Project Description
For my senior project, I really wanted to push myself and try something I have never done before. I have watched the original Star Wars Trilogy dozens of times. During one of my viewings, I began to wonder how they achieved the visual effects. This led me to watch the behind-the-scenes to see how they were made. At the beginning of this semester, I was not sure what exactly I wanted to do for my senior project. The idea of trying to replicate the effects that made Star Wars what it is today intrigued me. This required me to work with a blue screen, film at a low frame rate, and use a 14 mm lens. I used Legos for my ship models, 3d printed helmets for the pilots, and a paper cut-out for the Tie Fighter window/cockpit. A slider/dolly was crucial to making the ship effects work properly.
Challenges I Faced
I am still quite new to video production and it practices. I picked up my first camera a little more than a year ago. I did not even know how to put the batteries in the camera. I have learned a lot within the past year. I still wanted to push myself and try something new. I had very little experience editing and keying out blue/green screens. I had never lit and filmed with a blue screen on my own before. This led to many issues while trying to film this project. I did not know what was acceptable for a blue screen to apply the effects properly. The first time I tried to film my project I quickly learned that my blue screen was not flat. The fabric was too wavy and was causing uneven light and shadows. This would ruin any effects I would need to apply later on in post production. This made me thumb tack my blue screen to the wall to get it as flat as possible. I had to completely change where I put the lights and placed my ship models. This was another issue because I did not have as much distance to work with as I did before. I did not fully understand some of the camera settings and this led me to waste some time trying to solve an issue that I could not fix at that moment.
I faced many challenges while using After Effects. I did not have much experience with it and had never used to this level. An issue I faced was timing and trying to have both ship models appear in the same clip. They were moving at slightly different speeds and kept moving on top of each other. I was able to solve this issue when I found out how to extend the timeline in After Effects. By far one of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to create the Tie Fighter shooting and blowing up the X-Wing effect. This took me a lot of time and trial and error until I was able to figure it out. Once I got done with the effects for this project I was more in my comfort zone of editing and putting together all of the elements.
Time Accounting
May 22 – 3 hours setting up practicing with equipment.
May 23- Storyboard 2 hours.
June 6th- 3 hours setting up practicing.
June 7th- started at noon, 8 hours.
June 9th- 1 hour set up equipment.
June 12th- started at 2:30 pm, 8.5 hrs.
June 13th- started at 7:30 pm, filming then editing 4.5 hours.
June 15th- started at 9pm, 1 hour practice with after
effects. Trying to figure out how to key.
June 17th- started at 4pm, 4 hours editing ship vfx.
June 18th- started at 9pm, 9.5hrs, rough cut, vfx,
editing, sfx, bhs.
June 19th- midnight, 1.5 hours vfx, color correction.
June 21st- 1 hour, bhs, senior showcase prep.
47 hours total.
Project Summary
This project gave me so much new experience in a variety of areas that all relate to video production. I performed every role and job that is required to make a video product. I planned, filmed, edited and created all of the visual effects in this project. There were a lot of firsts for me in this project. I had never used the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k before. I never used a slider/dolly before. This was my first time setting up, lighting, and filming a blue screen. This was my first time working with and using prime lenses such as the 14mm and 50mm lens. There were many effects I created or applied that I did not know about or how to use before this project. This project presented many challenges for me. What was so satisfying for me was every time I ran into an issue I found a way to solve it. There were many times I was frustrated that things were not going smoothly. These challenges were a blessing in disguise because without them I would not have learned as much as I did. I hope I can apply all the skills I learned from this project not only to future jobs but to my everyday life.