Production Blog: Extra... Extraa

 

   

I am so excited to say that we're almost finished with our opening. The last touches are getting done and it's basically done. However, in this blog I'm going to talk about any extra updates from the past few days. There are a few things we came across.

On the last blog, I talked about the news script and what I wrote. The plan was to do a voiceover on the video with the news script. The television in the background was going to be the source of the news. It was supposed to be blurred and that is when the voice over would come in as background noise. However, due to lack of time, the voice over couldn't be done so we collectively decided to scrap that idea. Basically, the script no longer has any use. This kind of blows because the news would have given some background extra information that helped the audience if they payed attention. Fortunately, the news wasn't essential to the story and the opening is the same without it. It would have been a nice touch though. 

Aside from that, there was also an issue in props and editing. In the closet shot, you can see the bike that isn't supposed to be there yet. The bike was supposed to show up after the character leaves the closet and is introduced to the "alternate reality." My team mate tried to edit out the bike from the shot but the editing software we used didn't have the necessary editing tool. Another option was paying $200 to pay for a video editing app and that's money we don't have.

So I searched around to find a free editing software that I can use to edit out the bike. I want to mention that I am not an expert on editing and the only background in editing I have before this project is in middle school when I tried to make a music edit for a show I liked. Never again. 

I wasn't confident in my editing skills but I managed. I found an editing website called app.simplified.co. I wanted to test if the website would do anything that can edit out the bike. So I took a sample video from one of my previous blogs to see if I can use the website to edit something out. 

The video below is the one I used to test the website

The clip shows a part where a guy is jamming and there is a frame behind him. My goal was to make the frame disappear and if it worked, then that would be the site to use to edit our opening.

Instead of looking for tools that can edit out the frame, I used a sticker shape feature that would fit the area where the frame was and I made it the same color as the wall and put it over it. It worked fine but there was one issue. I couldn't put a time stamp over for the sticker so it would stick for the whole video. 

I would include the product but it wasn't on my personal computer and I was unable to save it.

But, the good news was that the shot we want to fix is only one scene and setting. 

Other than that, the opening is almost at completion and I can't wait for it to be officially finished.

Below is the editing software I found to edit the sample video.