Identity - The Video

With the photoshoot completed, I had everything I needed to put together my video.

I worked on the video section by section, using my storyboard for guidance. I made my Intro Card using both Photoshop and After Effects - Photoshop was used to create my sparkly blue sky like background, After Effects was used to add the 'Dollcentric' text and make it move. I designed the background with these main things in mind: Blue being my favourite colour, my love of gradients and cloud like photographs and illustrations, and sparkly yet soft shapes and imagery so that my YouTube channel immediately felt calm and approachable. The font that I chose felt appropriate since it was chunky and easy to read, as well as having that sketchy 'I'm an artist' vibe. The music I chose for it was from Upbeat.io , from their Lo-Fi Beats section. Lo-Fi music is quite popular right now in that it can be very relaxing, so it felt like the perfect way to open my video. I wanted to make sure that my Intro Card reflected my identity not only for this project, but also so that I can use it for future YouTube content like this video.

The next thing that I had planned in my video was a time-lapse of me creating my concept art, with my mood board flashing on screen during it. While editing, I realised how cluttered and distracting that looked, so changed my plan a little. I instead showed my inspiration on its own so that the viewer had less to focus on at a time to provide visual clarity. The time-lapse idea was also scrapped, it felt like I was adding it just to try and show off, so it seemed out of place. I just showed a still image of the finished concept instead - it was definitely the right move.

After that it was time to show the preparation of my doll. I edited this section on its own so that I could get a feel for editing the footage, like a warm up. The process I used for this section reflected across the hair, clothes, face and printed pieces.

I went over all of my footage for each section and sorted them into two folders - Green and Red. Any clips that I didn't approve of went into the Red folder, since I didn't want to risk deleting anything. All of the clips that I approved went into the Green folder and were renamed to detail what the clip showed, making my editing job 10x easier.

I imported all of the Green clips into Premiere Pro, then placed them all in the timeline in order. I realised at this stage that the lighting in the room I had worked in wasn't steady at all. My cream coloured tablecloth looked white in some clips, yet orange in others. My first job was to colour correct all of my footage so that I looked as similar as I could get it. It wasn't perfect, but it isn't an eye sore anymore. Colour correction is something that I will be sure to practice after this project.

With the footage looking as cohesive as I could get it, I trimmed the clips to remove the 3 second buffer I included at the beginning and end of each one while filming, as well as any awkward sections that could easily be fixed with transitions.

For the face process mainly, but for other clips throughout as well, I sped up my footage. I cut even more footage out after this, leaving a fast yet still clear process of everything I did.

For the photoshoot showcase at the end of my video, I just created a subtle zooming in or out effect for almost every picture. Simple, but effective.

For the majority of my video, music other than the track I chose from Uppbeat can be heard. These tracks came from Soundtrack Universe (https://soundtrackuniverse.com) .

The last thing that I did was add subtitles. I am not a very confident speaker and hate hearing my voice on recordings, so the thought of doing a voiceover for this video was very daunting for me. I knew that a voiceover would, overall, turn out faster, easier and maybe even better, but my self-consciousness drove me to add subtitles explaining everything instead. I was very pleased with the way the subtitles ended up turning out (even though I noticed a typo after publishing; I will ask multiple people to proof read if I do it again to avoid this). When I eventually make another video like this one for my YouTube channel, I know for sure that I will at least try to record a voiceover.

Overall, I am very pleased with the way my video turned out. I did, for the most part, really enjoy making it. The only thing that I would really change if I could is doing a voiceover instead of subtitles. Hopefully I can bring myself to sit in the Sound Booth next time.