Editing

First Draft: 

With editing, this is where a bulk of my decisions were decided with the product. While I had most of the stuff envisioned, I hadn't thought about the details in full until now, because this is where everything needs to be complete. All image references are from "Image References: Editing".

First off, to edit the disclaimer. (1) I started with the background, which was a starry background, because is looked rather generic but interesting enough. In time with the narration "The Featured Event's" and "Featured Disclaimer" I had swipe on the screen with about a three frame transition, slowly moved across and then disappeared after three frames at the end. The font I decided to use was Blondi, because it had a very commanding and aggressive appearance. The pure white contrasted with the black outline that made the text look defined, and this pattern would be kept throughout the rest of the clip. (2) "Disclaimer that disclaims" had a similar effect, but with a vertical entrance as opposed to the horizontal one from before. However here, I decided to also include the disclaimers that might be mentioned in an actual disclaimer like seizures, and a joke one that would then have a line appear through it, "Mediocrity". This was intended to create humor. (3) From here, a transparent skull comes from the back to the front, fading in and out. This is to make things appear more sinister than they actually are going to be, as the skull represents the negativity, but the transparency reveals there's nothing to be afraid of. (4) This then is followed by "Featured" and the Splatoon clip coming on screen at an angle. The angle is meant to be mocking of how some clips in films are slanted just for variety's sake. After that, they both spin into the background and then consecutive Chihiro's from Danganronpa appear on screen. (5) How I achieved this affect was by planning one's pattern across the screen, and keyframing four points in it, duplicating the image and then cutting each ones movement after one of those points. On Italian, I then have Waluigi's head stick in on the side because he's one of the most recognizable Italian stereotypes in media. On "Dante", he walks across the screen (6), an effect I achieved through keyframing the horizontal movement, then every few frames alternating the angle. On "it'll be here soon", the background starts to fade out, ready for "Here it comes", where the actual disclaimer starts to rise from the bottom till it hits the top. The disclaimer then has a wall of text appear with the words "This film features naughty words" repeated over and over, with multiple walls of text and a glitchy sound effect to create a sense of confusion. (7) I achieved this effect by layering multiple walls of text scrolling up over eachother, and then altering the amount of tracks playing it as well as the start and points of it. The words if made out cause humor, as well as the audio which when reversed is "Buy our merchandise", mocking subliminal advertising in mainstream media.

As the final wall of text scrolls up, beneath it the first live-action shot comes up. (8) This was meant to be a transition into it, which I feel looks smooth enough. For this shot, the audio I felt was a little distorted because of movement, so half of it I re-recorded in post, the dialogue in it. I felt the chair squeak was quite nice, as it was diegetic. (9) From here, the shot crossfades with an image of a family watching TV, because it matches with the dialogue. The zoom on the TV is meant to symbolize that it's the focus. I also decided to make the image black and white, to show that it was from a long time ago. Upon the transition as well, the first bit of music I wanted to use starts playing, "Verdanturf Town - Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire". I decided on this due to it's relaxing tone, slow pacing and how simple it sounds, matching with talking about Drake's childhood. It then crossfades into another image of a child holding a Gameboy Advance, but zooms out from it being close to the gameboy, creating a reversal of the previous effect (10). During this part, the boxart of Pokemon Emerald flies across to center screen and then zooms in, placing emphasis on this game (11), signifying it's nostalgic impact to Drake, especially with how it's in colour unlike the background, which shows how this game brought colour into his life. We then cut straight to the second live action shot (12), a shot of Drake presenting Emerald to the camera. This hands on approach gives a more personal interaction, and seeing someone interact with a given thing creates a more attached feeling, i.e. a child, dog, etc.

Then, to transition, Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards fly across the screen, to reach a crab shot of part of Drake's room (13), showing off his amiibo collection accompanied once again by the non-diegetic voice over. The choice to transition with the Yu-Gi-Oh cards was done because there wasn't a natural transition to a scene in the same area that also moved, so the choice of Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards added momentum to it and also felt like it wasn't out of place. It then fades to a tilting shot of another part of Drake's room (14), that shows of his game consoles as well as his TV, which is playing RWBY. Both this, and the previous shot were sped up, in order for the first to look less stable, so it looked more amateurish, an idea I wanted to experiment with as somewhat of a mocking joke, and the second to just flow at a better pace. From here, we fade to a pedestal shot of Drake's game collection (15), which hold the same idea as the last two. From here, it fades to a collection of game footage, first Xenoblade, then Persona. The abundance of fades is because I felt that since it was just exploration of the room, it needed to be samey, and Xenoblade and Persona have this too because they're the first games shown like this. However, the next transition is a linear wipe from left to right to reveal Rashid from Street Fighter V. (16) The choice of this is because it contrasts with Rashid's movements as it now appears that he rolls out from behind the wipe, creating a dynamic switch that I'm a fan of. From here, it fades to Blazblue, and the does an iris transition to Death Parade. (17) The iris transition is a where a clip fades and another emerges thanks to an expanding circle from center, which I absolutely loved because it made it look like the clip was emerging from the moon in Blazblue.

From here, it does a few more fades until Drake says the word "Gatchaman", at which point the music which had been playing throughout fades out, signalling a change of pace. From here, we straight cut to another live-action shot (18) where Drake says "Go, Bird!" followed by the non-diegetic music of Gatchaman Crowds: "Gatchaman ~ In The Name of Love". The choice of this song comes down to the fact it's faster paced, relevant to what was just mentioned and can begin from any point the word "Gatchaman" is yelled out, which is perfect for transitioning in. Once it comes in, it's quite loud, until the voice-over starts, which it turns down in a snap. From here, it flashes to white into the Vocaloid section (19), which matches the Gatchaman theming of transformation, as it looks like the video is transforming. The Vocaloid sections follows the similar idea of previous sections, with jump cuts, fades, etc, with a voice over, but how it transitions to the first special guest (20) is through a similar transition to the trading cards, only this time is images of icons in media communities. J.R.R. Tolkien for books, Satoru Iwata for gaming, Hideo Kojima for gaming and Mew2King for e-sports. The RabbidLuigi shot is one of my favorite in the entire thing, because of how broken it was when it was put into editing. I can't identify how the problem was caused, but what it became I was a fan of, because it looks like a transmission. As a transmission, it makes it seem like it is a really special guest that went out of his way, which combined with RabbidLuigi's condescending ego, it emphasizes his grandness by effectively making him look awful. The text is in the font "Century", which is rather formal and represents the "specialness" of the special guests. It fades on screen for a few frames, it fades out. To transition to the next clip, the second special guest Giovanni, (21), I use the Venetian Blinds, where it fades in from a specific angle with a specific movement. I use it because it at least looks more varied than a fade. For this guest, as he's speaking in a different language, along with his introductory text which is the same as Rabbid, he also has subtitle text which starts at the top until the intro text disappears, and then appears at the bottom. This text is in the font Plantagenet Cherokee, and instead of matching the white and black color scheme as seen before, I chose a yellow and black color scheme. The reason I chose this is because it is a clear distinction to what's already established through text, showing the more individual feel it has for Giovanni, this is his text and what he is saying. The transition to guest 3, Sharla, (22) is 3D Blinds, that seem out of place but it's better than a standard wipe. Now here, I want to point out what edits I do. The text. Nothing else. The reason for this is for a reason I haven't stated earlier, entirely my fault, but this is because of the fact I didn't have a good time to talk about it, as Sharla wasn't a character conceptualized in the original planning state. Her enthusiasm for something the interviewer, Drake, the main character, doesn't like is reflected through the gloomy atmosphere, low key lighting, dark clothes and uninspired editing. It's like the video itself reflects Drake's opinion. Anyhow, upon Drake saying something Sharla doesn't like, the music cuts out naturally in the song and it's naturally stopped then, to show a moment of hesitation for humors sake.

After this moment of hesitation, the music kicks back in, full volume this time, where it dissolves to a blank screen where in time with the track, video clips jump in of famous community members videos (23). How it's handles it is frame perfect with the music, synced up individually to take up a quarter of the screen in the order "top left, right, bottom left, right, repeat". On the 9th beat, after two loops of 4, it then begins having clips appear in pairs of two except for six, in packs of 16. (24) The outside 12 an order of "1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1", going from top left, splitting up to go round the screen until the last one is in place on beat 15. From there, the last four cover the next 4 beats, in the same order seen before. This was done as an entirely ambitious task with the intention to show the scale of the media influence. Each clip was picked with some sort of variety in mind. It then 3D Blinds to a white screen, (25) which while it's an unoriginal transition in context of what I used, the fact I have four rows of visuals makes it perfect for transitioning, which then dissolves into a gold visual galaxy as I call it, where the title enters in time with the music (26), along with "A Drakeante Production" at the bottom. From here, it Portal transitions into a black screen (27), which I chose to use because it's game-esqe feel I felt fits the themes. After that, the Angel Beats opening appears and fades out, (28) to show off that's where the clip would lead into.

Rework

After my first draft, reworks were done to cut down on the amount of additional footage used, namely around the centre and give it a more mockumentary feel. The disclaimer and ending are left relatively untouched, though the middle section from "bigger games" to RabbidLuigi went under a dramatic overhaul of changes, which I'll list now.

• (29) On the first live action clip, there is now text saying "*filmed by professional amateur". The idea I had with this was that there's a small joke going on with how it's shot, because composition wise, while it's good, some of the camerawork is questionable. This is self awareness at the inconsistency of quality throughout it, such as focus and the Rabbid glitch.
• (30) On the section where Drake mentions specific examples, from "Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards" to "Panty & Stocking", images of a character from each of the series appears to establish them rather than a clip from the show. The only exception to this is the Gatchaman clip, as it's the final one. The characters are Eliot Kid (Eliot Kid), Horrid Henry (Horrid Henry), Super Sonic (Sonic The Hedgehog), Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles), Yu Narukami (Persona), Ryu (Street Fighter), Hazama/Terumi (Blazblue), Satoru (Erased) and Stocking (Panty & Stocking). The decision to do this meant all the clips could be replaced with live action, rather than the additional footage, while still showing the point Drake wanted. The editing was also done in a style that reminisces the original source material for a few of them. Examples are Super Sonic, who does a loop before flying off the screen as a reference to the iconic loops in Sonic games and Yu Narukami, who's image enters in similar fashion to his Instant Finish in Persona 4 Arena.
• (30) After the pedestal shot in the room of the games, there is now a shot of Drake putting on "Deal With It" glasses to read. The idea of this shot was to parody similar looking shots in other films, not just mockumentaries, but any genre. Drake has been seen earlier with his actual glasses, meaning the viewer realizes these are fake and don't help him read. The high-angle is a commonly associated shot with this type of scene. The glasses themselves are a reference to "meme culture" spread through the internet. The editing at this point is what gives the illusion of camera movement up and to the right, it's a simple post edit pan. It keeps the pace the previous shots established, while not technically moving and creating comedy. To get into this shot is a fade-in, to match the others at this point.
• (31, 32, 33) The three shots listed here are meant to be a parody of western shootouts, which sounds like quite an absurd thing to go into here. However, it was useful for showcasing how gamers see multiplayer games as competitions. First off, Drake appears and squints his eyes as the screen narrows on him, and then the same happens for a new character, who'll be referred to as Drake's Friend/DF. With these two shots, I layered royalty free fire over the top of them, to show how "heated" the battle is, but with 90% transparency to avoid the fire becoming the main focus. With the narrowing, it was achieved through simply messing with the ratio of the clip, narrowing what was in the visible frame. Afterwards, a high-angle, almost top-down shot of them pulling out their weapons, a couple of 3DS's both playing Pokemon. This is a parody of two shots where participants pull out their guns in westerns, but with an appropriate item for the scenario. The entirety of this sequence uses straight cuts, to showcase the quick reflexes someone in a western shoot-up would have, this time for entirely ironic reasons.
• (34) The transition between (33) and (35) is as the screen rotates one way, a Pokeball appears on screen, rotates the opposite way at a slower pace as both zoom into (33) fading, then the Pokeball. The idea for this was to simulate an effect used in Pokemon games when a trainer challenges you to a battle, usually a foreground object and background scene take contrasting actions to transition, and I feel this captured it.
• (35) This was a still close-up of Drake's head while showing him talking to people on Skype. These people, two have their faces, one does not, which is what a typical skype group chat may look like. Both the two with faces however, are indistinguishable, as they aren't important to the mockumentary, just ideas. The one image you can see though, the bunny cat, is meant to provide comedy in the fact it does meet a type of humor on the internet previous mentioned, meme culture, but a more accessible version of it as some people will find cat pictures funnier than glasses. This shot was also my way of hiding a couple easter eggs relating to development, something that might be nice for viewers to find if they rewatched it 5 years after it came out or something. The person on the far left is the narrator in the disclaimer and the three people that are shown match personalities of the original three guests (RabbidLuigi, Giovanni, FaceRigDog): a Brit (middle), a non-native speaker (left) and a talking animal persona (right).
• (36) From a page roll transition after "Miracle Paint", a shot of Drake looking adoringly at the camera is shown, being a parody of reverse shot scenarios. If you think about it, it makes sense that he's facing the previously shown clip, but it's a parody in the fact that it's a perfect 180 turn around, you can't see anything of the other shots in this one. As such, it makes sense it's reversed, but you'd never know, a little bit meta. The movement of the camera was done for the same reason mentioned in (30), for pacing. The only other thing worth mentioning is that this is the only time we see the opposite side of Drake's room and that the hat is meant to make him look nerdier and a bit more pathetic.
• (37) This was a still shot of someone playing the Vocaloid game, Project Diva F 2nd, assumed to be Drake. It iris transitioned from the previous shot to get here. While the camera is stationary here, the self-recorded gameplay element of the moving note prompts as well as the controller keep the pace.
• (38) A linear wipe leads into an arc shot of Drake singing, which references the main media area that's just been talked about, music. The arc shot shows One Punch Man on one screen, implying he's singing a song from that, and Audacity, a recording software implying this is an actual recording. Comedy here comes from fact this part of Drake's room has been shown a lot before, so certain things can be identified, such as where his microphone would be. The opposite way from where he's facing. This then has the scrolling images used before into a relatively untouched ending sequence.

Final Product: