By doing this short piece of editing I then had a much more manageable amount of assets to work with and could begin to outline how the footage we had taken worked in conjunction to the storyboard created in the pre production stages. From there onward it was easier to manage the footage on the tracks and make further adjustments with the razor tool where necessary. As this particular piece of advertisement is aimed at a mature audience around the ages of 25-60 , it wasn't a requirement for the video to be fast paced or drastically edited as those kind of editing techniques are reserved for a younger target audience with a much shorter attention span. I concluded that these elongated smooth clips would be much more relaxing and easy on the eye - which is quite fitting for the nature of the shopping environment.
2. In the second version control of the advertisement when the clips were at a more suitable length I introduced the audio , In this case an instrumental rendition of 'Deck the Halls' (rights free). Using the Short cut M , I listened to the audio and began to mark out as seen above indicated by green tabs, the beats of the music which I could use to jump cut in time with later on in the editing process. This small tweak meant that later on when the advertisement was nearing finish , the progression from each shot was lively and matching to the soundtrack I had chosen - I have seen this done in various other marketing campaigns in my research process therefore thought it would be appropriate to follow this convention.
3. Due to filming some of the clips handheld rather than with the Ronin, there were occasional sections of footage that appeared unstable and did not reflect the high quality look I was aiming for. In order to resolve this, during my version 2 edits I looked at all of the clips which had this kind of effect and applied over the footage a warp stabiliser VFX which when analysed gives the entirety of the shot a much smoother aesthetic. This could then be applied directly to all the effected shots which gave instantaneously the look I desired. This could be found in the video effects section within Adobe premier.
4. When looking at the footage in its raw state I personally thought it was lacking the Christmas 'feel' which is one of the most crucial parts of the brief - baring this in mind I decided to do some research into light leaks and the possibilities they hold in terms of brightening and warming a shot. I downloaded (rights free) 4k light leaks and added them over the top of the footage on track one and dropped the opacity to 6% so that the video didn't play directly over the original footage of the shop and story boarded content.
This gave a small glint to each shot giving the impression of a sparkle which is a key attribute to the Christmas aesthetic and dependent on the shot I could pick an appropriate colour which would fit the colour on each shot after being shot in C-log. When looking at shots with magenta tones I looked for a matching leak of either red,orange or purple and when looking at Cyan either blue,purple or white as to not clash.
5. In my 3rd version control I decided it was time to start adding creative flair to the ways the clips transitioned between each other alongside the aforementioned cut to music. Having done some research into smooth transitions I decided to experiment with a cross/film dissolve in order to move fluidly from a shot of some coats hung to the front of the store to show all of the beauty wares the store sells to keep in touch with this idea of representing the products as for both a masculine and feminine audience.
Using the editing panel, I chose both the cross dissolve and film dissolve from the video transitions panel and applied it to the centre of the shots and then using the extension tool on the chosen editing track lengthened the time the edit way applied for so that there was enough footage to blend into when the transition had finished. This type of transition is suited well to the type of advertisement I was creating as mentioned before as I had to repeatedly remind myself of the target audience and what would be most visually appealing for them ie: slow smooth transition for those aged over 50 as to not give a false impression of the nature of the shop.
Harsh cuts would be more apt for a young persons fashion shop however Sandersons needed to show their ability to work with all ages - this was shown by using a variety of actors and in this kind of decision in the editing process.
6. All good advertisements start with the company branding and occasionally a look at the shop itself, when looking at other similar retail companies I noticed that this was an ideal way to introduce the department store and set the scene for the rest of the video. Having taken the Ariel shots on a winters morning in November there was nothing that explicitly told the time of year (no snow only the shops dressing) therefore I decided as the brief was to create a Christmas advertisement , something needed to be done to make this more apparent. Having watched a few short tutorials on how to achieve this effect I went online and downloaded another piece of footage which featured snowfall and as with the light leaks - layered it over the shot of the shop as can be seen above. I then altered tilt , swivel and distance to the image - warping the footage where needs be to create the effect that the snow was falling in all different directions toward and away from the camera. This gave the shot some dimension and also meant that the brief had been taken strongly into consideration. In addition to this I added an adjustment layer which wasnt present before over the entirety of the video meaning there was a cinematic crop throughout which really gives that professional look.
Then having gathered the assets from the client (fonts, logos etc) I decided to add branding to the opening scenes like I had seen previously in my research with competition companies like House of Fraser . Using the cross dissolve video transition I had used previously, I made the footage with the snow fade into and remain underneath the logo and on the editing track beneath. Having watched the youtube tutorial , I learnt that the snow footage could be layered multiple times to create a heavier snow shower therefore when introducing the logo onto the screen I layered another track on top of snow and adjusted the tilt, swivel and distance to the image again so that the snow fell in front of the logo - again creating that desired depth of field which would be present should it be snowing.
7. When reviewing the Vox pop footage during creating a footage log , it became apparent that the colouring was too cool due to the lighting conditions within the small space we had to shoot however this gave me the chance to colour edit some of the footage in Adobe Premier pro. I did this by clicking on the editing panel to the top of the workstation and then using the sliders make adjustments to the footage. I first of all lowered the temperature to bring out the cyan in the shot and then counteracted this using the tint and pulling back the magenta tones which gives the shot as shown above a more orangey overlay - this connotes the warmth of the store in contrast to the colder looking outdoor shots. I then looked closely at highlights and shadows making sure they complimented each other nicely in terms of making the darks less obvious and retaining the whites to give that crisp wintery feel that was so crucial in the brief. By pitching the highlights and shadows against each other and increasing the contrast/exposure slightly the peachy tones within the footage peak and allow the blacks to create a strong contrast against the rest of the shot which ultimately makes it look sharper.
This was then applied to all the Vox pops and adjusted accordingly to suit skin tones and other factors such as makeup and lighting changes.
8. Using the same technique as mentioned before in example 6, I decided to have a matching ending to the beginning of the video to reinforce the branding as this is a convention I have seen frequently in my research stages. However this time I played it over a drone shot flying away from the store (as if the whole video has been a journey) and then using the text tools and once again the cross dissolve - I made each asset appear in order onto the screen. This keeps the viewer engaged for longer and associates all of the products which have been showcased in the video with the web name and social media outlets such as facebook, snapchat and instagram.
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