Editing Techniques -Soft Edges

'Soft Edges' is a Video Filter used in Final Cut. It is essentially a border of a black blur (see pictures below).

We used this filter to represent a hazy remembrance of the main character with his lover. It came out like this:

Just for a good effect on the video, following this clip we used a clip of the main character singing by a tree but momentarily with the black border around the screen, as if he was still lost in his thoughts:

Then he returned to singing:

Editing Techniques - Dip to Colour Dissolve

'Dip to Colour Dissolve' has a similar idea to 'Cross Dissolve' in the way that is works well with slow songs. However, we used it slightly differently.

Our main character in the narrative is filmed taking pictures in his memories with his lover, so we needed a transition to represent taking the photo with a digital camera.

To do this, we used the following settings on the transition:

Threshold - 0

Soft - 80

Start - 15

End - 100

Colour - White

Using these settings, the (what used to be) a good second long transition fade to white, is now a short and sweet flash of white, representing the camera flash.

Editing Techniques - Cross Dissolve

Cross dissolving became a crucial factor of editing this video as it helps the flow of the slow melody work well in conjunction with the slow changing clips.

- To cross dissolve from one clip immediately to the next, I lined up two clips then dragged a cross dissolve effect from the Video Transitions folder to in-between the clips. This then fades out the clip that plays first, fading in the next clip at the same time, giving it this effect:

Editting Begins

Over the course of about a week, I have been very eager to edit my groups video to as close to perfect as attainable. This involved cutting clips from our footage and syncing the words of the song in time with my lip syncing. This took a good number of hours to do correctly, plus the constant altering of the narrative made it very difficult to keep on keeping all of the clips together. However, it is a work in progress.

Here are a couple of print screens from the task:




A rough cut of the project will be up soon!

Ancillary Task; continued

Alex kept to the original design idea he had when designing this, and he tried to keep it simple.

Using the font "Sweet Confusion", he began by typing the simple font next to the picture.



After this, he downloaded another font, this one primarily being stars and inserted the ratings by the magazines.




After advice from Sophie and I, Alex switched the Album title and the Artist name around, whilst adding effects such as 'bevel and emboss' to the stars and an outer glow to the fonts.

He had created the end product:

After discovering that this ancillary task had to be size A4, our group member Alex expanded the image, re-arranged the text, added the final CD cover (see the next ancillary task post) and added logos from iTunes, Mom+Pop and HMV. The logos gave the poster more of a sense of realism and authenticity. The CD cover also did this, but generally made the poster more obvious on what it was advertising.

Here is the final end product:

Ancillary Task in progress

In the modern day world of music, consumers can usually identify a style of music with the appearance of the product it's on. For example:

First of all, the band name (which may also be their logo) at the bottom of the picture is a sickly green colour, in a spikey font, and is almost unreadable. It gives off a very evil tone to the picture. When deciphered, the name reads "Annotations of an Autopsy."

Secondly; the band themselves are dressed all in black, some of which are wearing band t-shirts with a similar font to their own band name. The colours on the poster are tinted green with a majority of black.

We can safely say that this band is most likely to be a depressing metal band.

Now look at this example:

This is very different to the first example. To start from the same place as before, the band name is very simply read, in a plain font, and easy on the eyes. Obviously, it is read as 'You Me At Six'

Secondly; the band is generally all good looking, muscular young men, dressed very well with styled hair. This gives off that the band are a lot more easier to listen to than the first example 'Annotations of an Autopsy', but it does not fully suggest what the band's genre truly is. This can sometimes be a good thing, meaning the band do not have to stick to any one genre of music.

The point of these examples is that the bands have asignature look to them. A lot of metal bands dress darkly, look like they are in a foul mood, and have their logos look as twisted as they can get it. A lot of poppier bands (such as the above example 'You Me At Six') have things a lot more plain, dress nicely to invite a wide range of audience to listen to them and not to scare them off. The names/logos are not always as plain as the second example but they are at least legible.

My group's genre of music was acoustic, so we needed to design our digipak to the degree that classic modern-day acoustic artists have.

Here is an example of one:

Straight after looking at this advertisement, it is already clear that the man in the picture is an acoustic artist. The fact that it says 'Alan Lynes' at the bottom of the image suggests that it is advertising one person. Only one person is in the picture and he is dominating most of the lens capture. Behind him lies an acoustic guitar. All of this suggests to the viewer that a roughly middle-aged man named Alan Lynes is playing guitar in a musical solo acoustic act.

My group partner Alex Newcombe has begun work on the ancillary task; creating a magazine advert that promotes our product artist's new album. The picture at the moment includes a picture of me with my face darkened. At the side will be the words:

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Rolling Stones
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allmusic
Joshua Radin
We Were Here
OUT NOW