The creation of the @unsuicide PSA

I thought I’d post about how the PSA I edited for @unsuicide came together.

I saw on a post on Twitter that @unsuicide needed an editor to help with a PSA. I said, “I can help,” and we were off and running. After a few preliminary emails I received the first round of clips but there was problem. I couldn’t read any of them. The original files, which said files were created from, were .3gp phone files. I couldn’t read the client .mp4 conversions so I took the original .3gp files and was able to convert them to .mov using MPEG StreamClip.

Once I had the converted files I had to decide which editor to work in.  I guess I really didn’t have a choice since on my home system I only have Sony Vegas Pro and was trying out the latest version, 9.0a. Vegas is a terrific program and I’ve used it now for many years, since version 3. However, for the past two years I’ve primarily used Adobe CS3 and CS4 quite extensively on both PC and Mac and really appreciated the integration between programs, especially in CS4. If I had the choice to use CS4 vs. Vegas Pro 9 I would likely go Adobe for this project. But… I didn’t. And this project was a good opportunity to dive into some new Vegas features like the new title tool, ProType Titler, a leap ahead from the offerings in the past. I also needed music and knew I probably didn’t have the right vibe for this video in my limited music library.  I already had Sony Cinescore and found that Vegas 9 had some integration with the program. Adobe Soundbooth offers similar integration and benefits of quickly creating a music bed, customized to length and arrangement.

Next I had to figure out what format and aspect work work in. Knowing the main deliverable was for web and wanting a wide-screen look I went for 1280×720, knowing I would output at 640×360 (or half size). The footage wasn’t really a determining factor in the format as I knew from it’s original size and quality that it would only appear on part of the screen at any time.

There was no script, just the clips, so I had to, yes, put my editor hat on! I threw all of the clips in the timeline and started trimming and splitting clips (segmenting portions of longer clips – creating more soundbites), then moving them around to create a sequence that had some flow. This included considering pauses or ‘spacing’ in the timeline. A little breathing can be good. After a few versions I was getting close to the right feel, message, tone. At that point it made sense to start working with Sony Cinescore to find and create some music that would match the feel of the story and visuals. I whittled 20 possibles to a final two.

The video was shaping up to be about one minute though I didn’t have a specific time mandate from the client. My goal was to make it exactly one minute and was on track with that until the client came up with some good text to append at the end which pushed the video past the minute marker. No biggie as it wasn’t meant for broadcast. I know that I could go back and rework the video to get it to one minute if that ever came up.

One of the obvious challenges with this footage was that the audio was noisy, distorting or worse. In one of my prior posts I talk about the importance of audio in any video. Wouldn’t you know it, shortly after that, I get this project with very poor quality audio. One problem was the original resolution and another, in most of the files, was distance away from the subject speaking. I did spend some time trying to improve the audio but ended up with a better solution: using animated text.

The use of text was actually a reaction to the poor quality, not planned from the beginning. And I think it worked out for the best. Of course, I’d prefer to have better audio along with the text. But the use of text actually saved the project. The text reinforces the message while also acting as subtitles. The ProType Titler in Vegas, which I hadn’t used before, was pretty easy to get up to speed with and I look forward to using it more extensively in the future.

The other obvious issue was the low resolution of the video. While some phone can now shoot some very nice quality video (iPhone) most still do not. I decided to keep the clips sized to just a portion of the display, allowing room for the text as well as movement and variation of placement for the video clips.

For the type of project (PSA, gratis) and my limited time, I tried to keep it simple while making it somewhat visually interesting. If I had a budget/time to work with, I probably would have preferred to use Adobe After Effects with its camera and lighting features as well as the integration with Premiere. Vegas 9 held up well, though, and can be taken much further than what I had time for. But, then again, maybe I would have ‘overdone it’, for what it is. It’s hard to say. One of the things I like about the spot is the slightly eerie quality of the low-res clips along with the music score.

So, that, in a nutshell, is some of the thinking and the doing that went in to producing the @unsuicide PSA for Suicide Prevention Day and Mental Health Camp ’09 (#mhc09).

-Scott (@scottbabcock)