The post-production process

                                                       

                                          The post production process


Editing Technology


The only software i used to actually do my editing was Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Premier Pro is a not too complex programme. Its easy to get the hang of this programme and you can also do some great effects which are easy to use and easy to find, theres also a programme on Premier Pro called Soundbooth which enables you to change the sound on your clips whether you want to turn the sound or turn it down, there is also another way to turn down sound and turn it up by dragging the yellow bar on an audio clip up or down. To put my final edit onto a DVD format i used a programme called Encore, my tutor actually made the menu so all i had to do was drag both the offline edit and online edit into the already made buttons and then pressed build. Encore then transcodes all the data onto the DVD disc.

Editing Process and Post Production Tools

For the offline edit the only process i really went through was bassically looking through the clips and picking the ones i wanted to use, because there was so many clips i made bins for each day of shooting, i then made other bins for each scene, put the clips i wanted onto the timeline and used the cutter tool to cut them down to what i want. I also put made a master sequence for the whole film and i made individual sequences for each scene. For the online edit it was a lot more then just cutting it down. The first thing i did was look through the clips to see if there was any mistakes like boom mic's in shot, there was two mistakes with one being the wires in the corner of the shot and the second being a bag in shot, the first thing i did was get rid of the wires by simply cropping them out and using the colour correction tool so you couldn't tell the difference in the colours. The bag was a bit more complicated to get rid of, i took a screenshot of the scene and put it in photoshop and basically took a sample of the pavement and put it over the bag then put it back onto Premier Pro and did a bit of cropping so everything matched up.                                       
                                        

 

 



After that i basically colour corrected the rest of the clips that i thought could do with a bit of matching and sprucing up, on one of the scenes i turned it into black and white to show that it was in the past. I then went onto the effects menu and chose transitions to put in, i went for the cross dissovle transition because i thought it would look best. After that i then decided to put my credits in, i put one in at the beggining stating who the director was and who the main actors was, at the end of the film i put the proper credits in stating everyone who took place in the making of the film and thank you's to the people who let us use their houses and locations. I then needed to choose soundtracks and to do this i had to go on a royalty free webiste so i didn't have to ask for permission to use it. I put a song in at the beggining of the film and then again at the end of the film with the credits. After all this was done i then exported the film as a movie file.

 

The overall quality of the finished edit

 

To be totally honest i feel like the finished could be a whole lot better, there were a few problems with thngs such as jump cuts and sound problems, because i was trying to get the project in on time i couldnt do it to the highest of my ability, i just did what i could in the alloted time. Some of the shots used didn't really cut together as good as i hoped and when i watched it back i realised that it needs improvement, also some of the scenes are a bit too long and need trimming down a bit to make the film as a whole a bit shorter. There was also a continuity error in the last scene where the main character is wearing a jacket when he walks into the house but when he walks into the living room he is not wearing a jacket. I also could of used more sound effects and more soundtrack. I think there were some good shots used though and it was nicley framed but i think it would take a while to get it up to standard. What i learned is that i should of given myself more time for it and spent less time on the offline edit and more time on the online edit because that was the main one, i also learned that i should of payed more attention to what actually was in the shot.



  

 

 

Prepare for the edit

 

 

 

Striping and Labelling Tapes

 

The process

To stripe a tape you need to insert a new DV tape in your camera. Turn down or turn off the audio and place the lens cap on the camera, you then set the camera to record mode and record the entire length of the tape. When this is done the tape has been striped and is ready for recording.

Labelling is basically nameing the tape. For example if you were filming for more than a day and need more than one tape you would label your first tape as 'Tape 1 Day 1'.

Why stripe and label?

Striping a tape insures correct time codes when DV tools scans your DV tapes, striping will also cause DV tools to see an empty frame between each seperate recording, this will allow regonition of individual clips or shots when capturing your footage.

Labelling a tape is basically for organastion purposes, if you fail to label your tapes and have more than one with footage on it you won't know which tape is which, this can cause a lot of problems.

 

How footage was captured

 

The footage was captured by connecting a firewire cable to a computer, i then turned on the camera and set it on VCR mode.

 

I then clicked on file then capture.

 

A capture windown then appeared so i clciked on AVi.

 

I then logged the clips to where i was saving the footage.

 

I then labelled the tape.







I then clicked on scene detecter, then i clicked on record then clicked clicked on play.

 

 

EDL (Edit Desicion List)

 

An edit decision list (also known as an EDL) is used post production, an EDL contains an ordered list of reel and timecode data representing where each video clip can be obtained to conform the final cut.

 

How was footage assessed?

 

Footage was assessed by basically sitting down with the footage and watching through each clip and looking at what worked and what didnt work, we looked at each angle used and looked at things like audio to see if there was anything that needed tweaking. We looked at things like whether the camera moved in a shot and basically decided what we could use and what we couldnt.

 

How was the edit organised?

 

I organised the footage by making 'bins' and sorted them into days and scenes, for example i had all shots made in the first day of shooting and called it 'bin 1 day 1' i then checked the script and looked at the clips needed in each scene and made a bin for each scene. For example i named the bin for the first scene 'Scene 1' this made the edit process a lot easier because my clips were all organised into bins.