The clip above shows the original footage of “The Fracture” as well as the greatly improved final product.I had to do quite a bit of sound editing- adding sounds such as a ringing phone and editing dialogue. In terms of the dialogue, I had to make it as clean as possible and remove background din as well as convert spoken dialogue into a voice coming from a phone. I mostly used Sound Forge for these tasks.

I used the Noise Reduction plug-in within the Soundforge program to reduce the hiss, din and background noise. Then, I applied the Noise gate function by setting a threshold value to complete remove the noise. The EQ function was also utilized for the caller on the other end of the phone in the scene. In addition, I had to record, edit and add sound effects to complete the clip.

Above is my camera entailing a segment of an episode of the cable television series, “The Osler Health Connection”, where I operated a Hitachi Betacam in the studio.

The following is the reel breakdown for the clip above:-
1. Sinking (2005)
Using Magic Bullet Suite, I managed to remove imperfections on the lead actress face. Also I removed the yellow tint to the video.
2.The Addict (2005)
Using the colour correction effect in Final Cut, I brightened the picture and removed the yellow tint and grain on the film.
3.The Fracture (2007)
For this short film, “Fracture”, In terms of colour correction, I used the colour correction effect in Final Cut Pro and Avid Pro to give the lead actress fleshcolour tones and the background ( e.g. the wall had to be off-white) its suitable colors. The picture originally had a yellow tint to it. I also enhanced other scenes by putting a bit more saturation to allow certain highlighted aspects such as the characters to pop. Finally, I used Magic Bullet Suite to add a filmic aspect to the video. The process was time consuming, but my tenacity and meticulous manner proved to be apt in delivering a quality product.
4.Intertwined Destines (2006)
For this short, I used Magic Bullet Suite to make this video look more like film with saturated colors and a slight green tint.

My Demonstration Reel Breakdown is as follows:-

1. DRAMA

Select clips from” Sinking”, a short film that I wrote and directed. I also colour corrected the final product.  The next clips are shown from “The Fracture”, a short film that I wrote, directed and edited. I performed sound editing with SoundForge as well as colour correction within Final Cut. The last shots are from “The Addict”, a 16mm film that I directed and colour corrected with Final Cut and Magic Bullet Looks.

2. ANIMATION

A portion of the animation ”Jamaican National Symbols” is shown. The illustrations were hand drawn and animated with After Effects.

3. ROMANCE

Clips from “Intertwined Destinies, a short film I wrote and directed are seen. Colour correction was done with Final Cut and Magic Bullet Looks. (FUN FACT: I acquired permission from the international airport in Regina, SK to shoot this scene). Few shots of the aforementioned “The Fracture” are also employed.

4. TELEVISION

Clips from  the broadcasted television show “Osler Health Connection’ are used in the demo. The clips demonstrate my camera operation as well as my graphics editing skiils. The lifestyle tv show ,”Island Style” is also seen in this demo section. The clips are from episode segments where I did the research and thus contributed to the on-screen factoids and interview questions.

5. MYSTERY

Clip from “House Wins”, a short film that I produced and contributed to in terms of set decoration and design. I also colour-corrected this clip in Final Cut and Magic Bullet Looks.

6. DOCUMENTARY

Clips from “International Attitude”, a documentary which I co-directed and shot, are shown. The last clips are from “Breakin’ and Revolvin”, another documentary that I shot, directed and edited as well as colour corrected with Final Cut and Magic Bullet Looks.

NOTE: ALL GENRE TITLES I CREATED WITH AFTER EFFECTS and the SOUNDTRACK I COMPOSED WITH PRO SCORES.

This is my most recent music video experiment, “Americano”, which delves into the Mexican immigration laws in the United States. The process of deportation with Mexicans has been an on-going situation. The filmmaker, Robert Rodrigues utilised the controversial Mexican immigration for his movie “Machete”. Footage from this feature as well as footage from a travel documentary and online government resources were employed to create my third music video. Final Cut, Magic Bullet Suite, and Adobe After Effects were my primary tools. I also used cross-processing plugin for the “Machete” portions to create a unique look, different from the film version.

In terms of the music, I chose “Americano” by pop artist Lady Gaga which fit the theme of illegal immigration. I sectioned the song into two parts. At the beginning of the video, the song immediately starts until to come to an abrupt halt with dialogue from the film “Machete” to not only set up the action (the initiating action) but to give a brief synopsis of the plot. I used a score from Pro Scores to add tension but diving back into “Americano”.

I basically superimposed the music video onto the iPad 2 screen. See below to see the partial video before the superimposition and the AE magic.The password for the video is ipad2.

I basically applied a mask over the original footage on the iPad in the first superimposition scene.Then converted the video layer of the music video to 3D and worked with its coordinates to have it turn. See & click on image below.

For the second superimposition scene, I not only used a mask for the original Apple footage again,I had to create other masks to preserve the video player buttons and progress bar. See and click on image below

Next, I used the compositing mode ‘Travel Matte Alpha’ within Final Cut to create moving letters with embedded video. See and click the example below.

In terms of sound editing, I had to cut down the song to approximately 30 secs in order to fit the time limit of a supposed ad. I also wanted to use lyrics that represents this product e.g. “leader of the pack” and “oh, how I’ve turned this whole thing round”.

I’ve decided to do a post on another music video experiment because it showcases different skills. I’ve recently attained Adobe After Effects CS5 and I used this program for my video interpretation (as well as Final Cut) of Janelle Monae’s “Cold War”. I basically used historical footage to

show the civil rights struggle and race relations in America in the 1960s. The titles and split screen effect were created in After Effects. Due to the split screen, I also had to nest compositions. For the mid-section with the banned cartoons, I utilised a “Scratchy Film Effect” via real 8mm film in AE to convert the animations and the pictures to scratchy film. In addition, the black and white effect and the fast blur effect added authenticity.

As promised, here is my video experiment I concocted using Final Cut Pro as well as documentary footage from several sources. In this experiment, I relied on manipulating the speed of clips whether speeding them up or reversing them. I also employed jump cuts as well as quick cuts to simulate flash frames. In terms of sound editing, I omitted several lines from various verses throughout the song “Creator” to produce a clean version of the song. Check out the embedded video below above.