I looked at a variety of videos to learn how to do muzzle flashes. I used Adobe After Effects to composite the effect. I used After Effects instead of Premier Pro because it gave much more options and effects to use, it was also a program designed specifically for composting effects. The effects includes royalty free footage of smoke, a royalty free image of a muzzle flash. The default look of the muzzle flash is grey, it doesn't glow. So I added a glow effect to the flash, to really emphasise the shot. The screen also lights up to symbolise the impact that the shot has on the darkness around it.
In our project, I feel that I could try more advanced techniques. For example I could make the light only affect things close to it, instead of lighting up the entire shot. I might have to, considering that most of the shots we have filmed already are quite wide. (Wide, long shots).
The video above is just a shot of Jamie holding a gun and pretending to fire it at something off the screen, Daniel recorded it and I (William) edited the clip. This shot wasn't for our film sequence, we recorded this before we started, so we could get a good idea of what shots and scenes we could pull off and if muzzle flashes was going to be a viable option. It is important to know the limits of your editing programs and your own knowledge and skills before starting a project.
A few videos that I looked at are:



