Adobe after effects
Distorted poster shot:
To create the distorted effect on the wall I used the turbulent displacement affect which I had tested in my research section. I felt this worked really well to create the desired effect
Editing
Eating shot (Daisy):
To distort the character of Daisy's features in this shot I used the turbulent displacement effect again, I also used luminosity to add a little colour distortion. I liked how this effect looked.
Looking around shot (Wendy):
I repeated the same process for this scene with the edition of a little saturation to create the effect of the visuals intensifying.
Hand shot:
For this shot I used the echo effect which I had tested in my research section. After experimenting with this to get the right amount of echo. I liked how it turned out but I want to revisit this shot to make it more scary as I felt that it wasn't as scary and interesting as it could be.
Mirror shot:
For this shot I used the bulge effect which I had tested in my research section. I used keying to make the bulge circle follow the movement of Eden's face and I am very happy with the end result.
Premiere pro
Plug hole to record player transition:
I used the masking effect to create a transition from the plughole to the inner circle of the record player. to create this I used keying to fit the scale and positioning of the circle of the plughole to the circle of the vinyl and then I used opacity to fade the plughole out of the shot
Decreasing brightness using masking:
For this scene where Faith is talking the lighting really washed out her features, to fix this issue I used the unsharp mask as well as using to masks on her arm and shoulder to decrease the brightness.
​
The image below shows the finished shot after I added feathering to the masks and I think there's a big improvement from the original.
Original:
With editing:
Decreasing saturation using masking:
For this scene where the record player is being turned on I wanted to apply cinespace 25 to really make the colors pop and create a more cinematic looking shot. However this made the hand of Freddie's character over saturated and pink, to fix this I used a mask and keyed it to the movement of the hand. I then decreased the saturation of the mask, I liked how this effect looked a lot.
Increasing colour balance using masking:
To create a trippy effect for the scene where Maggie is walking down the stairs. I drew out a mask around the center of the corridor which centered Maggie, I then increased the highlight blue balance to 100. This created a really cool blue highlight effect which I think helped show how at this point of the music video reality has become very distorted as the psychedelics are now in full effect.
Using layering to create a colorful echo effect
For the scene where Faith, Freddie and Daisy are dancing in the basement I wanted to create a colorful echo behind them. To create this effect I duplicate the clips of them dancing and put them in a layer below the original clips. I then moved the lower clips slightly and cut them so they were a couple of frames behind. I then decreased the opacity of the original clips to approximately 70%. I then applied Lumetri Color (Legal to Full Range,12 bit) and increased the sharpen and intensity to 100, I then messed around with the shadow tint and vibrancy until I had my desired effect.
Adding patterns to the hand scene with premiere pro
I created this simple pink pattern to on krita using the same technique as I did for the red pattern that I used in my research. I based this pattern off the sketches I made in my research of some ideas of what psychadellic patterns could look like. (see here)
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
I then used masking and colourburn opacity to make it merge with the hand scene I had edited on adobe after effects. I was very happy with how this turned out as I felt it added depth to this shot and made it more intense so the audience would understand why the main character is so scared by looking at her hands, meeting my objective to scare the audience and also help them understand why a drug like lsd could make the user feel out of control and scared.
Using masking to fix lighting issues :
So for this shot the shot before it had red lighting in the hallway but I only had one light which attached to my camera so I fixed this in editing by lumetri colour and a circle mask and then making the shadows red.
Using film dissolve
For the scene where Eden is walking up the stairs I cut it up and used film dissolve to make it look trippy. I also use film dissolve in the end scene to make the two animated scenes fade from black and then back into black so it looked smoother .
Using the red shape to symbolize distress.
I used the red shape animated that I designed in my research to symbolize distress/the acid taking over/ a character losing control. I liked this as it helped me weave this shape into the storyline. Examples of where I used this shape was in the scene where Eden becomes distressed by the distortions of her surroundings and when Wendy thinks people are laughing at her. I also weaved this shape into Wendy's t shirt when she is freaking out outside by using the saturation opacity tool to merge the shape with the orange of her t shirt, I liked this as I felt it made the scene more surreal. I also used the shape in the scene where Eden enters the bedroom and sees the window, I made the opacity strongest in this scene to show that she has totally lost control and the drugs have taken over her decision making entirely. I have screenshotted every use of this which you can see as you scroll down.
Creating the animated outro scene
I used Krita to create the outro scene because this is a program I have experience with as I have used it for 2 previous productions including last years FMP. I began the process for creating the outro by using the fill tool to create a black background. I then created a second layer and wrote out my first sentence 'You Never Know How A Drug Will Affect You' I then used the little lightbulb button so I could trace over this text in the frames after to create a vibrating affect to the text. I chose the colours red and black to fit in with my films colour grading. After I had made a series of these frames I duplicated the frames leaving a couple blank to create a flashing effect. After I finished making this animation I rendered the animation so it was saved in my files and then I started on the second phrase 'Don't Gamble With Your Life" which to create I just deleted the frames on the second layer and I repeated the process and then rendered this file. I then repeated the process for the final quote 'visit talktofrank.com to find out more. I was quite happy with how this turned out. I feel like I could have done this better if I had more time but I think it got the message across and I liked how the flashing timed up with the beat of the song.
Audio editing:
I mostly edited the audio using trial and error, and just experimenting with the essential sound. For the majority of the editing I used room tone as I liked the sound quality I also adjust the audios of clips where the cut changes to make it slightly overlayed to make the clips flow smoother and more naturalistic. A scene where I was most happy with my use of audio editing was the scene where the character Wendy is freaking out because she thinks everyone is laughing at her. I liked how I edited this scene as I felt I was really able to create a scary ambience through my use of audio editing. I use large room ambience on the audio of people laughing and set the amount to 10.0, I liked this preset as the echo and reverb made it sound very distorted. I used room ambience with reverb on the audio clip of Maggie asking Wendy if she's ok I then slowed this audio and reduced the pitch to make it sound even more distorted. I also used keying with the volume effect on this segment of the music to make it dip in volume as the laughing gets louder which I liked a lot.
I also used non diagetic sound using this clip of a doorbell ringing which I found on YouTube and adding it over the clip I had of the doorbell being pressed.
Editing based on feedback
After I had finished the first edit I sent the finished video to the survey takers who I surveyed in my research and asked them to complete another survey.
​
The main piece of feedback I received was that my video needed more patterns and more visual distortions. So in order to fulfil this I used Krita to create 3 more patterns and I also added more of the pink pattern that I had created. I created an orange patten a blue pattern and a blue and pink pattern. I created a simple blue and an orange pattern using the same tracing technique as the pink pattern i had made previously.
These patterns were good but I wanted to make some more complex patterns to overlay so I created these two patterns using layering. For the blue and pink pattern \ made one layer for the moving parts and one layer for the still parts. For the rainbow pattern I just used 2 layers to add depth to the rainbow tracing I had created.
​
​
I then layered these patterns over different clips using colour burn and linear burn as well as subtract opacity to merge them with the footage I had and using keying to make the patterns overlayed over specific objects. I did the same with the pink pattern i had created.
I was very happy with the effect this created. I then went in with turbulent displace and added it to a lot more of my footage, especially the intense scenes such as when Wendy thinks everyone is laughing at her. I put the amount of turbulent displace to low (5-10%) but I put the complexity very high to create an almost glitchy effect. I liked this as sometimes turbulent displace can overpower a scene from my experience but I felt this only enhanced the fear of the scenes I applied it to.
Another criticism was that the music video began abruptly with no intro. I had planned in my research to give my music video a cyclical structure, writing in my shot list that it would begin with Eden staring out the window however previously when I had added this clip at the start it was confusing as there was no way for the audience to tell this was a flashforward so in order to fix this I created an animated intro using the template of the rainbow pattern I had created to design a similar pattern that had the phrase yes sir I can boogie woven into it, I created this using a tracing method. I used the colours red and black to fit with the outro and also match the colour palette of my music video. I added the black background using a second layer and using the fill tool. I wanted it to be woven into the first clip however so using the tracing tool I traced over the different shapes making less in the center each time until it was just a border, I removed the black background for this section so I could use the colour burn tool to merge it with the clip of Eden looking out the window.
when the animation was complete I then rendered this animation and layered it over the clip using colour burn, however I wanted to add some background noise. In my shot list I wrote to use a low buzzing sound but when I added thsis I didn't like how it turned out as I wanted it to be more realistic so I decided instead to use city sounds which I then slowed and reverbed using premiere pro, I liked this a lot as the low pitched car horns sounded very ominous. I then added the breathing sounds from the scene where Wendy has a panic attack. The car sound effect I used which I found on YouTube is below and so is the video I gt the breathing sounds from. I was very happy with the end result as I felt it gave my video much more structure and i think this intro will help install fear in the viewer. I was very happy I asked for feedback generally as I feel much more confident that I will be able to reach my target audience and touch them emotionally. I was also very happy I gave myself time to fix all these issues.
