So a couple of weeks ago, I had begun working for a photography/videography studio full time! A change from my freelance work. However, I’d still like to put some updates in my creative process and journey. For this role, I’m a video editor and motion graphics designer. For the moment anyway, it has been more heavy on the motion graphics and so I wanted to take this as an opportunity to learn Blender!
Blender Artists: Inspiration
I’ve always felt that in order to up my game in motion graphics, it would be amazing to learn 3D. I absolutely love these styles here from instagram and to see them in motion would be absolutely amazing:
Beginning Blender
To begin my journey with learning Blender… (for the 3rd time….!) I found this video from YouTube encouraging…
And of course my journey begins (for the second attempt) with this donut:
Resources:
What I Wish I Knew Before I Started Learning Blender 3D – Brad Cobow [https://youtu.be/m6U09BKETHY]
Blender 3.0 Beginner Tutorial – Part 1 [https://youtu.be/nIoXOplUvAw]
In the last few weeks I had come across ‘Unsplice’ on Spotify. I had been on the hunt for new creative podcasts to listen to and was so amazed to discover this podcast! It’s a lot easier to find design podcasts, so I was thrilled to find a video editing one – and it turns out to be a great one.
Usually I don’t often subscribe to newsletters and the ones that I am subscribed to I don’t read. But Shiny’s newsletters are good. Like so gooood. Concise, to the point and not spammy at all. Signing an account on his website also allows access to a short free course on ‘How to go pro’ in video editing.
I came to know Kyle last year through Upwork, the freelancer platform. Since then, I’ve worked on a number of projects with him. First I did animations for the first section of his accounting course. Then this ad for the course that is now up on Maxwell CPA Review. This year I have been working on a couple more animations, which has been great for honing my motion graphic skills.
Workflow & Relationships
Work relations for this project is simple. Direct to my client Kyle who owns Maxwell CPA Review so communication has been straightforward.
Assets Provided
Audio file
Script
Any supporting images
The script has been the greatest help ever! It is so helpful to view everything that is in the audio file almost word for word. This enables me to highlight key words and phrases that are important, would be pasted in the animation and also what visual aids I need to search for.
Key Takeaways
Although accounting is something I haven’t a clue about… perhaps that has played to my strengths. In order for me to actually understand what on earth does anything mean I really had to rely on Kyle’s analogies and illustrations to find the right assets to visually depict the concepts and equations. In that way, it has been challenging to the mind and searching for similar illustrations… because who got time to make them from scratch! I use Envato Elements to download any vector icons/illustrations to animate.
Tips & Tricks learned
Searching for Assets
This has required lots of creativity! Finding illustrations that have a similar style and feel is often the challenge when you can’t guarantee the topic/area even has an illustration out there. So when searching through Envato Elements I tried to select the closest and even mix and match certain illustrations.
Paper Crumple
For this effect, I have used two elements from different files: the full paper on the left and a crumpled paper on the right.
First I applied the ‘Mesh Warp‘ effect to the flat paper, key framed the crumple and warped it to the already crumpled paper illustration. I made sure to key the opacity as well to make the transition smoother. I’m sure there’s probably a better way of doing this, but since the animation is quick I stuck with this method.
Using Overlord
What I found the most annoying was having to shift between Illustrator and After Effects. In this project, I didn’t use Overlord yet… instead imported the entire Illustrator file with it’s different layers for animating the character. With Overlord I can create new layers and immediately push to After Effects with all it’s Bezier handles! It has been a huge time saver for any tweaks.
Most of my work has come through Upwork, the freelancer platform. This is no different. I’ve been working on a number of projects with Tuba Time (a media studio in the States) and one of their clients is Replicant (a contact center resolving issues with automation). The project is to produce a ‘Thank You’ video from Replicant’s customers who sent in pre-recordings of their thanks.
Workflow & Relationships
I deal directly with the main guy who manages the media studio Tuba Time. In many ways it’s really nice to be under this media studio because I don’ t have to find the clients myself! Of course the down side is that I’m sure that I wouldn’t be earning as much as I could… but I’m happy with this set up at the moment! We mainly communicate via the Upwork platform.
He has also been using Trello to organize projects. It’s been amazing because everything is so clear, so straightforward. I know when the deadline will be, access to the brief, script files if available and updates on the project.
Finally to share the files we use Dropbox. I log into a ‘freelancer user’ he had set up and then there is the option to sync and download locally the correct folder onto my laptop. When I’m done with the project, all there needs doing is to remove the files from my laptop but all remains as is on Dropbox. Absolutely been a great set up to work!
I’ve been also very grateful that after asking him if I could showcase the work I’ve done on my portfolio that he encouraged it, which I truly appreciate.
Assets Provided
Replicant’s branding
Script
Audio files
After Effects file with simple graphic templates
Key Takeaways
The first draft I sent out was absolutely bland. There wasn’t much movement or background variation, but I wasn’t too sure what they were after so I put the main focus on the audio waveform element. Most of the time, I would prefer to just get some kind of foothold before taking the leap. This way I save myself time and energy; and the client money and energy.
When I received the client feedback, it became clearer that they wanted to play with the background options. They provided an excellent reference video, which then sparked ideas for dynamic movement.
Tips & Tricks learned
Improving Text Animation Skills
Setting up and keying animation for text can be daunting and confusing. This project allowed me to explore and get comfortable with the controls. I was then reminded the need to set up presets and get the hang of that. I’ve been putting it off for ages so I’ve realised it would be a good practice to do so.
Waveform Experimentation
This has been the main bulk of pushing my learning and adapting creatively to make use of this technique visually, bearing the brand in mind. For their company branding PDF, they clearly state their colours and shapes that are simple flowing lines and blobs. This sparked the idea to create two visuals from one waveform.
Thanks to Tuba Time for also providing some good tutorial references:
The other day I stumbled across the YouTube channel Plainly Simple and absolutely fell in love with their content! The first video I watched wasn’t the one above, but it was actually ‘Motion Design: Where To Start?’ (the video below). The reason why I clicked on it was because the Thumbnail I thought was beautifully eye-catching! Of course the topic also intrigued me, although I’m interested in video editing the most, I find myself going down the rabbit hole of all areas of the creative sphere and motion design is one of them. I thought ‘It couldn’t hurt to go back to basics and see what someone else’s thoughts are!’.
I found the graphics cute and the host Marvin Te spoke in a clear and concise way. That led me to check out his channel. I watched a couple other videos of his and took away some pointers that truly resonated with me.
*Sneaky screenshot from video*
“Always make sure what you are creating is not for you or what only looks good on your portfolio, but that it is actually in the best interest for your client and that it solves their problem.”
This one was huge for me. I often want to create something awesome, sleek and something like Daniel Schiffer who began creating product videos at home that had the quality and standard of a high end and high budget commerical! Yet all the while I was juggling between time and pay and quality… then also thinking if the quality isn’t to my liking that I wouldn’t have the chance to put it in my portfolio. But this quote here from Marvin Te’s video has been quite freeing and a great reminder of why I love video editing and this creative field – that is seeing my clients thrilled and saying ‘nailed it!’.
Moving forward, this is something I want to remind myself when I’m losing focus and not serving my clients right. After all, as I apparently wrote on my Upwork:
“I enjoy producing work that accurately represents the vision of the client.”
As well as getting my client’s ideas realized. That is what I hope to strive to achieve!
I was first contacted through Upwork, the freelancer platform, via an old job post they had. Out of no where I received an offer for the role and so I naturally questioned if there was some mistake or confusion. Thankfully they did want to work with me so we hopped on a zoom call and I was not long after working for the main video editor at Get Licensed.
Projects I was involved with (Nov-Dec 2021)
Spiking video: adding in motion graphics
A couple of Instagram Stories – Extracting snippets from 20 minute long YouTube episodes
Workflow & Relationships
Although I had the chance to meet the manager and actor (via Zoom), I mainly liaised with their full time video editor. The company is based in London, yet most of the team worked from home. So the main method of sending across files to work with was through slack. For the Spiking video, it was already a pre-edited cut, just without motion graphics. The assets for creating the Instagram stories were the episodes rendered out without music and the individual music files. It’s quite a destructive way of working, but absolutely efficient and a sure-fire way to avoid maxing out storage!
Tips & Tricks learned
How to Hide Cuts Smoothly
The easiest way is to slap on B-roll over cuts. I’ve also found to pick up the pace and shave off time from a video to cut out dead spaces of the talking A-roll. A relatively new tip that I had thought to do in the Spiking video is to insert a title or text of what the speaker is saying either to give emphasis or to break up the video into smaller sections. Granted, this may not work if there are way too many cuts! In that case scaling in and out would So a combination of these suggestions might do the trick.
Sleek Text Behind Objects
I thought to key out the main speaker and separate him from the background. It had been a bit tricky to get the balance right since the back drop isn’t a green screen. Some highlights from his face were creating holes! Thankfully animated the text in is quick so if it lingered behind him for longer it would expose the drawbacks to the effect.
A cloudy day that turned to non-stop rain. It certainly helped with more or less consistent lighting.
PREPARATION
I’ve been friends with Heidi for 7 years now! It has been such a privilege and joy to shoot and edit her wedding video. I made two – the full length version was 1 hour 40 min and the second video is the highlights around 7 min.
I’ve been getting into videography and motion graphics in the past 2 years. I’ve mainly done travel videos and some graphic templates. When she first asked me to be her wedding videographer, I was so excited and so freaking out! I certainly felt the pressure of making it good. The only disappointing thing was because of Covid restrictions, my boyfriend couldn’t come and film as well. It would have been incredibly handy to have extra angles to capture those expressions.
My first instinct was to jump on YouTube and search for Wedding Videography Tips and ‘How-Tos’. I have looked up to a lot of videographers on YouTube who showcase their work and provide helpful tutorials. Here are a few videos with tips and considerations I found useful before the day of the wedding.
Matti Haapoja – 7 Pro Tips for Wedding Videography!
Matt WhoisMatt Johnson – My Favourite Lens for Wedding Filmmaking!
As I was getting ready prepping with theory and strategy, there was one tip that I learned from Daniel Schiffer that I had to do. That was making a shot list. I prepared a shot list for Heidi, then sent it to her to double check if I missed anything. This was really key in ensuring that I don’t miss any moment or people in the video.
Daniel Schiffer — How I plan Shots & Transitions | B ROLL 101
**Something to note is I did consider the issue of audio, but thankfully the ceremony was being broadcasted through zoom and they had extra cameras and audio set up, which was something I didn’t need to worry about.
The next thing I did was to present the couple a few reference videos on YouTube of what style they would want the video to be. They didn’t seem to fussed but they certainly liked the examples I had given them.
WEDDING DAY
This was how it all went down:
7 A.M. WAKE UP 8 A.M. LEAVE TO TRAIN 10:30 A.M. ARRIVE AT HOTEL – Film Bride and Groom 12 P.M. GROOM LEAVES HOTEL TO CHURCH 1 P.M. BRIDE LEAVES HOTEL TO CHURCH 1:30 P.M. CEREMONY STARTS 3:30 P.M. LATE LUNCH 5 P.M. GROUP PHOTOS 5:45 P.M. TEA CEREMONY
CAMERA – Lumix G85 LENS – ZhongYi Mitakon 25mm f/0.95 Lumix G VARIO 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6
The first half of the day went surprisingly smooth. Arrived unscathed at the hotel, found the bride’s room no problem and began shooting while she was getting her make up done. I got some shots of the dress and rings as well. Later on the groom was ready, so I got some shots the grooms men helping the groom with his suit. Then other closeup shots with placing the handkerchief in the pocket, tying shoes. After the groom was ready, we all headed back to the bride. Heidi hid behind the door ajar and David approached and they touched hands. It was a very cute scene to film! David and the groomsmen went off to the church venue. Meanwhile the rest of the time I spent filming the Heidi’s parents helping her with her dress.
All these scenes I shot using the Mitakon f/0.95 to get that awesome depth of field combined with close up shots all hand held. The plan was I would leave with the bride’s mum first and once we got to the church, I would switch to the 14-42mm and use the DJI Ronin-sc gimbal. Total fail.
I spent a good 30 minutes fixing and trying to set up the gimbal….! So incredibly frustrating. I realised that I didn’t bring my quick release plate and so I had to redo the entire set up. Even when I got my camera on, it wouldn’t stop jittering. Eventually I got it working. Unfortunately the footage using the 14-42mm was a bit too dark, I should have realised the interior of the church wasn’t that well lit. I ended up having to do hand held shots with the Mitakon during the signing and also during the first dance – which worked out really nicely!
FILMING HINDSIGHT
WHAT WORKED OUT
Preparing the shot list
Getting there early at the hotel
Mitakon f/0.95 close ups
Transitions and shot ideas – rehearsing the movements beforehand and also coming up with transitions on the spot
POINTERS FOR NEXT TIME
An extra person filming with me would be great
Seriously need to check and prepare for the gimbal set up
Account for delays throughout the wedding
Save up for zoom lenses – luckily I know the bride well so I didn’t feel awkward getting in their faces.
VIDEO EDITING
Having other on going projects, I ended up completing all the vidoes in about a month and a half. I use the apps Clockify and RescueTime to track roughly the amount of time spent. I ended up doing 17-20 hours of work on editing. The wedding video took around 8 hours and the highlights took 6 hours – excluding changes.
Originally I was thinking of doing this for free for my friend, but she kindly offered to pay at a discounted rate. That made me reflect what kind of price I should charge in the future…
EXTRA FILES: – Zoom recorded video – Bridesmaid video and audio – Wedding graphics
With the combination of the zoom video files, that helped fill in the gaps that I couldn’t get. Overall I’m really delighted with the final outcome of the highlights video. The only annoying aspect was the inconsistency of quality of the clips. It had been a tough process of filtering out all the clips so I began editing it in chronological order, getting the best bits. Then I was able to jumble it up to match the transitions and the progression of the story. I completed the full video first before attempting the highlights… and boy I NEEDED motivation for that. Sometimes, starting from scratch, new music and just bringing in the best clips together is just the way to go.
VIDEO EDITING HINDSIGHT
WHAT WORKED OUT
Choosing the music first
Cutting only the best clips chronologically and saving that as an original sequence
Editing based on those chosen clips
Sending a sample for the couple to check the video direction
POINTERS FOR NEXT TIME
The zoom file came as an MTS file. I now hate MTS files. That took so long to figure out how to resolve the audio. Definitely have a better understanding though now.
There were a couple of changes that the couple wanted to make, which of course is not a problem at all. Thankfully they were simple changes. But certainly always to be prepared for changes, to save and make all files in a way that can be revisited and edited.
Another thing is it made me consider how to charge if there were multiple changes needed.
THANK YOU…
for reading me documenting my first experience as a wedding videographer. What was your first wedding gig like? Or first time going out there filming and editing?
