Introduction
In this entry I am going to explain how I edited my footage and created effects. I will also provide screen prints and details on how I created different elements of the opening sequence.
Editing Software
To edit my footage I used Serif MoviePlus x6 to edit my footage. I found this relatively simple as I have used it many times before. However, the software is lacking it some areas so I did have to find ways of getting around this. A example of this is how I created my text, how I got around this issues is explained later in this blog post.
Opening scene
For my opening scene credits it used the filming option of my web cam to gather the footage. This allows me to record what I on my laptop screen.
I got the footage from a youtube videos of the opening sequence of "To Kill A Mockingbird". I choose this one as I liked the old fashioned feel that it has too it and I also feel that the slow movement coupled with the black and white effect works very well together. Here is the link to the video that I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwf96OEaYBg
When I added this to my opening sequence I cropped it to the correct size, increased the contrast and made it play faster. I increased the contrast as the footage had a slightly grey background, but I wanted it to become more of pure black colour.
Soundtrack
For the music track on my opening sequence I used a copyright free music site. These sites allow people to download and preview the track. I got my music from one of those sites. It is free to download the music and save it onto my laptop. The next step was to import it into MoviePlus and add it to my opening sequence.
How I made the text
Making my text started off as quite a simple process. To beginning making the text, you simply click the "add text box" button, then input the wording. Next it got a lot more complicated. I began to experiment with the use of in and out effects.
For the title that I added in the first shoots of the stairs, I expected that there would be a way of curving the text to make it bend around the banister. However, I discovered that this was not the case. To work around this problem I had to create a separate text box for each letter, and then position it in the correct place and overlap them. This took a large amount of time, but I feel that the end effect was worth it.
How I made the night terror scene
To make my "night terror" then I had to create a complicated method as my software did not allow this to be automatically created.
To start with I attempted to add and size the extra footage as overlays over the main image. However, I discover two problems with this method. The first was that only one video overlay could be added. The second was that was resizing the overlay, this changed the size for the entire video. Which resulted in my text and other overlays being changed. Luckily I noticed this problem quite quickly!
The method that I developed to get around this problem is as follows:
1. Create a new editing file.
2. Create two separate videos with overlays.
3. Size them to each half of the screen.
4. Position the two separate videos and overlays on opposite sides.
5. Export the video.
6. Import the video into another new editing file.
7. Create two copies of the video.
8. Crop to remove the black space.
9. Add one as an overlay over the other.
10. Export the footage.
11. Import to the editing file containing all my other editing footage.
12. Edit into the correct place, and done!
Screen prints of this method are shown below:
One issue with this method is that all the exporting and import reduced the quality of the footage. However, this would not be an issue if I had footage which could simply complete the effect. I feel that the achieved effect was worth all of the time and effort that it took.
How I created the hand washing scene
In this entry I am going to explain how I edited my footage and created effects. I will also provide screen prints and details on how I created different elements of the opening sequence.
Editing Software
To edit my footage I used Serif MoviePlus x6 to edit my footage. I found this relatively simple as I have used it many times before. However, the software is lacking it some areas so I did have to find ways of getting around this. A example of this is how I created my text, how I got around this issues is explained later in this blog post.
Opening scene
For my opening scene credits it used the filming option of my web cam to gather the footage. This allows me to record what I on my laptop screen.
I got the footage from a youtube videos of the opening sequence of "To Kill A Mockingbird". I choose this one as I liked the old fashioned feel that it has too it and I also feel that the slow movement coupled with the black and white effect works very well together. Here is the link to the video that I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwf96OEaYBgWhen I added this to my opening sequence I cropped it to the correct size, increased the contrast and made it play faster. I increased the contrast as the footage had a slightly grey background, but I wanted it to become more of pure black colour.
Soundtrack
For the music track on my opening sequence I used a copyright free music site. These sites allow people to download and preview the track. I got my music from one of those sites. It is free to download the music and save it onto my laptop. The next step was to import it into MoviePlus and add it to my opening sequence.
How I made the text
Making my text started off as quite a simple process. To beginning making the text, you simply click the "add text box" button, then input the wording. Next it got a lot more complicated. I began to experiment with the use of in and out effects.
For the title that I added in the first shoots of the stairs, I expected that there would be a way of curving the text to make it bend around the banister. However, I discovered that this was not the case. To work around this problem I had to create a separate text box for each letter, and then position it in the correct place and overlap them. This took a large amount of time, but I feel that the end effect was worth it.
How I made the night terror scene
To make my "night terror" then I had to create a complicated method as my software did not allow this to be automatically created.
To start with I attempted to add and size the extra footage as overlays over the main image. However, I discover two problems with this method. The first was that only one video overlay could be added. The second was that was resizing the overlay, this changed the size for the entire video. Which resulted in my text and other overlays being changed. Luckily I noticed this problem quite quickly!
The method that I developed to get around this problem is as follows:
1. Create a new editing file.
2. Create two separate videos with overlays.
3. Size them to each half of the screen.
4. Position the two separate videos and overlays on opposite sides.
5. Export the video.
6. Import the video into another new editing file.
7. Create two copies of the video.
8. Crop to remove the black space.
9. Add one as an overlay over the other.
10. Export the footage.
11. Import to the editing file containing all my other editing footage.
12. Edit into the correct place, and done!
Screen prints of this method are shown below:
One issue with this method is that all the exporting and import reduced the quality of the footage. However, this would not be an issue if I had footage which could simply complete the effect. I feel that the achieved effect was worth all of the time and effort that it took.
How I created the hand washing scene
Creating the overlayed hand washing scene was very simple after creating the night terror scene! This was quite simply overlaying two bits of footage, using the overlay footage bar. To allow bottom bits of text to be seen at once I reduced the opacity of the overlay to about 40-50%. This allowed the detail of both bits of footage to be seen at the same time.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)