Directions: Self Portrait: The Development of the idea and Test Footage

I had an idea of how I wanted my self portrait to look, I wanted to incorporate nice imagery from a collection of places that I have been and I wanted it to have a double exposure effect, almost like it was imprinting on me. I learned that in order to get that effect, I would need to be in front of a plain background, green screen would be best. I watched a few tutorial on this;  

But I later found another tutorial where I learned that you can also achieve this look without a green screen, the background just had to be plain.

After learning about this, I was relieved because it would be easier for me to do it on a white background, especially when I realised that the studios had plain white walls with good lighting after a workshop. I wanted to conduct some test footage and try out the design to see if it was actually plausible. Here are some stills of the test footage.

After shooting this I realised that the only shots I could practice on were the ones where I wasn't wearing white because the white was too close to the background colour therefore the effect would also blend in with my t shirt. I still wanted to practice and thats what I did.

I went onto youtube and followed the only tutorial that showed how to get the desired effect but for some reason it would not come out the way I wanted it. It required me to use After Effects, A programme that I knew nothing about but I still decided to give it a go. This tutorial was also in Spanish but the steps still seemed easy enough so I attempted to follow through but I could not get it right at all. It seemed almost impossible to get the double exposure effect that I wanted. I then found another after effects tutorial that showed me how to get the true detective double exposure effect and I attempted to follow that. 

however mine refused to cooperate;

After this I basically gave up with after effects as I found it very tedious and frustrating. I then found another tutorial which told me I could have that same desired effect but I could achieve it on Premiere Pro alone. Again I followed the steps but it just wasn't coming out the same, thats when I made an accidental discovery and it ended up working out more interesting than I originally planned.  I realised that the tutorial were not going to give me the desired effect because my background was still patchy and not all one toned so it gave a speckled effect. I toggled a few switches within the Ultra keying effect and Track Matte effect and it left me with this effect. I then learned that basics of how the layers work when you pair up the Track Matte and Ultra key and had a little play around; 

After I saw this, I knew this is the direction I was meant to take it in. Already this opened up an entire new way of visualising my ideas. There was an element of mystery to it and I found it more powerful than what I imagined before. My Self Portrait became one big experimental piece and I learned how to create it as I went along. 

Reasons for the choices I made in the edit 

I chose to have the dialogue from the film Psycho. After watching it in class, there was a specific encounter that the characters had which immediately stuck out to me. I felt like I could relate to it in some ways so I wanted to incorporate this somehow. After learning the techniques I was able to layer them on top of each other to create a cool effect. 

I continued to experiment and created some more interesting imagery.

The final sequence features me in various places with different people at different points in my life and it basically represents , that I am the person I am today because of the experiences that I have had.