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.

Major Project: Final Cut Workflow & Result

As we had achieved picture lock during the Fine Cut of Double Exposure, the remaining changes that would turn the film into a Final Cut consisted of adding our audio's mixdown (levelling all tracks' volume and exporting them as one single track) to the Premiere project, making one last audio correction, altering the end credits, and having final reviews within our group and with outside opinions before rendering and exporting.

Aside from overhauling the audio, these were all minor changes that in total were completed within two days due to how much the Director and I had achieved by the end of the Fine Cut, leaving plenty of time for rendering and exporting a number of copies of the film.

Below are my final edit logs, tasks and screenshots of my work...

Day 25 (Adding Mixdown Track, Sound Issue Recognition & Credit Alterations)

Day 25 Edit Log

• After the Fine Cut was complete, picture lock had been achieved, and I had arranged all audio tracks in Audition ready for our hired Sound Mixer, he spent two days working on the audio to attempt noise/distortion fixes, add echo effects where needed, lift and level the volume, and create the final mixdown.

• Once this was finished, I added the single mixdown track to the project, synced this with the current audio tracks and reviewed this to ensure that this was in sync throughout the film. Once I was happy, I removed all separate audio tracks from the film, leaving the single mixdown track. Below are the before and after images of the tracks before the mixdown, and after the mixdown was added...

Before

After

• The Director and I then reviewed the film again with the new track to further check it's syncing and to check for any issues. When doing this we found a digital pop-like sound during one scene that had occurred during the Sound Mixer's export of the audio. With help and advice from our technical advisor, he conducted tests on this clip in a different software called Protools to attempt to fix this.

• Following this, we had separate viewings with our tutor and Director Andrea Kapos. We received positive feedback that there's great attention to detail, it's edited very well and the way the music has been used is very effective in heightening tension.

• As a group, we then decided on our three submission film stills that best represent the film, three behind the scenes photos, and our three minute extract of the film - all for submission. Our three minute extract is the opening three minutes of the film, as we feel that this establishes Emily's character, provides drama and tension, gives the feel of a psychological thriller, and leaves a cliffhanger at the end - without revealing any spoilers.

• I then added our DOP's name and my own name to the credit of 'Promotional Materials' in the end credits due to our joined contributions to the poster, and my own contribution of creating our film's website and YouTube channel. I then also added the Double Exposure website address to the credits as planned. And lastly, I re-positioned and spaced out the text of the credits to make it clearer for the viewers and to appear more even.

I feel that the Final Cut audio has improved in certain areas, as the echo effects added to certain clips are very effective, and certain areas of dialogue were cleaned up. However, due to how many issues the original clips contained, as a group we have accepted that the audio is as good as it can be, which is an average quality that I and the Sound Mixer have worked hard on.

On the first of these two days for the Final Cut, I feel that this was very productive. I was able to make all of my planned final adjustments, have multiple viewings of the film for quality checks, and received positive feedback from our tutor and a professional Director.

Day 26 / Final Day (Fixed Audio Clip Added, Rendering & Exporting)

Day 26 / Final Edit Log

• On the final day of editing, we received the fixed audio clip that had removed the digital pop issue, and I then added this into the timeline, synced it, and disabled the corrupted clip. This involved adding a second track to the project to so that I could add fade effects to either end of the clip in order to blend it in seamlessly. This marked the final change to the film. Below is a screenshot of the corrected clip added to the timeline...

• The Director and I then reviewed the film one last time before rendering and exporting.

• We found no further issues, so I made a new project for our three minute extract, rendered, and exported this at an accessible Apple ProRes 422 quality with 1920 x 1080 resolution. I then reviewed this and added it to our YouTube channel and website.

• I then rendered the whole final film in Premiere, and exported two separate copies. Both in a high quality Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) format, but with one at a 3840 x 2160 resolution for use at our degree screening, and the other at a 1920 x 1080 resolution for general distribution and viewing (laptops, YouTube etc.). Below is a screenshot of the screening copy of the film being exported...

• I then viewed these exported copies of the film with the Director to ensure that there were no issues. We were happy with the exports, and the film was complete.

This was technically the most crucial day of the entire project. After the final correction was made (replacing the corrupted clip), I was able to spend the rest of the day having multiple viewings with the Director to be certain that the film was ready, and then allow plenty of time to render and export three separate versions of the film three days before submission.

Results

Although the Final Cut of the film took a total of two days including rendering and exporting, I feel that I approached this in a sensible way by giving myself double the amount of days that it actually took. As this way if any extra problems came up (such as the corrupted audio clip) I would have time to fix this. I'm glad that the Final Cut of the film wasn't rushed, and that I was able to take my time with any minor changes and have multiple reviews of the visuals and audio to ensure that the film was completely ready for submission.

I think that although the Fine Cut version of Double Exposure was extremely close to a finished film, the Final Cut took it to it's final stage by having a completed and fine tuned mixdown track in place of multiple un-mixed audio clips, updated credits, helpful and positive feedback, and the certainty as a group that the film was complete and that we were happy with it. I will talk about the overall results of the film and my critical reflections in my next and final post.

Major Project: Double Exposure Promotions & Website

Between the Fine Cut and Final Cut of the film, I decided to create a simplistic promotional website for Double Exposure to give it more of a professional feel and to provide an easy and accessible place to watch a sneak peak of the film, the whole film, find out information, and get in contact without production group. Also during this time, our group made the decision that I would recreate our promotional poster that had been previously created by our hired promotions person, as we were not entirely happy with the result and had only a small time frame to change this. Meaning that by the time he would have updated it and sent it back to us, it would be too late by our submission deadline. So I recreated the visuals of our poster, and our DOP added all of the logos and required details to the end result.

Website & YouTube

Having used Wix.com previously to create my pre-production unit package and my own current portfolio website, I chose to create the website through this engine in order to create it quickly and with a high quality look. I also created a professional email for Double Exposure (doubleexposurefilm@gmail.com) for anyone that would be interested in contacting us, along with a YouTube channel for us to upload our 3 minute extract, trailer, and eventually final film. A screenshot of the YouTube page can be seen below...

Our YouTube page can be found HERE

Website 'Home' Page

Using the previously created Double Exposure logo and selected fonts of 'Pistara' and 'Stark', I decided to keep the home page relatively simplistic. Featuring the film title, cast, month and year of release, 3 minute 'sneak peak' clip that had previously been decided on by our group, and menu bar, I wanted the home page to have most of the key information along with a sample of the film, without overloading it with too much information.

I stuck to the overall slick branding that our promotional material and film's visuals have (such as opening and closing credits), using mostly monotone colours, sharp lines for separating text and our two specific fonts across the whole website.

Below is a completed first draft of the website's home page with a template background in editing mode...

And here is the finalised home page with the 3 minute extract video below...

'About' Page

Keeping to the key information of the film, this section consists of the fact that Double Exposure is a psychological thriller short film, a very brief description of the plot without giving anything away, our production group credits and the UCA credit, along with a link to the 'Watch the Film' page. I think that by including basic information and only our production group's credits, it ensures that the 'About' page doesn't provide too much information and bore the reader, but still gives them a feel for the film.

I also felt that this page was an appropriate area to include the completed promotional poster and a number of film stills to liven up the website (3 of which were the decided submission stills). I think that by adding these images the film comes to life on the page before even viewing it. Here are two screenshots of the finalised page...

'Watch the Film' Page

As agreed with the rest of my group, I will add an online copy of the film to this page after our course screening has taken place on the 25th of May, as this acts as a premiere for the film. This page will then simply consist of the video available for viewing, but for the time being, this page consists of a traditional 'Coming Soon' message, as can be seen below...

'Contact' Page

As a more fundamental page, this simply consists of our film's email address and a contact form linked to this address so that anyone interested in our production can contact us. I think that this page gives the website a useful purpose of networking as well as simply promoting the film.

Finished Website

Although the website will only be completely finished once the film is added to it after the screening, I think it looks very polished and retains the overall themes of Double Exposure, as well as acting as a useful way to promote the film and make our production team available for contact.

The website address is below...

www.doubleexposurefilm.wixsite.com/2017

The website is also useable through mobile devices, as can be seen in a preview below...

Making it extremely easy to access and navigate. I will also be adding this link to the film's credits as an easy way for the audience to learn that the film has it's own website, and as a group we will be sharing the website, film and promotional materials on social networks to further promote the film. I think the addition of this website gives the whole project an even more professional feel and slick, modern look.

Promotional Poster

As a group, we felt that our promotional materials creator had overdone the 'double exposure' effect on our poster - blending hillside trees with our two main cast members - although impressive, he overused the effect of the trees and gave the impression of a mystical/fantasy genre as opposed to the actual themes of the film, along with the finalised image becoming too unusual to look at. With only a week left to create a new poster, we had too little time left to rely on someone outside of our group, so our DOP and I took on the responsibilities of the poster.

Using an early photoshop file that the creator had made to test blending a hillside image (the same location as where Emily takes photos in the film) with the two cast members, I worked from this as a template. By making colour corrections, tidying and blending the edges of the image, and adding a low opacity image of the house location for further reference to the film, I was able to fine tune the photoshop file and give a much more simplistic but effective double exposure appearance that suited our film.

After this, I used his previously created background (a cloud-like pale image) and added my new image over this. I then added white and grey gradients to the poster to give it extra shading and available space for text to be later added. Below is my finished poster before our DOP worked on it...

And here is the finished poster once our DOP added our group-decided text and logos...

Poster Result

I think that the end result of the poster appears very professional and eye-catching, with a large amount of visual context and locations explored through using the double exposure effect over the cast members' image. I also think that by being able to keep to the plan of the poster using double exposure to represent the title and photography aspect of the film, the poster is in-keeping with the film's themes and highly represents it's content. Lastly, I'm very happy with the overall aesthetics as I think the colours of the couple's image stands out amongst the monotone text and background, while still being suited within the poster.

The last reason why I feel that the poster appears to be very professional is our DOP's addition of the text and logos, using the film academy style for our group's credits, the UCA TV Production official logo, our production logo, film title logo and official fonts for the cast's credits, I think that they fit with industry-standard posters, provide key information on the film, and give it a finished, slick look.

Promotions Critical Reflection

Overall, although my role within the film is the Editor, I feel that it made sense for me to create and edit promotional material aspects of Double Exposure, as I feel that I have a keen eye for post-production visuals, I thoroughly enjoy creating promotional images and websites, and I think it's important for our group to work on any and all areas that are required to make the best possible film.

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.