People hate me because I can’t keep my mouth shut.
People hate me because I always seem to be smarter than them.
People hate me because they hate to admit that I am indeed smarter than them sometimes. Kekekekeke.
So, I need to rant today because I have seen so many videos edited by fellow CJs who just do not notice this very annoying, ear splitting and distracting point.
Putting many changing shots into one video make the video interesting. But for goodness sake, cut off all the audio first. Unlink the audio from video. Remove the audio. Add as many padding shots as you wish.
Then, find one pleasing background sound, be it music or the speech and use that in the soundtrack or narration.
This way, you do not subject your viewers to banging drums, clanging cymbals, music, traffic, talking heads and what nots in one single video. People can go insane, you know?
I just don’t get it why some people just don’t get it after watching other’s videos. Oh wait…maybe they think they are so terror-merror that other people videos, for e.g. mine, are without quality. So they don’t watch. Yeah, someone once bitched that I am only good in producing videos in quantities but with no quality.
Who the hell cares, man? I got a story or news to tell, I am not a creative person. I tell my story, move on and find more stories. Why would I want to waste my time trying to be OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) with the artsy-fartsy thing? I am a citizen journalist, not Yasmin Ahmad.
After this post, I hope CJs do not give 6 seconds shots with different audio anymore. Sigh…Lilian, you are a such a bitch, you know? *grins*
The below is the Nine Emperor God video I took at a temple in Penang. I tried to adopt the ‘no zoom, no panning, no movement’ technique but I am still way behind in terms of quality.
Usually, I have to grab on to my tripod with the video camera attached and my DSLR camera. My video camera is rather cheap and I am never too careful with it. At times, I left the thing by a wall while I snap photos with my DSLR camera.
It is not easy balancing both equipment but in order to get better quality videos, I have no choice. So far, I manage quite ok.
The thing is, I am usually very critical of my own photos and videos. when I get home, I will be grumbling why I missed out certain shots or why I didn’t explore certain angles to shoot a photo or video.
One other rant is how my DSLR photos quality puts my video to the pits. My video is rather pale and dull while the photos taken with the Nikon D40 which I use vivid mode looks more alive. So, i interspersing them made the video kinda weird.
I guess self criticism will help to improve quality of the videos I edit. But too much of them made me want to just forget doing it when I cannot get the quality I want.
All of us who took the citizen journalism course only had two days of video filming lessons. I did learn a lot from the class by sifu Mr. Teoh. As I had some basic knowledge about handling a DSLR camera, it wasn’t so hard to grasp the terms used in videography which is almost similar to photography.
However, knowing the techniques like getting the proper framing, adjusting white balance, checking the audio quality and etc are not enough when we are on location.
I am lucky in the sense that I speak Bahasa very fluently and hence, the other Malay videographers who are mostly males are very nice to me as I usually go by their rules. I would forego good location and remain in the background. After sometime, they had seen my video production and know that I am not such a noob after all.
So, learning the ropes are much easier because they do not mind pointing out my mistakes when I asked for guidance. They also give me tips me on where to stand for better shots.
However, the hard part comes when there are no other videographers around. That’s when I cannot copycat them and did feel a bit lost when I am the lone videographer. For example, in the above Hari Malaysia celebration, not many of them are interested in the event after the initial arrival of the VIP. So, I was feeling so out of place being the poor, lonely videographer who had to stand alone.
Therefore, to become better videographer, which essentially makes a better citizen journalist is to be humble, be willing to learn and never be afraid to ask questions.
After running through rolls and rolls of films and editing clips not filmed by me, I have somewhat establish a regular routine of doing things. Here are my step-by-step of editing :
1) Know what’s the main content of the documentary and don’t digress. When we digress from the main core issue, viewers get confused and didn’t get any message but merely entertainment. When doing video journalism, it is more important to let the issue settles in the mind of the viewers than how beautiful the shots are.
2) Pull into Video 1 all the clips according to the timeline they are taken, with oldest first and end with newest first.
3) Start chopping off all the unimportant or unrelated part. Usually the main is the interview or talking parts. However, some parts may be important but they are not related to the main message, so chop off and maybe make a separate documentary next time.
4) Fine tuning the main parts, cut off further. Snip and video/audio fade in/out if necessary.
5) Pull into an area at the end of Video 1, but place in Video 2 work area the padding shots. Snip, snip, snip them to small parts. Remove audio clips.
6) This is when the wide angle shots mix with close up and medium close up come in. Always arrange them in proper sequence.
7) To note is make sure the padding shots do not have the person who are talking, walking around. Sometimes, it is inevitable. I have done a few interview, sitting down and next minute, the padding shots show me walking somewhere, looking at the things being mentioned. Well….
8 ) Start layering padding shots on Video 2 on top of Video 1. Don’t cover all the good facial expressions because they are important too.
9) Let the thing run through, add music if necessary. Add transitions if absolutely necessary.
10) Add titles, names of the person, credits. Add logo or whatever needs to be added.
Theme, template or simply put, your blog design are like the clothes your blog wears. By default, you get a plain blue and white page. You can easily change to a theme you like. Just go to Appearance > Themes and pick what you like. You click the theme you think looks good, it will ask you if you want to change. Click yes and you get a new look. You can change the Theme as often as you like. There are plenty to choose from.
HOW TO ADD THINGS TO SIDEBAR?
Wordpress makes it really easy to add things. Under Appearance, there is a choice call Widgets. (on your left side bar on the Dashboard).
When you click Widgets, it shows you a long list of things. If your blog has only one sidebar, then, what you need to do is to click on the Add for things like Recent Posts (titles), Recent comments, Links or etc and it will be added into your sidebar.
Think of Widgets as tiny drawers while your blog sidebar (the one people see online, not to be confused with the sidebar on your Dashboard) is the big, tall cabinet. So, all your things to be shown online are stored in these widgets.
You can change your blog theme but the Widgets remain there.
Do you notice that there is a title call Text in your list of Widgets? Text will add a box where you can copy anything like some short description, your photo, some Facebook codes or whatever into your Sidebar.
First you log in. Usually, the log in page is at http://wwww. blablabla your blog dot com/wp-admin.
This is where you log in.
You will come to the dashboard.
On the left side bar, in light blue fonts are the buttons you need to write or add anything.
If you see a light gray triangle, click that and the board will expand further.
To add new post, just click Add New.
Then, it will lead you to another page where you can start writing.
Here's where you can write new post
After you have written whatever you want to write, you can click Publish on the right side bar. It is the blue button. Wordpress will autosave as you write so you don’t have to worry about losing your post midway. But if you like, you can press Save Draft to save or Preview to have a look at your post.
This is the tutorial on using Wordpress. You may find your panel different from the free Wordpress.com because they are using different version.
So, you want to add big fonts, small fonts, red fonts, blue fonts….They are all there on your little tiny boxes.
b = bold your font,
i = italic (for these, you just highlight, i.e. right click and choose the part of the thing you want bolded or italic-ize.)
The blue link word with underline is where you add link. Or if you are in Visual mode, it is the chain like symbol.
Say you want to write Malaysiakini and you want to link it, you just highlight, click link/chain button and a tiny window will pop up. Just enter the URL of the site you want to link to.
b-quote is to block quote of what you quoted from somewhere.
YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS VISUAL AND WHAT IS HTML. Do you notice the word Visual and HTML on the right side of the box where you write?
For beginners, you can use Visual because it shows exactly what will be shown. But if you are copying some video clips from Youtube where they have all those codes and tags, you must use HTML to copy or the codes will turn into words.
Also, when you click Visual, there are lots of other buttons for you to play with. See the tiny chequered box on the far end of the right side? Hover over it and it says the Kitchen Sink. Click that and it gives you even more buttons to play around.
HOW TO ADD PHOTOS?
Notice the Add Media word on the top left of your Write Post box? Those tiny boxes, music and stars are where you upload your files.
To upload photos, just click the first box, it will lead you to a pop-up ‘Add Image’ new page. Just choose the photo from your computer, click add and it goes to your blog. See the ‘Insert Photo to Post’, click that and the codes will go to your post.
Normally the photo sizes should be around 500 pixel width. Height is ok but if too wide your photo will ‘run’ into your sidebar. So, do use that size or you can re-size from your Wordpress panel. Just click the photo in Visual mode and there is one tiny blue box and a red circle. Click the tiny blue box and you can choose to reduce your photo or enlarge in percentage, like 50% less or 110% more etc.
More on next post on how to change your blog theme, add links and explanation on what is Widgets. Widget is a useful thing to add to your blog sidebar.
This is the tutorial on using Wordpress. You may find your panel different from the free Wordpress.com because they are using different version.
