Experiment 2: Titles/Text within Videos

As I mentioned in my conventions post, I really like the idea of using an text slide at the beginning of my video as it slows the pace of the video and helps to introduce the band and the song they are playing. Though some may argue that having the titles within the video may be unnecessary, I think that it may add more professionalism to my finished work and makes the video seem more cinematic.

A major element that I need to look at is the font or type-style that I use. I may want to use a logo that I will later use on the magazine advert and digipak, but I think that thin, handwritten font looks much more like the style I want to reflect within the video.

I will not add this until I have shot and started editing, yet I think that I need to decide if I am going to use this method as it could mean I have to plan the beginning of my storyboard around the text slide. This is because I do not want to use a clip that is too busy for the viewer to focus on the text and I do not want to divert their attention from the video.

  Examples from other texts:

Local Native's unusual video for 'Heavy Feet' featuring Visually impaired model airplane pilots, singing sandwiches. 

I have experimented with this idea on some footage I filmed over summer, I have used the song that I have chosen to see if it matches the tone of the song.

I think that this method with the text showing the clip behind it would be more effective if I used a black background rather than white. Also, If I made the image I used a higher quality it would reduce the blurring around the edges of the text. I had to use the online picture editor 'pixlr' to produce these transparent images and I this reduced the quality of the images I used.

Editing Experiment 1

I decided to edit together some footage from my iPhone that I recorded over summer. I never intended to edit these together for my coursework, but as I needed some clips to experiment with I thought I would use this footage. I did not consider the shot type when I was filming these, but I have tried to use the crop function well on iMovie to show some close-ups.

To edit this video I used iMovie on my Mac. I would have preferred to use Final Cut Pro , but I do not have access to this at home. I find iMovie very easy to get used to and quick to use. iMovie has the option to 'show advance tools' and I did not use these to edit this video.

I have tried to make the clips suit the music, so I used a very upbeat indie song as I felt this would reflect the mise-en-scene (Bowling, bright colours) in the footage.

When you watch the clip, you'll see that I faded in the first shot with the 'fade to black' transition. I felt that as the music didn't kick in until a couple of seconds in, this would make it a much more calm start to reflect the music.
I experimented with editing to the beat of the music to make it flow better, I think that I could have used shorter clips to fit more tightly with the song.

On the shot with the basketball game, I used iMovie's crop button, with the 'Kens Burn' feature. This allowed me to give the impression that I was zooming out when shooting the clip. I think that if I used a higher quality camera, the close up shot would not have looked so shaky.

The last shot of the clip, I have used the reverse option. I thought that this would look really interesting, but I think that the reverse function needs to be used very effectively to look great. As i've only used it on one shot, I think that the viewer could be confused as to why I have used it. I think that the reverse function suits more quirky videos, as it is not very conventional.

As my first attempt at editing a video, I have seen that iMovie is a quite easy to use, yet it has limitations in comparison to different softwares. I think that I could improve on my editing skills by using more planned-out shots with different framing, and with a tripod. By using a tripod, the quality of the video is increased and the viewer is more comfortable watching, unless the video is purposely made to look unconventional and shaky.