Important to this process, you will need to have particular points where you will 'freeze-frame' to show the star so make sure that when you are setting up filming, you have enough time to use some 'freeze-frames' of the main actors (i.e. make sure that each actor has his/her own free space at least once during the filming process. Once you have obtained the footage necessary for editing, you can begin the assignment below. SHOOT YOUR FOOTAGE AT 1280x720p AT 30 FPS

Step 1 Install a new font

Visit www.dafont.com. You are going to choose a 70's retro looking type font (I have chosen Star Avenue)

Once you have downloaded the font you will need to extract the zipped file (you do this by right clicking on the font and choose unzip) open the unzipped folder and copy the font onto the D: drive. Right click and INSTALL the font.

Step 2: Setting up the file

• Create a folder on the local drive to put all of your clips in. Copy them there.

• Start Premiere and create a New Project called Assignment #10. Save the file to the local disk (D drive) in a folder called Assignment #10

• Rename video tracks to Main Video (Video 1) and Titles (Video 2)

• Import your video

Repeat for the freeze frames for actors 2 and 3.

Colours

In Pro you will choose the EFFECT >LUMETRI and alter your colours to what you want.

Repeat applied colour for the freeze frames for actors 2 and 3 using colours 2 and 3 listed up top.

Step 5: Add Titles

In Pro:

1. Move CTI to just after you've frozen your first actor. Click on the text tool next to the timeline. Click on the screen and write in the name of the character. 

2. Ensure the image is off to the side or above/below your crop.

Repeat this titling process for actors 2 and 3.

Repeat for the other two FREEZE FRAMES changing one of the positions (X or Y) so that your image is off screen but do not allow it to move over the text. Choose different directions, e.g. left, then right for actors 1 and 2. Actor 3 can be either side

Step 7: Add Motion To Your Titles

1. Select your first title clip in the main title line right click and go to Effects and Position (as in the previous step above)

2. Toggle an initial keyframe as in STEP 6.

3. Toggle a mid-keyframe as in STEP 6.

4. Toggle Change the X or Y position to move the text offscreen and it will create a final keyframe for you.

Repeat for the other two FREEZE FRAMES. Mix up the direction the text goes off, up or down.

Step 8: Add a Title To Your Movie

Step 9: Add Credits to your movie

1. Create a new text clip in the same way you added a title. Create a giant text box of everything you want to include and in essential graphics align it however you want (probably center adjust) - see picture below left.

Assignment #11 - Editing action with dialogue

Editing isn't just about finding the best shots and cutting them together. Not only do you need to select the shots you want to use, but you also need to decide when to make the edit between them. A good edit is so seamless that the viewer doesn't realize there has been a break in the film. To create a smooth edit you need to take into consideration factors such as the direction and speed of movement and the framing of shots.

Editing action is a good way to get experience making these decisions because it is easier to see when an edit doesn't work. In this activity you will assemble a sequence that focuses on action and attempt to make smooth edits between the shots.

The geography of a space in film is tricky because viewers don't have a map of where everything is located. A viewer can only see the actor's current location. Every other location in your scene is in one of two places: to the left or to the right

In order to keep consistent screen directions, imagine that the actor is moving along a line. That line, referred to as the axis, is the boundary line for your camera positions. You can select either side of the line for filming, but once you start shooting on one side of the axis, you need to stay on that side. When you cross to the other side of the axis you reverse the screen direction of movements. This is called breaking the axis. or breaking the 180 rule.

To maintain a consistent screen direction, make sure you don't break the axis while filming. 

While editing make sure that you keep the same concepts in your head. Using the clips that are provided in the hand out folder you don't have to worry about the 180 rule.

When editing a conversation, it is natural to cut to the character who is talking in the scene. But the most dramatic acting can take place when an actor isn't speaking. The way an actor reacts to a line spoken by someone else can sometimes be the most powerful moments in your film. Consider a scene where a doctor is talking to a woman.

Doctor: “I have some exciting news; you're pregnant.”

At the exact moment that the doctor is saying that line, the most dramatic shot to use is not a close-up of the doctor. Instead you want the camera to be on the woman, to see her reaction to this news. A reaction shot is a shot that focuses on the character who is not speaking. Reaction shots are typically short.

You can duplicate this in a filmed conversation by overlapping the video from the second shot with audio from the first. This is referred to as leading with the video and is a common technique used in editing conversations (L cut). You can also lead with the audio by introducing the audio track from the second clip over the video of the first (J cut)

Leading with the video overlaps the video from the second shot with the audio from the first. Often an actor will have a very strong reaction just before they are about to speak. Leading with the video lets you capture their reaction shot and continue the shot where they are speaking.

Using the following 4 clips, assemble the dialogue into a finished product. Here is the script to review it:

Assignment #12 - Jedi Force-Saber: Greenscreens, false lighting, masking & colour adjusts

Source in part

The Reverse Action effect is one of the easiest and quickest effects to accomplish in Premiere. You can apply the effect in less time than it took you to read that last sentence, yet it has the potential to be one of the most powerful and dramatic visual effects in your video-editing arsenal. In this assignment you use it in a scene where a Jedi, having had his light saber knocked to the floor, uses The Force to pull it back to him. You will also learn how to use a PoV or closeup to help sell, or convince, the audience that what is happening on screen isn’t a special effect. Suspension of disbelief only takes you so far. With a modern audience, you need to work a little harder; this is why you will use 3 pieces of shot footage in this assignment.

You can use the Reverse Action effect for dramatic and comic purposes, and you can apply it to virtually any clip with interesting results. You’re probably familiar with the Jedi “power of the force”; another example you may be familiar with is the Bionic woman leaping up great heights (again, what you’re seeing is the stunt person leaping down, played in reverse—when they are not using wires). 

Because this effect is found on the Speed/Duration menu (which is used to speed up and slow down clips), reversing clips and at the same time changing their speed or duration are natural effect companions.

Clips to get

1) Shot as a wide-shot - you will use the green screen and ensure lighting is set so that there are no areas of light/dark shadow on the green screen behind the actor. Use the studio green-screen. The actor will be captured looking quickly off-stage as if there's something dangerous approaching then look down at his lightsaber on the ground behind him and reach his/her hand out to "pull it". In reality you'll probably have to shoot a mid-wide to save on having to mask out the floor.

2) Shot as a mid-shot - In front of the green screen, the actor will use the force to pull the lightsaber (off) towards their hand (in fact, you're filming them dropping it and then reversing the clip in post-production). REMEMBER TO THINK THE SCENE THROUGH IN REVERSE

3) Shot as a POV or closeup. If you want the ground in the shot then you'll have to put down some green on the floor. Get a shot of the actor dropping the lightsaber (so you can reverse it) REMEMBER TO THINK THE SCENE THROUGH IN REVERSE

The green screen is only necessary if you are going to remove the background at a later stage. However, you do need to be aware that when you reverse time, everything in the background also goes backward! So again, when you set up your shot, it is essential that you think about what is in the frame (known as blocking a shot) and then lock down your camera and tripod, even before an actor makes it onto the stage area. Once you are set to shoot, get the actor to run through the moves a few times. The actor needs to move fluidly, and he should be aware that he is acting the scene in reverse. Dropping the object later becomes picking up the object. This skill can be hard to master so keep your footage rolling during practice so that if something magical happens during a practice you can use it as final footage.

Step 1: Setup

Start Premiere and create a New Project called Jedi. Save the project to a folder called Assignment12.

Import your footage.

Rename tracks 1 and 2 to the following (right click and choose RENAME):

• Video 1: Background

• Video 2: Movie

• Video 3: POV

Step 2: Apply background Picture

From the internet get the following picture (below) and use it as a background. Go to the APPLIED EFFECTS section and SCALE it to make it look like it's right for the proportions of your actor and move the POSITION to be in the bottom right corner.

• Open your Effects Control in the top left area. Open the little triangle next to Opacity. Use the pen tool to click a rough outline around your actor.

• See the image below

The more time you spend with the matte the less time you have to spend trying to remove the green screen background. This is because the Green Screen effect (named Ultra-Key in premiere) only has to work on the visible areas of the clip, anything that is not obscured by the garbage matte. Using the garbage matte cleverly can save a badly filmed green screen clip from never being used

Specifically, the location of any item on the screen can be defined by its x (horizontal) and y (vertical) coordinates. For an NTSC signal (the television standard in the North America, Japan and a smattering of other places in the world), the broadcast ratio of horizontal length (left and right) and the vertical length (up and down) is 16:9 (widescreen). Which translates to either 1280 x 720 or 1920x1080 depending on the broadcast. These generally get referred to as the vertical # of lines and how often they're refreshed. Either progressively (every line is refreshed every cycle) or interlaced (every other cycle). Thus, a vertical resolution of 720 lines every cycle (progressive) is 720p, or interlaced, 720i. Likewise, 1080p or i. You use these numbers when you’re positioning items on the screen as coordinates.

Step 4: Chroma-keying

In video making, removing the background, whether it is blue or green, is called creating a clean key. In this context, clean means that the audience can see none of the green screen, either in the background or as a green halo surrounding the actor. In this section, you attempt to remove as much of the green as possible using a variety of different effects, including the Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects as well as the Green Screen Key effect. When all these effects are used together on a green screen clip, they should help create a clean key and reveal the Science Fiction background beneath! As a final step to a later clip you will use the Non Red Key effect to defringe (remove green around the actor’s fingers and hair) - but we'll apply that in a later step depending on what type of program we're using, so don't do it now.

Applying the green screen effect.

• in the effects search area at the bottom left search for the effect called ULTRA KEY. Drag it on to your jedi clip.

• With the KEY COLOR eyedropper click on the green of the background and play with settings in MATTE GENERATION and MATTE CLEANUP to get rid of the bits of green left over. Choose AGRESSIVE as a setting if you want.

Step 5: setting up the reverse time

Drag onto your Movie layer (video layer 2) your second video clip (the mid-shot) of the Jedi looking down at his/her lightsaber and preparing to pull it to their hand by the Force. This is going to be put on the timeline AFTER the first Jedi clip you finished editing in steps 1-4. Remember of course that everything is in reverse in this particular clip so when you first put it in it will look 'wrong'.

• matte your clip appropriately

• Apply the green screen key or ultra key (Pro) effect as in step 4

• Because we can see details of our Jedi more clearly do to this shot being a mid-shot, we'll be able to see face of the actor. You should just be able to see green fringe surrounding those body parts.

• Right-click the 2nd Jedi clip to bring up the contextual menu.

• Choose Speed/Duration, which appears near the middle of this list. Click it once to bring up the Time Stretch dialog.

• Leave all other settings as they are, but place a check in the Reverse Speed box.

• Click OK and the Reverse effect is applied to this clip.

• Playback the Timeline to see the Jedi use The Force to pick up his weapon of choice.

You can keep the sound moving forward. One problem with reversing action (or adjusting speed) is that the sound also gets modified. If you choose to leave the sound unaltered using the Maintain Audio Pitch check box, keep in mind that doing so puts lip movement out of sync with speech. Also, if you choose to speed up your footage but keep the soundtrack normal, the video of the clip finishes before the audio, thereby clipping the audio. For example, a child saying, “Dad, watch me slide down the slide!” in the unaltered clip may become, “Dad, watch…!” in the altered version. Or, for that matter (in reverse), “!...hctaw ,daD”. Make sure you unlink the audio and video for the sequence if sound matters and then timestretch ONLY the video.

Step 6: Setting up the POV shot

So far you have created the illusion of the Jedi picking up his/her weapon with just the power of his mind. Cool. But it all seems to be over very quickly and the saber itself isn’t very clear until the last second. What you need is a selling shot! In this section, bring in the point-of-view clip you filmed into the Preview window. Define a selection that you want to use, then insert it into the Timeline on the POV movie layer. You need to match its time with that of the mid-shot in video layer 2.To do so follow these steps:

Step 7: Final shot

Finish by leaving your Jedi ready for a fight (but before the lightsaber 'activates') such that you go back from your POV shot, to your wide shot you took at the beginning. So the sequence of events goes:

1. wide-shot, your Jedi glances over his/her shoulder at some approaching danger.

2. mid-shot, your Jedi begins to force-pull the lightsaber into their hand (reverse-time)

3. POV shot,your Jedi force-pulls the lightsaber into their hand (reverse-time)

4. wide-shot (from original footage setup) the jedi has the saber and is ready for a fight. Don't bother "firing up the saber" in this assignment.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE SEQUENCE LINED UP TO MOVE FORWARD IN TIME. Never go back in time in editing. For example, don't show the mid-shot picking up the saber (after the reverse time is applied), then go to the POV where the jedi picks up the saber again, then go to the wide shot showing the jedi without the saber.

Submit the assignment as a rendered MP4 (File>Export>Media, choose H.264 and hand in the MP4 it makes)

Step 1: naming tracks

Open After Effects. Drag your footage to the timeline. Rename this track to SOURCE

Step 2: Creating a solid and using the saber plugin

• Right Click in the project layer space (see below)

• Choose to insert a NEW>SOLID. Don't worry, your footage will "dissappear" (it's just hidden behind your new solid).

Step 3: Changing the blend-mode

• At the bottom of the layer space there's a toggle for Switches/Modes (as seen above). Click on it

• Under mode drop down the menu from NORMAL->SCREEN. The black background will dissappear letting you see your footage behind it, but now with a glowing saber in front.

Step 4: Having the saber keyed to ON

• Move the CTI (playhead) to where the Jedi closes his/her hands around the sword handle and the saber will be turned 'on'. 

• Open TRANSFORM under your solid, then click on Opacity. It should be 100% at the point the saber is on.

• Press PageUP (that goes back 1 frame). Under Opacity type in 0

• This means that in 1 frame the saber will suddenly appear (0% ->100%).

Step 6: Rotoscoping

• You now keyframe the saber launching from the handle as the Light Saber activates. Over the next handful of frames (pagedown and keyframe over 5-10 frames) the saber will extend. Simply pull the core end point further out each frame.

• Keyframing the saber to the movement the handle of the saber is time consuming. If it is complex handle movement, you'll have a lot of keyframing to do trying to figure out the core beginning and core end points. If the motion is simple you can actually create a NULL and use the motion tracking technique we used back in the after effects tutorial earlier this semester.

• We're going move the CTI forward a half second or so to where we think the saber is fully extended (maybe 5-10 frames?)

• Scale the Width to match an "extended saber". Make the width whatever value you think it should be in order to look "right" (for me it's a value of 45, but it depends entirely on how you shot your scene).

• Rotate your saber so it matches the angle of your actors hands.

Step 7: keying in each movement

• Now for the tedious part. repeat this step over and over again

• move the CTI forward a few frames (tap PAGEDOWN). 

• Creating new positions and rotations for the saber until you have reached the end saber clip.

• This is time consuming, but will really look realistic after you're done.

• OPTIONAL: if you want to go for realism you can add the effect FAST BLUR to places where the motion of the saber is fast (and probably in blur dimensions horizontal only). Again, you'd keyframe it so the blur is 0 when the saber's moving slowly, and increase the blur when the saber's moving fast.

The more keyframing you do, the better the effect looks. However, you don’t need to add a keyframe for each frame of the movie. AE can calculate where the keyframe was and where it needs to be and work out, in most cases, where the rest of the keyframes need to be. Sometimes you need to do a little bit of tweaking, but if you have a massive Timeline with a massive Light Saber fight going on, you need to be aware that keyframes eat up memory and rendering time, and sooner or later you will run out of one and get an error with the other.