[Diego Barraza]

It is a good idea to trans-code your footage for FCP7 as H.264 will give you a lot of hangups in my experience. Even better if you ditch the whole thing and work in FCPX, you will have less headaches in the long run

[Diego Barraza]

I have also updated mid project (since it was a forced update), and besides a annoying wait for the project to update, all is working fine and I have had no headaches with it. Maybe the only thing was the distraction to play with the new colour wheel setup ☺
Good luck with your project!

Diego Barraza
SaGuarda Studios Ltd.
Sussex, UK

[Diego Barraza]

Your best friend is the the time-stamped transcript. You can copy the text into markers with each soundbite and easily find them. As the edit progresses you can always refer to the time-coded full interview.

Diego Barraza
SaGuarda Studios Ltd.
Sussex, UK

[Diego Barraza]

Hi Thanos, when I edit long interviews I usually lay the whole uncut interview in a timeline. Export the audio and get a time-stamped transcription of the whole interview. I can then mark selections on the paper and find them easily on the timeline. This gives the advantage that I can search for specific words in the text with a “find” command and have a time reference of where to find it in my interview timeline. Any selection I place on my edit I copy the clip from my interview timeline without removing the clip, but I black it out with V command to know that I have already used it in my edit. I can also annotate with markers and navigate the interview that way.

Hope this helps you.

Diego Barraza
SaGuarda Studios Ltd.
Sussex, UK

[Diego Barraza]

First still frame from the shoot. Looking christmasy. Filmed with Sony FS7. I’m still working on the animation and edit so more info soon.

filmmaking-editing-dop-dad

[Diego Barraza]

Thanks for the observations Robin and Mark.

Mark, the first thing I would do differently is ask for more budget! 🙂

The budget was very limited, but its an artist that is independently starting up and I was wanting to support.

First shot of “sandman” was with a dark background so no green screen. Most shots you see with sand pouring are black backgrounds with luma key. The shot you mention at 2:14 I did not want to include it myself so glad to hear you agree with me on that as inconsistent, but I had to accommodate backseat directors (the client) 🙁 My lesson is press for directorial final cut. Many other shots were changed by the client, my cut included a gardener in the greenhouse shot, suggesting a classic love triangle that gave the video a bit more edge.

Most of the skies were replaced, this is the Uk even in summer. They did not want to pay up for time so it got a bit sloppy.

The sand pouring gets lost in green screen in medium shot, if you want to get the particles shoot it back-lit and pull a luma key most definitely. Also, youtube encoding looses a lot of detail.

Overall positive experience, could have been improved with more time and money as always.

filmmaking-editing-dop-dad

[Diego Barraza]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the input. Here in the UK feston light look like this:

So my idea is film the band with real lights around first. Underexpose the festone about two stops and have key light a top soft source. Long shots and close ups. Then film them without the feston but with the top soft source key light, so I can have a plate of them playing to animate with Motion lights as particles around the band. Maybe do some closups with a real bulb going around them.

I like the idea of using that spotlight plugin in FCPX. I will check it out.

My question is more about what would be the best way to arrange the shoot so when I apply the VFX in post it looks as authentic as possible.

filmmaking-editing-dop-dad

[Diego Barraza]

Here is the finished video with the VFX if anybody interested in the finished result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs0wBrL0frA

filmmaking-editing-dop-dad

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[Diego Barraza]

Hi Mark,

This community is the best and most pro out there. Love it.

In the end I shot two versions one in black, (easy because it was shot in my village theater that already has a blackout wall)and then one in green. I propped up a 20 quid ebay green screen lit with two red heads. Footage was shot a 200fps in Amira at 2k ProresHQ. We used kiln dry sand to poor on top of the actor, he told us he actually liked the sensation and found it relaxing 🙂

I am going to post some stills for people to take a look. I have played with both versions and I have to say that luma has better separation than the green screen footage. As you pointed out Mark, with a simple layer adjustment you get very decent results.

Too bad I read your collar idea after the shoot Mark. Very good and fun idea to try out but did not manage to get around to it.

Thanks for the input guys.

Best.

filmmaking-editing-dop-dad

[Diego Barraza]

Thanks for the input Robin. I hear you. I was not so convinced myself on luma keying, might have to get some green screen background. The hour glass is easy for I can do it with a small cardboard, need a bigger green screen for the man though, time to pull some favors.

filmmaking-editing-dop-dad