The Earth Wars Series

Call me crazy, but I am glad it's over...

   It has been over half a year since the first attempt at Earth Wars. I took a look back through my notes and was surprised to find that the original name was going to be Bay Wars. The name was changed because I didn't want to focus on the bay. There are a lot of different things prior to the first attempt at creating Earth Wars, and even more to the second and final attempt.
   When I say attempt I literally mean attempt, there was no guarantee that we would get the video fully created; the final version took two days of filming. One day for the basic stuff (parts 1 & 2) and another day for the more complicated fight scenes (part 3 & 4). In fact it was originally only supposed to be one 10 minute video, which then formed into the idea of having a three part series. But in reality it became a four part series.
   One of the major changes that happened between attempt one and two was when we got an HD camera; which in some ways is better, but not all. What I'm getting at here is something you might have noticed in episode four. Did you, in the very last scene, see how the lighting changes tremendously. Well there is a reason for this, and it has to do with the options available; but the camera too. For one, the last part was filmed at attempt one with a camera that can go down to 0lux (lighting adjustment). So we could in effect film at all hours of the day and capture great footage. *paragraph down below where I will expand on this. When we filmed at attempt two : day two, we were filming at night with our new HD camera, but it can't go to 0lux, which means we can't film past deep sunset. We had filmed a very similar scene to the one in the video with minor adjustments, but we couldn't use it because the lighting was to the point of darkness that the saber was all you could see. That is a problem, but we didn't see this until less than a week prior to the release of the video, and with no chance of getting to re-film it, I, using my brain, decided to use some of the old footage because it was all we had. So in the end it turned out quite nicely, but you know what, no one is perfect, and we are just a work in progress, learning as we go. *my section below talks about all that we learned during the creation of Earth Wars.
   Now I wont say Earth Wars was the best it could have been, almost every episode was edited the day prior to release (major procrastination). But I will admit to the fact that I believe it was a well made thorough video that could have been made better if we were to remake it. What I'm getting at is that because this video is obviously are best work we have gone to a level of marketing that we have never reached before. [Side note before I finish this paragraph, from part one to part four, the skills in editing had changed so dramatically, that it was incredible, but not only did the editing improve, our field work also increased a lot as well. We have grown in so many different way it is all in preparation for the big Kahuna, LO2 - the biggest project we can imagine at this point.]
   So what is it that we have done to advertise this series that we did not do prior? Well for one, advertising was not something we did a whole lot of anyway. But we did take about several step leading to our final professional leap in advertising. It is in my opinion that free advertising can be majorly efficient, some times the market is unaware you are even marketing to them. How can this be you may ask? Well for one it's called "viral", which means the video is being spread via email and social networks. I sent off many emails about this series to friends, family, even teachers. They would like the series so much they would beg to know about the next ones release. This is very effective and the views are 'strong' views.
   Another good way in which you can advertise is a sort of force feeding mechanism. I was never a fan of it, still I disprove of it and use it as little as possible, but it works and we did it, please don't judge. Sending your targeted audience a video might seem a bit of a weird approach to marketing but it works quite well. Say my target audience is a bunch of Star Wars junkies, how do you find them? First you search YouTube for popular Star Wars videos, "Yoda Fight Scenes" is a good choice, I actually got my video as a response to that video which is another form of advertising (basically the video gets shown below the video so viewers will see it after they watch the video, and seeing as this video had over a million views this was a prime location). After you have a location of people, simply copy their username, compose a message, explain why they might like it, and attach the video, send it and you might just have a view.
   We used many others that I'm not willing to admit to because I never plan to use them again and they go against my morals. But what we have now got running and in place are a some popular techniques of marketing that cost minor amounts of money but are completely worth the cost. What I'm talking about is both the Facebook advertising system and the YouTube advertising system, both of which are way more extensive then I first imagined.
   The Facebook advertising system allows me to choose specific demographics to target and basically I could choose down to a single individual if I so wanted to target. It also gives you advanced tools and options to watching how the ad preforms. The YouTube advertising system is not as specific about the demographic but you are targeting based on search queries and other misc. items. YouTube offers a even more extensive tracking of your ads performance. For each of these services I set my price and the resulting effect follows likewise. All in all I am over excited to be using these two wonderful programs.

Major Learning Curve:
   Throughout the course of filming we learned so much incredible information it was insane to think we didn't know that back then. From editing to on location film preparation, we faced difficulties and tasks impossible prior to now. But I think it is all just how we will learn, how we will prepare, and like I said before this is our first taste into the making of the big goal, The Legend of Two (LO2). But where will we be in four months when we start the filming of LO2, will we be even further improved will we have better equipment? I have no idea, but I am excited, as the future is so untold even though I like to make it seem as though I know it...
-Flashes & Clashes
   This was more of a Star Wars related only task but it shows just what can be done. When I first started I had no idea how to build a successful flash on the screen, in fact in part three you will notice that I just put a picture of a spark on top of the clash. But as I soon after learned by using the lighting effects I could simply place a big flash outwards of the clash, and it turned out quite nicely. I had it down to the point where  I could do five or so flashes a minute; pretty good compared to the original two flashes a minute.
-Lighting
   This is more or less something we just need to pay more attention to next time. I can do a lot of things inside of the editing, but the really good video is when the least amount of editing is needed. I learned, from a professional in the trade, awhile back, over the summer, that there is a certain time in the morning that is perfect for filming, it's known as magic hour. Everything is just right and makes for good shot. But that's besides the point, lighting is important and we are more in tune with this.
-Speed Clips
   In an old post I described this, but I'll just reiterate its importance. The main reason for being an editor is to shorten clips, I never really took this to heart, but it truly is key. To make a good video it need to be short, snappy, flowing, and the more cuts the more you have the viewers attention; of course it must look good.
-Audio Offset
   A problem we use to have but no longer have but had to face again which I hated was when the audio is offset. Before our new camera we use to record to tape, unfortunately tape means dropped frames, which means audio offset. This was probably a bit noticeable if you watch the end of part four carefully. But it's all good, another thing I was able to do in audio was at the beginning of part four I took some audio from attempt one at filming. I then placed this on top of the video and was able add more emotions to the video, I thought it turned out nicely.
-Costumes
   We have always enjoyed making up costumes, but this was the first time we really got into it. We made Yoda Ears, the Vader "box" and we even painted my face green to look like Yoda. There wasn't anything really learned, but it was fun. Although we faced an unfortunate loss of Yoda's ears when Ethan thought it would be a good idea to chuck them in the water, which is why the Yoda scene is so short.
-Choreography
   Probably one of the most incredible advances in our filming. Ethan took the role as choreographer, and did a mighty fine job. When you watch footage from the first time and the second you see a significant improvement, and the best thing about choreography is it makes camera work easy. Sometimes Ethan had the shot plan, or I would just circle around with the camera. And we could re-film it over and over because everything was the same. Back in the original LO2 we tried to do this but failed, I'm so glad it is working now...
-Plug Ins
   Not used in Earth Wars, but I did learn about them.They basically can be used to further your editor, in my case premiere. I may or may not start using some.

I enjoyed making this project and am looking forward to future projects. If you still haven't seen it there is a player at the top of this post.

Thanks For Reading

The Director,