Directions Unit: Fine Cut

After making the changes and additions that both I and my course leader felt the film needed, I think my fine cut is looking great.

I made the following changes to my film...

- Made the image quality of the flashbacks more blurred, bright and unusual to make them stand out

Before

After

- Removed an unnecessary shot from my first sequence

- Re-edited my conversation scene to start with wide and mid shots, then change to close-ups, and then back to wide/mid to fit the story, showing that they start to get closer once money and drugs are exchange, and then she closes off again once she has flashbacks and wants to leave

- Added a wide shot early in the conversation scene for variety

- Used light filters on certain shots for a more professional look

Before

After

- Add lots of sound effects such as street noise as a backing track throughout the film, sirens, dogs barking, birds, cars passing and crying to one of the flashbacks for a more emotional effect

- Fine tuned my sound to make sure there was no clipping and that all of the sound, especially in the conversation, had an equal volume

- Removed the static sound from my flashbacks as it simply didn't sound right

- Improved the exposure and blue colouring on every clip to make it more obviously tinted and colder

Original

Rough Cut

Fine Cut

- Added Fincher style opening titles and closing credits using my own footage of smoke and backwards credits (wasn't easy!)

I put a great amount of detail into the changes and additions I made. A lot of them seem like very small, insignificant changes but they took a long time and a lot of work, such as tuning the sound, changing colours and adding filters.

I'm also very happy with how my titles and credits turned out. When I filmed the smoke, I did it outside at night, creating a clear black background and thick white smoke by holding a light under the smoke. I originally created my opening titles with the white smoke and black background, but after playing around with effects, I found that the 'negative' effect looked amazing. I love that it gave it a clean white background with dirty black smoke. I also tinted the smoke slightly blue to fit with the rest of the film. I think the font and fading in and out effect I chose for the text is also very Fincher-like if you compare it to a film of his such as Gone Girl.

I wanted my credits to role backwards like they do in the film Seven, so that I could finish the film with one last Fincher trademark. It turned out to be challenging though! When it comes to titles on Final Cut, you can't simply reverse them for some reason. So I had to write all of my credits backwards, starting at the end and working my way to the beginning. Then I had to take my clip of the smoke and reverse it, so that the smoke was moving backwards. Then I put my credits over that clip, and merged them into one single clip, this allowed me to reverse the credits so that they would role down instead of up. And obviously once I reversed the merged clip, the smoke moved in the proper direction again.

I'm very proud of the work I've done on my film so far, but I have a bit more to do before my final, submitted cut is ready. My course leader gave me a few more tips on how to improve the film just that little bit more...

- Change around the clips where the two characters come together in the conversation scene to make it flow a lot better

- Explore a gradient filter to possibly put on the sky

- Add a few more sound effects

- Slightly shorten a clip of Mara's hand holding the drugs

- Explore other options for a sound over the flashbacks

I've already started working on the above, and I'm really looking forward to having my completed final cut ready for submission!

Here is my fine cut of Exhale...