The editing process took quite a while and a lot of googling because I had never used Adobe Premiere before embarking on this project. I was trying to get to grips with it by playing around with the vast amount of controls and googling to see if the programme would cater for my ideas.
I had some feedback at this point from one of the Tuesday morning lecturers and a former tutor on the course: Christopher P. Wood. He had done a similar project where he had interviewed himself about his artwork (link embedded below). He said that he wasn't involved in the editing process but what he did on the filming side was to be recorded asking the questions and recorded answering the questions but the questions were pre-prepared. He already knew what he was going to be asking himself so he could have a think about what he wanted to answer in advance. He treated each question as a separate event.
He urged me to not treat the chat show as a linear interview, rather a tape interview - something with a more cinematic feel. In this way I wouldn't have to be constantly conscious of what the make up or usual running order of an interview is and be aiming to mimic it. He told me to "run with the good bits", to select sections from my footage and emphasise those because I may not like a whole take however there might be just three seconds that I am really drawn to from it and I should just pull that out and use that. He suggested editing effects that he uses for his own videos that I could place on my own such as zooming in, changing the filter, reversing sections.
A pretty staple tool I used for practically all my footage, especially the footage where I wanted the interviewer and interviewee side by side, was the crop tool. For the sections where I was planting myself beside myself, I had to cut both videos in half and then play them on top of each other, this gave the illusion that the two people were on screen at the same time. I had to be careful so as not to cut off a foot if it strayed too far in to the other side of the screen. The videos often needed a bit of a jiggle, either changing the scale (if I had positioned the camera accidentally closer on one of the clips), the rotation (I had sillily placed a table right directly in the mid shot, therefore sometimes the clips needed rotating to have the two halves of the table line up), the position (I could move the videos up and down the X-axis and Y-axis, this came in useful again if I had filmed one half closer up, it might need moving along to the left to separate it out or moving down to sit level with the interviewer).
I discovered a tool to enable more specific cropping, called the 'Sixteen-Point Garbage Matte', (screenshot below). This tool allowed me 16 individual pointers that I could bring right in close to my subject matter which was revelationary for me because I could crop a lot more of the excess that was still left over from just the square crop. However, the 'Sixteen-Point Garbage Matte' was not constantly useful as a tool. If my character was very still it was useful but if I moved, the crop did not follow my character, it remained in the exact position of cropping, therefore my limbs would get chopped off etc. The other solution I trialled was to chop up the film and use the 'Sixteen-Point Garbage Matte' to individually crop each little clip. I googled for any tips but the internet replied with a big 'No', it was not possible to have a moving crop.
All three off these controls (screenshots above) were base requirements for the project, I applied them to pretty much all of the footage. Crop. PitchShifter. Ultra Key. The Ultra Key tool was a definite for all the videos, in order for me to be able to drop in a background, I needed to edit over the green screen. Unfortunately, because I was shooting the video in my bedroom, the light was not completely even. I had two umbrella lights but I think in a proper studio, the lighting is a lot brighter from all angles. I therefore had to edit the green screen background under Ultra Key > Matte Generation. Ordinarily the settings for Matte Generation are Transparency:(45.0) Highlight:(10.0) Shadow:(50.0) Tolerance:(50.0) Pedestal:(10.0) so I had to trial and error the different regulations to achieve the smoothest background. This (centre photo above) became my preset for all footage.
I was constantly learning that I could have done things quicker than I had been doing through figuring out short cuts in the programme. For example, I had been manually inputting all the different regulation settings under Ultra Key > Matte Generation on each clip but I discovered I could just copy and paste over a whole section of clips. I could select the entire footage after copying a setting and paste it over all of them. This was such a huge time saver for me. (screen recording below).
I appreciate there's no sound, however, in the video above I demonstrate using the 'Pitch Shift' tool. I discovered there was two different ways to make the voice a different pitch. The preset one was to use 'Format Preserve' which restricted the pitch somewhat as it aimed to 'combat the Mickey Mouse effect' so the range was not as extreme. There was the option to remove the 'Format Preserve', this enabled you to get a much deeper or much higher voice, as it wasn't restricted by this tool. With 'Format Preserve' the tone of the voice still sounded like mine and so I preferred taking off that guide because it drew the character even further from me acting. my genuine voice and the voice that was being emitted by that character bore no resemblance. However, the voice became a lot more clouded, it was harder to distinguish what I was saying. I therefore used both where applicable throughout the project.
Above is a screen recording of me repositioning the footage to have two halves sat next to each other. As visible in the recording, I had not kept a constant position (angle/distance) for the camera to be positioned at in regards to the character I was playing at the time. This was because I was recording in my room. I have a sofa bed that I can put away and then make use of the full size of the room, however, each night I would have to pull out my sofa bed again. This meant I had to keep moving the camera. I tried solving this by drawing on my floor in chalk (my floor is wooden), to mark the position where the camera had filmed from. This was also not flaw free, because I had to heighten or lower the camera stand when I was filming the close up shots. The only way I could think of getting around this was to use two distinct camera stands which I did not alter the position of, however I was only in possession of one.
I found lots of information online to help with the programme so I was not at a loss but it still took time to figure out all the different effects I could add to the footage.
The video above is a screen recording of me putting in the title screen for the chat show. I realise that you cannot hear the sound through a screen recording, however, I also sped up a clip of Pascal Wintz playing the piano in 1930 and have demonstrated in the screen recording above, applying the effect 'Exponential Fade' to the music to allow for a softer drawing to a close. The logo for the show I created on Adobe Premiere, it was quite simple to craft but I think it resembles the sort of style I'm going for. I couldn't work out how to get the image to stop centre and pause there so I created two separate clips: one rolling and the other stationary and joined them together.
I stopped using a script because I felt that I could provide a more genuine character when just allowing myself to talk and say what I felt that character would say. This, however, made it a whole lot trickier on the editing side because I had all this footage of me saying 'stuff' but no continued storyline through the project. I had no solid base but the desire to make it weird. I was therefore struggling to make the chat show flow because I was working on lots of separate parts and attempting to tie it all together. This was something I learned from and if I were to do it again, I would do as Chris Wood did and prepare the questions and some form of answer, if only loose to just act as something to work from.
Above is the first export of my video. I had so much footage and because it was all tangled up and had no intended order, I began with editing in sections. I was watching through all the videos I had taken and clipping bits to drop in to my main chat show dialogue. I was then attempting to piece together all these little bits to make up bigger sections in themselves. I decided to stop doing this as I was aware that time was pressing on and I needed to have some form of start and end. I then created the opening to the chat show and set out to work from this beginning and add to the video to create something that fit together rather than working with separate sections. This meant I could show people the video in the way it was intended to be seen rather than showing them random footage that I had created that would feature right in the middle of a longer video.
I had gotten very worked up with how I was going to bring Nora Andres on to the show. I had scripted:
LEN DURSON: [...] Please welcome Miss Nora Andres.
[applause, theme tune, stands, claps, looks toward entrance, NORA doesn't enter]
DURSON: Nora Andres ladies and gentlemen.
[applause, them tune]
DURSON: [over theme tune] Is she here? Is she in the building?
[NORA enters dressed classily, assume different greetings - handshake/kiss on cheek mix up]
NORA ANDRES: Oh, we're hugging.
DURSON: You're looking very regal.
NORA: Am I?
DURSON: Are you wearing perfume?
NORA: I have my own body odour perfume.
DURSON: Take a seat, take a seat.
This was based off of several interviews:
Jim Carrey Late Show with David Letterman (2014)
Sarah Ferguson 60 Minutes Australia (2013)
Grace Jones The Russell Harty Show (1980)
I was getting all flustered about having to film myself hugging myself and interacting with myself in this way. I wasn't quite sure how to do it. Scott Langford (media teacher), recommended me ask someone to help with this element. They would dress up as me in one of the costumes and I would dress in another. The shot would be filmed so as to only see the back of the other person. This seemed feasible. However, there was the additional problem that I had set up the green screen positioned landscape in my bedroom and put the chairs in a set position on top of the green screen. I would have to lift the chairs from the green screen, find somewhere to place them. Then turn the green screen around to be portrait rather than landscape. Then film myself walking on to the screen (as if to be walking on stage). Film myself interacting with someone dressed up as me(the hug/kiss on cheek mix up and short conversation). Then turn the screen back around to landscape. Put the chairs back in the position that they had been before. Then film myself sitting down(still engaged in conversation). And, manage to make the person dressed up as me somehow blend to become me dressed as me sitting down. It was too complex.
The reason that I was shying away from creating the opening was because I knew I had this gap around getting Nora on stage. I decided to get Nora on stage by playing some footage backwards of me getting up to stop the camera. Because I crossed over on to Len's side of the stage there was the problem that I needed to either cross in front or behind him. I decided to cross behind because in the layering of the footage, Len's foot comes over on to Nora's side and so he actually needs to be placed at the front so his foot doesn't get cut off. This entrance doesn't really work because ordinarily to fit the two halves together, I would crop half the shot away to only have one chair and half the table visible, meaning I can pair two videos together. I could not crop half the video in that section because Nora takes up the full screen to leave. This meant that the empty chair was visible and it didn't quite line up with Len's chair. This was something that needed work.
In this first export, I hadn't put the two halves of my footage together very well. There is a clear divide in the screen where the table did not line up. This was because the footage I had recorded had errors such as the feet were cut off or I leaned out of shot. I therefore had the priority that the footage should be played at scale 100% so where it would really appear 'cut off', it would actually just reach the edge of the screen. This meant that it pulled everything away from the centre and to the perimeters of the screen. Therefore, creating a divide in the table.
I had filmed the two characters at different angles which made piecing the two halves together very difficult. I was playing the Len Durson character at 100% scale but the Nora Andres character had been filmed just that little bit closer and so she was bigger than Len. I had to scale her down and position her to be on the same level but because she had been filmed with the camera closer to her, she rarely appeared fully in shot. Her feet or arms etc would venture off, out of shot. Therefore I decided to create a bush to sit at her feet. I intended for the bush to slowly rise from off screen to then sit by her feet. I messed up the editing, however, and the bush continued to move around for the entirety of her screen time. This looked incredibly naff.
With Nora's entrance in the last export she enters behind Len. The footage didn't work in the first export because ordinarily to fit the two halves together, I would crop half the shot away to only have one chair and half the table in the video. I could not crop half the video in that section because Nora takes up the full screen to leave. The empty chair in the Nora shot has to be visible and Len's chair doesn't quite sit in the same place. I therefore decided to make Len sit in his chair, on top of another chair. I created a transition for this rather than just suddenly scaling him down and moving his position. It made sense as well because Nora moves left and gets smaller as Len moves right and gets smaller. I'm still not entirely happy with this element, I think I need to get rid of the table that moves with him. It looks strange for half the table to start moving as well.
I decided to put in a news ticker along the bottom to hide the gap where my feet don't fully touch the ground rather than the bush, like in the first export. I looked up examples of news tickers but I did not know exactly what I wanted to communicate with it. I thought that the video was so bizarre and gathered inspiration and influence from so many sources, putting in text would be difficult because it's a definite. The whole video is broad but the text would be focused. In the end I opted for some information about Dissociative Identity Disorder to give a nod to some of the research I had been doing.
I had taken a week off college to finish filming and edit and returned with eleven minutes of film (above). I showed this to Steve and Charlie. They were incredibly enthusiastic about the video which encouraged me a great deal as I found that because I had been working everyday at home by myself I had become very tired with it, watching it over and over. This gave me a second wind with the video to keep progressing with it, after I had received compliments on it thus far.
Alterations they recommended were to take out the title clip where 'The Late Show' spans the screen. They encouraged that the audience be left unaware of what this video was. With this in mind, they also advised me take out the multiple personality disorder news ticker that runs along the bottom. They said it was unnecessary and that research should be recorded in my sketchbook rather than presented for the audience to see. I agreed with the latter and in the next export I just used the 'Linear Wipe' tool to fade out everything at the bottom of the screen. I brought the feather up to 100 which made for a really gradual fade out.
This is the full 22 minute version but exposed in the editing app. it took 16 hours to export becasue I had edited every single clip in some way even if just to turn the green screen in to the red curtains.
This twenty-two minute video is my final export. The finished deal. I managed to edit and add on a further eleven minutes to the last export to get double the time. A key section I wanted to include was some aspect of mirrors. Louise Bourgeois often makes use of mirrors in her work and I wanted to give a nod to this research by incorporating mirrors in my film. I ended up with three different clips which I had to decide on the best one to use. There was one clip in which I had got my mum to film and my brother was dressed as me but as the man and she was ordering my brother 'left a bit', 'down', 'right' ' no my right', to position the mirror so you could see my face in it. I liked that clip because it broke the facade. There was different clips as well, some where just the green screen appeared in the mirror, some where my head appeared in the reflection of the mirror. I had organised a backdrop that would fall in to the line of the mirror and act as my background - i made it funky with a wall hanging and plants. This also broke the facade. Me and Len would be seen in the red curtained background but my reflection would demonstrate that i wasn't there at all. I decided finally because time was pressing on, that rather than giving this slip it's own section, I would merge it with the hippy section. This was becasue I thought the hippy section was lacking and this would perk it up.
I wanted to end with all my characters on stage together. I had tried to sit them all down in a row but I was having to make them so small, there was hardly any point to it, you couldn't see the characters. I realised that there was so much space above and around the characters that i could fill.
The film is very personal because of my approach of free association psychoanalysis. For that reason I am somewhat shy about showing it but because I have watched it back so many times, i feel I have become disattached from it, to allow it to be seen by others.
