Production/Post-Production Diary

 Week 1 (5th - 11th December)

Monday 5th December 2022:

Today is the day that we started to record the podcast. For this, we used a Canon DSLR camera that has an audio jack for a microphone. We also gained access to the studio to record the podcast. With the podcast being an internal recording, we didn't have to consider what the weather would be like which made it easier for us as we didn't have to worry about the equipment breaking or the actors being too cold. We also don't have to worry about the weather affecting the production process. We also used a tripod to make sure that the whole recording was straight and to make sure the camera was stable throughout the whole recording. To help keep the camera steady and straight, we used a tripod. However, a few days before we started to record the podcast, we thought that having a meeting with everyone beforehand would allow everyone to understand what would be going on throughout the recording and discuss what the best plan of action would be. We decided to shoot the whole podcast in a medium shot at an eye-level angle.

We also ran into a few complications but due to our excellent teamwork skills, we were able to communicate with one another and resolve the issues that were occurring. When we were gathering the resources and equipment, we were told that the camera battery was fully charged, however, when we started to record the podcast, the camera was signalling that the battery was dying. To fix this issue, we had to go and get a different camera and we had to double-check that it was fully charged or at least have a good amount of battery to it. Thankfully, the battery was fully charged and we were able to continue with the filming. However, it doesn't just stop there.

 We began to have a few technical problems with the microphone. As we were being handed the microphone, we didn't know it had been damaged until we attempted to attach it to the camera. We attached it to a different camera to ensure it wasn't the camera that had proven that it wasn't the problem. To solve this, we had to get a different microphone that wasn't damaged, and from doing with we successfully managed to attach the microphone to the camera.

Tuesday 6th December 2022:

Today is the day that we started to plan the shooting schedule for the TV advert. However, due to some illness, our actor wasn't able to perform and the weather also wasn't the greatest due to rain even though the weather forecast said otherwise. Therefore, our team decided that it would be a great idea to thoroughly plan what we're gonna do and make sure there weren't going to be any difficulties.

Wednesday 7th December 2022:

As well as yesterday, we also had problems with the weather. It was a very cold day and we thought it was very unsafe for the actors and the camera crew to go and film. Because of this, we decided to not film externally as the weather forecast said it would be colder and we wouldn't want anyone becoming ill from the weather. From this, we decided to re-plan everything and make some changes, leading us to film most of it internally. 

Friday 9th December 2022:

Since we decided that filming internally was safer than externally, we used the lesson to write down a checklist of what we needed to film so can check everything off as we go. We booked the camera to take it out for the weekend and film the whole project. However, there was a problem as our original cameraman wasn't able to make it to the location that night. To solve this problem, we decided to film what we were able to without the original cameraman since one of us wasn't in a few scenes and most of them were going to be recorded on a phone. As we arrived at the location, we began to record the beginning of the project. We took multiple shots just in case there was a problem with any of them. We also tried different shots and angles like medium long-shots, so then we can choose which one we want. As well as focusing on the shots, takes, and angles, we also focus on keeping the continuity in each shot so it will run smoothly when we put them together.

Sunday 11th December 2022:

Today we continued the filming of the advert. Our original cameraman wasn't able to make it to the location so we had to plan out new ways to film the scene with only two people. For one of the scenes, we decided to do a point-of-view shot where the actor is holding the camera facing the same way the actor is facing. Before the problems occurred, we didn't think that we needed a tripod but things changed and we didn't have a tripod. For scenes where it couldn't have a point-of-view shot or needed two people in, we had to use objects that we had to make some sort of a tripod. From being able to solve this problem and work as a team, we were able to film everything that we needed to film that weekend. However, it has taught us to always be prepared and bring equipment we may need if any problems occur.

For the montage scenes where the actors do TikTok dances and exercise, I wanted them to look like they were coming from the phone themselves so to make this happen, I used the screen record button on my phone to film the TikTok recording page to achieve this look. As we filmed each TikTok, I had to upload the videos to save them and download them to my phone. What you can do on TikTok, you can film and edit your videos as normal but when you upload a video, you can upload it as private so it can save to your phone as well as be published without anyone else seeing the videos as shown on the photo below. The TikTok videos were recorded at a medium-long shot and we're angled at a low angle or an eye-level angle

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Week 2 (12th-16th December)

Most of this week, we had a lot of other activities to do so during the time that we were able to get in class, we uploaded everything we had filmed onto the computer, named them, and organised them. We also sent it to everyone involved in the project as it was o their work because we worked as a team. We also decided to update our blogs and include our work as that was the only thing left to do. We decided to film the extras during the weekend as it was a perfect time to get everyone together. However, some people were not able to make it so as a last-minute idea, we decided to include the people that were able to make it as well as some from the film crew and the original actors. 

Week 3 (2nd - 6th January)

Wednesday 4th January 2023:

Today, I decided to edit the advert for NHS, however, there were a few complications that happened so I wasn't able to edit the advert. 

The first problem that occurred was when I opened Premier Pro on the computer. As the software was opening, an error appeared on the screen. To solve this, I closed the software and re-opened it. By doing this, I was able to get on to Premier Pro with no problem and I was able to start on the work. After this, I loaded some previous words to export the podcast and upload it onto Sound Cloud

 

When I loaded in my work, none of the videos I added was loading onto the software. I waited for a little bit just in case the computer was slow or the videos were quite large and it was trying to load it all. After waiting some time, nothing changed so I decided to start a new project and do it all again. It didn't take me too long as all I wanted was the audio. I soon exported the video, I went on to Audition to convert it to just an audio file to upload it onto Sound Cloud but because it was a video, I wasn't able to put the file in to audition so I emailed the video to myself and downloaded it onto my phone. I uploaded it on an app called Video to MP3 converter and I converted the video into audio. Once I did that, I uploaded it onto Sound Cloud.

Due to these complications, I wasn't able to start working on the advert as it came to the end of the lesson however, I would say it was a successful day to get one thing done and uploaded.

Friday 6th January 2023:

Today I was able to start the NHS advert as I didn't have anything else to complete. First, I needed to cut down some of the videos I took so it was ready for editing. After I trimmed the videos, I needed to send them to myself through email. However, while trying to send over the videos, I wasn't able to put them all into one email so I had to send them over one by one. This took me a while to do and some of the videos were too large to send through email. To solve this problem, I used a website called We Transfer. This website can send over files that are too large to whoever you need to send them to. This helped me send over the files I needed that were too big to send through the normal email. After I received all the videos I needed, I downloaded them all and decided to rename them so I knew what each video was in future.

Week 4 (9th - 13th January)

Monday 9th January 2023

Today, I am continuing from Friday 6th January with the NHS advert. I needed to download the rest of the videos that we took two weeks before Christmas so I can start and put them all together. As I downloaded them, I clicked on all the videos so I can label them and know what the video is when it comes to editing them. However, some of the videos didn't download correctly and some of them didn't download at all. Since the videos were on someone else's SD card, I needed them to resend me the videos so I was able to put them all together. Some of the videos downloaded fine so I renamed them and transferred them to my OneDrive so I can work on them at home and at college. 

Some of the videos were recorded on a phone so when they were sent through Teams, I wasn't able to download them to the computer. 

However, it's possible to download them on your phone and email them to yourself but I was experiencing some technical issues with the college Wi-Fi. This problem prevented me from doing a lot of things that I was planning to do today. I decided to try and restart my phone and sign into the Wi-Fi that way but that made no process. I then clicked the link that says "continue anyway via browser" but I wasn't able to sign in that way due to security issues. After trying different ways to sign in to the Wi-Fi there was no success so I decided to work on blogger and get everything up to date.

Tuesday 10th January 2023

Today I started to edit the NHS advert as I had some of the videos that I could start off with. I opened Premier Pro and I imported all of the videos that I had. I took the intro clip and put it onto the timeline and I started to watch it. As I began watching it, I realised that I didn't like the audio that was with it so I decided that I wanted to include some Foley Art in my work. I go onto Google and I look up a website called free Sound. Free Sound is a website that allows you to download different sounds to include in your work, for free. I log into the website and searched for the sound I needed, TV noise. A lot of results came up so I decided to listen to them all and find the one that will fit with the advert. After some time, I found a sound that I believed worked best so I downloaded it. Once the sound was downloaded, I opened up Audition and imported the sound to edit it and make it sound more realistic. 

The first video I imported into Audition, it shows the camera going into a room where you see the actor. I wanted the sound to last as long as the scenes where you will hear the TV before it gets turned off so I added all the shots we took leading up to that point into Premier Pro to figure out how long the audio should be. After I figured that out, I went back to Audition and I had to make the audio longer to make it fit the scene. However, at the end of the audio, you can hear the TV switch off. So, I used the snipping tool to cut that part of the audio out. I repeated this process until I got to the length that I wanted but this time I didn't cut the end of the audio. Once I got the audio sorted, I wanted the sound to fade in as if it's getting louder as you walk into the room. To do this I added a keyframe at the beginning of the audio and adjusted how quick I wanted it to fade in. Once I finished editing the audio, I listened to all of it to make sure there was nothing else that needed to be changed or added.

 I exported the audio into Premier Pro with my project and I watched the video but paid more attention to the audio. The audio was too loud to be background noise so I went onto the audio editing part on Premier Pro to adjust the volume to make it sound more realistic. Every time I adjusted the audio, I played the video to see if I needed to make more adjustments until it sounded better. I also noticed that you couldn't hear the sound of the fizzy drink being opened so I downloaded more sounds on Free Sound to make it sound better. However, I didn't need to put the audio into Audition as all I needed to do was adjust the volume. After I had done that, I added another shot that I took, to the timeline on Premier Pro. The audio on this clip wasn't loud enough so I repeated the process that I did with the fizzy drink audio. Unfortunately, I didn't have the next shots as they didn't download properly so I wasn't able to add much more to the editing process. Once I finished the editing for today, I went onto blogger to update it some more. 

Friday 13th January 2023

Today, I was able to work more on the NHS advert as I had access to all of the shots that we took. I downloaded all the videos from teams and worked on which ones I wanted. This time they were already named so all I needed to do was organise them and import them into Premier Pro. Once I did that, I started to add one video at a time so I can edit each individual video like using the snipping tool to split the video from parts that you don't need or unlink the audio and video to delete the sound or, to edit the audio.

However, there was a problem that I came across one video that didn't fit the screen properly so it was too small to see. I thought I found a way to fix it but it just made the rest of the videos too large. 

For one of the videos, I didn't like the background noise so I went into a room on my own to create the sound that I wanted as I couldn't find it on Free Sound. I wanted a background sound of someone scrolling through TikTok. To get this sound, I screen-recorded myself scrolling through TikTok. I recorded this for about a minute so I could choose what part I want as the background noise. After this, I downloaded an app where you can convert a video into the audio I clicked what I recorded and it took a few seconds to convert. After this was done, I went onto the files on my phone and renamed them so I knew what the audio was, and then I sent it to myself through email. I downloaded the audio and imported it onto Premier Pro. I added the audio to Audition to cut it down as well as make sure that I didn't need to edit it. Once I cut down the audio I exported it to Premier Pro. I added the audio onto the timeline and I put it under the video that I wanted it to be. I clicked the audio tab in Premier Pro to edit the volume to make it blend together and make sure you can hear the audio from each video. Once I was happy with the audio, I added more videos to the timeline and used the snipping tool to cut out what I didn't want. 

Before the lesson ended for the day, I played the video to make sure everything went smoothly. It wasn't the smoothest as some places needed transitions but I am planning on doing that once I have the basic outline of the advert. Everything turned out to be great so I rendered the video so it's ready for the next time I edit the advert.

Week 5 (16th - 20th January)

Tuesday 17th January 

Continuing with editing the advert, I started by finishing the basic outline of the advert by adding the last few clips to the timeline of Premier Pro. While adding each video I would unlink the audio from the video so I can delete anything that didn't feel like it needed to be there. I also used the snipping tool to cut the clips down and keep the parts that I needed. After that, I noticed the video was a bit long to went through every clip to either shorten it or cut anything that was needed like long breaks or dialogue that wasn't needed in the advert. This help me shorten the video a bit to about 3 minutes and 57 seconds. After doing this, I rendered out the advert so it can run smoother. 

After I had done this, I played the video to see if anything needed to be added or edited. I realised that the audio was louder than the rest of the advert so I clicked the video and opened the audio tab in Premier Pro. Here you can see that you can adjust the volume on each audio track. This audio was on the 4th audio track so I turned the track down and played the video to hear if it sounded better. I did this until the audio sounded right. After that, I continued to play the video to see if anything else needed to be edited.

After looking through the video, I noticed that the last 4 clips weren't focused properly so I looked on YouTube how to unblur a video. I was told to search for the unsharp mask in the effects tab in the media bin. I dragged the effect onto the video which opened the editing tools in the source pane. This opened up a range of editing tools I could use to edit my videos more. I messed about with the amount number and the radius number to try and get the video to look smoother, however, nothing was working. I tried to download the videos a different way by signing in to my friend's google drive as the videos were taken on their phone. We thought that getting the video directly from the phone might solve the issue. Once I signed in, I looked for the videos that were taken and I downloaded them to my files. I imported them onto Premier Pro and dragged them to the timeline. I looked at the preview window to see how the quality was and it was clearer than the other videos. After learning this, I replaced the other videos with the new ones, used the snipping tool to delete parts of the clips that I didn't need as well as unlinked the audio to remove the sound it wasn't needed.

After I fixed the end clips, I realised that there wasn't any door-knocking noise in the video. So I went onto Free Sound and I looked up a door-knocking sound. I listened to some of the sounds on there until I found a sound that I felt was fitting for the video. So I downloaded this sound and imported it onto Premier Pro. I dragged the audio from the media bin and placed it on the timeline under the video that I needed it to be. I zoomed in on the timeline and listened to where it would sound realistic to place the sound. I also opened the audio tab in Premier Pro to adjust the volume to help make the audio sound realistic. After I edited the audio, I decided to add transitions to the clips that I felt needed a transition. I used the 'dip to black' and the 'film dissolve' transition as I felt these were more fitting for the advert. Once everything was how I wanted it, I felt like I wanted to experiment with the software and learn some new skills. 

I wanted to know more about what I can do for audio on Premier Pro so I went onto YouTube to find out what I could do to develop my editing skills. 

From the video, I looked up DeNoise on the media bin on the effect window. Once it loaded, I dragged the effect onto one of the videos that had its own audio. This brought up the effects control in the source pane where I can edit the audio. Under the DeNoise effect, I went down to custom setup and clicked edit.

This brought up the Clip Fx Editor where I can edit the effect to how I would like it. I clicked the tab where it says default and it showed up with light DeNoise or Heavy DeNoise. Since I didn't know what they did, I clicked on them and played the video to see what they did. It helped remove the background static noise. The setting depends on the volume of the video and different ones work best for different volumes. So I went through every clip to see if I needed to fix the audio. Learning this skill has helped me make my project a lot better as well making it feel like it's professionally done. 

Friday 20th January 2023

Today, I decided to learn how to edit colour within my project. Just like I did with the audio, I went onto YouTube and searched how to edit colour in Premier Pro.

I looked at a variety of videos and I tried to follow them for the project. However, each video I tried, it didn't feel like it was working out for me and I didn't feel like it was benefiting my project. I kept on looking until I found a video that I felt worked best for me. 

This video shows how I am experimenting with the colour effects, learning how to work with each of the colour settings as well as trying to find what works best. I was taught how to bring up the Lumetri Scopes but the video I was following didn't give me any information as to how it helps me with editing or what I can do with it. You can see that as I moved the amount up on the Lumetri Colour settings on the right, the wavelength on the left would move as I changed the amount. I then started to experiment with the RGB Curves in the Lumetri Colour settings. As I started to experiment more, I started to realise that I didn't feel like I was learning a lot so I stopped the screen recording and started to look so more for what I needed,

Once I found a method that worked for me, I began to continue with it.

Before this video, I was taught how to bring up the different types of Lumetri Scopes. It also taught me the names of each of the Lumetri Scopes. The video I was following was showing me how to work with whites and blacks. This meant only have the Luma Waveform open on the Lumetri Scopes as well as opening the Lumetri Colour setting on the right side of the screen. While the video was showing me what to do, it was also explaining what everything did and how it worked. So not only was I developing my knowledge on the software, but I was also learning what everything meant and how to use it to help me with editing for current and future projects. I learnt that the whites can't go higher or touch level 100 and the blacks can't go lower or touch level 0. The wave spectrum had to be between 100 and 0. After watching that part of the video, I paused it and started to experiment with it myself. 

As I was doing this, I could see how much better the project was getting so I started applying this to every clip to develop it and make it look better. Next time, I will be developing this skill more and hopefully be able to work with other colours.

Week 6 (23rd - 27th January)

Monday 23rd January 2023

Today, I wanted to experiment some more with the colour so I went back to the video I was following and tried to learn more. I went through every clip in the project to make sure that the colour was the same in each clip. Some of them weren't so I used the Lumetri Colour window on the right side of the screen. To do this, I went back and forth between clips in between each video and adjust the colours on the video to make sure each clip blended.

Once I had managed to blend the colours on each clip, I decided to look for some background music for the TikTok montages. To do this, I went onto YouTube studio to download some none copyrighted music. YouTube have a lot of audio and music for content creators to use without getting copyrighted so I felt like this was the best place to get audio for my project. I used the filters on the search bar to find audio that was that upbeat and motivational. I looked at the cinematic genre and I listened to each audio for a few minutes. I found audio called Skylines - Anno Domini Beats and it was exactly what I was looking for so I downloaded the audio and placed it into the media bin on Premier Pro. I then placed the audio onto the timeline and placed it under the videos. I listen to the audio to see what part of it I wanted over top of the montage. Once I figured out what part I wanted, I used the razor tool to cut where I wanted the audio to start, deleted the part I cut off and then I moved it along to the start of the montage and I used the razer tool to cut the audio where the montage ended. I then repeated that method for the second montage. After I cut out the audio that I needed, I moved the audio in between the rest of the audio and I added a transition to the audio to make it feel more like a montage. 

After I added the audio to the montages, I decided to experiment more with colour correction. I went back to the video I was following and started learning how to create a white balance with skin tone. I went onto the effect controls and I opened the vectorscope. As you can see in the image above, in the top right corner is the vectorscope and the line in between the yellow and red is the skin tone line. If the colour is to the left of the line, then you need to increase the temperature on the Lumetri Colour settings. If the colour is to the right of the line, then you need to decrease the temperature. So I masked the skin of one of the actors and the colour was to the left of the line so I increased the temperature and I hid the mask once I did that and the video looked so much better. So I went through all the other videos and repeated the same thing.

Tuesday 24th January 2023

Today, I decided to add some finishing touches to my advert to fully complete my project. All I needed to do was add the final piece of audio over the final montage and create an outro for the advert. For the outro, I downloaded a blue background from Google and placed it into the media bin to place it on the timeline. I zoomed in on the timeline so I can choose when I wanted the image to show and finish. Once I added the background, I used the text tool to type 'NHS' and 'Get Active' onto the blue background. I changed the font to San Sheriff so it would look like the NHS logo and make it look more professional. I also downloaded the Better Health logo to have in the top corner of the screen throughout the entire video so I'm to promote the campaign as well as NHS itself. For the text, I wanted it to show up a little bit after the background shows up so I moved the text back a little bit so it would work. I then added a transition between the video to make it look like the video ended but it goes to the ending of the video. 

Feedback

Audience Feedback - NHS

The feedback I received from my audience was very positive. They enjoyed the advert as it was 'funny and very informative'. They didn't think that there was anything that could be improved on or something I could've added to it. Next time, I am going to continue with how I did this project but with a bit more organisation so I have a better understanding of what I need to do. However, I also did a survey to get more answers.

I asked my audience if they liked the advert and I got five responses. My audience enjoyed the content, the information the different shot types I used and that it was entertaining and funny. One answer that stood out to me was that they liked the message that the advert was sending out when it comes to making healthy changes and that it's better with support from friends and family. I like how my audience was able to get that message through the advert and understand that supporting others can help change a lot as well as motivate others to a better lifestyle.

As well as wanting to know what was good about the advert, I wanted to know if there were some things that could've been better. Four people said that there wasn't anything that they didn't like or could've been better. However, one person mentioned that some of the shots that were taken were 'zoomed in too much'. This has told me that maybe some of the audience felt like the camera was too close to the camera so to improve on it next time, I plan out how close some of the shots should be as well as take some other types of shots and see which one feels right.

Finally, I asked my audience if there was anything that I could do for next time or fix as the final product. Some of the responses I got, I'm able to do due to time or length of the video like 'the camera could be moved to put more focus on the actors', 'a more condensed story and ' you could add a section showing how long-term changes could benefit health. For example, a month later increased energy levels and more productive'. This has taught me that I need to work on my time management skills as well as think more about the length of the video. I will be planning more effectively in the future so this won't happen again. My audience also responded to the volume of some clips as they felt it was too loud which I will be able to fix at this moment.