Major Project: Fine Cut Workflow & Result

Once I had the Rough Cut of Double Exposure ready for our colourist (also our DOP), he proceeded to colour grade the film for two weeks with the Director, and finished this process after our group had reviewed the changes and given our feedback. Once this was complete, the colourist handed the project back to me and I was able to begin the Fine Cut of the film.

This process consisted of further cutting down the visuals, fine tuning the overall look of the film, making further sound corrections myself using Premiere, creating our group's production company logo and adding this to the film, creating and adding the opening titles and closing credits, working on further crew and tutor feedback, adding our composer's completed musical score to the film, achieving picture lock, and adding all audio back into Audition, organised and ready for our hired professional Sound Mixer to work on for the Final Cut. These tasks were all completed within the two week-long deadline given for the Fine Cut.

Below are edit logs, tasks and screenshots of my work across my time working on the Fine Cut of the film...

Day 18 (Clip Fixes and Feedback Changes)

Day 18 Edit Log

• Received finished colour graded project back from colourist.

• Found that during the colour grading process some of the clips that I had previously cropped or size adjusted for head room etc., had returned to their original specifications. I then checked all clips for whether they had reset or not, and fixed this with reference to the project before the colour grading process.

• Worked with the Director to make our tutor's feedback changes from day 15 of the edit now that the audio and colour grading was in the current project. These suggested changes were...

• Trim between scenes more for a tighter edit and to no linger in scenes.
• Consider removing Emily's eyes closing in scene 6 - but wait until adding music as this may work with that.
• In relation to trimming, cut down the bed clip by a few frames in scene 7.
• Consider Emily not leaving the cafe (cut out these clips).
• Consider removing scene 12 from the film, going from 11 to 13. As this makes Dan's appearance in scene 14 more surprising.
• Consider using more shots of Emily in scene 15 for character balance.
• Make Steph's knock on the door louder or more aggressive in scene 17.

• We worked on this by cutting down the frames of the bed in scene 7, trimming down the beginning and ending frames of certain scenes, lifting the volume of Steph's knock in scene 17, and removed scene 12 from the film (as can be seen below), as we felt that these all strengthened the storytelling.

Before scene 12 removal

After scene 12 removal

• We however decided against removing Emily's shots of her leaving the cafe, as after testing we found that without them the scene didn't flow into the next, we decided not to cut to Emily more in scene 15 as we found that the scene is stronger with Dan as the dominant character, and decided to wait until adding music to remove the end of scene 6's last shot.

• After working on feedback changes, the Director and I continued to review the film multiple times (also at times without sound to focus only on the visuals) and made further changes such as removing an extra cut of Emily leaving the house in scene 7, and instead held on the first shot of this as it's less jarring.

By the end of this first day of working on the Fine Cut, I feel that the film was already at an extremely higher standard than the Rough Cut. As the project now had improved audio, all clips colour graded, and had been overall improved by my changes with the Director to trim and fine tune areas of the film.

Day 19 (Altering Sound, Name Titles & Beginning to Add Music)

Day 19 Edit Log

• As the export of the Audition XML file into Premiere had resulted in a loss of my volume changes and transitions (fades) on each audio clip, I decided to go through every audio clip in Premiere and make the improvements that had been lost. I lifted each track's volume to the maximum as the film was extremely quiet, adjusted particular clips' volume that became too overpowering, and re-added my fade transitions to the audio to have the clips blend in a more seamless way as they did in Audition.

• The above took a large amount of time in order to redo a lot of my sound editing that had been lost, but following this, I then downloaded Double Exposure's official two fonts 'Pistara' and 'Stark' - as previously decided by the Director - in preparation for creating the opening titles and closing credits.

• I then created the cast title cards with the Director to add to the opening scene. Giving all three names the conventions and specifications of being a mix of the two fonts, white in colour, 5 seconds in length each, and fading in and out for a smooth look. Examples of the cast title cards being created and added to the film can be seen below...

• Moving on, I was then given all current musical scores from the composer, and imported these into the project, following the Director's scene by scene list of which tracks should go where and why.

• The music was not yet complete, but the Director and I decided to add the currently completed tracks from scene 1 onward, carefully placing them with correct timings, and blending them with volume adjustments and fade effects. An example of the first track being added to scene 1 with volume and fade adjustments can be seen below...

• By the end of the day, we reached scene 14 - where a track meant for scenes 14 to 16 was currently too short. I made plans to continue from scene 17 onward the following day, and return to scenes 14 to 16 once the track was complete.

As there were a large number of tasks to complete over the first few days of the Fine Cut, this was a very mixed day, consisting of sound editing, title creations and composition additions. But I feel that I completed a large amount of tasks to a high standard within just one day, and really moved the film's progress along.

Day 20 (Finishing Adding Music & Feedback Alterations)

Day 20 Edit Log

• Once the film's official title logo (created by our Director) was given to me, I added this into it's assigned space after scene 1, fading in and out with an accompanying creepy hum/rumble, completing the opening titles. The film's title addition can be seen below...

• Using a mix of the music tracks from day 19 and day 20's updated tracks, the Director and I continued to add the music to the film.

• Blended some of the tracks with a composed hum track to create extra tension in places. Also continued to make appropriate adjustments through lifting and dropping the volume where fitting, and adding fade effects for transitions, as can be seen in a track consisting of volume adjustments and a hum addition below...

• A customised part of the music was in scene 20, where I decided to fade out her breathing as white noise faded in, making it all we hear just before her scream breaks the silence. The timeline of this is shown below...

• Half way through the day we had finished adding all current music to the project.

• We then had a tutor viewing, where he provided a lot of helpful feedback both visually and with a high focus on the film's audio and newly added music. Following this, the Director and I made further changes to the film based on this feedback...

• Found that the opening track ended slightly too early, so cut this track to silence as the door slams in scene 1 - making everything cut to silence before the film's title. This change was a lot more powerful.
• Lowered Emily's footstep volume in scenes 2 and 19 to have them blend into the scene more and stand out less.
• As the music was becoming too overpowering at times, we removed a track from scene 7, and had the track start at scene 9 instead.
• Removed the white noise track from scene 20 as it didn't fit, and instead temporarily extended the dramatic music during this scene.
• Fixed slightly out of sync dialogue from scene 15.
• Removed Dan entering the room in scene 16 as it wasn't needed, and the scene starts a lot stronger with the visuals and sound of him quickly unzipping his bag.
• Took more frames off of some scenes consisting of a character leaving and entering for faster transitions.
• Added temporary fast paced tracks to the end of the film in order to speed up the feel of the film and give a sense to the audience that we're building to the end, as the last few scenes were currently too much of a drop in energy and too quiet. This also had us make plans as a group to immediately contact our composer and have him compose a new track for these scenes.

I think that by the end of this day, the film felt greatly more professional and had a lot more energy to each scene with the addition of all music. I also feel that by making all of our tutor's feedback-based changes, the placement and design of the music tracks were highly improved, along with the visuals even still becoming stronger at this stage of post-production.

Day 21 (Adding End Credits & Production Company Logo Creation)

Day 21 Edit Log

• During day 21, I was currently waiting for the new and last music track from our composer so that I could add this to the film, along with awaiting further feedback the following day. So in the mean time, I decided to create the end credits and our production company logo.

• Using a credits list created and provided by our producer, I added all credits with the Double Exposure font and matching sizes and durations. E.g. 145pt size font, and 3 and a half seconds in length for the credits that fade in and out.

• When discussing the credits with the Director, we agreed that the first five credits (consisting of our project group) would be 'still' credits that fade in and out, and the rest would traditionally roll upward. Below is the first of the five still/static credits added to the film, with the credits list on the right hand side...

• For the rolling credits, I decided to start by writing them all in a large font to ensure all spelling was correct. Then resized, spaced out and re-positioned them, and added them to the timeline for a duration of 30 seconds. The creation of the rolling credits and finished result in the timeline can be seen below...

• Once the end credits were completed, I then looped, cut, re-positioned and adjusted the volume on a drum beat track that our composer had made in order to create a suitable end credits musical score.

• I then made our production company logo. This was previously agreed as 'Genius Motto Films', due to our co-operation as a group and the professional ring to the name. I created this by selecting a suitable font, adding this to Adobe Photoshop CC, and adjusting the font and adding extra flair to the image. I then added this to the beginning of the film and our group agreed that the logo was suitable. Below is a first draft example of the logo in Photoshop...

I found this day to be a great chance to be visually creative and a chance to add some polishing touches to the film while waiting for the new music and gaining further feedback. I think that both the production logo and end credits appear to be very professional and fitting with the film.

Day 22 (Adding Final Track & Removing Scream)

Day 22 Edit Log

• Received and reviewed our composers new and final music track created for the end of the film.

• Removed all temporary tracks from the final scenes and added the new track. In order to make the track have a powerful effect I added volume adjustments, fade effects, and accompanied the track in places with a drum beat and hum for extra tension. The new track with drum beat and hum tracks can be seen below...

• Our group then reviewed the end of the film with the new music and felt that the ending was now a lot stronger and had a dramatic build to the end of the story.

• We then had a viewing with Producer Samantha Adam, who felt that we had a very strong cast and story, and enjoyed viewing the film. She also provided extremely helpful feedback, and based on this, I made the following changes...

• She noticed a slightly out of sync piece of sound in the opening scene. As this was a slightly out of time replacement audio clip (where audio was not recorded to match the clip), I split the clip and re-positioned it to correct this and sync up the footsteps.
• Improved certain music transitions that during the viewing I felt came in too early or late.
• After an insightful discussion, she pointed out that Emily's scream in scene 20 (after dumping Dan's body in the shed) seemed out of character. As she is such a tightly wound person that doesn't let herself release any real emotion unless it's accidental. Samantha suggested that we test removing the scream in order to have it be more fitting to her character and feel more creepy. I then removed the scream from this scene and re-adjusted the sounds of her breathing and the timed music to seamlessly make it appear that the scream was never there.
• I then showed this to the Director and we both agreed that removing the scream was effective and improved the feel of the scene and her character. The before and after of the scream removal can be seen below...

Before Scream Removal

After Scream Removal

This day felt very progressive through the use of a powerful, unique new track to end the film with a lot of tension and build up that allows it to stand apart from all other scenes. Along with the very helpful feedback provided and changes from this that added extra improvements to the film. I always feel that each time we take on feedback and test each and every change, we approach the film in a new way and always improve areas of the storytelling.

Day 23 (Feedback Changes & Re-Syncing)

Day 23 Edit Log

• Had a year group and tutor viewing on a medium sized projector for a larger perspective of the film and group feedback. Based on tutor feedback, the Director and I made the following changes:

• Tested cutting scene 7 on the door slam but found it to be too early of a cut. So instead took a couple of frames off of the end of the scene.
• Made a note for our professional Sound Mixer coming in to lift the cafe atoms track to be more noticeable in scene 9.
• Added an ambience track to scene 10 that heightens the sound of wind as we see it blow through Emily's hair. This addition can be seen in the image below...

• Tested removing Dan sitting on the sofa in scene 14 and using the CU shot of Emily typing as a way to cut straight to Dan walking to the table. But we found that this didn't cut together no matter what because of his directions and pacing changes that didn't match up and were too noticeable. So, I instead switched the clip of Dan sat on the sofa from an over the shoulder shot that shows the TV, to a profile shot of Dan that allows for no focus on the TV and only on his expression. The original clip and newly chosen and colour graded clip can be seen in the two screenshots below...

Before

After

• Looped and repositioned the music track at the end of the film with new volume adjustments and fades. Making the music flow more and continue to build.

• Once we had improved these areas of the film through feedback changes, we also reviewed the film again and decided to cut a frame down in scene 17 where Emily opens the door to Steph, giving it a tighter cut.

• I also found that somewhere during the editing process the audio had become slightly out of sync by about 2-5 frames. So I carefully shifted all audio clips (aside from correctly-timed music and atmos) where necessary to re-sync the sound.

Viewing my editing work on a larger screen was a helpful experience in getting a new perspective on the film, as well as receiving further useful feedback that has strengthened certain scenes. This day was also extremely useful as it allowed me to notice the important issue that the audio had become slightly out of sync and gave me time to correct this before sound mixing.

Day 24 (Fine Tuning & Audition Prep)

Day 24 Edit Log

• Reviewed the film with the Director multiple times to make sure all audio was synced, the cut flowed, the music was well suited, the sound design was at it's highest possible quality at the time, and to look for any fine tuning changes that could be made.

• By turning the speaker volume up, we were able to hear where certain audio clips were too low or high, and where transitions were too noticeable, and made changes to fix this.

• After making sound and music adjustments, we decided to watch the film without any audio in order to focus solely on the visuals. This allowed us to make changes such as shortening the cut-to-black gaps between scenes 3 and 4 and scenes 6 and 7, where we felt they were slightly too long.

• I also changed two credit titles from 'Written by Jordan Parker' and 'Directed by Jordan Parker' to 'Written & Directed by Jordan Parker' to make the credits less repetitive and more professional.

• We then had a final crew viewing and agreed that the film was now a finished Fine Cut and at the stage of picture lock.

• After this, I exported all audio back into Audition, then renamed all of the tracks (back to 'FX MONO' etc.) and placed the audio into the assigned tracks, the beginning of this process can be seen in the screenshot below. I then created busses/stems for the individual tracks types ('ALL MUSIC STEM' etc.) so that their effects and volume levels could be mixed in groups - this can also be seen below. This was all in preparation for the professional Sound Mixer to be able to immediately start working on the audio over the next two days.

Track Naming

Prepared & Labelled Stems

As this was the final day of working on the Fine Cut before the Final Cut and sound mixing began, I felt that the film was in a great place. The visuals of the film were fine tuned and finalised, and I feel that I prepared the audio in Audition very well for the Sound Mixer, as he also stated that it was extremely helpful for him to be able to immediately identify which track type is which and have it readily organised in order to start working on the project straight away.

Results

Now that the film is almost complete, I feel that it has come a dramatically long way since the Rough Cut in just under two weeks. The visuals have been finalised and tightly tuned to look like a high quality film, and a lot of finishing touches such as the production logo and opening and closing credits have added to this even more. I also think even before the professional Sound Mixer improves the audio, it has already improved a very large amount since the original clips, and the music that we carefully added and adjusted into the film has brought out a lot more tension and emotion in the storytelling.

I found the Fine Cut to be less challenging than the Rough Cut as I was no longer working in Audition to correct audio without much experience or knowledge on how to do this, and instead focusing on minor audio changes in Premiere and mostly focusing on the visuals and polishing touches. I feel confident in my audio improvements to date before they're further improved, and I feel extremely satisfied with the entire appearance of the film as the visuals are now complete.

The remaining changes left to take the film from a Fine Cut to a Final Cut are adding the professionally corrected, improved and mixed audio tracks from Audition to the Premiere project, and making minor changes to any visuals such as the credits or colour. However, no more cuts will be able to be made to the film now that it's at picture lock as the audio will also be locked in place and won't be able to be trimmed or cut. Once our crew and tutors are happy with the film, it will be rendered and exported, and we will have a finished film.