Starting again from DSLR to Iphone

So it’s been 2 years since my last blog post on here (I think), and 8 months since I last picked up a camera.
Truth is I got quite stuck into making wedding videos and it sort of took all the fun out of making videos.
Now that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy making wedding videos because quite frankly I did but filming just became a means to an end and not something I was passionate about anymore. This also came right after my last year at university where I started to fall out of love with filming due to a pretty poor course, which I feel was so different to what was promised that it really missed the mark with me.

8 months ago I edited my final wedding and prepared to move from nothingness/middleofnowehere England to London. I then spent the past 6 months struggling to adapt to big city life and find my place here. Which I never really did because I was too busy waiting for something to happen for me and applying for jobs that were not really what I wanted to do, to realise that I should get out there and do something myself. So with 2018 in full swing I have decided to get off my arse and make a change.

The first change is from DSLR to Iphone 7. All my shots photography and video will be shot solely on Iphone with a little help from apps and accessories. And with the Iphone 7 I’ll be able to shoot some 4K and some slow-motion footage which I am really looking forward to.

 Firstly, lets talk accessories.
Olloclip Core Pro Lens set fro Iphone 7
This set consists of Fisheye, Super-Wide and Macro 15x lenses. Which unlike some of the other lens sets gives me much more variety for photo and video alike. Here’s the link to the website for more information on the lenses https://www.olloclip.com/shop/lenses/iphone7-core-lens-set/

There are other Lens sets from Olloclip but this one for me has the best variety. Other companies such as Moment and Exolens make some great phone based lenses and accessories but I’ve found them to be a little pricey and hard to get hold of in the UK. Here are both the links to Exolens and Moment for you to check out. Also I should note that Moment have a pretty good YouTube channel with a great Filmic Pro video on which ill link at the end.
https://exolens.com/
https://www.shopmoment.com/

For sound I’ll be using the Rode Videomic ME for now even though that means I’ll need to run a lightening to audio jack adapter. Let’s see how this goes I may end up switching to the Rode VideoMicro.
http://www.rode.com/microphones/videomicme


Next let’s talk apps.
For editing photos and shooting them I’ll be mostly using Adobe Lightroom CC for Iphone. This app offers awesome in camera controls including manual overrides for exposure, aperture and focus and the editing part of this app allows you to use things such as curves for colour correcting photos. I’ll drop the adobe link in below so you can read more about it.
http://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/photography.html?sdid=V6NZKW2K&mv=search&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!227038550044!b!!g!!lightroom%206&ef_id=WaGk-gAAAFBDvyvG:20180116153517:s


Last app I’m going to talk about is Filmic Pro now it’s the only paid app I’ve mentioned and at £14.99 if you’re not used to buying apps it might seem like a bit of a stretch, but let me assure you that this is well worth it. It gives you so much control over your video even allowing you to do things like set two focus points and switch between them while shooting.
http://www.filmicpro.com/

Right that’s enough from me. So expect some YouTube and stock footage links being posted to this blog very soon. Here are some awesome videos that probably do a better job than I did at talking about using your phone for shooting video and photo. The Peter McKinnon video is more photo based where the Moment video focuses on using Filmic Pro to shoot on phone.

Hope you enjoy, will be back soon.

Peter McKinnon Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AywNcZL6IQQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys63jdks26E

Moments video on Filmic Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWSuKVRpk7I

Editing Garden Art 2

The First thing i wanted to do was to create a cut out logo with video behind for this project. i tried various way such as using text mask in after effects which i learned how to do from this video: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/short-and-suite/making-text-masks-in-after-effects/
But after trying that i felt that the text wasn't as crisp as i would have liked so i decided to chroma key the text out and place the text on the layer on top of the video. (i created the text in photoshop to make colour keying easier).
Below are 3 different logos i tried.







The next thing i did was to colour correct the video using RGB curves. i like to colour correct using RGB curves as i feel i have more control over the colours. This meant i could make the sky bluer and the trees greener making them stand out more and look more clear as can be seen in the pictures below.













After completing the colour correction i then re watched the video changing a few minor parts and then exported and uploaded the video which you can see in a previous post.

Like my new Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/gfoxvideoproductions

Learning While Editing

Today while editing in Adobe Premiere Pro i stumbled across a short cut for razoring clips.
My normal way to do this would be to place the guide on the point of the clip that i wish to razor and then select the razor tool and click on top of the guide. Well today i found that i can simply place the guide on the desired point and press cmd + k (Mac) cntrl +k (windows), this simply razors the clip at that point and when using the razor tool a lot as i have been today you save a lot of time using this method.

GTA V Trailer

Today i decided to edit an extended version of the upcoming Rockstar game GTA V.
I took all of the existing trailers and mixed them together to make an extended trailer, i swapped out footage from different sections of trailers with other footage. I then extended the soundtrack to the trailers by identifying the track used and replacing it with a long version of the clip.
I split the trailer into 3 sections to focus on the 3 main characters, each with an individual song used in a previous trailer.
The trailer is currently 8 minutes long and i am currently colour correcting it.
Below is a screen shot of me editing footage in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Garden Art Video (editing)

Yesterday i edited and uploaded the garden art video i did.
i found that the sound of the video on a whole was good and needed very little editing, that said some of the sound clips had  a lorry in the background so i simply changed the sound of said clip with the sound from another clip.
Some of the shots I had to crop, trim, change the speed of and colour correct.
I achieved what i wanted with this project which looks arty and abstract which is exactly what i aimed for.
you can view the video in full HD on the link below.
https://vimeo.com/70286684

Editing Existing Footage of The TV Show Banshee

Today I edited together some existing footage of the TV show Banshee.
I took episode one and edited it down to a 3 min extended trailer.
I kept the edit sharp and snappy by using quick cuts and shots that were full of action.
I am hoping to do more of these videos for more episodes in the series before finally doing a Season Trailer.
You can view this video on vimeo via the link below.

https://vimeo.com/69754190

Editing/Colour Correcting Elite Training Video

I've found that as this video was filmed in a garage with no additional lighting the natural light combined with the florescent bulbs give everything a blue tint.
To correct this i have combined levels with RGB curves in Adobe Premiere Pro, adjusting the brightness and the blue levels of the clips.
This makes the clips look a lot more natural and makes the images seem sharper and clearer.

Before

After

experimenting with adobe soundbooth - Starting filming

Today i have been experimenting with Adobe Soundbooth. I have used Soundbooth on several occasions in the past but thought it best to familiarize myself with it a bit more as i am hoping to use it to record a voice over for my up and coming project that i am doing for Elite Training.
I have had a few test recordings in soundbooth making sure everything is running ok and playback is up to the standard i want, which it all is.
I am hoping to get the voice over recorded tonight. i will be taking my DSLR with lapel mics as a back up.
I start filming for this project tomorrow and hopefully will start editing either tomorrow night or Thursday.

Colour Correcting Open Art Stills

I decided that the still images i had used in the open art video were a little bit dull. so rather than editing them in photoshop which i felt would be time consuming and would have the same effect of colour correcting in premiere. I used RGB curves, i upped the brightness and took down the green colouring as the back ground was a yellow colour, this made the pictures stand out from the background.

Before

After

Before

After

I feel that the pictures are a lot brighter and alot easier on the eye when colour corrected.

Editing Over Exposed Background objects

Right this might seem like a bit of a bodge-job but it worked.
i had a shot that was fine in colour and lighting but was devalued by over exposed white boards in the back of the shot. i tried adjusting the brightness of the clip and colour correcting the clip both of which effected the subjects in the foreground to much making the clip look dull and lifeless.
i then decided that i would overlay the video with itself on the adobe timeline twice, i then cropped out everything except the board to the left applied the tool RGB Curves and adjusted the brightness and colours untill the board was no longer over exposed. i then repeated this technique for the second board.

Below you can see the before and after images. This technique worked for me as the moving foreground images did not at any point in the video cross the overexposed background image if they had i would have not been able to use this technique.

Before

 

After

Before

After

Meeting Open Art - Folders in Premiere

Yesterday i met with my client from the Shire Hall Art Gallery in Stafford so that she could view the first draft of the video i am doing for the Open Art Exhibition.
We watched the video through together and decided to change a few things such as the title colour and change the order of the presentation evening so that the award is given and then followed by the interview of that winner, whereas before all the awards were given back to back followed by the interviews all being grouped together.
I have also found that creating folders in Adobe Premiere Pro is a brilliant way to group footage. as i've grouped all footage based on what day they were filmed on making it easier to find the footage i need when i need it.
Tomorrow i am meeting the client again for another viewing and hopefully the video will be up and displayed in the gallery come this Saturday.

Colour Correcting Open Art

Finished Editing the open art video for the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford.
I Finished off by colour correcting the video making all shots look very natural as can be seen below.

Before

 

After

DVD Menu for Foundations to Employment

Today I authored a DVD menu for the Foundations to Employment video that I am doing for Staffordshire County Council, I used Adobe Photoshop to design the menu and then used Adobe Encore to author the DVD and burn it to disc.
My DVD is complete with Working links for different videos that I have done for the council and can be seen below.

DVD Cover

Today I have been creating a DVD cover for the Foundations to Employment project i have been working on.
I created the DVD cover using Adobe Photoshop and used images that i have used in the video. one of the most useful things i used when doing this DVD cover was the guides to make sure all pictures and text were in line.
I took my inspiration from from other DVD cover such as the DVD cover for the film Samsara and a couple of David Attenborough DVDs, i chose these as inspiration as they are both informative, non-fiction style DVDs and i thought it would be fitting for my DVD cover to look similar to them as the DVD cover I am creating is for a factual documentary style program.

The above image is of my completed DVD cover with guides.

Showreel/Progress

I've decided to start collecting footage for a showreel from past projects that I have done. I have found footage that shows both my skill with the camera and my directing skills.
Another thing I have noticed is how much my camera skills and editing skills have improved since last year. My most recent projects contain no camera jerks and the composition of my shots has improved a lot. Editing wise colour correcting has made a big improvement to the quality of my projects. In addition to this I have also improved from 3 years ago in the sense of using After Effects which i have used when necessary this last year and a half.
I now am also more capable of setting up and checking equipment something that has let me down when I first started studying video production. I noticed this as in a video a made 3 years ago the footage was glitchy due to the camera having dirty tape heads when filming and capturing.
Overall I didn't realize how much all aspects of my video production have improved the last 3 years due to experience and what I have learned from college/university.

Editing foundations to employment

I have now done everything that i can with the audio. I found that the best solution was for me to lower the volume of the clip and put a constant grain sound on the clip which masks the annoying background noise.
Another thing that i have found very useful which I had not used before is the RGB Curves tool in Premiere Pro for colour correcting. A tool i will be using again in future with the Levels tool.
Below are before and after pictures of the colour correcting I have done.

Before

After

As you can see in the second picture the shadows on the subjects face and background have been reduced and the light in whole looks a lot more natural.