Final Video/Reflection
*Class tasks/pre-production reflections are on their own pages
Filming process
The final task of our how to project was to complete production and post production of our video. For the first section of this I had to rent 1 Nikon camera, 2 tripods, 1 h4n audio recorder (including the recorders SD card/batteries+charger). We started this on the week just before half term and continued during half term-afterwards. As soon as I had the equipment, and after I had caught up on my re-production tasks, I got started with filming.
One thing I noticed after setting up the camera and testing the video/image quality was that the lighting was poor and created a static image. I managed to fix this by adding photography lighting and using the white ??? setting (in direct sunlight) built into the camera. This cleared up the static and created a soft yet bright setting, the direct sunlight option had the biggest impact, as without it, shadows were noticeable and the video was dark and unappealing. One of my camera's died halfway through filming, so I had to switch to the second camera. Unfortunately, I automatically assumed that I had put the direct sunlight setting onto this camera too, only to realise when reviewing the footage that I hadn't. I ended up re-filming some scene's, as the lighting difference was drastically noticeable. I actually decided to use the original footage for the close up shots as I didn't like the re-recorded scenes. Although the contrast is still apparent, it fits well due to the up-close lighting, focusing on the detail, and blocking out any additional shadow with the smaller frame.
I recorded clips of my script onto my phone and played it through a speaker a few times whilst filming each section, this helped me time the length of my clips. After a few trials of this, it became time consuming and hard to navigate. Instead, I decided to read the script a few times beforehand and estimate the time of each frame, which worked well for me, as it meant I could re-record scenes without having to go back and fourth to my phone and play the transcript. As this was my first time filming with a Nikon and using the college's equipment, I had to experiment with different ideas. Each idea, when executed, had either a positive or slightly frustrating outcome. Although the frustrating outcomes occasionally caused interference or delay in regards to following my production schedule, I did the best I could with the resources I had and made an effort to rectify the situation as best as possible.
Before doing this task I had no prior experience using a Nikon camera/tripod to record videos.
I learnt how to use different settings on a Nikon camera, including: how to use manual mode, change the video/image to jpeg and create a warm lighting effect, all which made my project look engaging and high quality.
In the future I could make sure to spend a few seconds checking the light setting before filming with the next camera, instead of assuming I had already changed it. This would save time and also prevent me from having to re-record certain footage during the editing process.
Recording process
A day after filming, I started recording. I turned on the recorder by pushing up the switch on the left-hand side, only to realise it was stuck in "key-lock". I looked this up and realised you had to push the switch down to turn it on and be able to record. I also accidentally pressed 2,3 mic settings (which are made for external inputs) and after recording in that setting I couldn't hear the playback audio, which made me realise I needed mic setting 1. After fixing these mistakes, I was ready to record.
For my recording, I sat in my room and placed the microphone diagonally and around 15cm from my face. It took a bit of trial and error to find the mic placement with the best sound, but I figured it out by playing back the first few recordings and adjusting accordingly. To stop recording you have to press the stop button because pressing the pause/play button creates a 2nd track under the same name/section, this was something I forgot quite often each time I recorded.
The recording process was quite lengthy and having to re-record audios after messing up got a little annoying and made me feel frustrated after a while. I know there is an option to edit them afterwards, but I wanted to keep my recordings as consistent as I could and the ones where I messed up my script were unfixable.
A negative aspect of the recording process was the length and inconvenience of having to re-record things. After uploading the SD files, I realised I needed to re-record due to some of the recording volumes being different OR halfway through, the audio suddenly getting louder, which I couldn't fix on premier pro. I had another incident when, whilst editing, I noticed that I had deleted some recordings on the SD card (because they were unfixable) and forgot to go back and re-record them. This meant I had to rent the same recorder from college (which was fine) but I only realised when I went home that it had no SD card, so I went back to college to get one. The reason it was so stressful was because it was the end of Thursday and tied into a group project, so it was unexpected and also near the end of a day where I had taken on a lot of responsibilities. This took up a lot of my time and caused me to become confused and upset as I thought the recorder was broken, as it didn't like the SD cards I used in place of the colleges. I later found out this was because the reorder won't read SD cards higher than 16gb data).
Before renting equipment and recording, I wasn't entirely caught up on how to create a successful recording. I researched the different recorders, learning about each one and their specific qualities, to see what would work best for my project and I landed on the H4n. I also created a page detailing what each one does and the effects it is capable of creating. I found out how to achieve a successful recording and how positioning the microphone diagonally decreases the level of interference. This is something I put into practice when recording, as well as turning down the recording audio after reviewing the first few audios and noticing the distortion caused by high recording volume. I recorded consistently at 47/8, though had to use premier pro afterwards to make the audios louder and improve the quality.
I had never used an audio recorder like this before and it took a while to familiarise myself with all of the settings, including looking up how playback the recordings and how to escape key-lock.
After completing this segment of my project, I have a good understanding of how to use a recorder. Researching beforehand gave me a head-start and caused me to be more organised and efficient as I knew the tips and what makes a good recording, which meant it took less time (overall). Using the recorder gave me the chance to experiment and learn by getting things wrong and finding out how I can fix things and improve the situation.
Next time, I will write myself a reminder to check the SD slot of the recorder before taking it home, this will save me time and stress.
Editing process
After gathering all of my camera footage, I converted my SD card files to my laptop, downloaded the ones I wanted to keep and uploaded said clips to premier pro. I also downloaded a copyright free music track and put it in the background. I created step by step slides on Canva. After attempting to recreate each slide perfectly, I learnt that I could actually just duplicate them and the edit the text. I chose Canva instead of After-Effects as I feel more confident using Canva and had an idea that would work better with Canva. The sides are yellow with a geometric and a floral graphic in diagonal corners of the slide. I started to piece my videos together and then uploaded my audio recordings and started to edit those.
Whilst editing my project, I felt that it was hard to focus and I would leave some things unfinished. I had to keep adding and replacing some video/audio clips and working with Premier Pro 2023 is more confusing, especially when it comes to captions. I occasionally got frustrated when trying to figure out how to properly add captions, but after a while I found a great video that helped me understand and I opted for a transcript captions instead of writing them myself, which proved very hard. I'm a little upset that some of my audios sound quite different, as I was hoping to keep my audios consistent in sound. Unfortunately as I had re-done my audios so many times, I didn't have any spare time or resources to do them again whilst also completing my project on time.
A good thing about this task was that, despite all the things that went wrong, I was really determined to keep improving the quality of my video. I really enjoyed seeing everything come together. I liked the fact that I could find the answers to some of my problems through youtube which really helped me succeed when I was stuck with issues on premier pro.
One frustrating aspect of this task was that due to cutting off the start and ends of most clips, I lost the little triangles that helped line up the sequence evenly and this led me to spend more time trying to match up the sequences evenly. I looked it up and learnt there wasn't anything i could do about it, as Premier Pro automatically does this if you delete the ends and beginnings of clips. Trying to sort out the captions was also a difficult experience, as the version of Premier pro I was using was different to all the tutorials on Youtube. I managed to work it out in the end and by using the graphics and captions window, I created a transcript and transferred that to captions for my video.
Another thing that happened is that I didn't realise you needed to save the SD files before removing the SD card, this led to me having to re-insert the SD card every time I wanted to to edit. After realising this, I saved the SD files to my one drive/laptop and had to start a new project so that they could be located anywhere. I was lucky to realise this near the beginning before doing much editing.
I also had to re-create my Step By Step slides, as the slides didn't fit to scale on my video. I remade them 3 times and eventually had to take the graphics off so that it would fit. This meant I had to keep re-uploading them to Premier Pro and as the triangles weren't there, I had to keep re-connecting them to my videos manually. Next time I can measure the video size on Premier Pro before starting my project on Canva, ensuring the slides will fit. Although this seems like a bad thing, the process actually gave me an opportunity to reflect and find more engaging fonts/backgrounds for the slides.
I should've set aside time to perfect my audios before uploading them and sending back the recorder, this could've prevented some of the issues I had. The other issues with premier pro couldn't have been prevented. I also could've measured the video proportions before designing the slides, which would save me time.
Before completing this task, I had limited experience with Premier Pro. The more I practiced and researched, at home and at college, I managed to learn new things and understand on my own. I have learnt how to add captions, scale images, and adjust the volume of clips on Premier Pro, two of which I couldn't do before, and can now put these into practice. I need to improve on making my audios consistent in volume and quality.
I can use my experience from this task in another project that involves editing on Premier Pro and I can make sure to avoid the mistakes I made this time. Next time I will organise my tasks better and think them through any decisions more carefully. I will record and review the recordings and upload my files (so I can locate them) BEFORE editing. I will plan better and more thoroughly during the pre-production stage, as this had an impact on my organisation and mistakes.