The Editing Process

When I planned out how the shooting and editing schedule would commence I predicted to have a much longer length of time to edit, roughly have 2 college weeks. We wouldn’t need 2 weeks but it would be good to have that amount of time just as a contingency, but due to delays and rearrangement of shooting days we only have  6 days to edit which was a major worry for me but once we started I realised that we had more than plenty time to edit everything.  Also some of our days got cut short due to the fact we had to help set up the exhibition but by that point we had almost finished.  Before starting any of the edit, we check listed all the footage seeing which ones where acceptable for use and which ones could be bloopers/behind the scenes.

 

 

 

 

 

When we did the hazmat scene before the actually shooting day so we first edited that before then, we made two versions of the clip, one with a black & white effect applied to it and another which is much darker and some of the colour was taken away. We asked a couple of students and tutors to look at both clips and got their opinion on which has more of an effect. The overall favourite was the black and white edit, which I personally liked as well. I may have already mentioned in a previous post but this clip is going to be used for after credits clip, like a hint for possible future episodes.

Once we had the rest of the footage we decided to go off into different MAC’s and work on a different scene individually, I wanted to work on the basement scene as I think it is the most crucial   scenes and wanted to have more control over them.  Jordan and Lewis were left to decide which scenes they wanted to edit.  By sharing the edit around we were able to edit more in the time we had, the only issue was that we had to share another MAC with another student and seeing as they had that MAC first they had priority over us, luckily the student would never come in until after dinner due to work I believe.  

The order I advised to do the edit in was; sequence, colour correction and sound. By following the script and storyboard the sequence process was very straight forward. At first I thought adjust the colour would be a pain to do but once I sussed the first clip, I could simply copy and paste attributes onto the rest of the basement scenes. There were a couple of clips which I had to increase the brightness and adjust the contrast as someone would lean too far into shot and lose light. For each shot we used two filter’s; brightness & contrast filter and RGB tone filter. With the filters it changed the room from an orangey colour to a yellow/ candle light colour. These made the scenes seem more natural and more authentic, increasing the illusion of the film.  Below is the difference they made.

Whilst editing we noticed a couple of minor continuity errors, I wasn’t going to mention them but as part of my reflection it best if I show I have noticed and mention how to prevent them in future projects. Simply on the next project I am going to make sure there is a director assistant which will note down all possible aspects that may have an effect on continuity , it is a simple idea but one that may be difficult. The continuity errors I notice are; candles, bottle, cigarettes, television & outside lighting. Also whilst editing I noticed to get a collection of shaking clips, this was meant to separate Tom running away and him falling down the stairs. They are needed shots but I haven’t got time to take out the equipment again and record so I had to make do with the two shots and add a shaking effect to the clips.

The last step was adjusting all the sound levels; it was simple enough until we added some downloaded sounds effects. For some reason the audio would either change to silent or be completely gone. It took us a while to sort out the problem, all we had to do was either put the audio onto another line or replace the audio with the same clip we used. We downloaded the audio from http://www.freesound.org/, mainly because the audio we got didn’t sound as genuine as the sounds off this website.

The overall editing process wasn’t that difficult, previously I found the process slow and demanding but maybe because this is my project and it is extremely important as it is for my FMP and for other reasons which I will soon reveal, that it came more naturally for me to produce. When we are back in college, we will watch it again and have a couple other students watch the final product and ask for feedback.

Production Day 3

Finally...we got all the shots we needed, we first went into college to upload what we already had and start check listing them which I will show in another post. We didn’t need to be on set until later in day as we have to wait for it to get a bit darker. Lewis and I wrote out a list of what shots we needed to get, they are as followed;

• Outside (4)
• Bedroom (2)
• Hallway (1)
• Knife (1)
• Close up Tom (1)

We got all the shots we could inside and were going to wait for the natural lighting to appear darker, but after the last couple of attempts I didn’t want to risk it so instead we adjusted the iris settings to make it dimmer which actually worker very well so we was able to commence with the night scenes straight away. 

Now we can finally crack on with the editing process, I predict that there will be a couple minor continuity errors but I think we got enough footage to avoid them being detected. 

Production Day 2

I’ll be honest, felt a little bit rough from the wedding but I was still up and ready on time for everyone to begin production. Yesterday I was advised by everyone else to arrange people arriving earlier just in case we have a similar incident to Friday.  We were meant to be focusing on just the basement scenes but due to the scenes we missed on Friday we had to ensure we were done by roughly 5 o’clock. I asked Peter and Heather to come in earlier even though I knew they would be waiting for some time to record, I just didn’t want to chance missing the same lighting as Friday’s scenes.

We began at roughly 10 o’clock with George and Phil, seeing as these two had rehearsed in this location previously we didn’t have to spend much time with another run through but we did one or two just to make sure everyone was comfortable with everything.  We again separated the control of camera by scenes, I wanted to have main control of the camera throughout but it was Jordan’s role so I just did my scene and the odd shot now and again.  We decided that we would do the scenes in this order; basement 1, basement 3 and basement 2, we decided this because it was easier, shot and length wise.

For the first scene I did the first shot of both Tom and Luke because I wanted to adjust the setting of the iris and white balance and thought it would be easier just to do it considering I was in position, but I noticed something was incredibly different. The area of Luke wasn’t lit enough but the box light was still on so I didn’t take any notice until after I did that shot and changed the batteries, which was the problem so we had to do the scene again from the first camera position.  Also during this we kept losing the fake cut on Tom lip and had to  remake it a couple of times until we decided that it would  be best if on the basement scenes he didn’t have the cut but instead a swollen lip, this would signify that much time has passed and it prevented us from stopping and going.

Doing  the scene basement 3 was easy enough to do until we got to the hugging segment as both of the actors were still strangers to each other and kept laughing when leading up to the hug, it dropped us behind slightly but we were able to finish this scene close enough on time.

The scene, basement 2, was quite easy to do just following the sequence of the scene. The only thing which I thought would be an issue was the vomiting segment. I originally imaged that we wouldn’t see Tom being sick and just heard him but everyone thought it would be much more effective to suddenly cut into him being sick so we had to mix some soups together and test it out, we practiced by being sick in a bucket, Phil was a very good actor but at this moment I felt like he was over doing it when making puking noises so I showed him first how I wanted him to do it.

We got almost every shot for this scene but unfortunately the redhead light started to overheat and seemed to be on the verge of blowing up so we were not able to get the one last shot which isn’t a big issue, I think we can work without this shot. The shot is simply Luke walking over to Tom whilst Tom is somewhat losing his mind. Once we had finished with the basement scene we carried on with the scenes we missed previously, everything was going as planned but Lewis came up with the idea of pull focus during the kitchen scene between him and the drugs. So we had to practice with that for a short while and what we got wasn’t a proper pulling focus shot but I believe it works.

Towards the end I got a call from Georges mother wondering about  the time he’d get home so I had to hurry the rest of his scenes which put me really on edge and resulted my lashing out on my little brother for ruining a shot.

We were not able to get the outside shots which are quite simply due to lighting once again so I asked if we could all meet up again tomorrow to finish off. Jordan informed me he wasn’t able to come because of travel issues which aren’t a problem; as long as I, Lewis, Christi and Phil are there then everything should be fine. 

Today has been a very successful day, just a very stressful one considering we were behind schedule but now I feel we are in a comfortable position and will have enough time to finish everything.

Production Day 1

Today was our first shooting day and I couldn’t have been more excited, I was constantly worried about everything, like if I forgot to buy a prop or if someone would pull out last minute. I spent the majority of the college day running around just double checking with everyone, as a precaution I insisted on of the crew to stop over as they do live a distance from the set and I didn’t want anyone to turning up late. So Lewis, Jordan and Christi stopped over, when we arrived at mine we decided to quickly set up the lighting equipment as Lewis and I had before. Everything was back in place but for some reason the area where the character Luke is positioned in the first basement scene just didn’t seem lit enough but it was too late to do anything about it.

Before settling for the night, we went through the equipment to make sure the camera lens was clean and we had everything ready, whilst we were doing this Christi was preparing with the makeup aspect. We had all the equipment apart from the reflecting board which is critical for the basement scenes, so I decided I would go in to collect it. I also decided to take the camera with me and show my tutor some of the practice shots we completed in the basement hoping he could show me something to improve the colour and lighting. Even though I was going into college, this wasn’t a concern as the actors wouldn’t arrive until later and it the rest of the crew would continue with setting up. I explained my concerns with some of the shots with Jamie and he quickly showed me techniques by just adjusting the contrast on adobe premier it make a massive difference.

As I mentioned whilst I was out the rest of the crew would continue with setting up, the main concern was to set up the bedroom. The bedroom has a massive impact on the audience as it is meant to reflect the character of Tom, Tom being basically an alcoholic slob would more than likely have a messy room which is completely unlike mine. So the crew had to remove the flags on my wall arrange placement for the beer cans around the bed area, the night before we ordered takeaway and the crew decided that the empty boxes should be included in creating the scene. I had originally planned to have a bat nailed up on the wall next to the cupboard but when we were discussing camera shots and positioning we came to the conclusion that the best place for the bat should be above the bed.   Here some images of the set once I arrived back. 

  

Christi was having an input towards the construction of the room but she was also focusing on creating the cut lip, I am not fully aware of the details of how she made a convincing cut for the character Tom. I believe she got layers of dried glue and striped them down then covered them in blood red paint with smudges of black to make it more convincing, for more information on Christi process here is a link to her blog; http://christicooperfmp.blogspot.co.uk/

Also here are some images she did of her work.

 

  

The shooting schedule- is as followed;

• Friday- every scene apart from basement.
• Sunday- all basement scenes.
• Monday- if needed missed shots.

We decided to shoot in sequence so that the actors could follow the narrative more in depth which allows them to remain more in character, we were not able to shoot on Saturday as I am at a wedding all day, there has been concern that I may not in a good state of mind during Sunday shoot but I am determined to make this project successful even if that means leaving the wedding early. 

Each of the actors had a different arrival time for a number of reasons;

• Phillip (Tom) - Phil was to arrive at 10 o’clock so that we had time to set the make up on him and show him the basement with the lighting equipment set up.
• Heather (Mum) - She was to arrive at 12 o’clock because she had a meeting for her own personal project.
• George (Luke) – George arrived once he finished school roughly around 4 o’clock.
• Peter (Stepdad) – I arranged it for Peter to arrive after 4 o’clock so that he wouldn’t spend much time waiting around to perform.

Once Phil and Heather arrived we had a brief production meeting over a cup of coffee, the topic we discussed was regarding  hiring a freelance group of film makers for Heathers own project, I will mention more about this once it is closer to the time and I have more information. We also discussed a bit more in depth the characters relationship and talking about positioning throughout the scene. Once Christi had finished with the makeup design she began recording  her camera for the behind the scenes, she followed us around whilst setting up and recording which was a bit of a concern for me as I didn’t want her to get in the way at any time but this process  turned out to be useful. Christi knew when and where to be involved with the behind the scenes aspect and was constantly positive with involvement.  This put me a bit on edge was when she recorded me making the fake cocaine, I was cautious because I had to test the “cocaine” to see if it was safe for Phil to sniff, it may have a negative impact to me with people seeing me sniff the fake cocaine.  However I did my best to be informative and funny at the same time.

We separated each of the scenes to be recorded between myself, Lewis and Jordan. The majority of scenes were to be done by Jordan but I wanted to record certain segments/scenes because I envisioned how they were to be presented.

The camera operator for scenes are as followed;

• Jordan- basement 1, hallway 1 & 2, kitchen
• Lewis-bedroom 1, basement 3 & outside scene
• Me- Gas mask scene, basement 2, bedroom 2 & hallway 3

We began the bedroom scene roughly an hour after Heather had arrived which we thought wasn’t an issue but seeing as they hadn’t rehearsed on set they had to practice a couple of times. Here is some footage of us going through the scene.

 

We began the bedroom scene roughly an hour after Heather had arrived which we thought wasn’t an issue but seeing as they hadn’t rehearsed on set they had to practice a couple of times, also the mic wasn’t picking up enough. We adjusted the volume but it then picked up too much ambience noise from outside. The obvious decision was to move the mic closer but we hadn’t acquired a boom mic to use. On another project I had forgotten the boom mic and had to construct something to be used as mic; we taped the mic on the end of a large pole used for tennis, it caused a little difficulty by the noise it produced when moved but once in position it was fine. In the script it says Tom is lying across his bed which we tried but it looked unnatural so instead we had him lying normal in bed when he gets woken up which made it easier for the transaction of him waking to moving into next position. we also thought it would add more to the character with him clutching onto the bottle of vodka and not caring when he drops it on the floor, with this we needed it to be seen as open when close up, but prevent the floor constantly getting wet and less amount of “vodka” in the bottle we kept the lid on it and made sure that it wasn’t seen from other camera positions. This may cause a slight continuity error but it is something we will have to deal with during the editing stage. 

It took longer than expected to do this scene as we needed a range of camera shots and we ran out of cigarettes for the scene so we had to wait for Jordan to make another batch.  Also at times the “cut “on Phil’s lip kept falling out of place so we would have to wait sometime to redo all that. 

Once we finished this scene we had a break, this allowed all the cast and crew to interact and share things about themselves professionally, and I especially enjoyed listening to Peter about his career, past and future roles.

Next we worked on the living room scene which was quite simple, only needed a couple of basic shots, we did have some trouble with my dog entering the room and barking when not allowed in but once we settled him down we got the scene done. For now this is all George had to do, apart from the basement scenes, he has very little things to do so he has to mainly wait around until he is needed.

Now this is where it went a bit pear shaped for everyone, we got all the shots we needed but half way through everyone got the giggles and it took some time to finish the scene, due to this we lost the lighting which means that we will have to pick up from this point on Sunday. I was going to risk it but Christi had left for a personal matter and Phil had accidently ate his fake cut so we just decided Sunday would be best. I would have arranged to carry on tomorrow but as I said, I have to go to a wedding. 

The scenes left to do excluding the basement are; kitchen scene, hallway 2, outside, bedroom 2, hallway 3. 

To finish off the day we all had tea then took pictures of the cast so that we didn’t have any continuity error on the clothing. Below are the pictures.

 

 

 

  

Overall it was a brilliant day, we didn’t get to get everything we wanted but that’s why we have booked the equipment for Monday, as a backup. I am a little worried on the footage we got in the hallway; I think the lighting may be an issue, too dark. But I am sure this is something we can fix during the editing stage.