When 2 Become 1
When 2 Become 1
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Music
Daily, close to my heart, moving.
When it is so ingrained in me that almost everything I do links back to it.
This is a short video I did to show how the passing of time is unable to erase the hurt.
2 Jul 2021
Concept
A 1 minute video relating to the theme of ‘Time’ using a mobile camera to shoot.
I knew I did not want to capture daily moving things and stuff. So I needed to think of a concept or story.
One idea is to show that time is constant. For someone who is laidback, time never seems enough. For another who is a planner, time seems aplenty.
Another idea was to marry my 2 loves, travel and music. I wanted to recapture scenes of my travel using the travel posters I have and the music I like using CDs.
I could not execute the first one and the second one looked like slideshows. I needed to find something which tells a story and I’m capable of doing it.
I decided to bring my CDs to a park.
And true enough, I was inspired by the waves, beach and park. The shot list would have been easier had I created a storyboard. But I just developed the story along the way. I shot scenes by the beach first, then the rest of the park.
Filmicpro or Protake apps were suggested for filming and Adobe Premiere Rush or Photo Director apps for editing. I have been using my iPhoto camera to shoot directly and various apps such as iMovie, Meitu, Quik to edit. And I’m happy with these as tools are only as good as how I know how to use them.
The requirements were 30-60 shots, 1080p, 25fps.
My iPhone has this setting, with stabilizer and AE/AF functions.
Still, I downloaded Protake to play around to then understand why this filming tool has been recommended. I could change the aspect ratio, safe area %, thirds, crosshair, horizon and create beauty effects. There is also a battery life and phone storage remaining capacity indicator which is super useful.
I already had Rush app downloaded but the detailed modes from seeing the desktop version puts me off. So Rush was never my go to when I edited mobile videos in the past.
But this time round I decided to give it a chance and it was not difficult. The edits were not tough as I already had the storyline by now.
It was a matter of linking the relevant shots together to edit down to a minute. I had 8 min worth of footage to trim into a 1 min video.
As I already had the background music in mind, I recorded it by the beach to capture the atmos sound as well as include in the original track.
The slightly more difficult part was to cut the music to fit the shots.
The recommended allocation for a video creation is a1 hour for shooting and 3 hours for editing. I spent half a day at the park and took 2 hours to edit so it was quite the opposite. I guess the editing did not take long as I already had the storyline in mind. And I made sure I took 3-5 secs of footage for shots I was sure I only needed that much to cut, so come to editing I need not cut from a 2 min to a 2 sec shot.
Still I’m happy with my final product, very me
Creation
When 2 become 1.
The video starts with flashbacks of the couple’s time spent together, cycling at a park.
The use of monochrome colour emphasises this.
The background music (bgm) plays ‘Blue Moon’ by David Tao.
Scenes 6 and 7 use dissolve effects to prepare for transition into present day.
During editing for Scene 7, sl noir colour is applied instead. This maintains its yesteryears’ feel, yet allows for play with colour effects to highlight the CD they had.
Scene 8 is present day when they are no longer together and the female protagonist reminisces their time together at the same park they used to frequent. The scenes are shot in colour and the bgm switches to nature sounds to indicate present day.
Scene 11 is a deliberate mute of all bgm to emphasize the female protagonist being deep in thoughts.
Scene 12 then begins with the female protagonist humming out the same song played from Scenes 1-7 that holds a special memory for both of them. This goes on throughout the time she is by the beach.
Scene 24 then switches to the original bgm as she continues walking other parts of the park they used to frequent.
Scene 27 showcases an empty cycling path to emphasize that they are no longer together.
Scene 29 is shot in monochrome to indicate the past memory with the CD album song lyric booklet flipping from the start.
Scene 30 continues the page flipping but is shot in colour to denote the memories is still very much alive within her, even though their chapter has closed.
A story which tells how the passing of time is still unable to erase the hurt she has.
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