Final Week of Digital Video and Audio Editing

Image retrieved from https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/01/15/12/02/editing-1141505_1280.jpg

This week’s blog post came to be a bit of a struggle to write as essentially I am hitting my writer’s block moment. So, for this week I will write about my projects and the outcome of my first class.

I have reached the final week of my Digital Video and Audio Editing class. Time sure does fly! The typical cliche phrase for describing how fast time passes. No, but seriously, this class went by fast for me. I entered the room the first day thinking that I was going to have a hard time because of some of the projects I had to create (I am talking about that YouTube introduction video). However, I gained the mentality of trying to experience things out of my comfort zone. I am taking baby steps when it comes to that, so having to make a YouTube introduction video was a huge jump off the cliff.

To make the process of filming that video more entertaining for myself as well as bearable, I decided to wear a wig. I took it as a moment to feel like someone else, to feel like the more outgoing side of me that is always locked behind the shyness was able to finally have her moment. Talking about topics that interest me and that I enjoy talking about was also a huge help during the filming process of the video.

Now looking at it from the perspective of editing, the filming portion of the project was a huge complication for me. My family and my house are always loud because of my two little brothers, so background noise was going to be present and the editing process would have been a huge headache. Thankfully, I was lucky this time around and gained a time where my family had to leave the house for errands and the lightning outside was adequate for filming a video in my room with the window shades open. No background noise was present, which will make editing my audio more smoothly.

Overall I learned a lot with this class. Video editing was something that always intrigued me, but I never knew where to even begin learning. Being able to film my videos and edit them myself felt like a huge accomplishment for me already.

Movies and their Trailers

Image retrieved from https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/d0b8d380296051.5cdcf64287506.png

Recently I went to watch the movie Detective Pikachu with some friends and luckily we got there in time to sit through some trailers. Since I am currently having a class on video editing, I found myself fascinated by the way some of these trailers’ editing caught my attention. Movies that I would never think of seeing, because they are not of my interest, caught my attention simply because of the way the trailer was edited. Does that mean I will go watch it? Most likely not, but if I were to put myself in the shoes of fans who enjoy these types of movies, I could see myself getting excited for its release based on the sneak peek shown in the trailer.

One trailer, in particular, intrigued the designer in me, which was the trailer for the new film Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Let it be known that I have never seen a Godzilla movie nor do I find the interest to watch one, but something about this trailer was amazingly put together! The music at the beginning of the trailer sets the mood instantly for the destruction that will occur in the movie and it appealed to the emotional and action-packed premise of the film.

Movie trailers are all about advertising the movie and getting the audience excited about going to see the movie. The editing of these trailers must be taken into careful planning and consideration as essentially they have to captivate what a 2-hour long movie is about in around 2 minutes. Within that time frame, the designer must be able to catch people’s attention, interest people to watch the movie, and give a little idea as to what the movie is about. They are selling the idea that the money you spend on that movie ticket and the time you will take out of your day to sit through that movie will be worth it.

Video Editing and Advertising

Recently I’ve found a new interest in the world of advertising, specifically in terms of video. As I mentioned previously, my first Graphic Design class is Digital Video and Audio editing, so videos are a huge aspect of advertising.

Recently an alumnus of my school, who had already graduated, came to class and spoke about his current work and what it entails. A major aspect of his work is to create videos for companies to promote a certain product or service of theirs. He spoke through how he starts a project, how he organizes, gathers materials, and edits it all together. Needless to say, this whole process is quite long and tedious as well as very detailed oriented.

Anything minor can make a major difference to the message of a video. Anything from fonts, colors, audio, and images can alter what you want people to take out of the video. You have to envision the product and who the product is targeted towards for the creation of the video. Music sets the mood and entices people to get the product, while transitions can capture the audience’s attention.

Certainly, after this class, I’ll start to view advertisements with a different set of eyes, even if I find that I won’t be going into the actual creating and editing aspect of them. I’ve had my frustrations with video editing already, enough to realize that this side of Graphic Design just isn’t for me, but I still find it exciting to learn.

The Beginning…

of a Graphic Design Student

Everything must begin somewhere, so for me to go into talking about being a student I must first begin as to why I wanted to study Graphic Design. As a child, I always enjoyed drawing and art. I remember that my father used to draw and paint cartoons on the walls of our room and somehow from that memory I was influenced to start going down an artistic career path. Of course when I started it was messy doodles and stick figures, so I slowly developed my skills overtime by taking art classes in high school and looking at tutorials on Youtube. To this day I still have the mentality of my artwork not being good enough, but I feel that is a mentality many artists carry.

My interest in Graphic Design began during my freshman year of high school when I took a Digital Design class. My teacher was possibly the best teacher I had in years. She supported me, gave me advice on how to improve my projects, became a friend and mentor to me. I was terrified to start her class because I was not good with computers nor did I know a thing about Digital Design, but that was the main reason of taking the class which was to learn more about it. I ended up loving and enjoying myself in that class which is why today I want to pursue Graphic Design as a career. The picture below is of a typographical portrait project I created in her class, the one project that gave me much struggle because I went past the deadline and needed an extension because my perfectionism took over me. Thinking about it now, I see where I could have cut down my time and not focus too much on the minor details. This project could still be improved, but I was pretty satisfied with the outcome. Sadly the formatting was a little off because it was a copy of an old file that I no longer have access to since it was saved on a student email of my old high school.

Typographical Portrait done in Illustrator of a Kotori Minami Cosplayer.
Created Sophomore Year of High School in Digital Design II

I am still not quite sure where I want to narrow down my focus for my future career as a Graphic Designer. I came to the thought that pursuing an Associate’s Degree in Graphic Arts and Design will give me many options to explore and learn about which will allow me to find what I enjoy the most.

My first course is Digital Video and Audio Editing. This subject was not one that I was super excited about because I was not interested in this aspect of Graphic Design, but I do enjoy films. The way certain films are edited catches my attention as some scenes are predominantly better than others. Video editing was something that I wanted to learn as more of a hobby rather than a career, so I am looking forward to that aspect of this course. However, I am the type of person that avoids being on camera as much as possible, so that is something that will be troubling but I know I need to improve on.