My Year 12 film opening coursework was mostly edited through 剪映 (a Chinese editing software) and DaVinci Resolve Pro. However, our Year 13 music video coursework was edited using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. (I did not know that Photoshop could be used to edit videos back in Year 12!)

A number of editing techniques were employed to create special effects.

For example, glitch effects were created through adding varied wind effects (e.g. blast, stagger) to both sides of each frame to improve the dynamic flow of the shot. The intensity of the glitch effect was then amplified by layering up to six wind effects on certain frames while applying only one layer to the following frames. The glitch effects creates a sense of surrealism in the narrative of the otherwise reality-rooted video, which suits the wider theme of ‘escapism’.

Motion blur effects were created using After Effects and employed throughout the music video to create smoother transitions. Freeze frames of our actors were created through masking with the pen tool: clips were separated into 2 layers using Command+Shift+D, making it possible to remove parts of frames. The first clip is duplicated and renamed as the ‘freeze’ layer, while key frames were placed in the start and end of the second and third layers (first and second clips). The X axis of anchor points were altered because the camera shifted to the right several times throughout the shot, and the same changes were also applied to the third layer.

In the first layer, I masked the end location of the actor post-transition and adjusted the freeze frames in accordance, using the pen tool to key-frame anchor points, position and scale. The scale was initially set to 80% and reverted back to original size by the end of the freeze frame in order to make the actor fit into the composition. The framing was also altered through decreasing the X-axis value to make the freeze frame slide in from the left, and motion blur was added upon completion.

The roto-brush was used upon first attempt, which did not create the intended effect. Nevertheless, we succeeded in creating a separate layer for the actor using a pen tool. Through inputting 2 key frames and altering the anchor point’s X axis, we created a whip effect with motion blur which resulted in a much smoother transition between shots.

We did, however, utilise the roto-brush tool in the next transition to mask out the actor, separating him from the background. The same piece of footage was then screened with 2 key frames for opacity reasons. The first key frame was set to 100% opacity, and the second key frame was reverted to 0%, which further smoothened the transition. In addition to the X-axis, the Z-axis was also manipulated in the third layer. Because the second layer was detached from the first layer, the outline of the actor who was inverted and masked out, could be zoomed into the screen through increasing the scale of the first layer.