Sourcing my Own Footage

          As I mentioned in a previous blog posts, I wanted to source my own footage. Thanks to the video camera on my phone and the recording software on my computer, all of the footage in my trailer is my own.

In Game Footage

Although I set out to use a variety of games/programs for footage, I ended up just using Skyrim. I tried to transition different scenes from different games into one another but it looked very obvious where the differences were due to the different game engines. Skyrim was the best one to use though as it had a lot of varied environments allowing me to capture a wide variety of footage and due to it's console, using a command I was able to use a free camera mode which allowed me to move outside the constraints of the character. I used this ability to capture the image used for the reflection of my shield as well as the majority of footage seen in the trailer. Having the ability to move freely allowed me to capture footage very low to ground and also high in the sky which otherwise wouldn't have been possible.

Live Action Footage

For the outdoor scene I traveled to the local woods and found a good spot to film in, I knew I would be using footage from Skyrim so I tried to find a similar environment, unfortunately this forest didn't have the volume or type of trees I would have liked but it was passable. I initially started by running with the sword and filming, however this resulted in shaky and blurry footage. I decided instead to walk very slowly forward without the sword in hand as I knew I could speed up the footage in Premiere. This worked out a lot better for the forest shot but I was still unsure how I was going to insert the sword into the footage.
         My tutor had set up a green screen wall for use during class so, after getting permission, I brought the sword in and filmed my hand lifting the sword up and down against the green screen. I then used an ultra key to eliminate the green screen, put it against the background and matched the speeds. The result can be seen in the trailer and I am personally very happy with it.