Of course, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to details but for this particular tutorial we'll focus on three things you can do to improve the aspect and likability of your video.
Let's jump in.
1. Shoot in good sunny weather
As simple and insignificant it may seem, this is a very important factor for the sentiment your video will transmit to the viewers.
It's simple. We as humans prefer joy, optimism and happiness. A blue sky and the sun shining in your footage does the trick of projecting an optimistic state of mind to the people watching your videos.
Not only that but with good natural light, you can capture better quality video and that's something you have to be looking for as a filmmaker.
We'll use this clip of mine to illustrate these three points. Which leads me to trick number 2...
2. Apply color correction in post production
Basically you have to lie your viewers. Yup. I said it.
But since we're talking about lies, let's be honest for a second. What is a Hollywood movie other than a beautifully scripted and color corrected lie? Seriously.
I think our everyday life is too full of crap (not always, hopefully) and we desperately need someone to deliver a beautifully packaged, innocent lie. It can be a short story (literature = mostly lies), a movie (a big budget lie) or a nice web video (that's us, amateur filmmakers telling our lies).
Have a look at the screenshots below as I was editing my clip in Magix. The left picture is a frame of my video where I applied color correction - the right snapshot is without it. Which one looks better and which you'd choose to use in your vid? You tell me.
What I did was I saturated the colors and then I dragged the hue button towards the yellowish green area of the color disc - it's an autumn scenery so I wanted to highlight those colors.
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With color correction
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Without color correction
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This ties in nicely with point number one where we mentioned optimism. With color correction, the green is greener conveying freshness and the pure joy of being outdoors; the blue of the sky is more potent which equals to limitless happiness and freedom, etc.
It makes your video look better so why not do it, right?
3. Add a soft black margin to your video
This will make your video to look more like a film. (This and 24 fps but that's another story for another tutorial.)
Check out the pics below to see what I mean. The left picture has an Alpha Chroma Key mask applied whereas the right picture shows the video without that soft black edge. Here's a screencast tutorial on how to do this in Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus.
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With soft black margins
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Without black margins
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The soft margins points the viewer into the center of the frame, allowing him to focus on the action better. This keeps the viewer more engaged with the video.
Some programs call this a mask layer so you'd have to look into it for every specific software. In any case, it can be done and it looks cool.
Now, all these trick related to color correction and cinematic looks can be achieved with a click of a mouse with Red Giant Magic Bullet Quick Looks plugin. It works with all top editing programs like Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas Pro, Final Cut Pro and a lot more.
Conclusion
Once you see what you can do with your editing program, you just wanna do more. And each little detail can make an impact on the quality of your final production.
I say master shooting, master image composition but also play with your footage in post production. You can do some amazing things just by dragging some slider buttons in there. :-)
Over to you
- Have any other trick to make your videos sexier?
- How much do you work for your videos? Like, do you get up early to catch a sunrise?
- How many hours do you typically spend to edit a 5 minute video. For me it can be anything from 3 hours to 20 hours.
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I Just purchased MEP and my venture in editing. I have been spending a lot of time on a 3 min video. I find this information very useful. Thank you !
ReplyDeleteCheers, Dee! Let me know if you have questions.
DeleteAnd you can always refer to my video editing tutorials.