Today I had the opportunity to edit the footage filmed in the last workshop. For the edit, I wanted to replace the sky to create a surreal world edit.
To do this, I took my footage into premier pro and started to decide how I was going to do this.
First, I thought maybe I could mask out the background, but then realised this may be too difficult due to the different objects being placed in different frames, this would of meant that I would have to mask out every single frame which did not seem very practical, therefore, I started to think about different methods.
I then decided that I could achieve the desired effect if I removed the background through colour keying rather than masking. This method seemed a lot more practical but still difficult as there were many colours in the background of the sky, even more so as I filmed the clip during sunset. This highlighted to me that next time If I am to do this, it will be more effective to film on a clear outcast day as this means the sky will be mostly one colour, making it easier to edit out.
I started to colour key out the sky, changing the tolerance each time so that other parts of the film (the road and cars etc) didn't get removed too.
I continued to do this until the sky was completely removed. I then added a sky clip that I already had saved onto my computer and added it behind the colour keyed out clip, creating a different sky with the road. I then carried on to play around with the keying to make sure that the sky was present at all times. I cropped the background to fit into the sky without covering the road etc and experimented with different blending options to get the desired effect.
Once I had added the background, I started to think about how I could blend the two together, just like how I would on photoshop with my surreal photo edits. I thought about filters. I like old film styles such as vis and super 8, therefore, I decided to add this type of aesthetic to the film. To achieve this, I first nested the film to create one set of footage to edit. I then cropped the edit to be square, as vis footage is square. I then got a vis preset and added this on top of the film. as well as noise. I started to play around with different lighting settings over the whole film, to blend it all together. I then added 'turbulent displace' over the video to create a warp line going through the video, as it would on an old record player to give the complete aesthetic.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of this film as I feel that I have effectively edited the sky how I wanted to, though, I have learned some important factors to make my work much better next time, such as making sure to film on an overcast day when the sky is all the same colour as it will be easier to edit out, which will make the editing much more effective. I will think more about the colours next time and how they contrast making it easier.
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