Video & Sound Production - Final Project

 

16/06/25 - 27/07/25 / Week 9 - Week 14
Brendan Fedya / 0376283
Video & Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Final Project

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Instructions

II. Tasks

III. Reflections  

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I. INSTRUCTIONS

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II. TASKS

‣     Ideation

For our final project, we are asked to shoot a short video using visual effects. For the topic, Mr. Martin prepared tarot cards for us to pull, and I got the 'Justice' tarot card. We are instructed to form groups of two, hence I'm grouped with Brenda Wynn (0372128) and below is the link to her blog:

CLICK ME FOR BRENDA'S BLOGPOST 

So here's a brief introduction to the topic:

"Justice" topic justification: "The likely outcome"

Justice will be done.
Decisions will go in your favor, particularly regarding partnerships or legal matters. Now is the time for some good luck and reward for your good deeds.

‣     VFX Trial

The VFX that we are going to do are supposed to be the ones that has already been done before and with tutorials available online. As Mr. Martin said, creating a VFX from scratch will require A LOT of time, and we are still not in that level yet. 

Hence, we tried to find something that is not too flashy, but still looks sleek. So we thought seeing visions through our eyeball might give an intimate feel. We searched for tutorials in YouTube and found a tutorial that is quite smooth, so we tried it on Premiere Pro. Here's the link to the tutorial on YouTube:

CLICK ME FOR EYE TRANSITION TUTORIAL 

We shot a mock clip which is a ECU shot of my eye. The eye part is then masked out using the pen tool while also adjusting mask path on some frames to make the transition smooth. After that, we embedded the buildings shot which we are going to transition to and adjusted the mask feather and mask expansion to make it look natural like a reflection in the eye. We also positioned the masked shots, so that it is more visible in the eyes before transitioning to that particular scene.

Figure 2.1: Masking on eye close up shot.

After that, we embedded the buildings shot which we are going to transition to and adjusted the mask feather and mask expansion to make it look natural like a reflection in the eye. We also positioned the masked shots, so that it is more visible in the eyes before transitioning to that particular scene.

Figure 2.2: Adjusting mask.

Next, we added the zoom in transition from the eye to the buildings shot by adjusting the scale. Then we added ease out to make the zoom in much more smooth. We also did the same to the buildings shot.

Figure 2.3: Creating transition.

Then we added gaussian blur on an adjustment layer and adjusted it accordingly with the opacity to make the zoom in look more smooth. Here's the final result:

Figure 2.4: Finished VFX Trial.

‣     Proposal

After finishing the trial, we noticed some issues that need to be taken care of. Like, the eye has to be in the middle of the frame so we could make the transition smoothly. Later, we proceed to fill in our proposal, making our shot list, story ideation and storyboard. Below is the embedded initial proposal file:

Figure 2.5 : Initial proposal.

After gaining feedback in week 12, Mr. Martin recommended us to change our story since it was too vague hence we might not be able to convey the theme of our video well. So, changed some of the shots according to his recommendation and started to shoot our shots. Figure 2.6 shown below is our updated proposal:

Figure 2.6 : Updated proposal after feedback.

‣     Production

We shot for 2 days in total because we required one in a bright setting (preferably with sunlight) and one that contrasts that which can only be in nighttime. Here are some behind the scenes pictures during the shooting process. I had to wear the same clothes for 2 days :D

Figure 2.7: Behind the scenes.

I then started to compile the shots and trim unnecessary parts then asked Mr. Martin for feedback.

Figure 2.8: Compiling shots.

‣     Post-Production

Mr. Martin told us to change the order of a few shots on the video so that it looks more reasonable. I did that and proceed to do the editing. First thing I did was to create the VFX, it's quite easy as we tried doing that in the last week. 

Figure 2.9: Editing VFX

Then I adjusted the speed slightly of some shots that I think is too short to make the overall composition more cohesive. Some shots are problematic because of insufficient lighting, hence Mr. Martin suggested us use the daytime shots which are in good lighting, but decrease the exposure significantly to make it look like a darkened scene. 

Figure 2.10: Editing overall composition before color correction.

Some shots are unable to fix using this way, so I moved the shots into After Effects and used remove grain effect to remove excessive noise. 

Figure 2.11: Remove noise in After Effects

After this I switched into the color workspace—comparing the graphics between shots and adjust it to make it as similar as possible before proceeding into color grading.

Figure 2.12: Color correction.

Proceeding with color grading—Mr. Martin gave advice that we should make the dark scenes and the warm ones to appear very contrasting. Hence, I added different adjustment layers for these contrasting scenes—cold and desaturated for the dark scenes, and orange warm for the daytime scenes. On some scenes I put orange and teal as I feel it's the most cinematic color scheme for a video. To add a cinematic touch, I used black bars on the top and bottom part of the video, I observed that this technique is quite common in the movies I seen before so I thought to give it a try.

Figure 2.13: Color grading.

To create dreamy effects for the flashback shots, I used gaussian blur and it turns out like how I wanted it to be.

Figure 2.14: Gaussian blur effect.

After I'm done with the VFX and video editing, I passed it to my teammate to do the SFX. I recorded my own voice as we are going to use it as a narrative audio in the video. Here is a recap process of my teammate doing the audio editing which more detail is provided in her blog.

Figure 2.15: Audio editing.
Source: Brenda Wynn (0372128) Blogspot

Figure 2.16 : SFX sheet.

Now both SFX and VFX has been done—I inserted the title and it's actually using the font that I created for the final project of my Advanced Typography module (the process in creating the font is documented here).

Figure 2.17: Adding title.

I used a background music which gives a bittersweet mood and I feel it's very suitable for our video. It is actually a copyrighted music in YouTube, titled Banda Neira - Sampai Jadi Debu - Peaceful Piano by rusdi. It's just for a final video project which is not going to be used for commercial purposes—so I guess it should be fine. 

Figure 2.18: Adding background music.

‣     Final Output

For the final touch, I passed it to my teammate to add subtitles, and that wraps up everything. Here's the Google Drive link for the files including the raw clips, and the different versions of the video after progress and multiple revisions: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hjkvH638J1G745_WqVD1vTpI09Ml9t-d

And here's the final video: 

Figure 2.19: What Was Left Behind final video.

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III. REFLECTIONS

This final project is probably one of the most exciting one that I have ever done. I always dreamt of participating in film production, and without me realizing it, I worked my way passionately from the pre-production until the post-production phase—carefully refining mistakes even the minor ones that I thought could be fixed just to make it more perfect. I just enjoy how I can make videos to effectively communicate the message behind it—as I believe visuals will connect with people more emotionally.

Its a shame where video sound production is only a one-time module. I wished it is like typography and interactive design which I have taken where they have their advanced versions of the modules, hence we can learn more in-depth. I think there are still so much to cover for this module itself, for example: masking different parts to do color grading for a film. It's very exciting if we are going to do something like that.

Doing all of this is not without any challenges at all. Sometimes our settings are not ideal to shoot because the room is occupied by other people, so it's quite difficult to wait for the right time for us to properly shoot. Sometimes I have different opinions with my teammate, and it's hard to find a way out. But at the end, I'm quite content on how it turned out, it's not perfect but definitely decent for our first try in doing film production.