Video Effects We're Going to Use!

We recorded some rough shots for our video today to get an idea of what the final project would look like, and looking through it we knew that it wasn't good enough. Its a glaring sign that the video idea isn't good when even the rough shots feel bad to watch. We had another idea in the works however, something that even sounds more entertaining than the previous.

I'm going to explain some effects we're going to use in our project without spoiling the actual story, (I'll post a full blog on the storyboard tomorrow).

Split Screen: Splitting up the screen into 2 or more parts, often used to show the same actor twice in once frame. To achieve this effect you must record the same scene twice, keeping the camera perfectly still and keeping the set the exact same in each, the only change in the scene will be the actor's movements and/or positioning.

Keying: Tracing around an object, or character and placing them into another scene, or removing the scene from behind them. The image above does a good job using a greenscreen, although you can do it without using After Effects and similar programs. The goal is the same as Split Screen in our case, but using keying is much more precise. 

Close Ups: Simply moving in on an actor/actress to get a closer shot of their face, often used to show an emotion or increase tension. We're going to use this once or twice for comical effect showing the main actor getting frustrated.

Lighting and Colour: An after effect to alter lighting and colour to either match the mood, create atmosphere, or simply make the shot look nicer. This is an effect I imagine we will end up using just to make the project look better, since we're shooting in a light room we may need to alter the colours slightly.