Project Brief 3 in Review
Timeline of ‘More than Skin’
In this project I deliberately attempted to challenge myself with multiple pieces of software and found mix results because of it. My first learning curve happened at the interview stage. Quickly I noticed that it took about 3 questions for my interviewee to get comfortable in her responses, allowing her to become more consistent and develop in-depth answers. Were I to realise this before I would have presented more mundane questions at the beginning as a sort of fodder to allow the interviewee time to acclimatize to the interview environment. Because I had such important questions at the beginning, I had to do quite a heavy cutting job to smoothen out the flow of her explanations.
The interview I found, over all, went smoothly. I tried my best to maintain eye contact, whilst still checking to make sure the camera was catching the footage properly. I found the more comfortable I seemed, and the more reminders I gave as to the fact that I could cut out any silent footage, allowed the interviewee to relax with me and take her time constructing her answers.
It was in post-production that I encountered most of the speed-bumps. My introduction to Adobe Audition went off without a hitch, allowing me to rid the background of buzz and get a great smooth consistent audio track. After Effects was another story. Due to the subject and nature of the interview I decided to use it as my introduction to After Effects. I wanted to attempt to draw sketches onto the skin to accompany my friends discussion as to the idea of getting a tattoo, allowing the audience more engagement with the concept. This meant that most of my b-roll was turned into After Effects compositions in which I painstakingly drew, frame by frame, doodles on my friends skin.
I hit a speed bump when animating the actual tattoo. Unlike the rest of the sketches I had to import layers through Photoshop, to spare myself redrawing Klimt’s painting a hundred or so times. This makes the sketches inconsistent throughout the film, but as this was my first attempt at both pieces of software I didn’t have the knowledge to change that. I gained a wealth of experience during the projects predominantly in shuffling my workflow between different software, but I am yet to be able to clean that process up. On the up side of that, however, I think the concept really brings a lot to the interview, giving more of a imaginative and creative visual experience.
My final product, whilst obviously lacking in professional finesse, is more elaborate than anything else I have achieved, and combines smooth audio with enjoyable animations that tie in well to the interview. It is a step forward in my editing ability, and my ability to conduct those in front of the camera. I feel far more confident now in making my footage more creative through use of other editing software in conjunction with Premiere Pro.