ProjeKct Life

[Songbird21]

Well. Since it's been quite a few days can I assume the whole thematic break is now mine?

[jasper-isis]

I didn't add any greyscale, it's 100% the source footage's fault. While the series itself is in color, this one flashback episode is all black and white. Therefore to get rid of the greyscale I would have to change my source footage and concept. (There is still time for this, if the greyscale will look to out of place with the rest of the video. I'll leave this call to Pen-pen.)

Oh, if it's the source then don't worry about color. It wasn't such a big deal anyway. (Definitely nothing so big that you'd have to change your concept. ) I just thought that some of the scenes might have been colored originally because they didn't have the border.

____________

As for my own segment, I'm working on it steadily now, and I'm going to try again for the full beta by this weekend.

[pen-pen2002]

Sorry for the long silences, school and illnesses have been sucking up time and energy. I'll be done in two weeks though (and getting new editing software for my birthday ) so I'll have a lot more time to devote to the project. Still don't have a hard deadline but empmty slots are beggining to make me nervous as I don't want it to get to the point where one person is holding everything up. Looks like I might be doing that early section afterall. Recruiting hasn;t gone as well as I hoped after Coffe54 but Flint_The_Dwarf might be joining us, which is cool because he is the one who introduced the song to us in the first place.

Things are starting to come together. I can't wait to see the video from front to back.

Well. Since it's been quite a few days can I assume the whole thematic break is now mine?

Yeah, I wanted to hold it for a few days to see if any new editors had some good ideas but at this point I'm thinking it is best to keep it consistant because it is such a strongly defined segment. Plus the extra time will give you more room to maybe do some build up, get some nice tension going and that will make the action/drama all the better.
General advice for the section: Dark is good because this is the major modulation of the peice. It also starts very suddenly so don't worry about the lead-in as this one will probably be a straight cut. Since it is such a departure, don't be afraid to experiment and go a little crazy if you want with some footage manipulation. Another option is to embrace spoilers and give it a real kick-in-the-face feel similar to Bakadeshi's "Angel's Redemption." Focus on mood and color because, with your experience, the action will take care of itself.

Watch 8:59 and 9:15, as those seem to be the major transition ponts. The secon after yours hasn't been edited yet but it is a much more upbeat heroic segment so you might want to keep that in mind in terms of leading into it or contrasting it.

Sorry for giving so much advice. I'm sure that whatever you do will turn out well.

The Greyscale Effect
I didn't add any greyscale, it's 100% the source footage's fault. While the series itself is in color, this one flashback episode is all black and white. Therefore to get rid of the greyscale I would have to change my source footage and concept. (There is still time for this, if the greyscale will look to out of place with the rest of the video. I'll leave this call to Pen-pen.)

I like the grayscale actually, it's part of what gives this segment it's style. It will stand out of course but I'd much much rather the segments be too distinct rather than not distinct enough. I'll have some more comments shortly.

[bum]

My main hard disk is going back to seagate for a replacement tomorow. It'l probably be two weeks before I get it back. Also, shit has hit the spining thing in my dvd drive and now its gone. I still keep it installed, face plate ripped off, because it looks cool. It'l be 2-3 weeks before I get another one, but at least now I have an excuse to get a dvd burner.

Editing............. I'm not thinking much about narative because It's stressing me. Instead I'm just gona try keep the wierd/emotional shit factor going long as I can without things geting boring. Well, soon as I got a normal working computer again.

[jasper-isis]

Sorry for giving so much advice.

This is the first time I've heard that one. Although... if there is such a thing as giving too much advice, I'd be horribly guilty of it too. xP

I think I've gotten my first case of Imaginary Scene Syndrome. There's a certain clip that would be PERFECT for a particular spot in my segment, but I've been through the entire series at least three times already and the clip is nowhere to be found. Could it just be that it never existed in the first place?


EDIT

Nevermind!! I found it!!

[Coffee 54]

Updated Beta Time: Link

To add motion, many of the cross fade transitions have been replaced by more motionie ones. Namely Iris, Sliding Bands, and Push. Hopfully this will help. Ironicly until Jasper mentioned it, I never thought to use Motion, to um... increase motion. Anyway I also changed the end so that the cry would come after the baby left the screen and the flashes have also been updated.

Pen-pen:
As to your empty slots, I know my joining the projeKct didn't close up any since I cut one track in half. However, I should have a concept to present to you for one of the character profile slots shortly. That'll at least close up another 20 seconds.

That's all from me right now. I'll edit if I think of anything else.

[pen-pen2002]

Actually I think what Japer-Isis wass refering to was not the transition effects but rather the zoom and pan tecniqe. A lot of documentaries of old events don't have a lot of footage but have quite a few pictures, so to keep it interesting they zoom in on the picture a little bit and have it pan across the screen. You might want to play around with that teqniqe where you have very still shots such as at 0:58.

I don't know if I like the transitions better or not, they are pretty good for that sort of thing (I tend to think of them as cheasy) but they seem very sharp, where the rest of the peice is very fliud and fuzzy. On the other hand they give a nice sense of motion when transitioning.

1:21 is very nice because it matches the music. And 1:09 is cool because it gives an indication of time.

The motion on the ending secuence is cool although it makes the last two frames go by pretty quickly and the marrige might be missed. You might want to try just fading out the baby instead of sliding it of the screen as it looks a bit odd with nothing following it.

0-0:05 I love the intro. Actually I think the first 25 seconds are my favorite of the segment.
0:13 the discontinuity here is interesting.
0:16 for some reason the text seems to match the music perfectly.
0:25 This clip seems very static but for some reason it works.
0:45 This guy seems so cocky. The lip flap is very amusing.
0:52 I think the iris here just accentuates how still the scene is, try some zooming or clip motion instead.
0:57 this transition doesn't fit as well.
1:05-1:08 very nice timing.
1:10 the running scene is well done.
1:20 the whole ending section is very nice.

[Coffee 54]

Actually I think what Japer-Isis wass refering to was not the transition effects but rather the zoom and pan tecniqe. A lot of documentaries of old events don't have a lot of footage but have quite a few pictures, so to keep it interesting they zoom in on the picture a little bit and have it pan across the screen. You might want to play around with that teqniqe where you have very still shots such as at 0:58.

The problem with using motion and panning is, in Premiere 6.5 at least, that you can kiss picture quality goodbye. In other words, I had to use transitions because strait motion made everything look like crap. This is most annoying at 0:52, where I initially tried a zoom but had to take it out due to loss of quality. I don't think the iris fits that well here either, but I couldn't come up with anything better. If anyone knows a way to squeeze high quality motion out of Premiere, I'm listening.

I don't know if I like the transitions better or not, they are pretty good for that sort of thing (I tend to think of them as cheasy) but they seem very sharp, where the rest of the peice is very fliud and fuzzy. On the other hand they give a nice sense of motion when transitioning.

I thought this might pose a problem and I can restore any of the old fades, or perhaps play around with other transition types.

[jasper-isis]

The zooming and panning that I do is usually really subtle. [I only say zooming here because obviously it's required for panning.] A while ago I realized that the human eye is really good at recognizing perfectly still images in videos. And still images stick out. That's why a tiny bit of panning motion, even the slightest 0.1 millimeter-per-second crawl, can make still images look more natural in a video. Anime is filled with pans because it's an inexpensive way to make things look good. [Although Gainax seems to beg to be the exception here.]

The problem with using motion and panning is, in Premiere 6.5 at least, that you can kiss picture quality goodbye. In other words, I had to use transitions because strait motion made everything look like crap. This is most annoying at 0:52, where I initially tried a zoom but had to take it out due to loss of quality. I don't think the iris fits that well here either, but I couldn't come up with anything better. If anyone knows a way to squeeze high quality motion out of Premiere, I'm listening.

Anyway, the reason I wrote all that [sorry, kinda got off on a tangent] is to say that it's rarely necessary to zoom past 105%. [Yeah, forget that big zooming suggestion that I made earlier, since it obviously didn't work .] For a panning motion, I usually set the zoom at 105% and pan horizontally from (-1,0) to (1,0). For a zooming motion, I go from 100% to 103% or vice versa. Those are probably not my exact settings, but that's the gist of it.

The trick, I guess, is to make the zoom seem more like a pan and less like an actual zoom. You want to make the audience subconsciously think "oh, I'm panning closer" and not "oh look, it's a zoom."

Hope that helps a little.

Two seconds left to fill in my segment. I'll have a full beta up tomorrow.

[bum]

weeeeeeeee new hard disk, almost two weeks earlier than i thought I would get it. Can finaly get back to the painfull process of finishing my segment.