In the creation of my final board game advert, I used a large range of effects and skills. These effects and skills have mostly been shown in previous blog posts with explanations to how I did them and examples of what the final product of each project was.
Some examples of my editing work through research and development blog posts can be seen below:
- Green screen man walking: https://tobymroberts.blogspot.com/2020/11/next-gen-nescot-year-4-hnd-corridor.html
- Graffiti Rotoscoping: https://tobymroberts.blogspot.com/2020/10/next-gen-nescot-year-4-hnd-nuke.html
For my board game advert, I filmed a series of scenes centering around the board game Risk. I made sure to use different angles and shots to better convey a more 'cheezy' and older style of advert, similar to ones seen in the 1980s. For the editing of my project, I used After Effects throughout, as I had used it previously and it allowed me to create many different effects efficiently and easily.
Firstly, I complied a series of different shots and scenes I had filmed with my family and began adding them into the composition sequence, to see how the different shots fitted into the advert, how the advert could flow and which scenes interlinked with each other effectively; removing any of the scenes that either didn't fit well or had a better alternate shot or retake of the scene.
I also increased the saturation of the video slightly before then using the colour channel effect to seperate the different layers into colours, red, green and blue, whilst making sure to change their "mode" to 'screen' instead of 'normal' (other than the green layer) so that they could be seen through. Then I used these seperate layers by moving the red and blue layers slightly in opposite directions. This was done to give the appearance of old, slightly damaged VHS footage and give a slight blurred colour effect to the final image.
Once this was done, I added a grain effect to the video to better covey the older VHS style and added an overlay of damage and dirt to make the footage look significantly more damaged than previously.
After I had completed the basic flow and appearance of the video, I then began adding the sound, including the announcer voice and music. At the same time, I added some background effects and small keyframed cartoon-like explosive effects, to increase the amount of VFX effects shown on screen.
For the background and explosive effects, I started by downloading footage of cavalry charges and picking out the best fitting footage for the shots I had created. Then I lowered their opacity and added them subtly into the background during the parts of the video where the players overtake another player's space. Next, I animated a series of small, 2D explosion images.
First I added a small blast image and enlarged it using keyframes, before then lowering its opacity (making the image transparent) until it could not be seen and I faded it into the image behind it, giving the illusion of movement. I added another layer behind the second and one final layer after the third image, that slowly faded into a puff of cloud.
Finally I duplicated it in a pre-composition layer of the final explosion and moved multiple copies of it to different points on the board.
These visual effects were used to further visualize to the audience what is happening within the advert, for example the small animated explosions were used to further emphasize that the player's tile pieces are fighting each other, this worked well because it allowed the viewers to better realize how the board game works as well as allowing them to better see the progression of different actions the players take.
Similarly, the cavalry charges shown in the background of the battle scenes also reinforces the idea that the player's tile pieces are fighting each other while presenting to the viewer the setting of the boardgame, which is the Napoleonic era, allowing the viewer to better understand the more jovial and glorious tone of the advert.
Meanwhile, for the sound, I first recorded myself imitating a fast paced 1980's announcer voice reading lines from my project's final chosen script. Once my voice was recorded, I began importing the best versions of each line into my advert, making sure to put the lines in easy to hear parts of the video that had context for the line being spoken.
For the music I searched the internet for a royalty free song or a song that is within the public domain. I gathered a large collection of songs, however, I eventually decided upon "The Cavalry Charge – William Tell Overture (Finale)". I chose this music because it fitted well with the flow of the video and gave a valiant active feel to the advert, fitting the aesthetic of the Risk board game.
I also added the “Bugle Call” sound effect during scenes when a player takes another player's position because it complimented the Napoleonic theme of the game and gave a sense of victory.
These sounds were chosen because they impact the viewer by giving a more exciting and action filled atmosphere to the advert, fitting well with the board game's tone and gameplay.
Ultimately, I believe these sound choices were good because they further shaped the tone, feel and direction of the advert through the selection and tone of the music and sound effects, making sure to have a Napoleonic feel to each of them. This was done to further the valiant and active feel of advert and the views on war at the time period, with it being seen as a valiant, glorious and honorable thing. I also used the music as a basis for some edits, making the flow of the video fit with the ups and down on the background sounds and song.
The audience reaction to this was good, as they believed the feel, pace and tone of the sound design worked well with the rest of the advert, with the subsequent sound effects and visual effects further enhancing the final sequence.
Leading on from this, During the creation of the project I made sure I received audience feedback so that I could improve my project as it was made.
The audience feedback I received included things such as:
- Some parts of the announcer audio being hard to hear clearly
- And the video's time being too long
As a result of this feedback I first re-recorded the parts of my voice over that were harder to hear or understand and imported the newer versions so my announcer voice would be clearer and easier to hear. Then, I decided
to reformat the video's speed, making the video play faster so that
instead of being 1 minute 30 seconds long so it would instead become 45
seconds long.
Overall, I believe I did well on my Board Game Advert editing project. However, if I could improve on my advert, I would add a company logo into the outro and intro of the advert, most likely in the form of an animation and I would also add small explosion sound effects into the video for the animated explosions I created.
Previous blog posts for this project include:
Sound: https://tobymroberts.blogspot.com/2020/11/next-gen-nescot-year-4-hnd-board-game.html
StoryBoarding: https://tobymroberts.blogspot.com/2020/10/next-gen-nescot-year-4-hnd-board-game_21.html
Scripts and Narative: https://tobymroberts.blogspot.com/2020/10/next-gen-nescot-year-4-hnd-board-game_21.html
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