For Video Production we were given, stock footage and told to make an interesting movie using them, and/or our own footage. So took the opportunity to make as cheesy a movie as was possible!
here’s how i made this amazing piece using FINAL CUT PRO
Summary
For my Assignment I decided to arrange the shots in a meaningful narrative. I find it far easier to edit video if I know where I’m going with it, in other words I don’t think i’ll be making any art house films any time soon.
In my film I tried to tell the short story of “business guy” he’s the only character who appears, and reappears; continuously. My film tells the story of a day in the life of business guy, and it tries to illustrate how hectic and full his lifestyle is… yes, to your abject horror this is a corporate film.
I’ve never made a corporate film before but decided i’d experiment and try one out. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a film as cheesy as possible. I used as many techniques as I could to make the film as cheesy and smarmy as possible.
KeyPoints
There is a close up of him early on at a meeting which identifies him as the “WHO” so I think it should be clear to the audience who this film is about.
As for the “WHERE” in this film, I tried to make it EVERYWHERE! To illustrate Business guy’s constant traveling, always fast paced life style.
The “HOW” in the film is illustrated as best as possible, we see how business guy get around, by plane, but we don’t see what makes him good at business, we just the results, the handshakes, the partying.
The “WHY” of the film isn’t really explored, business guy does what he does, there’s no explanation in the film, nor do I think is one necessary
Techniques
Firstly I decided on a soundtrack to flow with the imagery, I went with Phil Collins an Phil Bailey’s gem from the eighties “Easy Lover” the reason I picked this track is because its upbeat and fast pace, but also reminiscent of the whole eighties, Wall street business man, american psycho “genre.”
My sound track doesn’t come in till the second shot, I was trying to give it a good opening impact. The song isn’t synced to the movements throughout the film, its just a suitable accompaniment, I cut the song and faded it out towards the end, but didn’t edit it in any other way.
For most of my transitions from scene to scene I used the pen tool to create fade ins and outs, although I left some without transitions because it suits the flow of the video and the music more. (e.g. when the second plane shot cuts to the big roundabout) I Used one jump cut, which I really like, I never thought of using them before we watched that video in class!(the jump cut is during the meeting early on in the video, the meeting jump cuts to the business guy shaking hands and smiling with everyone)
I then used a super cheesy filter, which rendered a transparent image of business guy smiling and layered it over a shot of his Supposed passport spinning on a map. This was to ensure the audience new it was business guy who was traveling…. but it was also because I love cheesy effects. (You can see this effect in the shot with the passport)
I then used a section of city based, fast paced shot to convey: arriving at a new bustling city. In the time lapse shot of the shopping centre I experimented with overlaying to create some interesting visuals. (I played around with the transparency and tine of the wine glass shot, and I overlayed it on the shopping centre time lapse scene) This overlay carried on into the next scene, where two women are talking, I also added another filter at this point. I added a bloom filter to the two women coming down the escalator. ( this was to convey vibrancy, I wanted the effect to get brighter and “happier” as they descended down the escalator.)
The last effect I used was “inspired” by A-ha’s eighties hit “Take On Me” It is, if anything an entirely unnecessary embellishment! But I feel it adds more interest or importance to eighties guy as our Main character….well, only character.
I ended the film with the typical, business globe, t indicate that business guy is just one of the many peons that this supposed company is made up of.
