Under all the pressure of university, I'm also working on several video projects outside of my coursework. So many projects in fact, that I've used one of my other projects as a presentation for this documentary class. One of my favourite vloggers recently put up a trailer to his series WhatImDoingRightNow, a showreel of all the best or most interesting moments of his daily vlogging channel.

Well, let's just say, I have a lot less subscribers and a lot less presence on camera in my videos. I might be a tiny bit camera shy, but I've been told that's hypocritical because everyone else constantly appears in my videos, so why shouldn't I? So in the recent weeks that has changed, and my face will appear in the channel trailer for my own tiny channel. Well, not my tiny channel in general but #TinyAdventures, my series of almost daily vlogs.

So on to how to actually make a trailer, well, let's start with the footage. I have about 140 videos of a bout a minute each, so two hours of footage to sift through. As walking feet are the most memorable returning motif in most of my videos, I'm starting with a compilation of my legs walking clad in different outfits and shoes, as well as different surfaces.

It only took a month, but it's finally done. How we (re)unite is the second instalment of the Family Chronicles. This is the first video in which I used After Effects extensively.

I've learned how to create a mast around an image, how to write on an image and how to make them move. I've use the colour correct tools (I'm still trying to find the one that fits me best) and I've created and recreated the actions I wanted to see in a video.

In this video I don't look at the past, I look at the present. My family tries to meet once a year. This year, after not being able to last year, I decided that I really should go. And that it would be really interesting to ask my family what family means to them. The use on non-actors was the assignment and as none of my family members have ever been trained as actors, they were the perfect people to interview, especially when continuing on my previous video. It was a very interesting experience. I've realised that I need to work on my camera skills (see the difference in angles during the interviews), my audio recording (too much background noise) and my interview techniques. I have done some research into interview techniques, but I really should practice this if I ever want to interview anyone else.

I hope you enjoy the video!

So, my choice of animating part of my family tree means that I will have to learn how to use after effects. But the first step; making my family tree. I've gotten all the information, now I just need to make it into a graphic I can use.

I've learned how to use the masking tool and how to shift the lines to create a better cut of the object. This is a technique that in the end did not end up in my short, due to the effect not fitting the narrative. My work on that can be seen down below in the video. 



As you can see, I've tried to animate the heads of the people I've interviewed. However, due to the different positions in the footage and the picture, it does not match good enough to be fit into end product. There is also the issue of the colours not matching. Due to recording my interviews in several locations, the colours of the footage does not match to each other, but also not to the photo.

In the end I decided to go with a much easier effect that I could combine with the voice over work.

It's just a simple circle drawing effect. For this I used the write on effect and a bright red colour. I used some tutorials on youtube to make sure the effect worked the way I wanted it.

I've also used After Effects to animate a family tree. This effect was much easier, but it did make me realise I can make one layer a parent of another to make sure the moments are linked and synchronised. 



I've realised that although I love Premiere on it's own, After Effects is a combination of Photoshop and Premiere that is perfect for animating objects in a frame. This is something I hope to use many more times to create graphics in my future projects and to hopefully one day create an animation.