Communication within the group

During the few weeks leading up to the screening I started working down in London so wasn't around in sheffield to help out much with Hannah's sound design. Although I was over 100 miles away I still managed to give Hannah lots of help. We would call and FaceTime to go through ideas and any issues she might be having.by using FaceTime I could watch through scenes with her while listening to what she had done and then we would talk through how it could be improved. If it turnt out that something needed changing i would change it, re export then we would send it over my Dropbox account to one another. We also did this for when hannah needed the sync sounds from the footage. I would export them as a WAV and then add them to drop box for her. I think this was helpful for Hannah as she still managed to get a second opinion on aspects of her work as she was having difficulty getting any feedback from our director.

In regard to the rest of the group there is little to no communication. Not hearing from out producer in regards to how we are getting along, is it ready for the screening, are we on schedule etc. I feel as though it would have been nice to at least hear from the rest of the group about how the film was progressing as it is their film too.

Adding in Titles, Credits and Transcipts

Several times through the editing process we altered the VO script to improve it and on the last final version we focused more on who was on drugs and when the were under the influence as this effects the story. As Rhian was the one that ended up in hospital we had show that not only Luke and Hugh was having a trip, that in fact everyone was effected. Due to reluctancy form our camera operator me and hannah had to film some POV shots of taking drugs as there was not a single shot of a character taking any form of drugs. As we could not get the characters to be in the shots we thought a POV would be the easier way to do this with out hands playing Rhains. I used these shots of her sniffing Coke in amongst shots of her walking in the forest and a POV shot to show the results and the previous events relation to each other. This worked well as was very simple but I think I like it simple. The film in its self is very show and tell at points and isn't complicated so by having these simple sequences it fits in with the overall feel of the piece.

In between each of the scenes we have black screen in which Hannah and I discussed having a transcript style shot on. I spent a while trying to think up ways in which to show the transcript, whether to have it appear as if it was being typed on screen, hand written notes or just a plain text on screen. Ive seen a lot of films and shows use a slow pan across a letter/ text to show the message so I thought I would play around with this idea. I used work to type up the voice over the was said in a specific section and then wrote a longer piece after what the character said, for example when Luke days about going out to see if any one wanted for a coffee. that is all that you hear him say but in the transcript there is much more to read. I thought I would do this as it subtly shows that the character is intact telling the story but instead of hearing everything that is said you just see the actions happening and hear the first part of it. I then just used 3D Warp in MC and key framed the movement across the screen.

When we were filming some pick up shots I got Mike to get some shots of hands looking nervous to place in those black sections as this could be made into B&W so it wasn't obvious that the hands weren't actually the actors hands. I thought that it would be a shame to not use these shots and create some more visual aspects of the interview process so I came up with the idea to overlay the hands under the transcript. I did this by turning down the opacity down on the transcript to 50% and then boosting the contrast of the hand in B&W and this helps the hands appear as part of the paper almost. I really liked this how it turned out as I thought that the hands would stand out and be too much on screen but in fact it works really well in creating the space that the interview was carried out in without actually showing anything.

During the shooting stages I mentioned to Alli about the titles and to think up what she pictured for them in case Mike needs to get any particular shots or if he needs to frame something in a certain way to leave from for the text. Now at the end of Post stage she sill hasn't figured out what she pictured, the only guide she has given was a simple font and in a pale yellow. She did mention about having the titles appear after the car scene which was around 2 minutes into the film. When she mentioned this to me I showed concern as this is such a late stage in the film being that the entire film was only about 9 minutes long. this being so I came up wit the idea that the titles could be between Hugh picking the girls up and arriving to get Luke. This way it does not interrupt anything and just slots in the time that they could be travelling.

Titles

For the credits a friend of a friend sells graphics online so Hannah and I picked one that we liked as he said he'd happily give it to us for free. He sent over the files for it so that all I needed to do was to alter the text to the wanted credits. as there was a lot more font the previously on them I then re arranged them to fit the frame better and then exported them ready to be added to the film.

Link to first idea for credits.

After creating these I went back to the film and decided that I felt they were far to over the top for our film. If our film was to have a lot more action and things happening then maybe it would have worked but instead i made the decision to just use simple text on screen like the title i created in MC. I think this works a lot better as Hannah has brought the sound design in over the credits so by having simple credits its not to distracting.

Last Scene

To end the film Hannah and I came up with the idea of a car crash. Because we cant get anything visually to show the car crash this then meant a lot of pressure on Hannahs sound design. To build up to this we had some B Roll footage of when Mike, Hannah and I went for a Recee up so that Mike could practice filming in a car. Luckily this footage was on a cloudy day so this could be used as footage for the journey home. As all these shots were hand held in the car they were incredibly shacky so meant that most were unusable but I managed to find some more stable shots and used these. As we had to imply that the characters were still under the influence of drugs. The easiest way to do this was by using some previous interior car shots of the characters and inter cut them with these POV shot. I then added effects on the POVs to show that influence that the drugs are having on their vision, I did this in MC as they have an effect called Radial Blurr that works well when altered to create a disoriented feel to it. This was the effect I also used in Rhian POV when she was walking in the forest. As the CU shots of the characters were different lighting to the POV I am planning on spending some time when I grade to make these less bright and dull them down as they were originally filmed on a sunny day.

As there is a long time from these car shots to the credits I suggested to Hannah that if she plays around with the sound and if she feels it it to heavily reliant on sound for too long I can play around with the use of the transcript and add some visual aspects that way. Until she has had a chance to do this I am unsure as to what else I could do without any footage to play around with.

Creating Luke's Trip Sequence

Due to having no help from Alli and when previously asking about this scene she did not know what she pictured for this Luke scene, I decided to carry on with what I thought worked and what I pictured for this scene. From playing around already with these shots i had the basic effects already done in the style of the Bruxelles piece. I just added in some more layers to create a more disoriented feel to it and minimise the sharpness of the split frames. Luckily due to the fact me and Hannah had managed to give the film a story it was less reliant on this scene being the only development in the film and put a lot less pressure on me. I was pleased with this as I didn't want to just have to add loads of effects for the sack of giving the shots more depth and that instead I can focus on the effects having more meanings and create some subtle and less over powering effects.

When piecing this scene together there was several different style of effects (described in previous post) so I thought instead of having them develop as the scene progresses I would mix them up in with one another and create some flashes. I was watching an episode of a show called Heartland and there was a scene in which one of the characters has a nightmare of the night where her and her mum got into a car accident. They used a lot of flashing and quick cuts to create the disoriented feel to it so I thought I could bring this into our film and add in some flashes and short clips. As one of the layered shots was just a simple POV where nothing really happens I decided that on its own its quite boring, so cut this one up and placed it in-between flashes and other more interesting shots. I think this worked well and helps build up to the moment when Luke trips and seeing arms.

Arms during Lukes Trip

To create the shots of the arm behind the trees I used After Effects to layer up the shots and then mask around a specific area. When filming this shot I was present on set so I was sure that no one would touch the camera once filming started other wise it would have created a lot more work for me to overlay sections of the shot if it had moved. It was a fairly simple process to complete, the main issue was with the front tree and the tree slightly to the left. As the area that the front trees arms are over laps where the arms from the trees next to it is I had the then key frame the mask to move with the front arms so that there are still arms on the trees behind. 

After sending this this edit to Hannah she though that it needed to be more scary so I decided to make the arms appear and disappear and only have a few odd ones. With every arm on every tree its slightly comical where as we are trying to create some jeopardy in this sequence. I used the previous After Effects project and just altered the masks and opacity of the layers to create the flashes of arms and to limit the amount on screen at a time. I think this works a lot better and works with the sound that Hannah has created due to the fact that sound if quite minimal but still creates this tense feeling of uncertainty. 

Re-cap Scene

As we had planned a little recap scene in the style of Shaun of the Dead I went through and picked what shots I think would work with the lines being said. When Me and Hannah we talking through about idea for this scene one of us said about crossing out the drugs/ drinks as it shows the difference between what happened and what the police officer thinks happened. In the conversations we thought up the idea of having it styled like a pencil drawing and then having the image literally being rubbed out by a rubber. I found a tutorial Online about how to do this in Photoshop really well so I exported out a freeze-frame of the image that i thought worked and followed the tutorial.

First of all I had to create a second layer on top of the background layer. Add adjust the composition setting to Colour Dodge. You then invert the layer by pressing cmd I. This then leaves the images looking blank. The next stage is to add on an effects called Guassian blur, setting the pixels to around 18 pixels, but dependent on the amount of detail it altered slightly on each image. I then altered the saturation to make the image black and white. The tutorial didn't do this but then I also altered the contrast as some images from the film were very flat, this then created more depth to the image and I think improved it a lot. 

Before altering saturation.

After adjusting contrast

Prior to this project I created a titles that looked like it was being hand writing. i created this with in the style of a stop motion animation with rebelling up a short sequence with a large number of photos. I  started to create this sequence of the shots being rubbed out using this process. I exported the image as a JPEG, then rub out a small section, re export it with a number (for example 001). I continued this process until the area I wanted was rubbed out.

Selection of photos to create rubbing out.

I then imported each of these images into MC. I organised them into a bin and created a sequence to build the clip on. I added each image for the length of 2 frames and once they were all on the timeline they played out the motion of rubbing it out. I repeated this with several freeze frames. I then created a Video Mix-down of each sequence to then be added to the Fine Cut timeline.

When discussing the logics of this scene with Hannah, we talked about the need of it and who's perspective it was. I thinks its not very clear on who exactly perspective the image is. The voice over is of the police offices but then the visuals show the original truth being altered, but I think it wouldn't show the original it would just be the altered images. We decided that instead of having the voiceover Hannah would play around overlaying the interviews and sounds from whats happened building up like a crescendo, almost like the build up of lies that they are telling. I think this would work a lot better then just retelling the audience what they have just been told. I then thought up that instead of having it rubbed out I could have it more like its being cribbed out with a pen and then all the lines and scribbles build up as the sound does until its all just a mess.

Instead of doing this in Photoshop and rebuilding the sequences I thought that this could easily be done in Aftereffects. I imported the freeze-frame in and added a black background to the sequence. I then use a mask tool to subject a specific area and used key frames to map out the path of the "Pen" scribbling out areas of the frame.

Adding keyframes for the "Pen"

Re-Editing to new Structure

Re-editing to the new structure was more of a shuffling process then re-edit as each scene would still be a scene in a sense it just may be swapped out of order and timings in-between changed to allow the voiceover in.

As Allis wasn't present for any of the VO recordings I had to step in an assist Hannah with second opinions on takes and while recording we would bounce ideas of each other about different ways that the lines could be said so that Hannah had a variety to pick form in her edit. Once they were recorded, Hannah went through her recording and sent me over a version of each VO labeled against the corresponding line on the script so that we were both clear as to the order. As Alli was also not present for the re-edit Hannah sat with me and helped work out where best to place them and how long the voice over would overlay the scenes and the timings. I think it was good to have Hannah there to help at this stage as she would be the one adding in the voice over in the sound edit so by getting her input at this stage it would minimise the amount of alterations that would have to do once I hand over the edit.

The first 6 minutes were fairly simple to re organise. I had to add in freeze-frames at the start and then reverse the start to play through again. Hannah decided that she preferred a different song for the split screen driving scene so I had to re organise the timings of the split screen to fit the new tempo of the new song.

To get the exact timings of the song Hannah exported the first couple of minutes out of Protools and sent it over to me to sync the timings of the cuts up to. Once I had done this I re-exported out the edit to hand back over. Somewhere in this process a majority of the shots had become out of sync. After both me and Hannah spent a while trying to figure out where a couple of frames had gone from I decided to reimport the QT that Hannahs sound was synced too and conform this against my timeline to see where exactly it had changed. I did this by overlaying and then using a simply split screen so that they played next to each other. It turned out that there was a couple of shots that had been a couple frames out but due to this process it was easy to figure out where and by how much it was out.  I then re exported it out to Hannah with the newest timings that matched the original QT and this seemed to be in sync.

Giving the Film a Story

The edit was at the stage where it could be handed over to Hannah for the start of the sound design process. I was really unhappy of the film as an overall piece due to its lack of story and progression. As I had tried over and over to get some sort of help from our director to solve these issues, I resorted to getting the edit to a stage where I was happy with the technical aspects. When handing the edit over to Hannah, she really wasn't happy with the lack of narrative so we spent an afternoon brain storming possible alternatives that we could do at this late a stage.

After meeting with Chris and going through a few possible options we decided on a Voice over to add an alternative layer and insentive for the story to progress. He mentioned in conversation about a Police officer and Hannah and I both liked this idea and initially started planning to add this to the film.

I spent the Evening, while Hannah had to go to work, researching police interviews and interrogations for wording and specific protocols that happen. I found some interview transcripts from a murder case and notices how the Police Officer seems to repeat a lot of what the interviewee says and gets them to reconfirm what they have just told him very regularly.

Kip Kinkel's Confession Transcript

Bruce Daniels Police Interview


Visually Hannah thought up the use of a cassette tape to symbolise the recording of the interview and showed me this video (link below) where they uses a film reel. I really like this as is brings your out of the story world into another location without even showing another location, almost putting the audience in a similar situation to the characters being in an unfamiliar location.

The Bureau - Video Game Trailer


When looking through some ideas I came across this video on youtube and I really like the part at 01:15. Throughout this piece they use the style of stop motion to create movement and I really like this part at 01:15 as this could be something similar that we could show in a scene of one of the characters going to the bathroom to take some drugs. This is a simple things to create as we could film with a steady cam and then in post I would create the jumps.

Another idea I thought up was to include a recap scene in which the police officer can go through the events that have been told so far in the style of Shaun on the Dead. I think this will add a slight breathing space in the story for the audience and will help add emphasis on the story that the police officer tells and what actually happens.

After doing this research I started to create a rough version of the Voice over script. I then went through all this with hannah showing her the other clips I found. At this stage we Skype called Alli to get her help with the script as she would be better at writing the characters answer as she was more familiar with they way of speaking from writing the initial script. Here is the a copy of the initial Voiceover Script that Me and Hannah created before going through it with Alli:

Initial Ideas

Play up until “Road Trip”

Freeze frame on Hugh

Police – hold on a Minute, can you say that again and clearer

Wooshh back to beginning

Isa (worried) – Well, Me and Rhian were just out on the balcony. She was having a cig and Hugh just turned up.

Police – He just turned up?

Continues playing normal, Rhian’s lines – What you doing here babe?

Hugh (over his part) – My auntie went away you see so I thought it’d be nice to go away for the weekend.

BLACK SCREEN

Police – Okay… so can you run me through when you picked up Lucas ……… …….?

Hugh – HAHAHA is that his middle name

Police – can you please just answer my question (repeats question).

Hugh – okay well once I had the girls we went straight there …

Starts playing half way through Hughs lines then cuts on Lukes HEEYYY line

Runs through scene till Rhians line “lets go then! Come on!”

Hugh – They didn’t realise Luke was able to come so was like a little surprise form them. They were excited sort of thing.

Police – repeat what Hugh says about the girls happy Lukes there.

Continues to play at Rhians line - I cant believe you invited him

Plays though till end of split screen.

Isa – talks through arriving, - add shots running in door

Luke – says bring loads and contributed

Plays out on Rhians line – Luke? What are you contributing to this trip?

BLACK SCREEN

Police ask about the night

Go through night scene

Isa say about went toilet and could hear Luke snoring but went back to sleep??

Police – okay .. lets go back a bit earlier on in the after noon  ….

Cuts to Luke telling story

Freezeframe as Rhian comes in saying look whats I’ve got.

Police question isa about the Nos?

Hellium

Continues to play out nos sequence

BLACK SCREEN

Police – The next day when you woke up what did you do?

Luke – When I got up everyone else was up outside having breakfast so went out and joined them …

Runs through scene in morning – wagwannn!!!

CUTS TO BLACK SCREEN AT END

 Police – asks about leaving girls

Isa – Explains going off

SHOWS GETTING DRUGS – POV – YOUTUBE

Police – Lets back up a second. Ask why they left?

Isa – Well, we were all just sitting in the kitchen …

Runs through scene

Police – So … says another version causing them to leave. (go shops or something)

Isa – Yeah that what happened.

Hand police sum up what happened so far – shaun of the dead style re cap …. So what happened next? We found remains of LSD in your possession. When did you take it?

Luke – Explains taking it no effects

Shots of in forest tripping

(got burned)

WHAT IS THAT??

Must be fake.

Montage

Planned to have BBQ so went to go find him

Shots of them shouting Luke?!

Here is an updated version once talking through with Alli on Skype to get her view on how the characters would word things:

VOICEOVER SCRIPT

Plays through film up until “Roadtrip”

Freeze frame on Hugh next to car

POLICE – Hold on. Say that again, clearer this time.

WOOSH rewind back to beginning

ISA– Well … Me and Rhian were just on the balcony … She was having Cig and then well Hugh turned up.

POLICE – He just turned up?

Continues scene until Rhian’s Line – What’s going on babe?

Hugh (over his part) – well my auntie had a free house … so I thought I’d take them there to chill out after exams.

BLACKSCREEN

POLICE (Over establishing shots of flats) – Okay … so can you run me through when you picked up a Lucas Gaylon Haywood

HUGH – Snigger. Is that is middle Name ….?

Cuts to WHEYYY

Runs through car scene up until Rhians Line – “Come on, lets go then”

HUGH – They didn’t realise Luke was coming … so … you know it was like a little surprise for them.

POLICE – so they were excited to see him?

Plays out scene, Rhian – I can’t believe you asked him to come.

POLICE – So .. How did you spend your evening at the cottage?

LUKE – Oh … was just a chilled evening … had a few beers/ had a cuppa

Clips of Luke and Isa

POLICE – so going back to that afternoon. did anything unusual happen?

ISA – oh no … not really

Shot Luke telling story

Rhian comes in – freeze frame

POLICE – oh so what was in the balloons?

ISA – Oh no its was just hellium …

POLICE – Right (doesn’t believe)

Carries on with scene

BLACKSCREEN

POLICE – The next day when you woke up what did you do?

LUKE – Went outside to see if anyone wanted a coffee.

Run through morning scene

BLACKSCREEN

POLICE – So where were you at 12 pm

HUGH – well … we were all just sitting in the kitchen …

RUN THROUGH SCENE

POLICE – So … you made pizza and played on the xbox?

HUGH – Yeah that’s right.

POLICE – You left the kitchen, where did you go?

ISA – oh, Rhian had a bath so I just watched TV in my room for a bit.

SHOTS OF COKE

POLICE RECAP –

 Shaun of the dead style - .so what happened next? We found evidence of LSD in your possession. Care to explain?

LUKE – stuttering – ermm well … yeah … no … no it was … erm … it wasn’t even real. I got ripped of. It didn’t even work …

SHOT OF TRIP

HUGH – We wanted a BBQ and he was taking ages so we thought we better go get him.

LOOKING FOR HIM SHOTS

POLICE – So how was the BBQ?

HUGH – Oh it was dark by the time we got back so didn’t bother

SOUND OF WHISPERING IN NIGHT SCENE – Rhian: “Well where did he go?” Hugh: “Fuck knows, how am I supposed to know?” Rhian: “It’s not like we can ask him, he was that off his head he won’t remember.”

SHOT OF ISA GOING IN LUKES ROOM

TIME LAPSE OF SUNRISE

POLICEMAN – And at what time did you leave the cottage?

ISA – About midday…

SHOTS OF CAR DRIVING (CLOUDY DAY) – DIEGETIC RADIO SOUND

CUT TO BLACK

FADE IN TAPE DECK (WITH RADIO CONTINUED AND TAPE CLICKING ADDED)

SOUND OF RADIO FADE OUT AND JUST HAVE CLICKING

HUGH – Sorry… How long’s this gonna take? Visiting time’s nearly over and I need to go see Rhian/my girlfriend…

CUT TO BLACK – TAPE REWINDS

CREDITS ROLL – TRANSCRIPT STYLE (TONAL SOUND PIECE INFLUENCED WITH CAR CRASH)

Luke Trip Scene

BeforeI  had got to this stage of editing Hannah had showed me some images she came across on Instagram that she thought would look good for some effects in the film. I think these are really nice and I like how they have manipulated the image within its self. Chris mentioned once in a tutorial about the use of split frame and creating visually effects subtly through manipulating the image in a way similar to this. Here are a load of examples:

I had a play around on After Effects with this in mind and the use of rings and split frame. I used layers and masks to create a similar effect. I had one mask for the outer ring and a second for the inside of the ring. When playing around in After effects and came across an effect that I really liked called CC Tonal. This seemed to create a more tonal effects with limiting the shades of colours. I am then able to manipulate the high, mid and low tones to either different shades or a completely different colour. 

Rings using CC Tonal effects

After spending time playing around with this sort of style I decided that I didn't think this worked with this scene and moved on to more of a layered effect. I just over layered two takes, one of a MS of Luke stumbling around and the second of a POV shot. This created a simple effects that portrayed his visuals while still keeping the audience in a observational perspective. As this is now a major part in the film, trying to create jeopardy as the films original narrative doesn't come across, I need to ramp up the intensity. I started adding more layers to it but it became too over crowded and busy and I decided against this idea and to start new with a different idea.

Overlaying of MS and POV shot

When looking for initial ideas Hannah and I watched Hunger Games and we really liked the effects in the Giant Hornet sequence. We liked how it juttered around and shows her perspective of being unstable and disorientated. When I watched this I know this is a simple effect that I can create within After Effects with the use of layers and slightly changing the timings of them. I used the MS of Luke stumbling around and added a few layers only a fraction of a second long and of set them slightly so that they were delayed in relation to the original shot. I then changed the opacity of the layers so they are all visible. When playing it through it worked really well as the layers build up quickly and then return to normal quickly smoothly. I copied this layered effect several times throughout each take to add the disorientated feel to it.

Layered effect in style of Hunger Games

When looking at the Bruxelles piece Chris gave me to look at for inspiration they used a lot of split frame and layers so I thought I'd have a play around and see how this looks. I layered up a long take of Luke skipping and laughing as he walks down a path, each layer with a Mask on so that is only reveals a section of the frame and then slightly of set it, alter the opacity and even alter the tones and colours. I really liked this effect as it was very simply to create and have a really visually interesting result. At this stage I am un sure how the scene will be piece to gather to will need for now I will leave this section as it is but I think i will need to add a lot more layers to create the disoriented trippy feel needed from this scene.

Layers in style of Bruxelles

Tutorial and Rough Cut Screening

Prior to the first rough cut screening I had a tutorial with Chris to go through the edit.  He watched through the edit and pointed out some problems and things  should think about.

He suggested that i get the POV scene done in time for the screening so that people would get the idea of what were trying to create. He suggested where would be good places to cut and what bits to cut out. He talked about how the start is very slow, nothing seemed to happen until two minutes into the film, this is very long due to the fact that the film is only 10 minutes. So he said the first two minutes should be cut down to one.

The Next day our Director finally came in to watch through the film and give me her opinion on the edit. She seemed to like it and if anything she said she felt the beginning scenes seems to fast and to make them longer. I then felt in an awkward situation about what to do but Chris suggest that i do two edits. One, the directors edit how she wants it and then the second my own edit with how i feel it should be.

I then went through an created a rough cut, as Alli was never in uni i resorted to uploading a rough cut online for her to look through and give me some sort of feedback and guide in the edit. Up to this point it had been difficult and at times when I needed help I had to resort to interrupting Hannah to get second opinions on some effects of scenes that I had played around with. I finally got given some feedback in the form of a word document sent online to me with some notes that Alli thought when watching the edit. I found it very frustrating when I was sat in the editing too with wither groups and their directors there being very interested in the edit and giving genuine feedback and ideas towards the film.

At this stage in the edit I had a rough version of the film in its entirety. Talking through in my tutorial Chris was saying how nothing seems to happen and that it was down to Hannah and I to create some form of jeopardy in the Trip scene to give the film some sort of motion. I had spent a lot of time playing around in After Effects with different effects and sequences but was finding it hard to get inspiration. I managed to meet with Alli and sit with her and I asked her what she, as director, visioned for this trip scene and how she pictured it in her head. The answer I was given was I don't know. This frustrated me as I was spending all this time trying to create the vision for this film without even any guideline to work form and adapt. In my tutorial Chris showed me a silent piece called Bruxelles so I decided I would use this as my inspiration.

Digital Films - A blog by Oliver Peters

When I was learning how to use Davinci I came across Oliver Peters blog as there was a workflow on there with how to import files. I found this really helpful especially as he goes through the process of moving the timeline via AAF from the NLE, in my case Media Composer, into Davinci and back again.


Link to Olivers Peters blog.

There are lots of other useful posts on his blog as he has a whole category for film students. In this section he goes through the editing process for both picture and sound, he also goes through some very helpful editing tips such as expanding or contracting scene pacing. This is useful when thinking about the pacing in my editing, a majority of out scenes are quite slow and i would have wanted to increase the pace more but i was very limited with what i could do due to the lack of coverage and not wanting to over use the same shots.

Creating Isa's POV when taking Nos

During one of the drug scene Isa takes Laughing Gas and there is a slo-motion effect of he POV. Mike had filmed these at a high frame rate so I didn't have to worry about changing the speed of them. I would just add in so additional effects to emphasis the effect of Laughing gad/ nos. 

When researching the effects of Nos it appears that everything just seemed to be slow and it effects you hearing a lot more then visuals. I thought about what I could do to the shots to be subtle but still give a nice effects visually to watch. I read about the effects of LSD and how you hear colour and see sounds. I thought I would bring that sort of idea into this scene. even though it might not be technically correct we are wanting to create what is more visually interesting the a factual film. 

Prior to adding any effects I cut together the shots that I wanted to use in a simple layout in Avid. Luckily due to the fact that I looked over the rushes prior to leaving the location I was able to get the shots re shot as they were originally incredibly grainy. These takes were a lot more clearer and I was glad I stepped in in the production stage to get these better shots. 

As a lot of the shots all seemed to have a yellow tint I first brought the footage into Da Vinci to colour grade them. I am still learning Da Vinci and I couldn't get it to open the AAF File from Avid so I resorted to just imported the original clips separately  to be graded rather then the timeline shots from Avid. This wasn't to bad as there was only a couple shots and were short takes. 

In Da Vinci I used the scopes to grade the shots rather then just my own eye as it can be deceiving what looks white and what is actually a white. This is a simple way to grade as you try to balance out the reds, blues and greens. I used the graphs and created a slight S bend in them initially as this created a more depth in the shades of colours then adjusted them in accordingly. 

Screenshot from Davinci

I then brought this new graded footage into After Effects as separate clips to add effects to them. When thinking about the whole "seeing sounds hearing colours" concept I thought about the idea of ripples for each sound, like when rhians laughs and the guitars. 

When talking through this scene with Hannah I know she is going to play around with warping sounds a lot so this sort of subtle effects could work really nicely at adding another layer to it without distracting from the sound design. I tracked the movement of Rhians mouth with the tracking feature within After Effects and used this to create the path for the centre of the ripples to follow. I then fiddled around with the size and depth of ripple until I was happy with the effect. 

I then re did this process with the shots of Hugh holding the guitar, having ripples appear from where he plucks the string and then as the camera pans you see ripples from the tip of the guitar too. I am really please with how this works and I think when Hannah creates the sound design it will be a really nice scene. I may have to go back and sweek with the timings of the ripples depending on what the sound design is like but it gives a base for Hannah to work with.

After Effects 

I then rendered out the new shots and re-imported them into Media composer to create the sequence. The shots on either side of these POV shots are of Isa finishing the Balloon and then laughing at the slower frame rate. I have decided to use an effect within Avid, Time Warp, to change the speed so that is changes and shows the drugs take effect and then wear off. I simply speeded up the half the shots and gradually slowed it back to 100% speed. This worked really well in showing the transition between the drugs effects and normal.

Avid Media Composer - Problems

When editing the car sequence I seemed to have a lot of problems with Media Composer. It would freeze and then loose all visual playbacks. I spent quite a sufficient amount of time researching online what the problem might be a possible solutions. A lot of people talked about damaged footage and Media Composer not being able to read it and others talked about its a timeline issue. It wasn't until after talking to Stores and then finally Chris that it was a simple solution to this. 

Screenshot of Error that appeared

This Error was to due with the buffer (memory) of the project. It was having difficulty somewhere in its database, we tried to relink this within Avid. This didn't work so instead we tried to delete the database for the project. This is so that when we reopen the project it will re build the database and hopefully linking and fixing the buffer problem. To do this you go into the Avid Project files and delete the msmMMOB.mdb, msmFMID.prm and Creating folder. to easily find these if you set finder to organise the files by date modified it will be the there newest one. Delete and empty trash then open up the project again. It then spent a while rebelling these files and worked Fine.

Files that need to be deleted.

Car Scene

During My tutorial with Chris he mentioned maybe play around with Split screen for the driving scenes. I liked this idea, due to the fact that the Pigeon scene is being cut it would add a bit more depth to them driving and hopefully make it more interesting to watch from a viewers perspective. 

When researching split screens I came across a montage of all the split screens featured in Thomas Crown Affair. I found this very helpful when trying to think up compositions of the shots and used it to inspire the layout to majority of the sequence.

For the full montage, it is available here :  

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/montage-of-split-screen-sequences-from-the-thomas/view

In my previous version I liked how it cut between Isa, Luke and then Rhian. Its nice how it shows how rhian finds Luke funny for interrupting Rhian and Hugh in the front, it them shows how Luke is oblivious to his actions and then finally it shows Rhian annoyed and looking at Hugh for him to step in. I think its subtle in shows the dynamics in the group and the relationships between the characters. I made sure I still keep this layout of showing the characters in this order when creating the split screen.

As I was creating a lot of layers in this sequence, I decided it would be more organised if i was to create this sequence in a separate timeline so that at a later date if i need to shuffle and move shots/ scenes around it would't effect the complex layers of video. I called this sequence Car Scene followed by the date and time that I created it. This is so that if I need to go back to a later version I can easily select when I need to go back to.

Screenshot of Car Sequence

To make the split screen look more professional I used a Black screen and crops it down and layered it over to create the lines around each shot. This was a lengthily process but I wasn't till after I had done this, that I learnt you can create this effect using the Title Tool. You only have to simple draw the lines where you want each of them, save it then place it on top of that part of the sequence. This made my timeline a lot neater as I only needed one layer for all the lines. 

First Assembly

Firstly I went through and created a rough assembly of each scene with the coverage that we had. This was more difficult then I had anticipated. As none of the shots had been planned in advance it was difficult trying to get them to work with each other without creating to many jump cuts.

The first scene seemed to be challenging as the only two shot was through the glass doors. As the glass was so dirty there is such a contrast of quality between them and the CU with the sunrise, they are unusable. This then meant I only have one take of a close up on Isa and several takes of a CU on Rhian to use for this scene. This then meant I wasn't able to use the pan around onto Isa but instead use a static shot and then just cut between the CU on Isa and the CU on Rhian. 

I created a rough version that I was not happy with to get the idea of how the scene fit next to each other and will go back and re cut it to make a smooth edit. The next scene that I worked on was the Driving scene. This scene shows the characters driving along and then they hit a pigeon. From being on set and the concerns that I already had I knew this would't be an easy edit. I looked over the footage and one take of the "pigeon" hitting the window that looked fairly realistic to what would happen was unusable due to the actors and Camera Guy laughing. The only other take was when the bag of fake blood burst all over the windscreen which looked incredible fake and unrealistic. This being zoo i tried to edit and cut on when they start laughing but there was very limited shots due to the crew rushing on set.

I brought this up with the group saying that we need to re-shoot this scene at a later time and they seemed happy to do so and thought this might be the case due to not putting in the effort to film it right the first time around.

The rest of the driving scenes seemed to work nicely and the interior shots of driving worked really well next to each other. I will have to go back and crop Hughs shots down as you can tell he's not driving. Also I will have to go back in the fine cut to blur out Mike as you can see him in the Rear View Mirror.

Camera Log Day 3 + 4

Shooting Days 3 + 4

Filming days 3 and 4 were located at a cottage in Bakewell that we have rented for a few nights. Like the previous shoots I was needed to assist on set with boom holding and possible car shots. This meant that even though I don't like being on set, I had to.

I was worried about the amount that needed to be filmed and the lack of urgency the Director and Producer had. The actors arrived at half 10 and would be needed to leave no later then 4. Our producer had scheduled shooting to go on till at least 7, and this was a push as there was a lot of scenes to be covered in such a short time, let alone knowing that we actually only had until 4. Knowing this I tried to make sure everyone was ready for when the actors arrived to save time. Throughout the day it was obvious that not everything was going to be shot.

Ellie suggested to me that if we film the rest of the stuff from shoot day 3 on shoot day 4, while we still had cottage, and the stuff from shoot day 4 will have to be pushed back as these were exterior forest scene. I agreed that this is the only option knowing I didn't really have a choice. After observing on set it was very frustrating the lack of preparation that had been done in regards to camera set up and where the actors were being positioned etc. This then meant for each set up there was a lot of time wasted on figuring out what was happening and where they will be.

On friday, shoot day 4, the actors were not free until 2. I was becoming more concerned with the lack of filming being done due to time wasting. This would have a knock on effect to my editing as there is no way now that I would have all the footage by the start of edit week. Knowing this I sat with Mike and created floor plans for all the remaining scene in the cottage. This meant when the actors arrived and filming it was clear what shots were needed and where everyone had to go, saving on time as there was no need to discus this in lengths during the filming time. Here were the floor plans that we created:

Scene 13

Scene 24

Scene 16 +18

Scene 9, 10 + 11

As Alli wasn't there there help create these I sat with her and went through every scene in the room that it was being filmed in so that it was clear as to what was going to happen and where the actors were. She was happy with what we had done. This then meant that she could focus mainly on the actors and their performances without worrying about shots etc.

Unfortunately this didn't turn out how it was planned. We filmed scene 24 first, Alli decided for some reason to be annoyed at all of us and was sat downstairs for the entire scene of filming. Meaning that Me, Hannah and Mike were left to it. We were happy with this as we all knew what was needed from this scene but while we were doing all this work she had been sat downstairs complaining about all us to the remaining cast. I feel as though this is very unprofessional way to act as director especially as editor, I shouldn't have even been present on set. The next scene to be shot was scene 13. When we had got in the room and setting up Alli then decided that actually all our preparation was wrong and that she wanted to move where everything had been planned for. Thus wasting time and meaning that our floor plans were now pointless. This was very frustrating as editor because I know that I would have had every shot needed to edit this scene well but now they were filming shots and making it up as they go along.

Importing Footage

Mike had given me the footage as a AVCHD. This could not be imported straight into Avid media composer. This then meant that after a lot of figuring out that I resorted to importing all the clips into Final cut pro and then exporting them as Quick times.

This was a lengthly process as I had to log and capture the clips to get them into Final cut pro and then individually select each clip and export checking the settings each time. As I had nearly 200 shots I spread the work load out over 4 iMacs and my laptop.

Log and Capture

Settings

Set up as exporting

Once all the clips had been re formatted as quick times I am now able to import them straight into Avid media composer and start renaming and organising them. I have set up a project in avid and created a Bin for each individual scene and named them with scene number, locations and time of da, for example, SCN1. EXT. 12TH FLOOR BALCONY. DAWN. This way it is clear and easy to see what exactly is each scene. I have also created a Rushed bin that I can import the clips to. This means I can then rename them and then put then in the correct scene bins.

Each clip is named with its shot number, take and a small description, for example SH5 TK1 CU OTS TO RHIAN. This was I can easily find the shot and takes of each clips and these also relate to the names given in the footage log.

Screenshot of shots labelled

The next stage in preparation for the edit is to re-sync the audio that hannah had given me. There was a lot of issues regarding losing some sound bites and problems with the mixer so not all the clips have audio. Between Hannah and I we decided there was no use syncing all the audio as the majority of it will be foley and FX. This being so I only sync a small number of shots from scene 1, 2 and 3. As Hannah was near by when syncing I was able to check her opinion and let her decide on what audio she felt should be used. 

To sync the video and audio I set both inputs to a mark. as there was no clapper boards to sync to I used Alli shouting Actions as a marker. This work alright except sometimes it wasn't clear. I then resorted to using "cut" to set the out points to and this seemed to work.

Screenshot as Syncing

As not all audio was used I created a log of what shots are now re-synced and the original marantz file name so that if I need to look back and find them I will be able to easily. 

Audio Log