Production/Post-production: Technical Reflection and Experimentation

Production:

For the production of the YouTube docuseries I used my phone with the camera app Open App, which I have used for previous productions such as 'Dare to Drive; A Woman's Race', to ensure a better quality than the standard in-built camera of my phone. I also used a tripod which had an attachment for my phone, this tripod was more stable than the ones I have used in other projects so increased the quality of footage. For audio I used a Boya Wired Lavalier Microphone. This is a different one from the one I have used in the past, and has a better audio quality aswell as a long cord length which allowed for more comfortable recording with less interference. I used it as a clip-on.

The Boya wired lavalier microphone I used to record audio

The tripod I used with a phone attachment, to keep it stable

I used the Open Camera app to record all videos, to improve the quality

Series or stand-alone:

Due to the large amount of footage I'm trying to edit down I wondered whether I could make the video piece into a series rather than a short documentary film, and whether it would be more engaging and create an audience for my content.

Editing:

To edit all of the videos I used Clip Champ, as it was a software I am familiar with and would make the editing process easier and quicker. I also thought that my footage was already high quality so didn't require as much editing, especially the audio. I also used ClipChamp's music library to find a song to use for the intro.

To create visual elements for post-production I used Canva. I picked templates and changed the text, and played around with sound effects.

My main editing process is documented here:

Intros and Outros:

I want to have a clear intro and outro for my video(s), so I could either find a template on Canva or do it as a piece to camera that I use repeatedly for each video.

Intro:

I looked on Canva for video intro templates, wanting to choose something that was kinda filmy and would show people what the theme is.

I tried out a few different templates but first decided to try page 5, which displays text over a bit of physical media. I added this to the edit of my introduction video.

For the intro I used a typing sound effect for the episode title screen and used a snippet of the song Good Times from ClipChamp music library and then downloaded this as a seperate file which I used for every video to keep it consistent. I could drag and drop this intro into each video I was editing and then differentiate it by changing the episode title on the screen with the typing sound.

The video file for the title screen of 'How to become a film nerd (in 30 days)'

The second screen which gives the name of the episode which I change for each one, has a typing sound effect

Outro:

For the outro I tried between a very simple typing 'the end' video, and a more cinematic one. I used the second one in my draft edit. However I ended up changing it to a more visual end template, which makes it look like an old film, to be the end, so that it doesn't end as abruptly.

This is the template I used instead, I cut it down to 3 seconds and added it to the end of each episode.

Transitions:

I used fade to black to smoothen out the transition between clips. At first I added it between every clip, but then it went back at removed it between cuts that are from the same sentence, instead keeping the transition to distinct one point I say to another. Instead I will add a gap between certain cuts to make it less jolty. When I tried adding gaps it just felt too sharp, it cut out and then started again, so I chose not to do that. I just removed one fade to black transition from a clip towards the end. Each transition is set to 0.4 duration.

Between the intro and the rest of the footage I added a soft wipe transition to make it smoother.

For the conclusion episode I changed the duration of the 'fade through black' transition in-between different points I am making to 1 second, and it remained 0.4 second between clips that flow together (meaning clips where I explain my point further).

Text:

I experimented around with adding text specific to the episode and adding different animations, aswell as changing the duration of the text all to make the intro engaging and informing. It may be a good idea to have it be episode specific, so that people know what they are watching.

Here I tried to add 'episode 1' text in, underneath. I copied the name text from the top, but changed the animation. There is also harmony between the texts, as the top and bottom are fancy writing and the middle (bigger text more striking, because it is the title) is bold and in capital, so its like a sandwich.

I also played around with changing the size of the title and adding it all to one area, instead of 'How to become' at the top and 'a film nerd (in 30 days)' in small text which people may not read, but it is the most important part of the title and needs to be highlighted. I duplicated the original video I had created and tried out many different things, changing size of text, what text is where, animations ect.

This one seems pretty busy in the middle. Its a long title, so making it work, engaging and eye-catching requires experimentation and trying things out. I also played around with spacing out the text more, putting '(in 30 days)' on its own line, which created a pause between the rest of the text, which would give people more time to read the title.

I also considered making a separate slide for the episode title. I can use the same background and text, just size it down and centre it in the page. I could also add a typing sound, to differentiate it from the title. Or I can use the basic black screen with typing, and add the typing sound, which separates it from the title and may be a little less distracting, may help viewers prepare to watch a lot of piece to cameras and slow down the tempo from the title video.

Voice-over:

When I wanted to record a voicover, I went to the record panel and tried to select audio, however it wasn't there. I tried to instead record it using screen and camera, but it didn't work, so I had to first export my edit and then open Clip Champ online (before I had opened it directly through OneDrive) to give me access to record audio.

Lower third:

When I wanted to add a lower third to my interview segment, I researched how to do so on Clip Champ. It said to go to the template panel and pick a lower third template. However when I went to find this on my edit, it wasn't there. So I had to export it and open Clip Champ online instead of through OneDrive.

I wanted to add a lower third to display the name and job title of the interviewee, as well as myself.

Clip Champ through OneDrive Vs Clip Champ online:

OneDrive- I started editing my first episode by opening the video file on OneDrive and copying it into ClipChamp. This made it more convenient as I didn't have to wait to download big files onto my computer, to then upload into Clip Champ, however after using it to edit my first episode I realised that it lacked certain features that I needed to edit, like no audio recording or templates.

Online-

I used this to add lower thirds and voiceover, as the features that were lacking on the OneDrive version, were available on this version.

Montage:

I wanted to create a montage of photos I took throughout the process, of films I watched for the conclusion. I experimented with duration of image (first at 1 second each then I changed it to 0.5 second each which made it work with the beat, however did make the montage pretty fast, which is bad for concentration but good for runtime). For the music I decided to use the same as the title screen 'Good Times' however I will use a different section of it and make it work with the timing of the images and transition nicely into the rest of the video.

First edit of conclusion episode, with an image montage and music

I added text to display my points, and added a fade effect. I also experimented around with effects, however concluded that just using fade in and out worked better than the effects.