This article is the second part of our continuing series on the technical side of creating video montages for weddings, quinceaneras, quinceañeras, or bar / bat mitzvahs. If you haven’t read the first part, please Google first, before reading the second part.
The last time we left you, you had successfully passed the PAL / NTSC option, decided if you wanted your montage to be 4: 3 / Full Frame or 16: 9 / Widescreen, and chose whether or not you wanted to create your video montage in hi definition. -definition video, commonly known as high definition, or in standard definition video, also known as standard def.
You should also have figured out how to import your photos and video clips into your project and now you’re good to go.
An entertaining montage for an event such as a wedding, bar or bat mitzvah, sweet 16 or quinceañeras is most effective when it tells a story. Instead of just moving from one photograph to another while some music is playing in the background, you want the montage to enlighten the audience as to who the subject of the montage is: what makes him, she (or them), the person (s) (s) who they are, as demonstrated through photos, video clips, music, voice-overs, and graphics. I won’t spend too much time explaining how to best achieve this as this series is mainly focused on the technical aspects of creating a montage and that falls a bit more in the creative zone, but there is some overlap here as well. I will touch on some of the technical tools used to create an effective montage.
The basic elements that included a montage are the following:
- Image / images
- Sound
- Titles or Graphics;
- Transitions;
- Special effects
The “image” or images seen in a montage are primarily (a) the content over a period of time in a photograph; or (b) allow a video clip to play for a specified time.
With photos, montage will be infinitely more enjoyable if you can use “camera shake” for as long as the photo is on the screen. Different software packages will allow you to create these movements in different ways, with the end result enabling a “camera movement” to zoom in, zoom out, or move in any way through the image. The speed at which the movement will occur depends on how long the photo is on the screen and how large the movement is that you program.
For example, let’s say you have a nice, wide photograph of a person standing on the beach and the entire figure of the person is only half the height of the photograph. If the photograph will be on the screen for two seconds and you program the computer to start displaying the entire photograph and then you want it to end up close to the person’s face, well that’s a big move that will happen in two seconds and the the movement to get there will be relatively quick. It will appear slower if you lengthen the time the photo remains on screen, or if you choose an end point that is not as drastically different as the starting point, such as going from the full photo to end up framing the person from their head. on your knees instead of just on your face. This would require slower camera movement to get there.
As in a film, the movements of the camera also serve to point out aspects of the photograph to the viewer. They help “tell a story.” If you start taking a close-up on the photograph and then “pull out” to reveal another object or person, the viewer has a certain feeling, that is, “Look, little Mikey is having fun on the beach. Oh, he’s there with his Cousin Bobby! “Or, if you start with a photograph of a group of people, the viewer will first take the entire group at once … but if you then zoom in on a particular person, the camera shake will focus on the The viewer’s attention to maybe pointing out something about that person, ie, “Look at Lisa’s expression! She rolls her eyes at the person next to her.” In this way, you can make a still photo much more interesting and informative by passing the information on little by little.
Note that camera movements are also effective when they are not repeatedly the same, but rather varied, that is, sometimes they start wide and come close; other times starting close and pulling back widely.
Video clips should be chosen to help add to the story about the person featured in the montage. Be careful not to use too long a paper clip; keep wondering what the shortest length is where the purpose of the clip has been conveyed and then move on to the next material.
The sound can be the audio from the video clip, a selection of music, a voiceover or sound effect, or a combination of all. Obviously, with photographs, there is going to be no natural sound, so all of the above can be used to make the photograph more interesting. Also, just because a video clip has sound does not mean that it cannot have more sound, such as music or sound effects that you add to it. Also, there may be cases where you don’t want to hear the natural sound of the video clip, but just want to use the clip for your images, with a different soundtrack behind it. Image and audio should always be considered as two separate elements, and you have unlimited freedom to change either one, regardless of whether there was something there in the first place. Again, these options are the ones that combine to help you tell a story through montage.
Titles or graphics are items created in your editing system (or elsewhere) that convey visual information. Titles can appear over black (or other colors or backgrounds), or they can be added on top of a photo or video clip. Titles and graphics can be an effective way to impart information in your “story” and also serve to add some variety to the visual impact of your montage, giving the viewer a momentary break from looking at photos and video clips. This can be used to separate sections of the montage for a purpose, or to construct a particular photograph or video.
Transitions are the methods in which you switch from visual to visual. The simplest is known as slicing, which is simply replacing one visual element with the next in a particular video frame or at a certain time. In the case of montages, cuts can be effective when they occur to the beat of the music or at the same time. Cuts can also be jarring, whether on purpose or not.
A softer or smoother way to switch from one image to another is with a dissolve or erase effect. A dissolve is a gradual replacement of one image by another over a period of time, which can be adjusted in length. Essentially, one image fades while the other fades, creating a more lyrical shift from one to the other. A “wipe” can come in many different forms. The image can be slid off the screen while the other image slides; it can twist, bend, break; shrink; etc. There are circle wipes, page turning wipes, pixel wipes, etc. As computers have become more sophisticated and software packages more developed, the number of “preset” erasures has only increased.
A word of caution. Be careful with the wipes!
They may look cool when you first look at them, but if you wear them too often, they can be distracting and ultimately seem cheesier or cheaper than cool – the opposite effect you might have been thinking of. In my opinion, cuts and dissolves are the “most elegant” tools, with the occasional use of a creative cloth, an effective way to add some variation to the montage. But use them sparingly! Just because you have it doesn’t mean you have to use it!
Special effects can also be effective if used occasionally. One trend that has made its way into event montages, but is beginning to enter the “cheesy” zone, is the use of green screen compositing with video clips. This is where a character in a clip (usually recently created for this purpose) is inserted or composed into another background or movie clip, such as a well-known movie. The biggest problem I have with this is not so much the idea itself, but the poor quality of the composition work. Green screen / composition is difficult to get right. In fact, I directed a conventional movie where we shot two-thirds of the movie in front of a green screen. It was a movie called Gamebox 1.0 (look for it on video or TV!), And the story involved a video game tester who is literally inside a video game, and the only way out is to win the game. (The upcoming Tron movie has a similar premise.) So I am very familiar with green screen work. To green screen correctly, the correct tools must be used and filmed in a certain way for the integration to appear credible. If you can’t get it right, don’t do it at all, in my opinion! There, I have said my peace.
Obviously with special effects in general, if you “add” to the montage story, then great, do it. If not, don’t do it. Sometimes simplicity is the best way to tell a story.
Now is the time to get down to work putting together the assembly using all the elements described above. Happy montage!
That concludes the second part of our series …
Stay tuned for part 3 of the video montage tech talk tutorial, which will cover the technicalities of completing a montage and preparing for your big screen debut.