Properly Attributing Creative Commons Material

After final completion of the film, I am incorporating the attribution list into my credits however I was unsure of how to do this properly so did a bit of googling.

I went to the most helpful resource I have found so far: http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/fact-sheets/attribution

Although I had already read about what CC was and how to use it etc, I didn't know how to write each license correctly. I found this table to be very helpful:

Most of my videos were CC BY which meant that I was only required to attribute their name with the exception of "An Anxious Remix" which was no derivatives. In keeping with the ND I only used the audio clip for this project and left it completely intact. The audio fit in nicely as it was about agoraphobia attacks and used heavy breathing, short voice clips and heart beats. I only really wanted the heavy breathing but as I was unable to doctor this track I worked my other source videos around that audio.

Overall I think that I achieved my aim in created an uncomfortable yet educational video using Creative Commons materials.

Rendering

When I have worked with Final Cut Pro in the past, I found it extremely time consuming and frustrating having to wait for my project to render after every change. However after reading through the class notes (specifically the ABC Remix doc).

Sequence Settings

Open Final cut pro

Sequence > sequence settings (apple 0)

Load sequence presets > Apple Intermediate Codec 720p 30

Please Note

You can experiment with any of these settings, but the ones we have recommended here will enable you do make edit with out the need to render – a big advantage.

This would have been very helpful on my last FCP project , and I am extremely appreciative of it this time. I only had to render my filters and titles etc A BIG BONUS! 

Adjusting the opacity in FCP

In order to generate a confused feeling for the audience and replicate the feeling of de-realization, I want to overlay many of my clips so that you can see a heart beat over a dog attack etc. This will be especially helpful when I have clips that have an emotional audio track but a very plain video. 


I found this tutorial: Adding Opacity to Files in Final Cut Pro

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/video/articles/72963.aspx#ixzz1VeZL8Zur

Much like the previous tutorial this was merely an explanation of what each of the tools did rather than how to use them, I personally find these a re better for my learning as I prefer to explore the program rather then going through a step by step process and duplicating stock standard effects. 

Using Time Based Effects

As many of my source videos have been shot with different filming techniques and some are animations, I want to use some effects to try and connect the varying styles.

I googled a few effect tutorials and found this tutorial to be a great one for explaining what each effect actually did:

Final Cut Pro Tutorial: Using Time Based Effects

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/video/articles/84093.aspx#ixzz1VeXTQvHg


Although much of my video will just be overlaying one clip on top of the other - I would like to use the echo effect to try and replicate the notion of de-realization (one of the many symptoms of a phobia attack). 

Effects in Final Cut Pro

Naturally, I've been experimenting with the tools through exploration rather than tutorials - however for the purposes of the course I've completed a few tutorials and incorporated them into my final product. 


I found a tutorial by Paul Grabowicz, Ellen Seidler, Tim Gnatek, Jeremy Rue titled Adding Titles and Text to Clips. This tutorial was very clear and concise as it gave a step by step method to placing text over existing clips in FCP. The screen shots used were especially helpful as it enabled me to locate the menus easily. 


I've used text throughout my video as I needed to explain some of the clips, giving facts about the amygdala etc. 


Below are some of the photos used in the tutorial: 

 As I have been using the suggested ABC Remix settings, I've not had to render my project very often, however I've found that text effects requires a lot of rendering so would suggest that it be done at the end - once all of your clips are in place. 

Statistics and Facts - Phobias

I've been looking into the facts to place into my video to adhere to my story line and ensure that this video is education rather than just entertainment.

It has been difficult deciphering simply explanations as to how the brain functions during a panic attack and the physical reactions that occur when you are confronted with your phobia. Most websites naturally go into lengthy definitions of the function of the amygdala and pharmaceutical treatments for social phobias etc to lower heart rates, help with nausea and much more.

My aim is to simplify this medical jargon and layer short facts about phobia symptoms over existing videos, not only adding to the movement but keeping audience interest.

Site that I have found most helpful have been:
http://www.anxietypanic.com/phobiafacts.html
http://www.amygdala-anxiety.com/panic-attacks/
http://www.fearofstuff.com/
http://www.anxietycoach.com/exposuretherapy.html

to name a few - most of these websites naturally present the same information however it has been helpful doing a comparison as I try to simplify the scientific facts to single sentences that would overlay on video.

Audio - CC

I've been working with my video clips and splicing them with a few effects over the top, but it still seems to feel disconnected. After some consideration, I think a single song as a background track to all of the videos would help to tie them together.

I decided to visit a few Creative Commons music sites available and found my favourite to be dig.ccmixter.org as it was easy to navigate and had the best advanced search settings. I searched for topics such as: lonely, afraid, phobia, addiction etc to find anything that had the same feel I was trying accomplish through my videos. After much time spent listening to some terrible music and some very good tracks I finally found the track that worked for me.

Don't be Afraid - by SPECK - 2009

This track starts upbeat which fit nicely with my general public introduction and the slowly descends into something much more dark and contrived. The song is quite repetitive and echos with the lyrics "don't be afraid" which complements the theme of the video and sets the overall mood. I intend to adjust the audio levels throughout my film, increasing heartbeats and breathing etc for effect. Most of the audio other than the background song will be sourced from my CC videos.

Layering and Effects

I've read a few tutorials and played with the transitions and effects tools quite a bit now, experimenting with my many videos and trying to bring some semblance of order to the chaos.

So far I've been using a lot of cross dissolves between clips and adjusted the opacity to meld several clips into one.

For the beginning section of my video, I've got a few crowd clips which don't quite go long enough so I have adjusted the speed by 33% to create a slow motion effect. This I think will work well with text a text overlay, I envisage this first section to be an introduction the phobia statistics and a gently ease the audience into a false sense of security. This has been done using 3 different clips of young people and busy crowds, there are already a few effects on my source videos so I'm trying to keep a similar editing style to keep a fairly uniform product.

I've decided that my aim for this video is to make the audience as uncomfortable as possible thus invoking a sense of empathy for the subjects. While this is an educational video, I want it to be an unusual take on informing the public.

Working in FCP

I've imported all of my clips into FCP and marked each one using the in and out markers before adding them to the timeline.

As an Adobe person, I've found that the easiest way for me to organise such a medley of videos is to mark each one at the points in which I need to clip and then add them to their own track, much like layering in Photoshop. From there I could lock certain elements and unlink audio etc - for the purposes of this video I would be deleting most audio tracks.

I worked out how to delete each clip from the timeline however I soon realised that this method left me with a lot of empty tracks and found that I had to scroll A LOT to find my many layers..... enter delete track!! It took me a while to work out how to delete an empty to track... in fact after sometime of exploring it myself I resorted to Google and within seconds had my answer.... I just wasn't clicking in the right section!

Discovering the trusty right click in the right area to delete track!

Using In and Out Markers for clipping in FCP

Week 1 - 4 NMD201 Phobias

Educational material on phobias, as it turns out, is a difficult topic to find on the internet. Everything I've found thus far has been based on how many phobias there are etc... but I like a challenge!

As I want my video to be mainly POV and make the viewer feel as uncomfortable and confronted as possible I've cheated a little and found a few educational videos on the effects of drugs and grabbed clips of people having withdrawals etc.

I've found tons of Vlogs by people suffering from certain phobias mainly Agoraphobia and how they deal with life each day, a sort of community support program if you will. These videos I found useful for gathering ideas but generally they were of the subjects sitting in the bedrooms with poor audio. I may try to use snippets of the videos however I think they will be mainly research based.

I've downloaded the following CC Videos using youtube and Vimeo:
• "We All Want to Be Young" - Box1824 (Vimeo) - uploaded Nov 8 2010
• "Acrophobia" - Thomrichart (Youtube) - uploaded Aug 23 2010
• "An Anxious Remix" - wolffwrtf09 (Youtube) - uploaded Nov 13 2009
• "Choking Game ~ Wake Up! Choking Game aka: Pass Out, Faint, Dreamland, Elevator, SpaceMonkey" - Yeahkt (Youtube) - uploaded Jun 13 2010
• "Trastorno de ansiedad, Agorafobia, Fobias" - Podemossuperario (Youtube) - uploaded Jul 5 2008
• "Heart Disease In Women: Educational PSA Video" - rosaryfilms (Youtube) - uploaded Jul 5 2008
• "The Real Dangers of Ecstacy (MDMA) / Educational Video PSA" - rosaryfilms (Youtube) - uploaded Jan 18 2008 
• "Needle Phobia" - XXintoxicatingsinsXX (Youtube) - uploaded Oct 27 2009
• "Nervous Energy Panic Update" - curtsphobia (youtube) - uploaded Jun 30 2011
• "Savium - The Self-Saboteur" - savium (youtube) - uploaded Oct 31 2010
• "The Boy Next Door" - Greg Schmidinger (Vimeo) - uploaded Jan 22 2010
• "Why is Anxiety so Stubborn" - dooley78 (Youtube) - uploaded Jun 5 2011
From my research I'm thinking I will structure the mashup to start with statistics (if I can find them) and an image of the general population crowds etc and then moved to shots of the beginnings of an anxiety attack (most videos I've found for these were related to agoraphobia).
I will then link these shots to a few facts on the "fight or flight" theory and reasoning for panic attacks. This will then be followed by a closer look at the heart rate acceleration, deceleration and a look at the more physical effects. 


Still a little vague on how I will finish this video, but I guess I'll see how these clips shape up[ and work it out as I get a feel for the mashup. 

Week 4 NMD-201 PHOBIAS

Well I've been slow in posting on my blog, however I have been doing work on my video.

I had trouble in the beginning deciding on a topic as I struggled with the concept of using "creative commons" material - I would have preferred to have used my own footage. As a result I've selected a topic which I couldn't really get my own footage of and something that is very much a part of me.

I've selected to do a video on Phobias. Rather than do a video showcasing the different types of phobias people have, as this is done to death, I've decided to do a point of view educational video.

I am haemophobic and as such have an irrational fear of blood. I can not handle the sight of blood or even a mention of a gory story or movie.

This type of phobia is classified as a specific phobia and is a vasovagal manifestation.

The effects of haemophobia are quite physical, such as:
• First you experience an acceleration of your heart rate
• Then a quick deceleration and lower blood pressure
• This sudden changes in heart rate lead to dizziness and sometimes fainting
• Nausea, Chills or hot flashes
• Sweating
• Feeling of choking
• Paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensations)
• De-realization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself)


I tried to focus on this type of phobia as the topic for my videos, however this was a great personal struggle for me as a youtube search for haemophobia turned up very little and those that were available I struggled to watch. 


Realising my search was too specific I decided to expand my subject matter to phobias in general. I found a lot of Creative Commons material available on anxiety and panic attacks associated with many phobias, the majority being agoraphobia. Capitalising on this, I've opted to to do a video that looks at what a phobia is and how a panic attack feels when you are confronted with your phobia.

Week 3 - NMD 201

I've been reluctant to start my course work this semester as I settle into the units I have selected, however today I start the work and concepts for my assessment 2. I've finally got my mac account activated and have access to the building so will be able to catch up with the class soon. I've missed the last two lectures however I've done some work in FCP before so should be able to manage without the intro classes.... hopefully.

I've been stumped with a few topics as creative commons has made my choices more difficult then the initial IDEA but I am determined to have the core videos downloaded and start editing today.

I've done work similar to this in FCP before in my advanced studio class so the technical side shouldn't be too difficult when I jog my memory on the short cuts etc.

My idea so far:
• I like the idea of face morphing video clips of different people from childhood through to adulthood.
• Trivia
..... using creative commons materials is making my decisions harder then I know it should be because I want to develop a concept..... I'll get there soon enough.