Research into Software and Editing

Cinema 4D

This is the link which I used for my research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipkoDGkLzrM

In order to create my animation, which would be implemented at the beginning of the opening, I decided to use ‘Cinema 4D’. This was because it had the capacity to create professional logos and animations and because students had previously been successful with it.

So, from the link above for ‘YouTube’, I watched a basic tutorial. This was very easy to understand because of its clear guide. Although the overall technical aspects were fairly simple, it enabled a professional logo to be formed, which would act as one of our film’s institutions. I firstly learnt how to format some basic text – I was able to increase or decrease the depth of the lettering, as well as control the size and font style. This was important because the institution had to be clear and the final product is very bold for the audience, emphasising its significance and obvious attachment to the film. Additionally, I was able to select the colours of the title. I chose a darker tone with a navy/silver shade because I felt it was important for the titles to reflect the overall theme of the film. The film itself alludes to darker tones, so it gave an indication to the types of films our institution commonly produces.

After establishing the appearance of the title, I began learning about how to manipulate the positioning. From the video, I learnt that I have to pick two different points on the grid in which the title is placed. The first point would signify where the title would initially move from and the second would be where the title would move to. So, from the first point (or coordinate), I dragged the arrow down from the top to bottom. When I clicked the play button, it showed that the title dropped down with a slight bounce. I was satisfied and believed that this was a suitable movement for the title. It is very simple, but I thought too many movements would be unnecessary and would lack professionalism. Following this, I decided to add further darkness, but this time through the background of the title and lighting. I chose the lighting source option and increased the amount of light that would be focused upon the title. The light would be slightly high and appear as if it shining down upon the title. I also changed the background to appear black, again focusing the audience on the title.

Finally, I converted the file, so it would run on Windows Media Player. The file became an ‘.avi’ file, which allowed me to import it onto Sony Vegas, where it be accurately executed.

Sony Vegas

Research from: ‘Show me how’ tutorials on Sony Vegas.

Sony Vegas was where all of our editing occurred. I chose this because it was advanced and could enable professional editing.

When I first accessed the software, I had never used it before, so I went through the introduction sections.  Firstly, I learnt where the different tools and options were located on the programme. So, for example, I learnt that ‘Tracks’ was the side panel and each level represented the different aspects of editing. Some were for sound mixing, whilst others for video footage. I then quickly realised that in order to add the different clips or sounds, I would need to select ‘Import Media’ and choose the necessary files. I then simply dragged the required ones onto the ‘Timeline’. Within each ‘Track’, I could control the sound levels by dragging the icon to increase or decrease the sound on the individual ‘Track’.

Furthermore, I learnt simple techniques such as how to ‘split’ a video or sound clip. I simply went from the beginning of the clip and then clicked on the point I intended to split. I then clicked the ‘Split’ option from the ‘Edit’ tab. This was very useful because after splitting a clip, I could delete the section that wasn't needed.

Sony Vegas
This is the link I used to learn how to crop a video in Sony Vegas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmOTAgFvFxs

When editing my film, I discovered a particularly good clip of footage which we had recorded, but within the clip, there was some background interference - a person could be seen in the background, which would affect the professionalism of the film. Initially, I searched for another take of that particular scene with the main character leaving the murder scene, but there wasn't a better version. Therefore, I decided to find out how to crop the video.

In order to crop a video, I firstly needed to clip onto the crop icon from the clip, which had been placed on the timeline bar. Upon doing so, an editing window appeared on the left hand corner for the specific clip. I also needed to ensure that the I had selected that same clip to play in the preview window, so that I could see the changes I was making, instantly. Then, in the editing window, I simply dragged the icon's to left, right or up and down, depending on what area of the clip I needed to be removed. The person was on the left hand side, so I moved the icon from the left towards the right, until the individual couldn't be seen and there was no affect on the footage.

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Written and uploaded by Ismail Khwaja