Focus On Your Strengths – A Light Of Guidance
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http://ilmcast.com/videos/log-yq-uk-finalcut.flvOne of the greatest benefits of having a contract with a client to produce work is the existence of deadlines, which bring about a sense of urgency for you and your team to produce something of value.
If you really wish to grow in a craft, whether its basket weaving, graphic design, video production, motion graphics, medicine, law, engineering, etc. — you need to put yourself in a position where you have the opportunity to practice and work hard to hone your talents to mastery and excellence.
Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it sure can bring about excellence — ONLY if that practice is in an area of your strengths and talents. Working on your weaknesses and not developing your strengths will ultimately land you in a career that will make your miserable, or at the very least leave you empty in a way.
I’m not saying ignore your weaknesses, rather understand them and work around them and make sure they don’t undermine your strengths. What I AM saying is develop your strengths and talents to a level that will enable your to simply dominate your area of expertise. – What ever that may be.
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When you service a client well and shatter standards that were laid out, usually this ends up in the bar being raised — followed by a push of encouragement to shatter it again.
Visual Eye Candy Store
The last trailer I did was for the Torch Bearers seminar taught by AlMaghrib Institute. I ended up employing motion graphics, something I hadn’t done much before.
The issue this time around was that AlMaghrib and its base loved it so much they wanted more of the same quality.
I’m not a motion graphic artist. I’m far from it. Personally I haven’t had much opportunity to practice such a specialized craft (which by the way pays real well). I decided to look for outsourced venues to do some of the work.
For those who don’t know — RevoStock.com is an excellent source for stock footage and Adobe After Effects project files. I purchased a project file titled Particle Fractal Fly Through and began playing around with it in After Effects until I got it to be visually as I wanted it.
Personally still being new to After Effects, it took me quite a while to get myself around it. Longer than it normally would if I was editing footage shot with a camera in Premiere.
- — -
Shatter a standard continuously is harder each and every time, but that doesn’t mean you cannot be consistant. I’m not a sound designer or sound engineer by any means what so ever. I personally don’t even have the proper tools, knowledge or skill set to be an effective sound designer.
Music To No One’s Ears
I go by an Islamic standard and principle that musical instruments are not permissible in my line of work. Whether those instruments are based in string, wind, brass or percussion.
I guess this principle has been an aspect of the brand I’ve been building for Leechon. I guess you can say that’s a good thing.
Fundamentally, in Islam musical INSTRUMENTS are prohibited — this isn’t a forum for Islamic jurisprudence, so don’t start a debate 
The After Effects project file came with an audio track that I had to throw out the window and face the challenge of producing another track inline with my principles.
Creating the sound score is a difficult challenge for me personally. Its certainly not a strength of my own and its a source of pain considering that I’m not a sound designer by any standard.
:: UPDATE START :: 8:52pm
I forgot to add…
One of the ideas I had for the dialog portion of the sound I got from the movie Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The opening lines start with a voice in “elven” language and then follows with a “translation” in English.
I thought that would be an interesting way of applying Yasir Qadhi’s voice into the sound track. Arab (a real language) followed by English.
:: UPDATE END :: 8:56pm
After about two days of intensive work, I ended up with a first cut for the trailer. This first cut is what was played at the GPU conference. Personally I find it a bit embarrassing.
http://ilmcast.com/videos/light-of-guidance-yq-uk.flvAfter I got news back from AlMaghrib, I was basically requested to redo most of the audio and change up some of the visuals. After about another week worth of stress and facing the technical challenges I came out with the final cut which you see in the beginning of this post.
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E.I.D. – Enjoyed :: Improved :: Discovered
The only facet of this project I truly enjoyed was the end result. Not so much the process. The reason for that is because I spent most of my time working on my weakness of sound design — only because it was simply undermining my strength. I certainly did improve in my ability to take sound and develop a track that sounds quite professional to the ear while keeping to my principles.
My most important discovery here is that I need to move beyond working with only myself. If I’m to shatter the standards I’ve set for myself for future projects, I’m going to need some professional assistance — especially in the area of sound design.
SaqibSaab Says: 17.12.08 at 11:21 am
After Effects can be quite tricky. And sound is QUITE challenging when you follow the Islamic principles mentioned in your post. Alhumdulillah, seems like you’re still able to find ways not necessarily around it, but through it. Nice lessons.
Oh, and who’s voice was it in that GPU cut?
AlBaraa Says: 17.12.08 at 11:36 am
The voice in the “GPU Cut” is of yours truly
Nahyan Says: 17.12.08 at 11:40 am
woo Belal, it seems your video-making skills leaped another level.
MashaAllah.
the RevoStock collection on their site is great.
Is the main effort in the audio with a project file?
is the text graphics easier with a project file or same as making a trailer from scratch?
overall, that’s a hype trailer. The final product shows much improvement from the GPU version.
may Allah put barakah in your skills and enhance them.
Nahyan
Nahyan Says: 17.12.08 at 11:41 am
yaa the voice sounded familiar…
AlBaraa Says: 17.12.08 at 11:47 am
The effort in the audio isn’t particular to the project file. It was just particular with the overall project.
Considering I don’t know how to make something like that from scratch, I’d say its MUCH easier to simply edit the text in a project file. Even then its time consuming — only because I’m not very experience in After Effects.
Faisal Says: 17.12.08 at 11:57 am
Assalamou alaikum wa rahmatullah,
THIS is what I was thinking of. This was played at Torch Bearer’s and I immediately knew it was your voice! Then when I saw the officical release come out, I got confused but this explains it.
uma Says: 17.12.08 at 3:57 pm
I felt like the trailer’s ’script’ needed some more visual diversity kind of like your Conquest promo or Majd’s BOC promo: i.e. more pictures, more interesting font presentation. Or was this a deliberate approach?
But the audio quality of the speaker’s voice was superb and stunning esp compared to past trailers. And the choice of the narration about the kalimah on the scales was powerful.
Jawaad A. Khan Says: 17.12.08 at 5:36 pm
Assalamu Alaikum,
First off, that was an amazing trailer. Second, I think you did really well in your challenge with the audio and sound. I personally don’t fully believe in the same principle regarding music that you do, but I respect your choice and admire your overcoming the challenge. I mean to spark no debate, but I propose to you a question.
If your voice beat-boxing or some other source creates something that sounds LIKE a drum or something, so well as to the point where people can’t even distinguish that it is not a percussion instrument, but, in fact, a voice, then what distinguishes the Halaal from the Haraam? Is it the sound or the instrument? If it is the instrument, then how is it that the instrument that produces a sound can be Haraam, but a voice that can produce exactly the same (basically) sound not be Haraam?
Sorry I got a bit wordy there, but I’m just interested in the your views. Just know that you’re still my brother in Islam and I completely agree with this post in its message that tells us to always strive for Ihsaan in everything we do.
Omar Says: 17.12.08 at 5:36 pm
Well, that is a really good trailer. If I ask you to do some trailers for the leesons that sheikh give here in egypt would you make one for us since this will be very usefull to dawah, coz this makes people give a second thought about attending lessons
thank you very much, if you are interested in something like this you have my mail.
Mona Says: 17.12.08 at 6:35 pm
Mashallah the trailer is fantastic, given the chance I would definatly fly out to London to take the course
Congrats, your efforts are greatly appreciated.
rizak Says: 17.12.08 at 9:19 pm
MashaAllah, I have to agree, this is the best trailer yet!
Funny thing, if you listen very closely, near the end of the final cut you can hear the soundtrack (was that the one you scrubbed?)
Shirien Says: 17.12.08 at 9:25 pm
I have to agree the sound clip of Yasir Qadhi was well picked, very powerful and very relevant. Even without all the other sound effects it would have still be very powerful by itself.
If you could pick a very powerful sound bite for all of your trailers that would be awesome.
AlBaraa Says: 17.12.08 at 10:04 pm
@ Jawaad,
I’m writing you an email
@ Omar,
If you’re genuinely interested in hiring my services, shoot me an email via the contact page.
@ Shirien,
Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxary of always having access to good sound bites. In the case of this trailer I had that assistance from the guys over at AlMaghrib. Maybe in the future I’ll post here if I need any help finding such content.
– — –
I’ve made a small update to the post. One of the inspirations for the “dialog” sound layer was The Lord of the Rings movie.
Shirien Says: 17.12.08 at 10:16 pm
I’m sure many of us could find something high quality and appropriate to the subject matter. Just let us know.
Hebz Says: 18.12.08 at 3:23 am
Assalamu ‘Alaykum,
Is that a nasheed playing in the official trailer? or a track that you mixed? MashaAllaah I absolutely love everything…the graphics, the audio, the YQ clips, jazakAllaahu khairun,
Nihal Khan Says: 19.12.08 at 7:22 am
You spelled “Guidance” wrong in the second trailer…lol.
AlBaraa Says: 19.12.08 at 7:29 am
Oh well — it was changed in the official release sent to HQ.
SaqibSaab Says: 20.12.08 at 6:25 pm
Could totally, tell man. Hehe.
adiljan Says: 30.12.08 at 8:12 am
Asalamu Aleykum, yeap …. the first one was really very strange and the final is very good. Mashallah good luck in your tricky and hard work.
AbooZaid Says: 31.12.08 at 12:02 pm
Belal Sahib,
Mashallaah akhee. I just wanted to thank you for keeping it real and being bold enough to share your artistic process with us. You’re an inspiration. May Allah protect you and put barakah in all that you do.
AlBaraa Says: 31.12.08 at 12:20 pm
Jazakallahu khairun for the kind words Aboozaid,
It’s not so much the “boldness” of sharing what I know, rather the lessons and gems that were attained in the process is what I believe helps others aspire higher.
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