The Process of Editing our Short Film - Editing Short Film

The Process of Editing our Short Film - Editing Short Film

Image Editing:-Connor

During the image editing process there were a few shots that we had adjust such as the shots taken on location at the bridge road. For these shots we had to adjust the brightness of some of the shots because the lighting was natural and light and dark in different places. We shot in two different lighting situations which made some shots look darker than the others. So, to fix this we adjusted the brightness of the shots taken in the darker areas to match the brightness of the shots taken in the lighter areas.


There were some shots in the storyboard that ended up being changed or not used at all either due to them not working or being badly filmed. The first shot that we removed was during scene 7, it was a long shot of the protagonist lying on the bed inbetween messages, we had trouble getting this shot to work as the camera wouldn't focus on the protagonist and it was hard to film properly as we were filming in a relatively small room. The shot also seemed like it was fairly pointless and didn't have much purpose other than to create time between messages being sent and received so we didn't have a problem with removing it from the film. Also, there was another shot during scene 8 that wasn't filmed as we may have liked so we had to cut the shot early. The shot was a pan into a tilt from a low angle to a high angle of the protagonist. Most of the shot was fine, however towards the end of the shot the camera wobbled slightly which we didn't notice at the time of filming.


For the majority of the short film we mainly used fade and cross dissolve transitions. We used fade in and out transitions when there was a change of location (change in scene). We did this because it provides a clear stopping point to a scene and a clear start point to the next scene. We used a cross dissolve when time passed in the same location. Using the cross dissolve is a quick transition that is a clear indicator of time passing and doesn't confuse the audience into thinking that the location is changing.

Sound Editing: - Sam

Sound editing is a key part to editing any short film. This is because the sound is half of the information that the audience will receive. The sound editing includes adding foley's, non-diegetic background music and diegetic sound like dialogue.

Dialogue:
While we were filming we made sure to use a sound recorder when there would be any dialogue in the shot. We only had 3 shots that had dialogue in them which meant we didn't have to record a lot of dialogue. This meant that editing the dialogue together was very easy because all we had to do was line up the sound recorder sound with the moving image from the camera and because we only had to do this 3 times is was very quick. Then we had to adjust the volume of the dialogue so that it was loud enough to hear, but, not too loud that it would deafen the audience.

Foley:
We recorded a few foley sounds with the sound recorder while we were shooting. These included:

• Mouse clicking sound
• Footstep sound
• Ball hitting wall sound
• Message ping sound

Recording the sounds separately gives a lot more control over the sound when we were in the editing phase. This meant that we could increase the sound of the foley if we felt it was too quiet without increasing the volume of the on board camera. Having a recorded foley for the footsteps was very useful when it came to the sound editing of the woods scene where the protagonists friend disappears. This was because we were able to fade the footsteps sound in so that it could just about be heard. 

Non-diegetic Background Music:

The non-diegetic background music is a key part of any moving image production because it can help convey emotion and atmosphere to the audience. It can be very hard to find the correct background music that would enhance the effect that the moving image is trying to having on the audience without it being over the top. This is why we spent a lot of time picking the correct background music for certain scenes. What we found when we were looking for the music is that it is very hard to find happy background music that does't ruin the mood of the piece. For this reason in most of the happy parts of the short film we don't have any background music because we couldn't find any that would fit properly. This means that there is only background music for some of the sad parts of the short film to help the audience sympathise with the protagonist and his loneliness.

Once we had selected the background music that we were going to use we then had to put them into the short film. When doing this we were very conscious that we didn't over use the background music because it would make it seem like a music video instead of a short film. Therefore, we didn't use a lot of the background music, however, we used enough to enhance the feel of the particular scenes.

Then we adjusted the levels of the background music so that it wasn't too loud and we added fades in and out to make the music seem more seamless.

The group as we were looking for non-diegetic background music

Wipe Transition: - Connor

We originally had the idea of having a slow wipe transition during scene 1 when the two characters are walking home through the woods. The transition was going to be used on a long shot from the side of the two characters. The idea was to have a wipe transition in the direction that the two characters were walking and the edge of the frame would follow the characters and the next shot would begin behind the other.

 

As you can see from the video above, the transition ended up not really work well. The transition is distracting and confusing as you end up seeing the characters on screen twice. The transition mainly didn't work because it was distracting which is not the intended effect of a transition, a transition should be a subtle effect that has an effective impact.

Fade Away Transition: - Sam

The fade away transition is a key part of our short film. This is where the protagonist's mind plays a trick on him because he sees his dead friend. Then the audience see his dead friend disappear and then the protagonist turns round to look at his dead friend, but, he is not there.


Before we went out on the actual shoot we practised creating this shot in the corridor of the college. Then we took the footage we filmed and made one of the characters disappear. This meant that when it came to the actual shoot we knew what to do and how to film it.


How we edited it together:

1. This is the shot has only the protagonist in it and this is going to be used to make the friend disappear. We used the crop tool to crop half of this shot so that the protagonist could not be seen in the shot.
2. A cross dissolve is used to fade between the shot with the friend in and and the shot without the friend in it so that there is a fade away effect.
3. The shot below this on the timeline is the shot that has both the protagonist and the friend in it.
4. This is the result after the friend has faded away.

When filming this shot we made sure not to make the camera at all because even a slight changing in camera angle or position and then the shot would be ruined and we would have to go back and re-shoot the shot. So when filming both of the shots that were needed to create the fade away effects we made sure to only touch the start and stop recording button and then just leave the camera alone.

However, we did have an issue that we had to overcome when we were editing this shot. The issue was because the two shots were lit differently because we were using natural lighting. This meant that there was a massive line down the middle of the screen where the two differently lit shots met. To overcome this issue we used the brightness and contrast filter that is in Final Cut Pro. Then we made the shot darker so that it would match the shot underneath it to give a convincing fade away effect. We ended up having to decrease the brightness to 0.71 to make the shot look correct and to make it so that there was no line down the middle of the screen.

Here is how the scene looks now that we have finished editing it and after we created the fade away effect:

(insert video)

The group as we were editing