Editing session 3

In today’s session I corrected small errors such as making sure the clips were fully attached to one another and editing the length of the titles. Before my titles were too short but now I’ve made them 4 seconds. The title lengths might need to be changed again, once I’ve re-filmed and added those shots to the sequence, the title length may need to be 3 seconds.

I noticed a spelling mistake in one of my titles, so I’ve checked all other titles to ensure I’ve made no other silly mistakes and corrected the spelling of  the one title.

Below is the font of my new titles. Before (as spoke about in editing session 1) that the font was too much. I decided on a new font and this is how it looks on the black background in my opening sequence. I wanted a black background as its contrasting and conventional of a horror.

Its also conventional for a horror to have the titles out of the action and break up the shots to create an almost distorted effect. In the picture below there is a shot either side of the the title. I want this effect up till the characters enter the forest.

The order of titles is important for an opening sequence. I’ve decided to edit them in a certain order:

• A freaky films production
• In  association with treetop productions
• Directed By Emily Morter
• Siobhan Fitzsimon
• Joshua Shutler
• Zia Potgiter
• Music by Bottleneck1
• Within – name of title.

I feel this in an appropriate order for my titles and if need be I’ll add an extra title of “make up by” if I need to increase the time of my opening sequence.

Editing length of titles.

In my next session I’ll focus on:

• Adding the rest of the shots to the opening sequence.
• Adding sound effects to the ending title.

Improvements needed

After much debate I’ve decided to re-film. I need to either film at 3’oclock pm or wake up early in the morning to film whilst it is still dark. I will do some recasting on the male character as my actor is no longer available and quite frankly wasn’t the best actor for the job. I will keep certain shots of the female actor as I’m pleased with the quality and lighting. I’m considering changing my storyline to have the main title at the beginning or have the deaths at the start of the film, allowing the rest of the film to unravel how the deaths happened. I’m also debating whether to including a non-digetic dialogue over the scene of the two characters entering the forest. Before the dialogue was quite wooden and lost the affect intended so it may be beneficial to include a voice over.

Editing Session 2

As planned in session 1, I focused on editing the titles and completing the gaps which I had created. After watching the rendered version I can now see the difference. In the picture above you can see I’m rendering the video, this allows me to watch my progress. Although this session was short, I achieved what I needed too. Next time I’ll focus purely on time management. It occurs to me that I’m quite ahead time-wise but still have a lot of shots to add. I also need to record a voice over as I haven’t done that yet.

The software I’m using to edit is called ‘FinalCut’. – Figuring out the shortcuts and using the correct techniques is difficult to grasp. This session I removed most of the audio from the shots but left some in certain sections. This created quite a few gaps and it was noticeable where the sound was and wasn’t. Hopefully when the soundtrack exported into Final Cut or ‘Garage band’ this mistake will be less noticeable. 

I continued to adjust the brightness for certain shots without overdoing it however it does look fake in places and I would like to re-film certain shots.

I also continued to keep time management, It seems fairly reasonable for now considering I still have a lot of shots to add. If need be I’ll make the titles shorter or longer.

In my next session I’ll focus on:

• Changing the titles on ‘livetype’ and adding them into Final Cut.
• Working on the length of titles.

New Font

 

During session 1 of editing I realized and was assured that my current font for the titles was “too much”. I needed to hastily pick a new font and create the titles before I could continue editing.  I saw one and thought it was subtilely devilish without being too over the top.

The new chosen font.

The next step is completing all the titles in ‘Livetype’ the importing them into ‘FinalCut’.

New font

 

Editing Session 1

Adding shots onto the timeline.

 

 

Editing began by adding clips in and rendering them to check the lighting, as predicted a lot of the shots were too dark. The shot above shows Siobhan’s face with torches on it so the brightness didn’t need to be increased however other shots did. Once I learnt how to edit the brightness I manipulated the brightness for most shots. Too much brightness looked tacky and overdone but the right amount was necessary.

Editing the brightness level.

Brightness wasn’t my only problem; I knew that filming all my opening sequence outside would have consequences with sound. Some shots have good sound quality but some have poor quality and needed to be changed. This was only a minor hiccup in the editing process.

Editing the sounds of certain shots.

A bigger problem occurred later in the session. I thought it was conventional to use the same font for all the titles including the film title. However my film title is quite over the top and has been created for specific reasons. Putting the same font for the other titles in the film didn’t have the same effect. In fact, it looked messy and unsuited. Hence why I had to delete all my titles and look to find a new font for them. The next font will be more subtle and suited to the opening sequence.

The font that needed changing.

 

In my next session I’ll focus on:

•  Finding and creating new fonts
• Making sure my time is at a reasonable point
• Continue adjusting the brightness and sound.