Intro to the Making of: Semester 2: Week 8: 10/4/18: Sound in Premier, showreel and clips collecting.
In week 8's session of Intro to the Making of, the group were shown some aspects of Premier pro when working with sounds in the clips, and we were reminded that the deadline for our work including the essay and show reel were due for hand in on the 9th and 1st May. This meant from this point it's all hands on deck. I was feeling rather anxious and nervous as Annabeth described the hand in for our work including the show reel and Pecha Kucha presentation which I had forgotten about given recent work. Thankfully though we were reminded what to include in the show reel which was the best moments of our semester from the other modules, and thankfully I had a few moments worth including in the reel along with music to play along the show reel.
The focus though would be on Intro to the Making of, as it would be the first module to hand in before the others on May 14th. Annabeth proceeded to show us some methods of working with sound in Premier Pro, and how to either increase the volume and more. I knew already about how to import only the clip or sound into the time line from the last session we used Premier, by the use of the symbols below the preview window. This time though we would be shown some examples on what to do with sound such as in the audio effects option a way to increase the volume of the videos audio and ways of creating key frames using either the traditional stopwatch options in the effects and the pen tool.
What took an interest for me was the audio effects means of altering the speakers voice to sound more like a robotic voice. This for me was something I needed to learn as I would be doing an audio comic later in summer and if there was a way to alter my voice to sound like a character this would be a big help. Other effects included delaying the soundtrack or even using the speed in the timing option. I was familiar with this from using premier on some of my past uni work from semester 1 and by altering it, the voice could either speed up like a chipmunk voice or slowdown to make a deep voice. This felt like an easy method to create chipmunk like sounds.
Upon the briefings end I set to work on what I had to do and the first element was starting to list some of the best moments from the module so that I could make a start on the show reel. One moment of intro to the making of that I knew was most important was the background animation work as this was the moment I learned how to breathe life into my still illustrations. Other elements were the makerspace workshops and doing animation within Maya which I felt could be of viable use to show some of the struggles in the module that I faced.
Annabeth then talked to me about my work on the green screening that I did over Easter and how I may want to try and raise the volume of the sounds or possibly consider rerecording them in a sound booth to get a better quality of sound. First though we played with the sound by altering the volume, using the htz option in Premier, which did raise the sound but at the same time I couldn't help but notice some cut outs in the audio. This was a huge concern to me as if the sound cut out in the final version it wouldn't be a viable submission.
We soon discussed the matter of the clips to include in my essay and I asked for a reminder how to get clips into Premier using the VLC player and she was happy to show me how. To begin we found the video we wanted on YouTube namely a clip from Quest for Camelot, opened the share option and copied the URL inside it. The VLC player was then opened and in the Media option she selected open network space and pasted the URL inside it opening it in VLC. In the tools option she selected media information and copied the URL by highlighting a key point and clicking select all before copying. This was for the final element pasting it into a chrome search engine and this would then bring up the footage itself to then be downloaded into a file.
I repeated this method gathering the clips I needed based on the list from my progress report and my script. However in some instances the clips wouldn't save as mp4 files but as another under .webm what that meant was it would only open in the VLC and no other app. I tried to convert it using the encoder or premier but it wouldn't support it which was a big problem for me and it got me very concerned. Despite my clip selection I added several more clips for my intro and other sections of the essay such as clips from Road to Eldorado and Luxo junior (the PIXAR lamp) as one was an authentic piece of 3D animation from years ago and the other represented another animation company and I added a clip from Wallace and Gromit's a Grand day out to represent stop motion animation.
In sessions end I had acquired a very viable collection of clips for my essay and would trim them down in Premier for use in the video essay. Looking back on the session I would think that I would've done some elements differently such as asking more information about the Pecha Kucha presentation to make sure I knew what elements needed to be included. I would also make inquires into the .webm issue to see if there was anyway of correcting this besides searching for new clips as this happened on clips for certain parts of the essay such as the intro to Looney Tunes. In hindsight I should've remembered the show reel aspect of the module maybe then it would give me more time to consider what elements of each module to include and how to format it. However, this was likely due to my attention on other modules and their assignments spreading the mind a little too thin.
Todays lesson made sense in gathering the clips for my essay and learning how to raise the sound volume in the clip to make it easier to hear. In conclusion the lesson was insightful in learning about the use of sound in Premier and if I had more time I would've done some sound experiments on some of my clips or past work to get a feel for the controls and methods. In future I shall be sure to consider all the aspects of the module and take a closer look at the brief, so as not to, forget about certain elements be it the show reel or Pecha Kucha presentation. My main focus now will be to make sure my work is up to date and get on track with the show reel and other module work.
The focus though would be on Intro to the Making of, as it would be the first module to hand in before the others on May 14th. Annabeth proceeded to show us some methods of working with sound in Premier Pro, and how to either increase the volume and more. I knew already about how to import only the clip or sound into the time line from the last session we used Premier, by the use of the symbols below the preview window. This time though we would be shown some examples on what to do with sound such as in the audio effects option a way to increase the volume of the videos audio and ways of creating key frames using either the traditional stopwatch options in the effects and the pen tool.
What took an interest for me was the audio effects means of altering the speakers voice to sound more like a robotic voice. This for me was something I needed to learn as I would be doing an audio comic later in summer and if there was a way to alter my voice to sound like a character this would be a big help. Other effects included delaying the soundtrack or even using the speed in the timing option. I was familiar with this from using premier on some of my past uni work from semester 1 and by altering it, the voice could either speed up like a chipmunk voice or slowdown to make a deep voice. This felt like an easy method to create chipmunk like sounds.
Upon the briefings end I set to work on what I had to do and the first element was starting to list some of the best moments from the module so that I could make a start on the show reel. One moment of intro to the making of that I knew was most important was the background animation work as this was the moment I learned how to breathe life into my still illustrations. Other elements were the makerspace workshops and doing animation within Maya which I felt could be of viable use to show some of the struggles in the module that I faced.
Annabeth then talked to me about my work on the green screening that I did over Easter and how I may want to try and raise the volume of the sounds or possibly consider rerecording them in a sound booth to get a better quality of sound. First though we played with the sound by altering the volume, using the htz option in Premier, which did raise the sound but at the same time I couldn't help but notice some cut outs in the audio. This was a huge concern to me as if the sound cut out in the final version it wouldn't be a viable submission.
We soon discussed the matter of the clips to include in my essay and I asked for a reminder how to get clips into Premier using the VLC player and she was happy to show me how. To begin we found the video we wanted on YouTube namely a clip from Quest for Camelot, opened the share option and copied the URL inside it. The VLC player was then opened and in the Media option she selected open network space and pasted the URL inside it opening it in VLC. In the tools option she selected media information and copied the URL by highlighting a key point and clicking select all before copying. This was for the final element pasting it into a chrome search engine and this would then bring up the footage itself to then be downloaded into a file.
I repeated this method gathering the clips I needed based on the list from my progress report and my script. However in some instances the clips wouldn't save as mp4 files but as another under .webm what that meant was it would only open in the VLC and no other app. I tried to convert it using the encoder or premier but it wouldn't support it which was a big problem for me and it got me very concerned. Despite my clip selection I added several more clips for my intro and other sections of the essay such as clips from Road to Eldorado and Luxo junior (the PIXAR lamp) as one was an authentic piece of 3D animation from years ago and the other represented another animation company and I added a clip from Wallace and Gromit's a Grand day out to represent stop motion animation.
In sessions end I had acquired a very viable collection of clips for my essay and would trim them down in Premier for use in the video essay. Looking back on the session I would think that I would've done some elements differently such as asking more information about the Pecha Kucha presentation to make sure I knew what elements needed to be included. I would also make inquires into the .webm issue to see if there was anyway of correcting this besides searching for new clips as this happened on clips for certain parts of the essay such as the intro to Looney Tunes. In hindsight I should've remembered the show reel aspect of the module maybe then it would give me more time to consider what elements of each module to include and how to format it. However, this was likely due to my attention on other modules and their assignments spreading the mind a little too thin.
Todays lesson made sense in gathering the clips for my essay and learning how to raise the sound volume in the clip to make it easier to hear. In conclusion the lesson was insightful in learning about the use of sound in Premier and if I had more time I would've done some sound experiments on some of my clips or past work to get a feel for the controls and methods. In future I shall be sure to consider all the aspects of the module and take a closer look at the brief, so as not to, forget about certain elements be it the show reel or Pecha Kucha presentation. My main focus now will be to make sure my work is up to date and get on track with the show reel and other module work.
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