If you are a huge fan of Hollywood heartthrob Robert Pattinson – the vampire from Twilight – you can create your own Bel Ami movie with the help of a professional content company.
The team at FullScreenProduction.com have put together a comprehensive guide to help you make the right choice and navigate the process successfully. If you are looking to create your own bespoke movie, read on. We’ll walk you through the steps to follow, step by step.
The Basics
The first thing you need to do is decide what type of video you want to create. Do you want to make a music video, an explainer video or a branded movie campaign? The options are endless!
For this tutorial, we’ll be creating a music video for the song “I Fell In Love With A Girl” by Bastille. As the name would suggest, this song was inspired by the popular Twilight series and the associated cinematic universe. It’s a fun song to perform and an easy one to remember. We’ll be using FCP X as our NLE (Non-Linear Editing Software) to edit the video, but you can use any NLE you like (Premiere, Avid, Final Cut Pro, etc.).
Get The License
The first step in making a video is to secure the rights to use songs, images or words. This is known as ‘getting the license’ and it is very important to get it right from the get-go. After all, you can’t edit the video once it’s been shot without going back to the original recording.
For this project, we will be needing a synchronization (sync) license for the song ‘I Fell In Love With A Girl’. A sync license allows you to edit the video in line with the timing of the music so that everything from the opening scene to the closing credits matches the song. It is also crucial to secure the sync license for any content that may be duplicated in the video. For example, if you have a scene where two people are kissing, you must have the kissing scene matched exactly to the timing of the music. Otherwise, it could look too staged.
Set Up The Shoot
After you’ve gotten the license, it’s time to start building the story. Decide on the overall concept, theme and structure of the video. Once you have a general idea of where you want to go with the story, you can start to lay out the scenes and shoot them with a minimum of re-takes. This will help you to keep the flow of the story consistent throughout the duration of the video. If you have a clear idea of the ending you want, it will help you to plan out the entire story. Setting up a shoot can be as easy as contacting the company and agreeing on the basic idea of the video. Once you have the go-ahead, the production can get underway.
Music Is Priority
If you are looking to create a music video, then make sure that the focus is firmly placed on the music. To start with, it is best to choose an easy-to-use song with a decent amount of recognition. After all, if your video is going to be online, it better be searchable by potential viewers.
When pitching the video to potential clients, make sure that they know the focus is on the music and how it can be used to tell a story. Most importantly, you want to create a video that is representative of your brand. Music videos that are purely promotional in nature usually don’t end up being that good. The quality isn’t there and, in some cases, the songs aren’t even that good. The video will end up being a bit of a dissapointment to the audience because it doesn’t match up to their cultural expectations of a music video.
Shoot On Location
For this particular video, we’ve decided to go local. We want to bring the feel of San Francisco to our video and shoot on location within the city. This will help to ground the video and provide a genuine connection to the audience – especially those that are based in San Francisco!
On the day of the shoot, make sure to arrive early and find a good spot. It’s always preferable to be somewhere neutral and avoid any kind of distracting background noise or bright lights. When you arrive at the location, take a few minutes to look around and find a place that feels right for the shoot. Once you’ve found a suitable spot, it’s time to set up the shots.
First Person Shooter (FPS)
A first person shooter (FPS) is camera operator-controlled camera gear that allows the operator to walk around in the shot, as though they were part of the action. In a nutshell, it’s a camera operator with a first-person view of what they are filming. This can be a great tool for creating specific effects within your videos, particularly with regard to the way the camera perceives movement.
One of the advantages of shooting with a FPS is that it gives you the ability to walk around and visually access every aspect of the scene. This can be useful for getting the perfect shot without having to rely on lights or other cameras to capture the scenes. It also means that you can experiment with different camera perspectives to see how they affect the narrative of the video. The downside is that it requires a skilled operator to ensure everything goes smoothly and the footage is of a high enough quality that it can be used in your video without any problems. In the case of this video, we’ll be using the Red Dragon 24 FPS Camera with a Nikon D7000 to capture the footage.
Choosing The Right Locations
Once you have your locations locked in, it’s time to start working on the actual narrative of the video. For this particular video, we want to explore the idea of love in all its forms. This means that we need to find locations that are representative of various types of relationships. To start with, let’s visit the Castro district in San Francisco. This is a place where LGBT individuals and couples can explore their feelings for each other without fear of persecution or judgment.
In a band rehearsal room isn’t that the perfect place to find love and connection? As mentioned above, this is a location that is representative of many types of relationships and it presents a great opportunity to explore this idea through video. We also want to include a little bit of Venice as we’ve never been there either and cannot imagine a more romantic environment to find true love!
Bringing The Characters To Life
The next step is to bring your characters to life. Sometimes, it’s difficult to visualize how people will act in certain situations. One way of solving this problem is through storyboarding. Storyboarding is a form of visual storytelling that entails drawing out the events that will take place in the video. The advantage of storyboarding is that it can help you to see the plot points and key scenes of the video before you begin shooting. It also helps to establish a clear direction for the actors and ensures that everyone is on the same page. This can be a great tool for keeping track of the story and making sure that nothing gets left out.
In the case of this video, we will be using a combination of Adobe After Effects and keyframes to bring the characters to life. If you are using Adobe After Effects, then CS6 is fully compatible with the new features introduced in FCP X. This opens up a world of new possibilities for non-linear editing and compositing. One of the things that can be really handy is preset facial performances. These are small animatronics that you can drop into your scene and have the characters talk, move and act as you would expect real people to. Of course, you can always bring your own motion-capture character, but these can be a little easier to work with when you are first getting started. When using preset facial performances, every scene will be populated with potential answers to your story questions – even if you don’t think you have any!
Bringing The Video To Life
The final step is to bring the entire video to life. Once you’ve got your characters and locations locked in, it’s time to start adding the finishing touches and polishing the video. The first thing you will want to do is add some music and sound effects where appropriate. The sound and music from Bastille’s album ‘Bad Blood’ will work nicely for this particular video. When putting the soundtrack in, make sure that you stay as close to the original as possible while still keeping the essence of the song. Once you’ve added the music and sound effects, it’s time to take a step back and watch your video with the eyes of an audience. From here, you can make any necessary adjustments and fixes – and finally meet with your video producer to send them your finalized work.