5.1. EQ parameter setting for the telephone audio effect. |
As for the closet sound imitation, the main point was to reduce its treble by tons so that the sound clarity of of a person's voice is reduced. This effect is understood just as we can hear the voice of another person talking behind doors (give it your neighbors, for example) but with a little clarity that we may not understand all their words clearly. I applied double EQ parameter to further reduce the sound clarity.
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| Figure 5.2. Matching sound source, closet 1. |
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| Figure 5.3. Applying double parameter effect to create the closet sound. |
Lastly, the stadium sound effect is very different from the two above. Due to its often loud noises, the sound clarity again is not as clear and because a stadium is open for noises to travel around freely, there must be echoes produced as a sound reflection from objects at distance. To imitate the stadium sound effect, I reduced the treble to the lowest point in the graph and pump up the sound frequency located between the mid range and the base to a high point. The echoes are artificially produced with the "Echo"and "Delay" effect within the Rack Effects.
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| Figure 5.4. EQ parameter setting for the stadium audio effect. |
All of the final edited audio for the matching sound exercises are below:
Final telephone effect audio (please refer to figure 5.1 for the EQ parameter).
Final closet effect audio (please refer to figure 5.2 and 5.3 for the EQ parameter).
Final stadium effect audio (please refer to figure 5.4 for the EQ parameter).
WEEK 6:
September 30, 2019Sound Lectures
As one of the last sound exercises, Mr. Razif lectured and gave us lessons on few more sound editing techniques on Adobe Audition to be prepared for our first project. Here are some lectures noted today before heading to editing an explosion sound effect.
Layering is taking 2 or more sounds to combine them together.
Time-stretching is a technique in which allows audio widths to be stretched.
Pitch-shifting is the ability to change the pitch of a sound without changing its actual length. Lower pitch make the audio sound bigger, more bass, lower pitch. High pitch makes thin sound,
Duplicating original file is important as it keeps a backup version of the file for us to rely on once any uncorrectable error occurs within the application.
Waveform tab> select all> double click the soundwave> copy new
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| Figure 6.1. Clipping- the bar turns red when the volume exceeds a certain point. |
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| Figure 7.2. Settings for stretch and pitch for the explosion sound effect. |
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| Figure 7.3. Settings for parametric meter of the explosion sound effect. |
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| Figure 7.4. The phaser effect was used to create unearthly sounds. |
After applying multiple effects and going through edits and feedback from Mr. Razif, this is the final edit for the explosion sound effect.
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