Assignment 4 Failed Attempt

I started filming by "scouting" for suitable locations for the superhero assignment. According to my storyboard, I should film myself sitting at a table with a blank wall behind me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a suitable place at home. Most of the walls at home are decorated, the hall is too dark (I turned on ALL the lights in the DAY but half of my face is still covered in shadow), and my "studying desk" in my room is actually a built-in desk facing the window (so it's impossible to place the camera outside the window, in midair o.0).

As a result, I packed my equipment and props (camera, tripod, books/readings, macbook) to my aunt's house to film. There is a nice blank white wall in the hall. I brought along my storyboard, so that I can tick off the scenes I completed, in case I left out anything. Actually, when I got there, I realized it's still a bit dark with the house lights turned on in daytime. I then remembered that I can adjust the aperture and exposure to get a better image. I filmed in standard definition (SD).

Some time was spent framing the shot as I did the whole film myself, including being the camera person, so I had to run back and forth to check the shot.

I filmed the first and last scenes first, since they should be more similar, as both are not part of the dream scenes. I then filmed the scenes with the cloned "me"s first, before the longer scene of the original me. This was because I thought I should film the cloned "me"s removing the items on the table first, so they will be at the same place as they were before the dream. Then I can just edit to add the original me with the empty table. I thought I could just add the items back since I got them in the scenes of the cloned "me"s anyway.

The split screens were filmed last as less precision is needed: they can be cropped as necessary.

I also didn't take the close ups as I thought SD quality is good enough for me to zoom in during post-editing.

It was when I started post-editing that I realized I made a BIG mistake. The scenes with the original me couldn't be edited to fit with the cloned ones! This was because I took the wrong position on the table without the items, so the clips now overlap. I tried editing the mask (I'm using After Effects as I don't have Premier Pro and I'm not familiar with iMovie), and even searched tutorials online for rotoscoping but they all don't work. (Even if they do, it's extremely time-consuming.) The fastest way is probably to re-film.

Other problems I encountered are the SD version is only 640 x 480, smaller than my movie of 720 x 480. Thus my plan for close-ups are gone.

In the end I gave up on editing the video. The failed version will still be uploaded to the server though, if Julian you want to take a look. The version with the number 1 at the back is the final one.