Digital News: Post-production - Use of FXs

What Effects Will Be Used?

Now that we have finished filming, I've decided to show what effects we will be using throughout the news project in post production, which you can see below:

Cook/Selfie Cam

As mentioned in my 'final feedback' post, we decided to add graphics saying 'cook' and 'selfie' cams just to give our news story some more features to make it more interactive. This was simply done by using the 'bug' preset on final cut pro: the feature simply pops up on the bottom right of the screen then disappears by fading out when the cook or selfie cam is no longer in use (when the GoPro footage isn't being shown), as you can see in the image to the right. Below is also a print screen showing me creating the preset.

Here I am editing the font to 'impact', which is used for all selfie/cook cams to make sure it remains consistent. 

Statistics

For both our news stories we will be using statistics to back up our stories. Therefore, I've put together some edits on how to show the statistics.

My original idea of the statistics

For the Snapchat story, I originally created a moving graphic showing the statistics which you can see to the right. The statistics do a 360 complete rotation and then disappear. Nonetheless, I decided to change this as I felt that it needed something moving in the background, otherwise it looks a bit plain. This is where I came up with the idea that the moving background could relate to the statistics, therefore that it could be someone using the snapchat app in the background. So, I quickly filmed a friend of mine going through the app on his phone, added a blur effect so that you can't see people's usernames on Snapchat (plus that it looks better blurred) and slowed it down to 50% so that the background isn't moving too much that it becomes distractive. To remain loyal to our branding, I also made the text red, which luckily stands out due to the background consisting of darker colours.

My finalised and improved version of showing statistics

The original image I was going to use

As well as this, I also used a preset on final cut pro for the other statistic. This preset enables you to have the text on the right of the screen whilst having an image or movie clip on the left. This was used for the other statistic to define what a selfie is. In terms of the image I will use, I originally was going to use the selfie being taken from the live interview. However, I decided to change this because it reveals the upcoming live interview, so instead I once again got a camera and recorded a couple of friends to take a selfie of themselves. This creates a parallel image to the definition of selfies. I also created a red background for the statistics to once again remain loyal to our channel branding.

The image which I will be using

Straplines

Strap line linking to our Facebook page

To remain loyal to news report conventions, I've also created some strap lines which I got from a final cut preset. These will be used for:

   - Highlighting the top stories
   - Links to our Facebook, Youtube and Twitter
   - To show the hash tag for our channel and
     stories

I've once again stuck to the colour red so that it remains consistent for our channel branding. Below are some of the strap lines used for our film

Strap line for one of the stories which we've mentioned

Strap line for our Snapchat top story

Hashtag we are using for our news channel

Colour Balancing (presets)

As some of our shots when we were filming came out a bit bland and slightly under exposed, I decided to edit these to give the visuals more layers of colour and generally to make the shot have a colour balance. For the live interview, I firstly edited the first scene to reduce the over exposure and to increase the colour slightly. Once I finished this, I then created a preset named 'Live Interview' - this enables me to set the same preset to all of the live interview scenes, to firstly make it consistent and to secondly save time instead of doing each scene individually. I done this for all scenes which needed to be balanced for our news report, as well as clicking the auto-balance tool for scenes which needed tweaking slightly.

The top right shows me saving the preset after I've altered the balances.

Slow Motion Distortion

Here I am altering the audio levels for the sound effects,
so that it comes in and out at a smooth volume

For the snapchat story, we are showing a snippet of the #Selfie song so that it links to what our reporter says. However to show that we aren't going to play the whole song and to let our story flow better, I decided to develop on Kate's idea to create a slow mo distortion, as if say a DJ deck is rewinding (the noise it makes) in a way. So firstly I begun by finding slow motion sound effects to allow this to happen smoothly, and generally because the sound would be needed. Once the slow motion sound is introduced, the video should then turn into black and white, to show that it is being distorted. To emphasise this I also added in a flash effect (a final cut preset, like the black and white preset as well) just so that the audience know that this will be distorted. I then slowed down the visuals so that the video becomes slower and slower until it eventually stops playing. However by the time it comes to a stop, another flash will appear (the same as before) as well as a slow motion effect which brings the visuals back into reality, allowing the news report to continue. This will then lead on to the second statistics and the rest of the story. You can see my steps from the print screens to the right and below.

Here I'm adding the black and white effect to enable the distortion to happen

I then added in the flash effect, as you can see above

By this time, the distortion has happened and is now turning back to normal, allowing the rest of the news story to be  told