Major Project: Final Product & Critical Reflections

With Double Exposure and all areas of my Major Project finished and ready for submission, I'm able to critically reflect on the results of the film and my work over this final term.

Final Film Results

With the final film's length lasting of 14 minutes and 27 seconds including the credits, I have cut down approximately 4 minutes from the film in total, and gotten it to half a minute less than the original script, without losing any of the story's quality. I feel that this is a very good length for the film, as it will be easily submitted for film festivals with maximum short film lengths of 15 minutes, and it doesn't drag, but isn't cut too short either.

Overall, I think that my approach to the pacing of the film alongside its musical scores used, direction, shot types, and actor performances have really heightened the tension and emotion of Double Exposure, allowing it to be easily recognisable as a psychological thriller.

When reviewing the film, I feel that I have cut it together very well, and that it is a visually beautiful film, as well as being able to draw in an audience through shocking and surprising them, and finding ways to make the character's relatable. However, my group and I are aware that the audio of the film (aside from the music) is of very average quality. This is due to a lack of sound recordists and recording equipment used, as well as faulty equipment during production and an echoing main location - resulting in audio that contained a large amount of echos, hiss, distortion, noise, and high and low frequencies throughout all clips. This meant that the audio could only be minorly repaired in post-production by myself and a hired Sound Editor. I feel that the audio issues that occur from roughly scenes 14 to 19 (containing the loudest sounds and all dialogue) bring the film's quality down slightly. 

However, as the Blackmagic camera quality, shot types, direction, production quality, acting performances, attention to detail (such as death make-up etc.) and editing was all to a very high standard, overall I feel that Double Exposure is a very strong and entertaining film.

Below is the opening 3 minutes of Double Exposure...

And the unlisted YouTube link for the final film is below here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n3rHlPl6Ao&t=14s

Challenges

I found that the biggest challenge of working on Double Exposure was sound editing. Before post-production I felt well-prepared for learning to use Adobe Audition CC and making any minor changes needed to the audio. I also had previous knowledge of syncing external audio to footage, adjusting volume levels, and using fade effects to blend audio together, so I felt confident in my abilities. However, once production had begun, I found in my reviews of the dailies that the audio was of very low quality, and this continued throughout the rest of filming. So once I had synced all audio during post-production our group could hear how many issues the audio had. This meant that my role of Sound Editor became much difficult, high pressured and technical.

Initially, with help from our technical adviser and research, getting to grips with the basics of using Audition was fairly straight forward, and I was able to make some good improvements to the audio by removing hiss and noise sounds. But with a large amount of problems still remaining in the audio, I felt that I wasn't able to figure out any more ways to correct this. With an industry standard knowledge and experience needed in Audition and sound editing to be able to improve the audio any further, my basic and new experience in the role and software weren't enough to fix the sound.

After my efforts and the further work of a professional Sound Editor, the audio did improve to a point, but wasn't fully repairable. So overall, my biggest challenge was definitely learning how to undergo an entirely new role, learn and put into practice a brand new and technical skillset, and learn and use a software that I was inexperienced in - all within just a matter of a few weeks with a fast approaching deadline. But, although my efforts only improved the audio to a certain level, I feel that my very hard work on the audio taught me a lot about sound editing and working in Audition, along with giving me work experience in this area.



What Worked

I think that a large amount of my time on this project worked very well. By making sure that I was a part of pre-production by giving my input on the shot list, I was able to have the Director and DOP make considerations for shots that were vital for continuity and transitioning between scenes. I also feel that during production, my creation of the dailies highly impacted the outcome of certain scenes, as I found that some scenes were too rushed, shaky or flawed and if they were to make it into the final film, they would drag down the overall quality next to the very well-shot scenes. So by making the crew aware of reshoots that they needed to have during production, I think my role as Editor really helped with the quality of a lot of scenes.

This process also benefited me in getting a feel for how I wanted to cut the film together and created a smooth transition into starting the First Assembly cut. During the entirety of post-production, I found that my four decided cut types and deadlines worked very well for me, and that I was able to work very hard on cutting the film together without rushing. I feel that my developing skill set in editing, previous experience in past projects, and editing research conducted really helped me to step up the quality of my editing process for Double Exposure. I also feel that for my first time working with a Director during post-production, we collaborated very well, with our two creative visions working well together to both cut down the film's length, and fine tune it's quality.

Overall, I feel that my editing work on Double Exposure is by far at the highest standard of my work to date.



What I Would Improve

The main area that I would improve would be my work on editing the audio. Although I'm aware the the issues with the audio occurred during recording, I feel that if this had been a much longer project with more time for post-production or if Sound Editor had been my only role, I would have spent a lot of time learning how to develop my skills in Audition and general sound editing to improve the audio without needing hired assistance. 

But, as I feel that the way that I skillfully cut the film together, incorporated and adjusted the music to fit each scene, and strategically and professionally created and added opening closing credits to the film, this is the first project that I have worked on where I strongly feel that my work needed the least improvement.



What I've Learned

I've learned a lot from my Major Project, before Double Exposure I had never worked solely in editing roles across an entire project, and this was a great way to gain professional experience for my career path as an Editor. By conducting a lot of research into my professional roles at an industry level, effective editing techniques, the process of dailies, the psychological thriller genre, industry-standard editing workflows, sound editing techniques, film examples, and the work of professional Film Editors, my knowledge as an Editor has been greatly extended and has well-prepared me for starting editing work outside of university.

Before this project I hadn't ever created dailies, had never used Adobe Prelude CC or Adobe Audition CC, had very little knowledge and experience in using the software that I edited the entirety of the film with: Adobe Premiere Pro CC, had never used professional industry level editing workflows, had never gone through the process of working on a First Assembly Cut alone followed by a Rough Cut, Fine Cut and Final Cut by collaborating with the Director, and had never undergone any in-depth sound editing processes. By the end of working on Double Exposure, I had learned new skills in all of these areas, and put every single one into practice and completed my tasks to a high and professional standard.

On reflection of my work, I have worked harder on this project than any of my previous work, and it has been the most challenging but insightful and enjoyable project to edit and be a part of. I have learned so many new skills, edited the film to what I feel is a professional standard, and acted as a key crew member to create a high quality film.