Transcripts
1. Introduction: For me, having a camera in my hand made me more brave and more curious to discover. My name is Oliver Astrologo. I'm a film director on traveler and today I'm going to talk about the post-production and all the steps that you need to take to turn your amateur video into a professional one. I have created videos about the most spectacular travel destination in the world using different advanced set of techniques. Today, we are going to the post-production process of one of my personal videos Cefalu. The post-production is a symphony of different steps that you make. So with a proper heading, combining with the sound design, the color grading, the composing. Combining all together can transform your amateur video into a professional-looking product. This class is for everyone. You could be a beginner or maybe a professional editor, or filmmaker. You will develop a critical eye, you dramatically speed up in your editing and also post-production process, and also you're marking yourself in above that one day could become a successful film making carrier. I'm really excited to be with you here today, I'll share together the cutting process. So guys, let's get started.
2. The Power of Post-Production: Before we dive in, let's talk a bit about the post-production process and the steps that are required in this class. Essentially the post-production is the last part of video production, is all the work that has to be done when the shooting as taken place. The post-production is a very important passage of the video production. In some cases, like the documentary video is considered one of the most important aspects of the video production. In the video that we are going to talk today, the travel videos, the post-production, can dramatically turn your [inaudible] product into professional one. In this class we are going to talk about the first steps of the post-production process. I know that could be overwhelming starting especially when you need to put everything in the right orders to starting the process. I'm going to talk about the general principles and the process, so you do need to use any specific software for putting those tips into the project. What we are going to cover during the post-production process and all the steps that are required that you end up with a professional looking video. We will start choosing the right music, then we dive into the editing parts. We will apply some special techniques in order to give a professional look at your video. Finally, we will see how to export your materials to the different social media. What is a Travel Video? Travel Video is a film that give the sense of space, but also create a curiosity in the viewers, invite them to discover a location of foreign culture. Why a travel video is important in the process? Usually when you work in a commercial project, everything is great and you need to follow some specific roles. In travel videos, you are completely free to express yourself and put the service in the order and the way that you prefer you feel more comfortable with. What you need to start creating a travel videos? Obviously, you need the footage. If you are not able to capture it by yourself or you don't have a camera, you can download it in the resources section on this class, and a computer with an editing software installed. In this class, I am going to use DaVinci Resolve, is an excellent free editing software, but if you feel more comfortable, you are free to use the software that you prefer.
3. Tips for Shooting: There are some important things that you need to keep in mind while you are shooting in order to make your editing process faster and more efficient. The first thing that you need to think about is when you are traveling in a foreign place. The common mistake is taking your camera and start shooting in the beginning. Instead, keep your camera away, start looking around, and try to visualize the scene that you want to capture. Usually, they allow you to capture only the footage that you effectively need for your editing. So before starting making your videos, go searching for compelling story and subject. On my Venice Video, I did this research about at a local artisan. I found the job of this maker. He is one of the last people that are still living on the Island of Venice. The idea of creating a video about the passage of tradition of artisans is something that always fascinated me. Also, try to use some unusual angle for capturing location and places, getting rid of the tourists and all the items that are not belonging to the destination. For example, when I've been in Japan, I captured this gate using a higher angle in order to get rid of all the tourists and the people that are in the middle of the frame. I know that you probably hate the crowds. The best solution to avoid them is, do not be lazy. So get up early, take your camera, and that amazing sunrise will be yours. Another thing that you need to keep in mind that when you are traveling on foreign destination is to capture your subject from at least three different angles. Usually, when I'm capturing my stories, I start with a wide shot in order to contextualize and create a feeling of a space, then I get closer to the subject and reveal what he is doing and finally, I do some close-up shots in order to obtain an intimate contact with the subject and put it in my video. It's time to pack your gear and start shooting around. If you don't own a camera gear, you can use the footage that I have captured the amazing charming town of Cefalu Loo. The footage is available here in this class for the log in the resources section. Now that we have a capture this amazing footage, it's time to start the process. But first, we need some inspiration. So bear with me in the last lesson.
4. Finding Inspiration: Before starting with the editing, we need to find the right inspiration. So look at the other videos I already published at about the destination. It's an important step in order to avoid to repeat these empty share of the other previous filmmakers. Usually, when I'm going to create a video about a tourist destination, I try to identify the things, the location, the stories that are not considered by the local people interesting. For example, if I'm going to create video about Rome, I will never put the centurion inside. If I'm going to create a video about New York, I will definitely not consider to put the Liberty State and Times Square. You don't need to go beyond the popular location. You can also include them in your videos but maybe try your personal way to show them, and try to create again interests in those location. Cefalu is a small charming town located in the south of Italy in Sicily. Sicily is one of the parts of Italy where you can still discover the original tradition and local habitudes that were part of the world in Italy in the past. I also wanted you to look deeper into the lives of those artist, and the people that are living in Town Cefalu, because it's a kind of work that is slowly disappearing. I think that creating a video about them is the best way for keeping the memory of their job for the future traditions, and go and search into the web, on the Internet, the website, and tried to identify stories on the people that are considered interesting by the local people. When I market myself in the Cefalu video, I discovered these local artists [inaudible] he is an amazing talented, wood maker, he's making those amazing and bringing a sculpture. He started his job at the age of five. Interesting fact of Roberto, that is very well-known by the local people and they respect a lot of his work. Another great way for finding the right inspiration, is to look to the work of the other filmmakers. Try to understand how they approach the destination and maybe try to avoid to put the same things that they already put in their videos. Try to learn from the others but don't steal. It's nice to start from an idea, reshape it completely into something that is completely different from the region. This is the most challenging and also the best part of our job. Don't dwell on that beautiful images, on the transition, on those. Better try to feel if the story that they are proposing is something that could be relevant for your audience. Let's have a look for example the work of other filmmakers. Try to identify 3, 4 different filmmakers that could inspire you. One of my favorite filmmakers on internet is called Matty Brown. Matty Brown also made a class here in Skill Share. I definitely suggest to have a look on it, because he is explaining some creative techniques that are absolutely interesting and relevant. If you want to make a strong storytelling piece of work. Looking at work of Matty Brown. For example, this video that he made in seven years ago, it's called The Piano. We can see how he combined. It was an incredible transition with a strong storytelling. It's interesting to see, that Matty Brown when he created his video, he didn't use any specific gear. He uses just a simple camera by hand. He was able to create something that is very compelling and keep you stuck at the screen for the entire duration of the video. It's also nice to see how Matty was close to the subject. In this videos there are plenty of close-up shots showing a really intimate contact with he's subject. Also we can talk about Michel Gondry. Michel Gondry is a very popular film director. He also created some of the most interesting and eclectic music videos over the history. If you have a watched in your life a video by Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers [inaudible]. You definitely watched one of his films. Another director that really inspires me, is Romain Gavras. He's a French film director. I love the way how he connects. It's incredible photography with those who are landscapes. Let's pick up together 2 to 3 filmmakers that you really appreciate, and also try to focus and find what is that inspire you from their video. Leave the link in the comment below. We can discuss together and check their work together. I know that you are probably pushing for starting to edit but there is one step that we need to do. Is to find the right music. So bear with me in the next lesson and we will choose the proper music for making your video amazing.
5. Choosing the Right Music: The music is a really important aspect in your videos. For some filmmakers, the music is important at most at the 50 percent of the work. So it is important to find the right music that's perfectly match with your video. Many filmmakers are starting their session with the music at the end of the process. I personally prefer to choose the music first in order to get the right inspiration for my E-edits. Today, I'm going to show Musicbed. Musicbed is a very popular audio library. You can easily search to a thousand and different songs, and listen them in order to understand immediately if this music could fit your video. The first thing that you need to think about when you are choosing the music is the kind of feeling that you want to convey in your film. The mood is an important figure. What is the sense of your video? You want to transmit the sense of tension or you want to give it a feeling of happiness? Once you have established that you've got the right mood for your video, you can start beginning the search off for your music. Let's start making a research for the right music for our Jeff Alu video. On music method, the first thing that we need to start for searching on is the mood. For Jeff Alu probably, the contemplative mood is something that could be appropriate because I want to transmit the feeling of a place that is sunny, the people is very happy and warmly, so contemplative probably is a kind of mood that could work. The next step is we need to find the genre. The genre is something that you need to look for when you are choosing the music. Just to give you an example, if we are going to make a video about a city, like New York for example, I will be expected to create something that is really frenetic, maybe repetitive. So I think the appropriate genre for city video could be electronic music. For a city like Jeff Alu that is belonging on traditional, probably the world genre is something that could be appropriate. As you can see, while we are choosing the mood and the genre, we are also restricting our search scope. So, we have a different song that could be generally the appropriate for video. The instruments that you are using in your videos, they're also affecting the immediate feeling, and the emotion that you are conveying in your video. One of the most important thing that you need to understand especially when you are creating a travel videos is to choose the appropriate instrument. Maybe choosing only the instruments that are really belonging to destination. For example, in my Catalonia video, when I chosen the instruments, I avoided using the castanets. The castanets are a kind of instruments that is really popular in Spain. But in the region of Catalonia, the castanet doesn't belong to that region. For Jeff Alu probably, the appropriate instruments could be the acoustic guitar which is a traditional instrument, and also could give the right feeling. As you can see, we are really reducing the scope of search, and we can see for example, this song Uroboros from Benjamin James. When you are listening to the song, try to close your eyes, and try to visualize the images combined with the music. For example, if you listen to this song, you can see that at the beginning is very slow, is very peaceful, and this maybe could be the appropriate choice for the kind of video that I'm going to make. Another important thing that you need to consider when you're choosing the music is the waveform. As you can see, this song has a waveform that is changing its pace, and also its shape during the entire evolution of the song. This is very useful because if you want for example, to create some variation, also some playful in your video, having the right variation in the music can make the job. Another important aspect that at the end there is a crescendo, so the music at the end there is exploding. This is something that is very important when you are choosing the music video. Having a crescendo at the end of the song would help you also to regain the attention of the viewers. You need to find a way by using the music to keep the attention of the viewers for the entire duration of the video. So starting with a video that has a slow music, and is slowly increasing in the end will help also the viewers to get more interested in watching the video, and discovering what is going to happen at the end. Choosing high-frequency instruments like guitars or notes piano or ukuleles can give it a sense of happiness. But if we are choosing for example, an instrument like the string bass for example, or maybe the timpanis, we can essentially give it the opposite effect, we can give it the feeling of something that is very somber or maybe we can also transmit the feeling of something that is really powerful. Let's try to make an experiment. Let's try to add two different song to the same images, and see what kind of feeling we can get from this experiment. In this case for example, we are using for this video a music that is really tense, really dark. If you watch this video you have a feeling that something very bad is going to happen. Instead, if we try to add a music that is happy or maybe is giving the sense of peaceful, we get exactly the opposite effect. So let's try to see this video with another kind of music. Now let's imagine if these videos should be used for promoting some maintenance cache, which one of the two music choice could help to sell the product? Think about the scope of your video when you are choosing the music. If you need to sell something, and you need to create the awareness about a product, probably you need to find also the mood that is appropriate. If you want to create something that is maybe more creative or maybe you want to create a travel video, you can also maybe experiment using different kind of moods like the tensed one. But always bear in mind what are the emotion that you want to transmit to the people. So don't choose the music just because you like the music. Just choose the music according to the feelings that you want to transmit in your piece of work. So guys, I really love this song that I found with my search before at Uroboros. I'm having a very positive feeling, and also when I'm listening to this song I feel the same sensation, that there the one I was traveling in this charming destination. So this is something that we will be using in this class for making all amazing travel video. So guys the next exercise for you is to experiment with the footage that I recorded to you but you are free to use your own footage with three different songs. Now in the next class we are finally diving into the editing part. So, keep watching.
6. Organizing Your Footage: Now we are go to the right music. Now, the biggest hurdle is to get all the footage that we have captured, visualize it in our mind in order to end up with something that has a sense and a story. Probably the best thing that you can do, is to review your entire footage and watching it more than one time. Sometimes you can pick up some unexpected material that you missed during the first review. Organization is the key for a successful editor. Keeping your footage well-organized will help you to be on top of everything, and speed up your editing process. I usually arrange all my footage in separate folders according to the date of the shooting and the camera that I have used. Today, I'm going to use DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci is an excellent free software for editing your videos. This suite was in the past very popular for its color grading features. But recently, Blackmagic introduced some amazing tool for doing the editing, the sound design, compositing, and spotting your footage. You don't need to use DaVinci for following this lesson, you are free to use the software of which you are more comfortable with. The first thing that I'm going to do is to label every clip according to the shots. This one, for example, it's a wide shot. The wide shots are usually the ones that I used for introducing the location or giving a sense of the space to the viewers. So I'm going to add a tag to this clip call it define wide shot. Then, I repeat the process clip by clip by identifying, for example, the medium shots because this could be a medium one. Let me to add the tag. As soon as I get closer to target, I can define all the clips. I need to locate all the clips that contains close ups. I need to repeat the entire process for the all clips that are in my media pool. I also had some additional shots in order to locate identify, for example, all the clips that are containing people, and I usually define another tag for locating all the clips that are shot in different moments of the day. For example, all the footage that was captured during the night, like this one. So I just need to add some sunset or nights. The second step consist in arranging all the footage into different bins. Bins are the easiest and most commonly used way for organizing your footage. Instead of thinking about the single clips, think about stories on location, and put all the clips that are related to a specific location or maybe a specific story inside different bins. For example, I have this interesting story. This is a boat maker. This old man is literally constructing the boats. The same boats that the fishermen are going to use for fishing, and I'm going to match all of those clips inside a single bin. Name this bin as people boat craftsmen, just to give you an example. Now we have this location cheerful lieutenant submission. If, for example, I start maybe searching all the clips that are containing maybe a wide shot, I just need to use it as such. When shot in DaVinci, I can easily locate all the wide shot clips. So once you have organized your footage in different bins, you will end up in a very well organized structure of the project. As you can see, for every location and every story, I create a different bin. Another important thing, you need to arrange the sound effects that you have captured and the music in separate folder. Is amazing to see how now well organized the project can dramatically speed up your process, and keeping everything organized, is not freezing your creativity. Now that everything is perfectly organized and arranged, we are ready to set up our project. I learn that the best approach is to get enough from the computer thinking in a logic way. Let's see how we can do it.
7. Developing Your Story: Now that we have a perfectly arranged all footage in different bins, we can start to think about the story. I learned that the best approach is to get off from the computer, and do this in analogic way. I have dispose it. They are colored. The first thing that I need to do is to note down every location story that are identified inside my footage, and take a note down on microstate. So I'm starting, for example, with the locations. So I simply create a post-trip location, and this is all the footage about Cefalù town. I'm actually using different color nodes in order to differentiate the different stories in the location. I'm using the blue one for putting down all the locations. Location. Put down the name of Cefalù mountain. In Italian, it's called a Cefalù La Rocca. It's basically this mountain. Over there, you can get an amazing view of the entire town and also the surroundings. So I need to put down the name of this location. So I suggest you not use many colors because you can get confused. So I think for this project, using two colors is enough. So we will use the blue one to define all the locations and the yellow orange ones for all the people stories. The theater of Cefalù, it used to be the location from famous movie by juicer Petronas Aurora. That's why doesn't it include it in my video. The movie is named Norwich Enmgoradizal, and we go. Now, I need to put down all the stories. This is the fisherman. I shoot this guy at sunrise, and we went together in his boat and I captured some incredible footage of him while fishing. People, fisherman. Instead of thinking about the single clips, I prefer to think about stories. That's why I decided to merge the best clip of every location on every story into a single bins, which means that I'm going to put this down on single node. Because I think working on a single clip doesn't make much sense. A story is not a single clip. A story is a series of different camera angles, is maybe different shots that you have a talking. This is what differentiates a story from a single clip. So the next one, this is one of my favorite. I just capture artist Roberto Jackina. So Roberto is living in Cefalù since he is [inaudible]. He started making tons of amazing pieces of work, at the age of five years just using a good character. He's very well-known in from the local people in Cefalù. I discovered him through a YouTube video when I was investigating or researching for local artists in Cefalù. Now that we have and noted down everything, we can start to putting all the single stories together in order to create a compelling story. The simplest approach that you, where you can start on is to put all the stories and the location in a chronological order. So you can start at a sunrise, and then following the hours of the day until reaching the sunset. I would like to make my story more compelling and more original. So I'm going to try to find a good connection between every story location to the other one. So I would like to start for example by revealing to the viewers, where we are now actually. So probably, the best thought could be by showcasing the location of Cefalù town. In this way, I am able to display into the viewer, to show the viewer, what is the issue we are talking about? Since the opening scene on Cefalù is certainly over the sea, the most obvious connection could be also to include the fisherman. So in this way, we have created a connection between this town on Cefalù and the fisherman. After the fisherman, we have at this moment of the fisherman when he is pulling the net. So probably, the most logical connection could be by adding later the fishing net shop. After the fishing net shopper, we can show the green grocer. Because we have this interesting connection between the fishing net shop and the green grocer that is passing in front of the camera. After the green grocer probably, we can go back and reveal again another location. Maybe we can for example, show the Cefalù church. After the Cefalù church, we can connect maybe the Cefalù church with a pottery maker. I can show another artisan, this cultural artisan, the Cefalù Rocca, and the boat craftsmen, and finally the lighthouse. The Lighthouse was shoot after the sunset. This could make sense if we add this scene at the end of our video. So we have actually created a rough concept or story line, and this was done in just few minutes. Imagine if you need to do the same thing by using your editing software. Probably, you need much more time. Okay. Now, let's try to mix it up. For example, let's take the story of the boat craftsman, and try to connect to the boat craftman with a fisherman. Actually, the boat craftsman is making the boats that the fisherman is actually using for fishing. So that's an interesting connection. There are infinite possibilities. So you can try to create your stories choosing the order that you think it's the best one. Important thing that you need to always to create a good connection between one location or another, in order to maybe to create a seamless transition from one place to another, and also is important that you give a sense of space to the viewers. For example, if you start maybe from [inaudible] shop, where you are showcasing for example from sea to the town. The most logic sequence events could be showing maybe inside a building. Modeled to create a source of visual connection between the outside and inside. Always try to give to the viewers a sense of flow with continuity in the space, and let them to understand where they are located in while they are watching the video. One simple trick that you can do, for example, is to use the strongest story, and then around to the stories, you can connect the other stories. Usually, when you are editing a video, sometimes, you can cut a story, you can simply split the story and maybe reshow this part of the story in another part of the video. This trick is quite simple, because allows you to regain the attention of the viewers, especially if it's the strongest about a topic or something that is really interesting. Now, in the analogic world, we can do exactly the same way. We can simply cut our story and split our story in two different stories. We can use the story or simply come and show the stories in another part of the video. For example, I want to start my video with a Cefalù town, then I want to show the boat-maker, then I want to show the people green grocer, and then I want to go to the fisherman. Because I have a connection between the green grocer and the fisherman, do you remember? After the fisherman, I want to show again the boat maker, because I can create a logic connection between the fishermen and the boat maker. Finally, after the boat-maker, we can go to Cefalù theater, showing the pottery maker, and after the Cefalù theater, we can put down Cefalù church, and we go. By mixing together the different stories and also maybe splitting some stories in multiple parts, we have created a rough concept of their story. Now, we know exactly how to edit our videos, which order we need to follow in order to create a compelling stories. This is a process that is not exact, it's not a science. So you can for example, feel free to experiment to find your own personal creative way to connect to the story. The purpose of this analogic approach is simply to visualize the video that you're going to create in order to quickly understand our two analogy and bring them together. Now, this was applied on a video that is quite simple, because we have no more than 10 different stories. But imagine, a video like London as where, I had to connect almost 40 different stories on location altogether. So imagine if you need to apply this process in something that is much more complicated, doing analogic way, definitely helps you to speed up your creative process and also to get a rough idea in a much less time that using the digital way by using your editing software. Now, you can do exactly the same. So you can take the footage that I have provided in this class, or maybe you can start capturing the footage for yourself and try to create a rough story. Feel free to share your timelines by emailing in a comment below. I look forward to see your creative approach, and I'm really curious to see how you connected the different stories innovation altogether. So the next stop, we will be translating all of this into DaVinci. Let's see what is going to happen.
8. Assembling in DaVinci Resolve: Now it's time to translate my analogic timeline into the digital one by using my editing software. I'm going to create two different timelines. One is the timeline where I'm going to edit my video. Then I create another timeline, which is called the workspace. The workspace is the place where I'm dragging, editing, trimming, and creating my little stories that would be ready for the main timeline. I'm using the stacked timeline techniques. So I simply split the screen of my editing environment, this could be done by using any editing software's, by showing two different timelines in the same timeline. The timeline on top is containing the video editing. I just need to drag the music inside the main timeline. I'm locking the music truck in order to avoid any accidental movement when I'm drugging my clips, and then in the workspace I'm going to compose my little stories. Let's start with the full story. 'The fisherman', for example. So I just need to locate the different shots. I can use for example, the tag that I added to the bin first. So I just need to open the filter feature of DaVinci. Then I can for example, start with established shot. So I just need to look for all the keys that are targeted with a white shot. So I just need to set to white. I can easily filter the resolute and locate the keys that I fitly need for my editing. So I can choose the in and the out, and then I can drag this inside my workspace. The simple approach is to alternate different kind of camera shots. So after I have done the [inaudible] shot, I can go searching from the medium one. I add this detail when the fisherman is pulling up the net. I need to choose the in and out and here we go, I can just put the clipping sequence. As you can see, this story is already working because I have a wide shot of the fisherman is pulling his net from far and then I get close to him. I can go even closer. I can alternate another shot of this detail of the machine that is using for pulling in the nets. Here we go. Okay, I created my first story. Now let's go to the next one, we have the Boat Craftsman. This is the most interesting story and also the story of which have more food or more material that could be used for the video. Maybe we can start with a view of him entering inside the office. As I suggested, I managed to capture different angles of the same scene. So I capture the scene of him entering inside his workplace, and then I did it the same shots from another point of view. Having two different angles helped me to build a story and create something that has continuity. Before showing him entering inside the workplace, maybe we can close up you. Probably make more sense if we show him opening the door and then entering inside the workplace. Okay, there is a moment when this man is looking at the camera. I don't want to give the feeling to the viewer that is aware that the camera is inside. So I prefer maybe to go back and showing the moment where he is not taking care of the camera. It looks more natural. Okay. We simply need to repeat the process for every story and every location that we captured and arrange it inside all media poll. So once you are satisfied with the single story, you just need to simply drag them into the main timeline. Basically, you need to compose the entire video by dragging every single story according to the order that you have a decided when you have a created analogic arrangement. We need to repeat the process. So for every single story and location that we have are the [inaudible] the video, and if you play the video, you can really see that everything is starting to have a sense. When you are watching the footage, you will probably discover that maybe some stories are not so interest you. Maybe is not easy to connect them. You don't need to put every story that you have shot. If you are not able to find any way to connect to two different stories because maybe you don't have enough footage, or may be simply the story is not relevant. You simply need to be satisfied with yourself and you just need to cut or remove the story and maybe rethink about the composition of the different stories. Now I have ended by composing the single-story and dragged all of them on the main timeline. So I have a rough edit that is already ready to be watched. Probably, in some places you still have some gaps that you need to fill about. You can also get some exhibition shots for example, I can use the location of a shift alone. For example, let's take this drone view of the church and let's use this one for connecting maybe the two different stories. This is a very simple common approach for connecting maybe some stories. When you are not able to find that precedes are logic to connect to all of them. When you are spending several hours in front of a computer by editing your videos, you can get this inside the today material. That's why he suggested to try to take a break, relax a bit and go back in the edit a day later. The meantime will be also useful to show your rough edit to friends, and family in order to get the comments and the feedback. Fresh eyes could be useful to get some interesting feedback so maybe, some tips on how to improve your editing. Okay, the next step is now we don't need anymore the workspace so we can simply close, and starting working on a single timeline. When you are happy and satisfied with the editing, it's time to put everything into sync with the music and also adding some special efforts in order to give a professional look to our footage.
9. Editing Your Footage: The editing process is not there in some sites. You can start with something, and end it with a video that is completely different from the initial idea. So, don't be worried to experiment or maybe give some free space for creativity. Show your rough edit to family and some friends, and get their feedback, comments. They could be useful to improving your work. The most common approach while editing the videos is to match the beat. So, we just need to look at the waveform of the soundtrack, and cut every single clip to the beat. Basically, we need to listen to the song, and try to understand the rhythm of the music. Now that we have found the right beat, this approach obviously is easy. It works, but in the longer time, could become repetitive, and maybe it can lose it's insufficiency. Another approach is to visualize the music. Play with a sound variation inside the music, and use them in order to create a combination weighted image. For example, this song is starting with this moment of this really peaceful, and we have the piano that is starting it out, and using the sound of the piano also to match this image. Another way to give an ascent to the image is to add a music drop. You simply need to cut down the music in the parts of the video of which you want to take the focus on. Then after a few seconds, put in the music back again. These techniques could be useful if you want to regain the attention of the viewers when they are watching your videos, but you should not abuse about it as it could lose its effectiveness. Editing according to the music is not enough. There are a few simple rules that helps you to make your editing more consistent. The first thing that you need to consider for example is to follow the camera flow. If you have a camera movement, the camera is spanning from the left to the right, find a clip that has the same camera movement in order to keep a consistent flow between the different images. Keep the framing. If you are showing the subject in the left top corner of the screen, it will be a good idea to find the clip that has the subject in the same position. For example, in this part, I am showing the boat is certainly in the same position as before. It's not only easier for the viewer to understand the what is happening on the frame. So they will need to essentially try to search in the scene what is going to happen. Also, you can focus the attention to a specific point. Bear in mind that if you're editing a fast-pacing videos, you need to understand that you sometimes don't have enough time to register the positional knowledge. That's why you need obviously to to be consistent when you are alternating different scene at different moments but always keeping the attention to a specific point of the frame. Keep the contents, this is probably the most important thing that you need to think about when you are creating new videos. The viewers should be not disrupted, and should easily understand when the action is coming. So try to combine them, for example, different location, for example, try to show in the all side of building, and then showing another tip that is revealing the inside of the building. Try to be consistent while you are switching from one location to another. Sometimes you can also alternate different location. Maybe you can show the outside off from building, and maybe the outside of another place which is completely in another place and time. The important thing that you create a strong visual connection between the two things. Feel free to experiment or maybe to be creative. Maybe you can also try to experiment other techniques. For example, you can follow different approach, and you can use the colors may be for alternating different feeders or maybe you'll use different kind of camera movements or panning or maybe you for example, if the camera is moving forward, then you can alternate, and create a constant movement. So, there are many creative ways when you can express yourself. The important thing that you always find a way to let the viewer to not be disrupted, that is completely getting worried about what's going to happen in your video. So feel free to experiment to find your personal techniques. This is what probably will make you, and also will enable you to create a unique site. In the next class, we are going to talk about the the color-correction, the special techniques in order to give the final touch to your videos.
10. Adding Effects and Transitions: Well, guys. I'm retired, but finally we ended with something that is interesting. We're creating a video that is a good story. Is something that is a really good, and maybe potentially could be published. But we need to add the final touches. We need to include some transition, add in the proper color correction, and finally we are ready to export it to social media. Nowadays on the Internet, there are lot of incredible videos with some jaw dropping special facts, but most of them are lacking a compelling storytelling and evolution, and they are not very interesting. I'm slowly abandoning the transition. I figured the transition should be used only when you need, for example, to connect two complicated scene in order to make them to flow seamlessly. If you want to add a transition to your video, try to make them to look natural, for example making organic transition. A lot of people are asking me if I'm using plug-in only special techniques to make my transition. The reality is that the transitional that they're making videos are completely made by camera. So to achieve an organic transition, you just need to shoot in the proper way. Is very easy when you're starting your scene, you just need to take your camera pointing where something that is between you and the subject, it could be a world for example. Then you just need to point your camera at the subject, taking the scene, and before stopping the recording, you just need to move the camera again behind another frames, it could be a wall on stable, or maybe you can just move the camera away. When you are putting the clips on the timeline, you just need to find the right clips in order to match the camera movement. Just to give you an example, with this scene, I started my shooting with a camera behind the subject as you can see. Now, I appointed a subject and I go back in order to hit in the subject. This for example is a fairly simple, is the first example. On the next scene, I did exactly the same movement. In this case is easy because the curtain was closed, and so I started with the image that was completely dark black. Then I'm revealing what is going to happen. Now, when you put everything together, you just need to create. You see that you will be able to create a seamless transition between one location to another. I'm also adding a small cross dissolve transition in order to make everything smoother and give it a more natural transition between one place to another. This is a very simple transition that is used to connect two different places. So it is not disturbing the viewer, and also give a sense of a natural flow between one location to another. Let's see another transition that they have created, is this one. This transition is obtained exactly in the same way. So I just need to take two different clips. So I am going to get the clip of porter maker. So I have this camera movement, and the camera is going behind the wall. I have a similar movement that they made to the boat cross manner which is here. The camera is behind the wall, reveal induction, and then the camera is going back. When I put everything together using the same technique that I showed before, you can see that everything will result in a perfectly transition between one location to another. I just added a bit of speed ramping in order to make the transition smoother. But this is just because I need to keep everything pasted. So that's why I added speed ramping. The speed ramping technique is very popular nowadays. There are a lot of videos that are using this technique. You can use the speed ramping in order to accelerate and decelerate the timing of a clip. Sometimes could be used for example when you have a drone shot to make the effort more dramatic, or may be because you need fit this clip inside a fast-paced editing. But you should not abuse speed ramping. Video with too many sudden speed ramping changes, this is something that is not pleasant to see. The most modern cameras are able to shoot in 4K. Using the 4K footage in a HD timelines allowing you to update some special techniques. For example, you can take a 4K clip and then you can reframe, you can zoom in digitally, you can pan in order to add some extra interesting movement to your video. For example, let's take the scene when the camera is going back. Actually, if we add some digital zoom, in DaVinci is quite easy because we just need to activate the dynamic zoom. We can, for example, amplify our movement. We can amplify our movement may be to make the movement more faster. This could be used for making a more dramatic effort. You can also reverse the effort. You just need to swap and create an eye-catching movement. So actually as you can see, the subject is not moving, but everything around them is changing. This is a very popular technique. It's called vertical zoom and is used in some or most popular TV service on very popular videos. Tracking and stabilization is another technical that could be used for fixing some shots, maybe under shots that were not taken the right order. Stabilizing the clip help you to make the things more smother. Is quite easy dementia. We have several way to stabilize our footage. We just need to press the "Stabilize" button under which is going to analyze our footage. We got it. The standard stabilizer is not always making the right job for us. There is another technique that is called tracking. You can find a link below where you can learn all Tuesday tracking fishers in DaVinci resolver, which is very useful and could make your footage that you think that it is not possible to use in something that's completely different. We use the classic stabilizer. With the classic stabilizer, we can activate the point tracker. The pointer tracker is an alternative way that you can use DaVinci for stabalizing. it's very simple. You just need to drop this marker on an element with a strong contrast, it could be an edge, a border, maybe an ion some fee in order to tell the software what is the part of the image that you want to stabilize. Then once you have found a place, you just need to start the tracking, and here we go. Now, if you play your footage, the image is perfectly stabilized. So you can see that this was before, after the tragedy. This is a technique that usually when you are working with another editing software that is not a DaVinci like Premiere Pro is impossible to achieve, you need to move to another editing software like After Effects. Do the tracking, then you need to respot to reimport your materials inside the premiere and you need a lot of time to do that. In DaVinci, you can easily do these processes directly inside of the software, and the results are incredible.
11. Color Grading Your Video: If you are not applying the color grading to your videos, you are definitely missing a vital part of your post-production process. The color grading is the thing that could transform your video and amplify the emotion that you are conveying. Just to give you an example, when I created my London's video, I used different color tones according to the place and the stories that I wanted to tell. I started the video in a very blue mode in order to give you a sense of tension and something that is really dark. Then when the video is evolving to the end, you see that the color is changing to an orange tint in order to get a sense of warmth, happiness. The particular grading is an instrument that could help you to amplify and also to give more strength to the emotion that you want to convey in your videos. I am not going to talk about the entire color grading process. I know that many of you are struggling with the process of color grading your footage. That's why I created this free set. You can download this from the resource here in this class. There are also the instructional analogy easily applied by using the most common editing software. So if you are using Final Cut Premier Pro or da Vinci you can easily use these to upgrade your footage and the process is very simple. In da Vinci you'll just need to answer once you have imported the light inside your last folder by following instruction that either [inaudible]. You just need to choose the clip that you want to grade and apply it. As you can see this lot is free and available for you to download. You are free to experiment and use it in your personal project and don't forget to pass your pieces of work by leaving a comment in the box below. So we are at the end, guys. There's one little step. We need to learn how to optimize and support your video across the different social media.
12. Optimizing for Social Media: A very important aspect of film making career is also to find a way to promote our work. Social media probably is the best way to promote or work. Potentially, you can get millions of view. Between those millions of people that are watching your video, may be there are some people that are working in the travel industry that could spot your work. So when you are producing your content, pay attention to produce something that is unique region and doesn't stop [inaudible]. So always keep in mind that you need to produce content for appealing yourself, not for appealing the masses that are in social media. Say that, it is important that you produce content and using the social media from promoting it. I'm going to explain to you a few techniques in order to get the best of your videos across the different social platforms. The main platforms where I'm sharing my works are YouTube and Vimeo. They are very similar, but in fact, they are completely different. YouTube is a platform for the masses. This means that if you're uploading your videos to YouTube, it will be with many millions of videos of every genre, every content, every kind. If you're uploading your content on Vimeo, you're uploading your videos in a community of filmmakers, professional. The other important aspect about Vimeo, that if you're uploading your content on this platform, there is a biggest chance that someone human is going to watch your business work, and maybe you can get some comments so you can change your point of view, opinion. So it is important to use both platforms. Maybe YouTube, if you want to share and maybe to get as closer to the masses, and if you want maybe to expose, and maybe get the [inaudible] set in a professional environment, it's better to use Vimeo, also for showcasing your pieces of work. Social media is not only YouTube and Vimeo, there are many other platforms. We have Instagram, Facebook, and every platform has its own different dynamics. For example, Facebook, the way that the people are consuming videos on Facebook is totally completely different than the way on YouTube. If your video is longer than one minute and also has some specific audio, maybe there are dialogue, it's very difficult that your video could get the proper exposure on Facebook. My approach is quite simple. I usually create the standard video in the 16:9 format for the most important platform, YouTube and Vimeo, then I get the exported version. I adapt it according to the social media. I'm going to explain to you now how to use DaVinci that you transform, cut your video, and optimize it for the different platforms. We are going to make a few additional version of a video optimized for Instagram and Facebook. The reason why I'm creating some versions also for Instagram, because this could help to grow up my exposure. Basically, I create a short teaser of the main video to be published only on Instagram. Usually, I create a highlight taking the best part of my video, and I squeeze it in one minute in order to capture the viewer's attention. The first thing that we need to understand is that the resolution, the video format in Instagram is different. The most popular format on Instagram, and also the most effective is the square one. So I just need to change in my timeline settings and change the resolution, the format, using the custom setting, and just changing the format and resolution from 16:9 to one one, which means square format. So let me change the format. This could be easily done with any editing software. Now, we can see that. What is going to happen? In DaVinci, usually, when you change the timeline resolution, the software automatically re-adapts the video to the format that you are exporting. So basically, it's cutting the two borders of the video and only showing the central part. But there are some scene, like this one, some parts where the subject is not perfectly centered. When you are going to post it, this video in the square format, you're losing some important parts of the video. The process is very simple. We just need to match the frame by scrubbing on our timeline. So we just need to use the keyboard in order to match the right frame. Here we go. So this is the first frame. Using the Resolve tool, we need to cut our clip, and then we need to go to the end of this frame. Now, I've just cut my video exactly in the two points where I want to adjust the frame. So I just need to choose the clips, and using the Inspector, I can re-frame the position of my video, so I can't just free center the subject. Now, when I'm watching the video, I see the subject is perfectly centered, and that it is for the 1:1 format. The same techniques could be applied to any resolution or any format. So if you want to export a specific version for Instagram Stories which is 9:16, you just need to change the timeline resolution according to the format which you want the support on. I suggest you use a no loss Codec ProRes if you are working on a Mac environment or [inaudible] if you are exporting to Windows, in order to keep a version of your video at the maximum resolution, and having it ready if you want to create an adaptation for the social media. This is the version that you are going to use it for creating all the adaptation for the social media. You will definitely get fewer compression artifacts if you're uploading your video, the maximum resolution on YouTube and Vimeo. So I would definitely suggest to always use the ProRes or the [inaudible] version when you are uploading your content to any kind of platforms, social media. Another important figure that you always need to keep in consideration when you're uploading your videos across the different social media is the thumbnail. The thumbnail is extremely important. It's the first thing that the viewers are going to see when they are scrolling the videos on the YouTube list, or maybe just on Facebook. So it is important to use something that is captivating. Instead of using one frame or your videos, I suggest that you upload a custom thumbnail, made particularly for the video using maybe a photo. It is important that you are choosing an appropriate image in order to capture the viewer's attention. For example, for my Cefalù video, I'm going to put a thumbnail that is containing an environment and also showing the human, maybe a face or people. This is something that could capture the attention to the viewer. Okay? Make curiosity, I invite the user to watch my video. Okay, guys, now it's your turn, try to create a square version for your video, also, with different lengths. So maybe try, for example, to make a 15-seconds version of your video, just optimize it for Instagram Stories. Most importantly, don't forget to share the videos with us in order to discuss together and see if they are effective and cool work.
13. Watch Oliver's Finished Video: How you doing?
14. Final Thoughts: Look at this. We have created this amazing piece of work. Now that you have watched my class about multiples production, I hope that I gave you the right tools for start your learning process about filmmaking cover. Remember that this is a never ending process. Now it's your turn and you need to make process, take your cameras, start experimenting, and you need to share your knowledge and also what you've learned with the other people, especially in this class. Now guys if you have any comment, any question, you want to know something more, leave a comment. I want this place to be a collaborative place where people can watch the work of the others and discuss together. This is the right start if you want to improve yourself by learning from the others. If you want to know more about me, especially you want to follow my work and my future project, don't forget to follow me on my social media. So guys thank you again for watching. I can't wait to see what you have created. Happy travels and happy filmmaking to everyone.
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Oliver Astrologo, Film Director & Photographer
