Production-Now Promo: Myst-style

I built a quick video yesterday to test TrafficGeyser's claims and found that they were mostly true. Now, if you Google for "media mentoring" or "media mentorship", you'll find my video. Unfortunately, I was unable to break into the "media mentor" top 10.

I made the video with only four layers of media:

Me (my pretty mug and the mic):


Some Static (taking straight off the TV):


A Photo of an Old Book I had (notice how I left a very low opacity over the section where my video was going to go so that there would be a slight hue to the video):


and finally some Title Cards (keep 'em simple):


When I put it all together I got a pretty cool image:


I only used a couple little "tricks" to make this video. First, cut out my book photo and deleted a rectangle in the same proportion as my video. Then I added a layer of the page with very low opacity (15%) over the rectangle where my video would show through to give it a slight hue.

Second, I didn't add the Title Cards to my first Timeline. I got all my video tracks (me, static, and the book) lined up how I wanted and then I rendered a full quality video file. Since I Green Screened myself and had other Compositing going on, my video would not play back in real time. By rendering out my timeline, I could play my composited video in a new timeline and know exactly where I wanted my Titles to go.

Third, I couldn't get my TV to make the static noise, so I had Audacity generate it for me. Cake.

Now, if you've got 2:02 minutes, check out my Myst-esque Production-Now Media Mentoring promo video:



~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor