Because I have previous video filming and editing experience from making youtube videos, this project served not as an eye-opening experience but rather a chance to practice and fine-tune my abilities. Nevertheless, there were still many important takeaways that I would like to share.
One important takeaway that I had from this short video project was realizing the significant difference between the media content producer and consumer. More specifically, as a consumer, you are unaware of how much effort is required to be a successful video producer because you are convinced that it's an effortless task. However, as this project has helped show me, this assumption could not be any farther from the truth.
Addressing what surprised me, one astonishing realization that I had was learning the significantly positive impact a rough and final cut can have. While on previous video projects of mine I only edited until every clip was combined into a sequence and the music and sound effects were added, for this one I chose to edit a rough cut and then continuously modify it until I was satisfied with the final product.
A less significant surprise that I experienced was learning the difficulty of having consistent audio levels. More specifically, I originally wanted the max peaks for every audio clip to be around -6 decibels, but this turned out to be painstakingly hard to achieve because the denoise effect kept messed levels. While I eventually learned how to use the effect properly, it proved to be a major hassle throughout.
Addressing what worked well with the video, I believe I effectively succeeded on all the grading criteria. More specifically, I reached the required video length, including all the basic elements and necessary content with adequate editing/visual/sound quality. Among these different elements, I was particularly satisfied with the cross-dissolve transitions I used because I felt they seamlessly blended the material without drawing unwanted attention.
Another aspect that I think worked well as my explanation and analysis of the reduction in carbon emissions as a result of the pandemic. I combined information from reliable sources such as NBC to show that while emissions decreased significantly, they were lower than expected. From here, I made connections to the pandemic and suggested the implications of this surface-level study.
However, there are several complaints that I would like to address about my video. Namely, several shots of me speaking to the camera were slightly out of focus. The reason why this happened is that I left the camera on manual focus from a previous project I was working on and forgot to turn reset it to automatic. To an ordinary viewer, the difference is not very noticeable, but to me, they are very aggravating and hard to view.
As for things that could have been done differently, one area that I would have improved was the lack of shot variety in my b roll. Because I used the same highway shot and graphic animation twice throughout the video, this makes the video feel very repetitive and in turn less watchable. To resolve this issue, I would have filmed more close-up shots of cars to pair with the A roll and have designed a new graphic animation for the ‘connections to the pandemic’ section.
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