Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Basic to Advanced Editing Tips and Workflow



Ragin Bajan Barbados
Welcome to a special edition of #TimelapseTuesday!  The video above utilizes a number of timelapses taken during a vacation in Barbados.  Besides the use of the timelapses pay attention to the speed, there are a few times where you will see me utilize "overshooting" to speed up and slowdown timelapses for effects (most notable around 1:40). Quickly- Overshooting is shooting a timelapse at either a shorter interval to produce more pictures or shoot over a longer period of time. The total pictures taken may take 30 seconds to playback in regular speed but by having the extra frames you can either speed up or slowdown the sequence without a loss in quality.

Special Edition
I have received numerous questions regarding what I use to edit, tips for editing and other general questions about the post-production process not aimed at timelapses.  For this #TimelapseTuesday I'm actually going to walk through my workflow for a non-timelapse project and give some tips and tricks along the way.  First I'll discuss the programs I use and suggest cheaper programs for starters.  Following will be the basic workflow that I recommend all starters to master before moving on.  Lastly some advanced steps that I do to take videos to the next level.  If you're already using a program skip to the Basic Editing Workflow.

Programs
I use multiple programs for my editing, below is listed what programs I use and what they are intended for.

  • Final Cut Pro X (Mac Only):  The main powerhouse.  Final Cut will handle 90% of the work and is aimed at piecing together your composition, add music, sound FX, transitions, basic effects, and and color corrections.
  • Motion5 (Mac Only):  Creates custom templates, animations, advanced effects, motion tracking, advanced titles ect. Creations in  Motion5 are exported to Final Cut to be applied to the video.
  • Lightroom:  Used for timelapes to process, color correct, and add effects to the photographs before they are pieced together into a timelapse video sequence.

Below are other programs I would recommend for Mac/PC users both advanced and starter programs.

  • Adobe Premier/After Effects:  Professional quality equivalent to Final Cut Pro and Motion5, you will find that this is similar to Microsoft vs Apple type of battle.  Both programs are incredibly powerful but users tend to be loyal to one brand vs other.
  • GoPro Studio 2.0:  Free software for creating your edit.  You can build a video from scratch or use templates already created, for free software I'm very happy with the quality of the program.  This is a very good program to start with.
  • iMovie: Fairly inexpensive but only available for Mac, of which I feel is on the same level as GoPro Studio 2.0, great for beginners. It will include the ability to add music, limited sound FX, basic transitions, title templates, and very basic effects. iMovie and GoPro Studio 2.0 does not have the ability to keyframe or do advance color corrections.
  • iPad Apps:  It may be surprising but my first 5 videos I edited about a year and a half ago were 100% edited on my iPad.  I'm still to this day blown away by how much they can do!  Excellent for beginners, only downside is that any video you want to use for your edit must be on your iPad.
    • iMovie:  Recently received an update that turned this once useless app into a good contender.  You can use templates or create your own edit from scratch.  The app can even retime video clips to create slowmotion or speed up clips.
    • Pinnacle Studio:  This was the app I used when I edited on my iPad and since the iMovie update they have similar features for the same price.
Basic Workflow
If you still consider yourself a beginner you need to live in and master this workflow before moving on!  A well executed basic workflow will always produce a better, cleaner video than someone who vomits any and every effect and animation on the edit.  Remember this is my workflow and merely a suggestion, if you're unsure where to start follow this workflow and modify to fit your style.
  1. With any project you need to review all footage that you have.  By no means should you watch every seconds but skim through a few seconds so you know what content it holds.  As you are reviewing the footage begin to separate your video into folders based on type of shot, activity or chronological order whichever makes the most sense to the project.  This will help you significantly in the next step.
  2. I begin looking for a song that fits the mood of the video I'm looking to create.  In my opinion it is valuable to find a lesser known song, my reasoning is that main stream songs are either loved or hated.  Regardless everyone will have thoughts, experience, a mood, or memory attached to it.  You do not want your viewer to go into the video expecting something based on the song and their memories, rather you want the viewer to see and experience the video how you are composing it and intending it to be seen.  While searching for the song I will begin to jot down a very rough order of events.  For example if I'm working based on activity I may write down: Travel to location, snorkeling, beach activities, caves, rum tour, rock climbing, ending.  Keeping this order close to you will keep you on track and focused.
  3. Once your song is chosen put it in your timeline and begin to piece video footage based on the order of events you have written down.  In my personal style I like to keep the clips somewhat short, never exceeding more than 7-8 seconds on the same clip.  Also listen and look for beats and changes in the music as these will be natural spots to transition to a different clip.  Here you can use clips in normal speed, speed them up, slow them down but keep them effects free.  Don't feel pressured to have enough clips to fill an entire song, when you run out of exciting or valuable clips fade the music out.
  4. Continually watch segments of video and get a feel for it.  Generated transitions like fading in/out of clips, rotating around, flipping, zoom in/out should be used only in places where you feel that the current transition feels awkward.  I do not advise using many of them, for example, there are only 5 preset transitions in the video above and it is nearly 6 minutes long.  The rest of the time it just plainly switches from 1 video to the next one.
  5. Export your video and enjoy reliving the moment!
Advanced Workflow
The advanced workflow starts after step 4 of the basic.
  1. Color correct each and every clip one by one first for exposures second for color.  DO NOT apply a preset color from a program at this point!  The first step before adding a colored look is you need to balance every clip to look the same.  Let's say you are on vacation for a week and shoot video all week.  Some days will be sunny, cloudy, overcast, underwater, inside, at night, ect.  Each setting produces different colors by the camera and if you apply 1 preset color scheme all clips will react different to the preset, resulting in an inconsistent video.  So how do you do this?  I use a combination of the videoscope and my own 2 eyes.  First start by using the videoscope graph to get you to the ballpark then make minor changes to make it look consistent. By consistent we are talking, all clips have dark rich tones, or light and vibrant, whites are all warm or cool colors but not both.  When using the videoscope the graph will show Red, Green, and Blue on a scale from light to dark.  See picture below. 
     On the left is the videoscope, middle is our video, right is the exposure adjustments.  In the videoscope on the left I have circled 2 values, the top is our "absolute white" the bottom is "absolute black"  This means anything above the top circle or below the bottom circle will just be a solid color with no definition.  However if no colors are near the values that means that the picture is flat the colors are not reaching to the full ranges, which we want. Also colors above or below these lines are out of broadcast range so if shown on a TV they will be completely blown out and just merely a glaring white spot or deep black hole.  In this case I will increase the highlights (whites) so that the most faint colors on the graph go slightly above the line (far right white dot will move up).  I also drag the blacks so that the most faint bottom color just goes below that line so we have true black in the video (black dot on the right pane will go down).  Below is the result of the change
     As you can see, this takes the "haze" out of our image.  Next I would adjust the color so they are all a similar color.  For example underwater tends to look green in the ocean and we need to fix the green murkiness.  Below is a before/after of an underwater shot. I find that this is where I tend to use my eyes more often than a graph. I want to make sure that I'm only removing or changing the mis-used colors and not changing the others. 
  2. Now that all of our colors are neutral we can add our desired overall color effect to give the video our style.  This can be created through changing the colors again in final cut pro or adding a preset. At this point I actually save my current edit as a separate project. I then combine all of my cuts and clips into 1 continuous segment. This way any changes or color effects I make will be to the entire clip as a whole.
  3. Lastly I will export this to Motion5 to add any last effects such as lens flares, film burns, or some motion tracking effects. I will cover these processes in a later posting if it is desired.
Tips
  • EDITING IS SUBJECTIVE!  Despite writing a workflow of what I do, in no way is this a Bible or what is considered "right".  This is your video so do what feels right.
  • Keep your clips short and only show what is important, trim the fat.  If you are showing a snorkeling scene don't show 10 seconds swimming to a good fish, just show a few seconds of a cool fish.  This way you don't lose your audience.
  • Find lesser known music that fits the mood.  Doing this allows the audience to focus on the content of your video and their memory attached to the song will be what you create in the video and not the memory of a bad breakup because it was the first song your view listened to after the dramatic breakup!
  • Less is more.  Adding an earthquake effect just because you can doesn't add any value to the movie.  Only use effects where it will enhance your story telling.
    • Test new effects before publishing them.  If you are trying a new effects open a new project and perfect it before you try to use it.  A failed effect is 10x worse than no effect.
  • Use the beats in the music to create natural transitions, but don't be too predictable by using every single beat to transition.
  • Go on YouTube for inspiration!  Before creating an edit I always cruise around YouTube or Vimeo for similar content.  It is very easy to pick up good ideas.
  • Have fun.  If you are stuck then walk away, drink a beer, sip some bourbon, and come back a different time or day, you will be surprised how much that can  help!

What's Next
Multiple timelapses from non-Wisconsin landscapes!!! YAY!  Hope this helps and if you have any question, your stuck, or need more help/advice on something feel free to comment, email, or send me a message via social media, I'm happy to help! Stay tuned and see you next week, thanks for reading.



Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle


No comments:

Post a Comment