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Final video: Self-portrait

  • s4062292
  • Mar 27, 2024
  • 4 min read

Updated: May 28, 2024

Week 3 - Session 2


I completed my final 2-minute self-portrait video. Feedback and modifications, detailed editing process and references will be mentioned in this blog.




01. Feedback and improvement:


Thanks to the helpful comments with feedback left by my classmates and lecturer on my Vimeo draft video, I understood more of what I had done so far and considered if my work conveyed precisely as I had aimed to. Especially, they helped me indicate many problems occurring and even suggested specific solutions for me to handle them better. As I could see, the most mentioned drawback of my work was an audiovisual experiment as I caused some jarring points that broke the flow. I eventually figured out the approach to improve these weaknesses by asking more for help. For example, I would prioritise tranquillity when the video comes to an end by substituting a softer but slightly happy tone for the current fast-paced melody. I also compiled all of the feedback to identify thoroughly every point requiring improvements alongside the strength I had made. Categorising and highlighting the comments are worth implementing to correctly examine and upgrade the process. 



02. Editing process


Beginning:

The first audio used in my work is aimed at opening the world of loss and confusion. It opens at the beginning and ends in faded right before the running tap scene as the emotion turns into another stage. That kind of feeling is also expressed through the hesitancy of dripping tap and insecure fingers. The slow melody long lasting is not only followed by the sadness but also the depth of feeling to profoundly discover the inner world.


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Sound effects:

To increase liveliness, the dripping water sound effect was brought in during three sections as the tap appears at 0.00-0.30, 0.70-0.10 and 0.14-0.16. As the sound effects were long and didn’t match the footage, I cut and layered it again to fit the dropping sound exactly once the water dropped. As the tap was zoomed in section by section, the sound was also adjusted to gradually get louder and clearer. Next, the table knocking sound effect was added to enhance a bout of the jitters during the fingers section at 0.30-0.70.

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Audio adjustment:

To enhance the tranquillity, I changed the audio of the flowing tap scene even though I had been quite satisfied with the previous one, which was strong, bold, and included some unsuitable electronic sound. When I sought the softer sound but still could retain the feeling of excitement and motivation, I thought this one was what I had been looking for. It doesn’t feel too sudden or out of sync with the entire video rhythm but delightfully surprising enough as what I aimed to bring in during the transition. Besides that, audio level adjustment was one of the uppermost things I prioritised to ensure a smooth and balanced flow without any silent pauses or jarring points. Especially, the helicopter part at 0.50 and the pens spilling out part at 1.22 used to be quite harsh as they caused a stronger sound compared to the general level. I attempted to maintain a light and clean tone consistently throughout the video even if it describes ups and downs feelings as my hopeful outcome is to create calm and peaceful emotions when overcoming hardship.


Continuity and Crossfade: To mark the signal of positive things coming, I inserted a quick snapping sound at 0:30 when the phone was fully charged.


To keep the continuity, I created two battery-centric scenes and applied the Cross Dissolve transition effect in between at 0.32. The positive stage demonstrated on the phone would be transferred to the sketchbook which indicated my interest.


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Similarly at 0.95-1.00, the park scene and a person sitting in the middle, I connected to the next section by the drawing page with a Cross Dissolve effect.


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Music selection:

In the next section, I started the second piece of background music with the slow track which set the mood from 0.46 onwards. Each piano note tended to match the transition between outdoor scenes, commencing atmospheric and tranquil sections.


To illustrate the transformation from relaxation to tension, the natural sound effect of singing birds and blowing wind was layered. The sound was getting stronger with rustling leaves and howling wind after the transition point of an empty marker.


The bottom line in this section was the marker which ran out of ink attempting to complete the drawing. It turned a bright day into a gloomy day with aimlessly floating ducks, simultaneously demonstrated by the audio played. However, it quickly came back to a hopeful day when the pens falling out coincided with the strongest waves, which indicated inner power could make a way for a new solution.


I started the last piece of music sooner instead of putting it into the very last scene which could make it quite rushed in closing the whole video. I selected a warm tone melody with bright and positive emotions to fully demonstrate the last stage of finding happiness for my inner-self journey. More to mention, picking the last part of the song was also my intention so that it could be gradually softer little by little until it perfectly ends the video.


03. References

Oceanic Dawn by DJ Masque (Attribution No Derivatives)

Water, Dripping, Slow, A.wav by Inspector.J (Attribution 4.0)

Positive Upbeat Corporate by IlyaSound (Extended License)

Finger snap and click by Pastabra (Attribution NonCommercial 4.0)

Beyond Dreams by Calm Shores (Extended License)

Beach Wave 1 at Sibu Island Johor by thiamhooi (Attribution 3.0)

Hopeful Piano by Bulbasound (Extended License)






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