Blog 22

27 JUL 2022

I had originally planned for a perfume photoshoot, but it was cloudy on the day I planned it for and I didn’t get the props I needed earlier so it ran out at the store near my place. It was too late to go elsewhere, plus, it looked like it was going to rain so I decided to just try my luck with it. 

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The photos I ended up with didn’t turn out too bad, and I could have also just added sunlight in photoshop for decent photos. However, I did feel like that was overdone, and wouldn’t look quite the same as having the pictures shot in actual sunlight. I still edited them, and they turned out okay. The whole issue with it was that it was just okay, but not very creative. I then had the idea of making a product video instead. 

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With the general direction of social media becoming more video-based, I realised I needed to step up my filming skills for social media content anyway, so starting with this would be a great step. I filmed what I could first with a very precarious set-up: my phone supported solely by a tube of handcream, a jewellery box, and my hopes and prayers (I couldn’t get a photo of this as my phone was, well, preoccupied). 

I started with a few test shots first, and just started filming whatever I thought would make sense for a perfume shot. The decision was impromptu, so I couldn’t get much planning done and I was quickly losing light at this point. I ended up with 5 usable videos out of 13 videos I shot. As I started editing, I quickly realised there was little variation and the video was too plain as I lacked props. 

Based on the research I did for the photoshoot, the vibe I was going for was laidback and summery.  I looked at Ilio’s existing pictures and Diptique’s collections again, and realised I could utilise their illustrative elements in the video. I pulled some photos from their Facebook page and edited them out on Photoshop. 

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Once I got the elements I needed, I started roughly assembling the video together in Premier Pro, which I had never used before. I was still getting used to the tools, but I understood how keyframes and layers worked so I got used to the interface pretty quickly. I operated going back and forth working on Premier Pro and googling how to execute what I wanted. Luckily, I was already used to this process from my other projects. I was surprised to find I had a decent knowledge of which keywords to use to find what I wanted, which cut down on alot of time. 

I ran into another problem using Premier Pro as my computer CPU was overwhelmed. The program crashed several times as I edited, and I lost some progress each time. I quickly got used to frequently saving throughout my work process. It was getting pretty late at this point, and I had spent around 2 hours editing less than 30 seconds, partly due to my lack of knowledge and frequent crashes. I was still determined to finish this, so took a short break and went back to editing again. 

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Based on the illustrative style of the elements, I figured the end result could lean towards being more playful than mature, as it was a summer scent. I drew out the perfume name on a basic notes app, dropped it into Photoshop, and changed the colour. I had an idea of leaning more into the fun, summer image by giving the elements some sort of wiggle movement, so I added rotation keyframes which my computer severely hated. 

The outcome turned out better than I thought and it’s something I’m happy with for my first try. It does look a little amateur, but for my unfamiliarity with the program and accounting for the lack of pre-planning, I think it turned out pretty great. Looking at it now, I think I understand better the need for a variety of shots and what type of shots I would like to get. For example, I think having shots of it being held in the sun or out in nature would have better cemented the whole summer vibe. Plus, I find that it's better to get both close-up and far-away shots from each set-up you take so you can mix both for a more exciting video. 

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Starting the project, I was intimidated because I really don’t have much faith in my photography and filming skills. I find that through this project, I better understand what I have space to improve on. I still need a lot of practice for both to create professional quality content but I’m excited to experiment more with video editing in the future. I learned that I am more resourceful than I thought, and I’m getting better at understanding my learning process. I find I learn much more through actually attempting to do something, which makes sense as most of the projects I’ve loved the outcome of were born through my attempts at salvaging “failure” (or my definition of it). Through that, I end up with something unexpected but also better than my original concept.

In my previous projects, I learned that I needed more planning and research before starting something. However, I think I really enjoyed this one because I had to rely more on just problem-solving through creativity and I could lean more into just going with the flow. The process of editing was tough, but I enjoyed seeing the effort I put into small details pay off. Stuff like timing the music to shots and cutting footage down to capture a specific moment is much more evident in video.