Portfolio Project Week #7, Post #2

Editing the phone call

Today I imported the phone call audios into Premiere and lined them up with the video sequence. That part of the timeline now looks like this:

First, I talked with my friend to find out more about the "Highpass" filter, they explained it well, and once I understood it enough, I added the filter to both clips. I set the "Cutoff" to 1000 Hz on both clips as I think this is what sounded closest to a phone call. However, after doing so I had to turn up the volume of the recordings as it made my voice lower. I also added the audio transition "Constant Power" to both recordings as it helped it to flow more naturally.

Portfolio Project Week #7, Post #1

 Planning/recording "other detective"

Today, I watched the clip of the phone call that the two detectives have. I first wrote out what the main detective said on a note pad on my computer. I then filled in the space I left with what the other detective would say. The script looks something like this:

Then, I recorded myself repeating detective "2"s lines. This took a few tries as I had to fit it within the right time frame, I had to pace my words very carefully. I sent the voice memos to myself and put them in my project folder.

Tomorrow, I will put these files into the project on Premiere. I will also use the "Highpass" sound affect to make it sound like a more natural, realistic, phonecall.

Portfolio Project Week#6, Post #3

 Learning more about editing

Today, I had one of my friends, who is proficient in Premiere, show me some useful tips/explanations. 

They showed me the effect that I should use for the phone audio. It is called "Highpass", they showed me where to find it and how to use it. I did not get the chance today to record the audio for the phone call, but I will do that at some point next week. 

They also explained how to color correct/white balance and edit other lighting settings. This was very useful as I need to edit the lighting in some of the clips. I went through the first three clips and messed around with the lighting in them using the "Lumetri Color" effect.

Using the white balance selector, I was able to change the lighting in the first clip to look like this:

I think I like this more white lighting better than the yellow. I think it gives it a more "industrial" look to it and looks more realistic to a light that would actually be an interrogation room. During the next week, I will go through the rest of the clips and play around with the lighting settings until all the clips look how I would like them.

Portfolio Project Week #6, Post #2

This weekend I have been incredibly busy. With my birthday on Thursday and numerous events over the weekend, I have had very very little time to work on this project. I think I got an hour and a half in total. I used this time to plan out editing and do some research.

Planning out editing

Last time I worked on this project I began editing. Today, I'm going to plan out the rest of editing to help make me more efficient and organized. First, I want to finish putting in all the clips. Next, I want to fix the lighting in some of the clips (which I will do research on how to do later). I also have to add in the audio when the detective is over the phone. I have to record the "other detective's" voice and put a "phone" effect on it. Last, I'll add in finishing touches and hopefully the editing section of the project will be done.

Portfolio Project Week #6, Post #1

 The very beginning of editing

Today I started editing. This is going to be a long process that I will work on a lot over the next few weeks. I will have to figure out Premiere, YouTube/tutorials are going to be very helpful during this time.

I first started by going through all the clips I filmed and deleting all the extras clips/bloopers from the folder. I then imported all of the clips I wanted to use in Premiere. I began editing the clips so it flowed at least a little better; I removed overlapped audio. Here's what the timeline currently looks like:

Editing now, I'm realizing I'm going to have to make a lot of lighting adjustments. When I was filming, the room was not dark enough. So, I lowered the exposure on my phone while filming. However, I did not keep this very consistent to the lighting changes by the clip. I have no clue how to do lighting effects in Premiere, so when I finish putting all the clips into the timeline, I will start researching and watching/reading tutorials on how to edit lighting with Premiere Pro.

Portfolio Project Week #5, Post #3

 Filming

The day to film has finally come. I filmed with Josh and Bennett on Saturday and Riley on Sunday. Josh and Bennett's filming took a lot longer than Riley's.

Day one

Josh, Bennett, and I decided to meet on Saturday at 4PM. Bennett winded up getting there around 3:30 after his baseball game so he took the extra time to get ready and shower. We went to pick up Josh and we got back around 4:30.

The the filming began. I decided to use my dining room to film. I turned off all the lights and closed to blinds so the room was dark. I used a table lamp as the main light source which actually created good lighting for what I was going for.

We started with the opening clips of the detective sitting down and interrogating the suspect. Now, since we did not have a tripod (Josh failed to mention he had a gimbal that would have been useful), I had to set up my phone on a chair:

I had to move the chair each time we changed the angel, which was a pain, but we got it done.

A big issue was trying to get the timing for the detective's phone to ring correct. This one shot took multiple takes, not only because the ring kept going off at the wrong time, but I had to hold and move the camera so we could get a zoom on the phone to see who was calling.

We then filmed the part where the detective watched the security footage. The only issue is I didn't have the security footage filmed so all I could get was the reaction of the detective. Hopefully, I'll be able to work around this without having to reshoot.

Lastly, we decided to have the opening end with the detective discovering a note left behind from the suspect that says "GONE!" The three of us came up with this idea together and I like it a lot.

In total, it took about two hours to film all the clips.

Day two

Day two was a much easier day. Riley was filming her project with Josh at the same park where I wanted to film Riley's part. So after her and Josh finished up, I went to the park and me and Riley filmed.

I only need two clips from Riley. They were the same thing, her jogging around the track, just one was more zoomed in. So, I only spent about 15 minutes on this part

Overall, I filming went a lot better than expected and I'm eager to begin editing.

Portfolio Project Week #5, Post #2

 Fixing the title

After looking at the title I made, I've realized I'm not the biggest fan of it. So I opened up Photoshop and started playing around with it. I stretched out the text and spaced the letters a little more apart. I also lowered the opacity slightly. I am happier this one but it still doesn't feel quite right. I think I'm going to revisit it after we have filmed and I have begun editing. After having the clips, and hopefully where I will place the title, it may be easier to come up with a title that I like a lot.

New

Old

Setting the date to film

I finally decided who will play the suspect: my cousin, Bennett. I asked him and he agreed. Coordinating with him and Josh, we decided we would film Saturday afternoon, around 4PM.

I'm going to send them both the script so they can look over it. I'm going to ask Josh to wear detective clothing. Something like a button down shirt and jeans. I want to the detective to dress similar as a character from the show Brooklyn 99, Jake Peralta (show below). I'm going to tell Bennett to wear an outfit of sweatshirt and sweatpants, seemingly "suspect-like."