The Creation of a Plan B – Teacher Central (Re)Imagined
As I blogged about in my blog entry ‘Teacher Central: The Project That Had to Be Reshot’, our project indeed has to be reshot. And because of that, we needed a plan of action to make sure this is not happening a second time - a Plan B.
A Quick Recap
After reviewing and practice-editing the footage as well as having a listen into the sound channels, I encountered issues on both ends. Whilst the filmed footage resulted in awkward jump cuts in the edit, our sound clips on all three channels ended up being distorted, too low, or even entirely empty.
My Attempt to Solutions
Because time is now of the essence and our initial plan failed – I decided to call for a production meeting yesterday and discuss as well as sort the issues at hand to be prepared for the reshoot that would take place exactly two weeks before hand-in.
Already in preparation of the meeting, I asked our sound op Katie to take the sound clips and meet with our sound lecturer in order to find out what had happened to the individual channels and whether the issues encountered were of technical nature or not. I also asked her to report back during the production meeting to ensure that we were all updated.
Furthermore, as became evident from the way the shots were framed during the shoot, I realised that the previously made storyboard did not account for the background videos that are supposed to be chroma-keyed by me later in post production. And that these backgrounds were still not decided upon, nor provided.
Selecting Background Videos
So even before our production meeting, I sat down and searched for possible background videos to put forward to our director/producer for possible approval and copyright assessment. These videos needed to fulfil the following criteria:
They are shot (or digitally generated) in 25fps.
There is little to no camera movement (as we are thusly restricted by the size of our green screen).
They have HD-quality for backgrounds that need not be zoomed in or cut out (for e.g. MCU’s and CU’s).
In cases where a zoom of about 25% into the background would be needed, the video would have to have a 2k resolution.
In cases where a zoom of more than 25% would be required, the video would have to have a 4k resolution.
They are free to use or can be purchased for commercial purposes.
They suggest a place to stand for our character (no aerial shots or macro shots).
With these premises, I searched the Internet and found some free videos that matched the description. These videos were
For the "Character Creation" Scene
For the Forest Scene
For the Post-Apocalypse Scene
For the "Fantasy World"
Sadly, neither did I find a medieval tavern nor a 'spooky' forest that would fit the above mentioned criteria, which I flagged with our director/producer as an issue to solve.
I then forwarded these videos – that also serve as my editor’s visual reference library of sorts – to our director/producer as suggestions with the request of deciding upon the relevant ones or providing some additional ones. This also served the purpose of discussing and solidifying my understanding of the intended visual style of this educational video. Since I will be editing under a lot of time pressure, I want to make sure to cancel out as many issues or delays in advance as possible to be able to focus on applying the effects effectively.
The Last Production Meeting Before Easter
During the meeting, I then discussed the issues mentioned. Since the storyboard seemed to be our weakest documentation in preparation for the shoot but we are all breaking up for Easter break tomorrow, I thus proposed that our director has a new storyboard – with the incorporated backgrounds and required shot sizes of our actor – ready and submitted online by 12 April.
I furthermore proposed that all crewmembers should then have time to comment and flag possible issues as well as suggest improvements with this new storyboard by the end of 15 April. And because ‘Images say more than a thousand words can.’ – as we would say in German – I offered to not only provide comments, but also create an editor’s storyboard in response to our director’s storyboard in order to better communicate:
How I understood his vision and
to provide a visual aid to possible adjustments and/or requirements from my part as an editor.
With this agreement, I hope that the preparation of our second shoot will go smoothly and not result in a loss of quality in the project, despite the Easter break.
With this attempt, I had not only laid the groundwork for a Plan B, I was also able to visually re-imagine our project in my role as an editor.
References:
Evg Alex Paul Official. (2018) Royalty free background videos free download [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmm2sOBUKAo&fbclid=IwAR3-BkjzMmsYtU6uFzyklNH28X7jaorC9NQXzOp3tQJbBkarX6eTSk2-ffQ [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
Evg Alex Paul Official. (2018) Free Background Waterfalls Nature Video Loop Animation [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tBVbBhOaq8&fbclid=IwAR3U1mUPrgO1P-YXElxw0DtnGN7yl2kLe3ZsQBI7hsuH4tOd_aJ75j2L4zE [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
Green Screen BR. (2017) Efeito Deslocação de Estrelas - Particle Stars [Fundo Verde - Chroma Key] [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ET58HRoSxg&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=14&frags=pl%2Cwn&fbclid=IwAR0LPSb1bshAO87dwk8eaaKNWJZiWYibbdwinug1S3dGXcpRpLNY4xmsbC0 [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
ikaraberov. (2018) Free Background Video Effects HD [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkagRCnJyV8&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=15&t=0s&fbclid=IwAR0mvjk621dFmuVrZFIyW9CuhJ0p0pFeMWzf8Q_ANKu0VeqjrHqRO3Gvvi0 [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
NatureClip: Free Stock Footage. (2014) Silent Forest - Free HD Background [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjRn4Eo2hZM&fbclid=IwAR01NdiqbRdhwWFGrTvITHMBOC1bV7PXUTtubZxNYNHeEESRuHDJIYDmbUw [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
Prinz Luxus. (2014) Background forest/Wald green screen [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASpr3paWimI&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=16&t=20s&fbclid=IwAR2u0bCCTUd4l6ADacrtR7m1u6E80bTgoQIIfEItxMFffd-5d8iq5AXxNMQ [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
Royalty Free Footages. (2018) Plexus Motion graphics Background loop | plexus after effects plugin videos | Royalty Free Footages [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67l8L0cB5ik&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=13&t=43s&fbclid=IwAR02Rrxvzk2fKPaTvQvVRn9m7z9Meb3IBa0RLDID9BhrvdE8uRHEs7R6boM [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
Savvas Karampalasis. (2019) FREE HD video backgrounds – post apocalyptic destroyed city with smoke and fire particles 3D animation [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOklm2MJfMI&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=12&frags=pl%2Cwn [Accessed on 3 April 2019]
Savvas Karampalasis. (2019) FREE HD video backgrounds – post apocalyptic destroyed city with smoke and fire particles 3D animation [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7sTVMQdAwo&list=PLRG4t0YYtkIzejIqbZ-qKOLjQchEri9ev&index=13 [Accessed on 3 April 2019]