To start with my time-lapse, i imported all the individual videos, rendered them and began cutting them down to one second increments each, with all the audios unlinked and removed

I then cut them all down to half a second as i thought the quicker pace fit better, and used the other half of clips to insert in other places just so i had a bit more footage to lengthen it. i also made sure to cut the moving clips, i used three events with around 5 clips for each, one leaning over to pick up and look at my phone and another towards the laptop, and the then at the end slowly covering my face

I then finished cutting them all and sequenced them together, rendering often, and made sure they were all the same length to keep the pace, except from the last clips in the leaning forward movement, slowly extending them to slow down the pace

I then saved the initial time-lapse (just the bare sequence) and imported it to another project page. I then imported a selection of archived videos i had taken in the summer, and layered these above the time-lapse sequence. These were cut to appropriate lengths, keeping their original sound, and sequenced and rendered behind the time-lapse video. I then minimised the time-lapse video to be smaller in the centre of the frame.

Once layering the archived videos in the background, i thought the time-lapse speed didn’t match up right and was not quick enough, so i set the speed duration to higher so that i could easily decrease the duration each scene was shown – with the background videos at their normal speed.

I then began cutting the smaller centre video every few seconds and enlarging it slightly so that as the video got darker, it enlarged over the screen, until eventually it covered the whole screen in its end scene, which i began to enlarge more frequently in the last slower movements.

With the last much longer scene, i extended the last archived videos audio, which has the sound of wind and waves, and pulled it to cover over the whole last clip.

I then added the background music to run underneath the whole sequence, and went back over each archived videos audio and reduced them so that they weren’t overpowering the music.

Finally i added a fading transition to the video and background audio clip, extending the audio to end after the video footage

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SHOOT PLAN

WHAT: The plan for this shoot is to photograph different shots as my dad and I work on my classic mini. We will be working on the wheels and brakes so I will try get various angles working on the car.

WHERE/WHEN: The daytime would be best as I can use natural light but the evening would also work as I can bring a light with me. The car is currently kept at a friends garage not far from my house so that is where I will take the photos

EQUIPMENT: I will use my Sony a73 camera and my 35mm 1.4 lens and my 50mm 1.8 lens. I like using prime lenses as they often have a wide aperture which is good for low light conditions. I will use my godox sl60 constant light to light the images. I may use a tripod for some self portrait images.

CONTACT SHEET

This shoot went very well I spent a lot of time getting a lighting set up that I liked. I settled for using my godox SL60w as the main key light then a tungsten workshop light as the backlight. I was happy with the outcomes of the images as they have a lot of contrast and colour. I used a wide aperture of f1.4 – f2 for the most part because it was still quite dark.

BEST IMAGES

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EDITING

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For my project I have decided to use Bookwright as it is a relatively easy and well made program to make my photo-book. I created an account with blurb and downloaded bookwright. I chose a small square layout ( 18cm x 18cm ) with premium matte paper and a hardcover design.

COVER DESIGN:

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Above is my final edited cover image that I will use to wrap my photo-book cover with. Using an app called ‘coolors’, I was able to pick out and create a palate of the main colours from my image. This enabled me to make a direct colour decision that would compliment my image; whether the colour would be added to the spine only, or on the pages its self. Some of the colours I experimented with are shown below.

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The colour I decided to use in the end was a light purple called ‘Wild blue yonder”, a colour I picked directly from the jacket I was wearing. The bright but cool tone compliments the image while also contrasting the warmer pinks and oranges. I also added my title and name to the front cover; Dear, Liw.

MY FINAL COVER DESIGN:

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MY PAGE DESIGN:

I decided to set up all my image sizes and orientations on my page. I chose an image setup of 6 x 4 inches, top centre of a page and copied it onto all the other pages. Like in my specification, I wanted all images to be the same size and place on each page (consistency). I also chose 6 x 4 in because that was the size of the original capture of all images, meaning the images can display the true qualities and angles of the raw image.

• I have also decided to keep the pages white to contrast the images.
• all images are 6 x 4 inch.
• all images same place on the page.
• text will go underneath the images

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MAKING MY OWN FONT:

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For the first page of my book I would like to include a very personal statement about all my images in the book:

Intimacy is a beautiful thing, a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group. Throughout my life, I’ve found myself in sheltered in the private and relaxing atmosphere of my own photos. Always aiming for a tranquil aesthetic in my images, I have enabled myself to be constantly encompassed in the hundreds of complimentary images I have created. Despite intimacy being regarded as an emotional connection between one person and another, I’ve found myself sharing a sentimental relationship with my photographs, an intimate relationship. A relationship where I feel a closeness of observation or knowledge of a subject – a unique love for the memories arranged within beautifully crafted filters. Aesthetics have always been a huge piece of my craved visual experiences.

FINAL BOOK LAYOUT:

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Processes:

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In my original plan, I was going to add text below my images. However, after deciding that it didn’t look that aesthetic, even after I experimented with different designs, I didn’t add any text under the images. I feel that this also allowed the viewer to create their own narrative and interpretation of the images, without context to influence their outlook on the image. Although, I will add a page at the back of my book with annotations of each page and image, so people can see my thought on each image at the end.

IMAGE SELECTION:

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In the photos below, I have put all of my images from a couple of my photoshoots onto Lightroom. I plan to choose one or two photographs from each shoot in my photo-book. I flagged and rejected which images I wanted to keep or delete first. I did this by zooming into each image to see if the composition and focus. After sorting through all the images I then colour coded all the images from individual shoots so I can differentiate the images.

I also began to rate my images from 1-5, by comparing each one to each other. I only rated images from 1-3 in the beginning. In the left image above, I filtered out all of the images that where 2 or under and began comparing the 3 rated photos. I used the compare tool to have a greater feel for each images focus and quality. The tool allowed me to compare two very similar images to pick the best looking one. The image on the bottom right is the kind of editing style I am aiming for; it is very indie’ and teenage like, the fading and colour vibrance reminds me of what is assume a vivid memory would look like in my mind. It is also an image directly from Corinne Days book, Diary.

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FINAL IMAGE SELCETIONS:

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SELECTION FOR FRONT COVER:

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This was the last shoot I did to get footage for my film, as I only had a few key scenes left and they only featured two key scenes: the woods and my house.

THE WOODS-

Because the location wasn’t one where I could just go back and re-film easily, I chose to film every clip several times to avoid having to skip a possible key shot because it came out blurry or the framing or timing was wrong. This meant that I had to have more of an in-depth selection process and analyse which clip would work the best and which was technically the best as well. To visualise this easily, I used the Colour Label tool in Lightroom before editing the selected final clips to be more vibrant and colourful, representing the joy and freedom in this final chapter.

These clips had to be in a specific order which followed the physical journey through the woods up onto the hill, which I had planned out before, so I made sure to double check that all the clips were used in the right place. I ended up cropping, zooming in and re-framing a clip showing some trees moving in the wind and adding the newer version in-between two later clips to create a sort of transition between them. This was purely experimental and I wasn’t expecting to keep it like that, but in the end I liked the changes and thought it made the whole final scene more cohesive and consistent.

It was at this point that I decided to render my film so far. Rendering is a process that allows the timeline of video clips to run smoothly as all the data is fully processed into the computer. This took a little time due to the amount of footage I have, but it helps me to appreciate what I have so far and see any possible issues that could arise in the future.

AT HOME-

I carried on using the same technique as I have done from the beginning, taking multiple videos of the same shot so as to be able to select the best one. After going through the selection process in Lightroom, I ended up with the final six clips that I needed. I had a couple more shots planned on my planning sheet, but after some consideration I decided not to include them because I didn’t feel comfortable filming them and I also thought they weren’t really all too relevant to the film as a whole and so were possible to cut from the final version.

Throughout this whole process I’ve been doing essentially the exact same editing techniques, to keep the same style from the start to the end of the film. I just needed to make a few minor colour corrections and exposure/contrast adjustments, and my select final videos were ready to be exported out of Lightroom and into the film project.

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For these two sections, I had to splice a longer video into smaller clips at certain intervals and with the second video, in the bathroom, I even had to switch around the clips into a different order that flowed aesthetically as its own smaller narrative. This wasn’t too difficult for me because it just relied on the skills I’d acquired from doing the rest of the film, and I enjoyed the experimentation aspect of trying different orders of the clips and seeing the effects they gave.

The last stage of the visual aspect of the film was to run through the film as a whole and close up any gaps that were left from scenes that ended up being cut, and to double check that all the clips were in the right order and switched at the right time. After this, I was able to move on to the final stage: recording and importing the audio voiceover.

I had written out the voiceover script near to the beginning of the filming process, and I had already annotated a rough set of timings to match up what needed to be said at the same time as which video clip. To achieve this accurately, I watched the completed film at the same time as I recorded the voiceover. Because of the gaps left by the scenes I cut from the film, I knew I had to re-evaluate some sections of the timings, but this was easily done. Once I had recorded a few versions of each chapter, I went through and chose which ones I preferred and imported them into Premiere, making a quick crop of any excess silence at the beginning and end of each clip and lining them up to their respective chapters.

All in all, I’m happy with the finished product and the way the voiceover adds so much to the visuals.