Making a Montage
When creating video content, there’s a multitude of different things you need to look at besides just simply plopping down the camera and recording the video. To make sure your project is up to the highest level it can be, things such as zooms, camera movements, post production and more. In The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, they present examples for both of these.
Camera movement and Editing
In regards to camera movement, there’s a seemingly unlimited amount of different types of angles and movements you can have. Different types of zooms, devices like dolly’s and truck’s, and specific shot types such as the over-the-shoulder shot. The issue though is despite having all these options, you have to be far more careful and selective to which ones you actually use. For example, if you wanted to film a big group scene, you shouldn’t use extreme close ups on people’s faces. That will distract the viewer, making them uncomfortable and taking their focus away from the rest of the group. On the other hand, if you need to show some extremely small details, it would be illogical to use something like a dolly rather than just zooming in on the details.
When you have the footage recorded, post-production can then begin, mainly editing. In regards to editing, most people view that as when you just splice together all the clips. When you actually edit together a full video though, you realize how much more complicated editing is than simply splicing together clips. For starters, a key part of editing is audio. Even though the main appeal for many will be the video, audio in projects like these is still very important. If things are out of sink or if the audio doesn’t properly compliment it’s video, it can ruin the whole video. Beyond that, editing also allows people the ability to add narration, edit specific clips and video, add in sound effects, and other small details they can think of to enhance the video.
Types of editing
Into the SpiderVerse
Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse is a Golden Globes Best Animated Film winner and this scene was one of the big reasons. To start off, the editing first starts off relatively slow paced, as a way to build up to “the leap of faith”. The edits are out straight cuts, for one because it’s a montage sequence and it makes each section flow better, but also because just normal cuts also presents the scene in a more comic book style, going from panel to panel. We then get to Miles taking the leap and the whole movie slows down. They then splice in a number of different clips to help show how big this leap is, as well as build a build of tension making you think “is he going to be able to swing?”. We then get to the crescendo of the leap, with the song hitting it’s hook and Miles now swinging all through New York. The pace here is a little faster, as it’s supposed to be a fun, high energy scene that shows how Miles has progressed throughout the film.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly
Dragon Ball has been around for nearly 40 years now and is still going strong, with this fight being a great showcase of what the animators and editors can do. From start to finish of the fight, the editing is extremely fast paced, to the point where it almost gets difficult to follow. Normally this would be bad as the viewer can’t really figure out what they’re looking at. For this fight though it’s perfect, as it’s supposed to be a fight between two obscenely strong and fast opponents, so barely being able to follow it adds to the effect. In regards to transition, there’s a large variety of them. Sometimes they follow the fighters like it’s a tracking shot, while other times they use the impact of a hit to switch angles. Both of these styles again add to the feel of the fight, as it emphasizes the speed and power of both fighters, similar again to the fast paced editing.
Captain America: Winter Soldier
There’s a lot of Marvel movies, though this scene from Captain America: Winter Soldier is one of my favorites of them all. To start off, it begins relatively normal, with Steve Rogers sitting there thinking while some “allies” join him in the elevator. The conversation seems normal at first, but the quick transition from Steve’s wandering eyes and concerned face to the weapons being held by the others in the elevator shows something isn’t right. The scene then continues and the editing becomes very slow and methodical. Slow pans of Steve’s face looking around concerned, along with some very close, tight shots to help give the viewer the strong sense of tension currently in that elevator. After a little quip, the action then ramps up and doesn’t stop for the rest of the scene. It’s fairly typical Marvel action at that point, but the great transitions and editing from before the action helped build up the tension for the viewers, making the inevitable fight all that more exciting.
My video
For this week, I filmed and completed post predictions on my own personal montage. For this montage, I choose to give a humorous look at my current living situation. Most of it was me trying to figure out some funny scenarios we’ve had to deal with so far and see if I could film someone doing. I originally had even more clips in mind, but during editing I found the video was becoming even longer than I thought and more clips could begin to make it drag I felt.
In terms of audio, I made sure the music was sort of goofy/silly to keep the same mood I had when recording the clips. I also tried to add things like bleeps, shower sounds, and fire alarms to help add to the humor of the video. For narration, I simply recorded each individual line on their own, then placed it where it needed to be. Overall, I was fairly happy with the final outcome, especially for my first real video project.
