PRODUCTION • Editing the Project | Development

Before I began the edit, I needed to work out m workflow so that when all the footage was important I could start sorting it out and begin organising the edit. When downloading footage from the camera after each day, the footage was put into separate folders for each day which made things much easier as I could look through the producer’s schedules and work out what scenes were filmed on each day and then split up the footage into. The appropriate scenes.

During the pre-production stage, it was decided that we would edit our project in Final Cut Pro as during some tests I carried out, it seemed to cope with editing in multi-cam than Premiere, especially with the UHD footage we were filming in. After production was complete, we then found out the Final Cut had been removed from the university computers and we had no other copy of the programme that was accessible. I then decided that premiere was the next best software to use for the project.

When importing the footage into Premiere, I spilt it up into scenes which is how I had decided to edit the video, by doing each scene individually and then piecing them all together. I felt that this would be the best way for me to edit as it meant that I could focus on one scene at a time. When I began editing each scene, I started with an assembly cut where I placed the best clip together in the order on the shot as that is what we had previously decided although would most likely change along the way. This gave us a basis for our edit and allowed us to see all our chosen footage so when it comes to fine tuning each scene I can see the whole clips and choose where to cut between each clip so that they flow and match up.

Following the shot list gave me a basic idea of which clip needed to go where and what part of the story came next, I then could get more into the fine cutting of the clips, removing empty frames and getting the pacing right in each scene which sometimes meant removing certain shots or cutting out pieces of dialogue which wasn't always received well by the rest of the group however after looking all the different options, this was sometimes the best way of making the scene work. 

In my timeline, I chose to layer over some clips rather than cut them and place them side by side. This made it much easier for me to reduce/add more or certain clips and the lengthen or shorten the adjoining clip. This made the timeline look messy however, this work best for me and I carried on this technique throughout the entire project. 

Colour Grading:

Before I began the colour grade I wanted to test out different software to see what would be best for our project. Due to us making sure that our lighting and camera settings were correct for each shot, there weren’t many major adjustments that needed to be made to the clips there I eventually chose to colour grade in Adobe Premiere Pro which has its own Colour editing workspace. This gave me all of the different options I would need in order to boost the look of our production and fix and lighting/colour issues. The other programme I looked at editing in was DaVinci which was must more intense software and could do many more things than Premiere, however, I didn’t feel as though this was necessary and would be more time consuming for me to learn how to use the software as well as then colour grade the entire production.

I worked through our project methodically, starting with the first scene and doing it clip by clip. I also created a table in which I wrote down all of the settings I had applied so that I could easily look back see what numbers I had input, which was very useful when it came to making sure that all the clips matched in each scene.

Scene 9&10:

There were some scenes that were more difficult to edit than others such as scene 9&10, for which we had the tungsten lights, given the scenes a very orange hue. This was more challenging as removing too much orange gave made the clips look very blue which gave off the wrong mood and tone for the scene. It was important to keep to the chosen tone of the piece otherwise the whole production would feel different. I watched through many different tutorials and looked through the Adobe forums where people can post tips and tricks to find the best solutions for making the clips have less of an orange hue but still contain the warm, sitcom feel from them by them being more blue and film-like.

Scene 1:

For this scene, my main aim was to adjust the lighting and make the clips slighting brighter as filming in the studio was quite dark. My other main aim was brightening up the orange lights in the background to make them stand out more. To do this, used the settings under the basics tab to adjust the exposure and contrast which added some lightness, to brighten up the image further, I also increased the whites which makes anything that is white in the clip brighter and whiter.

To edit the orange lights in the background, I isolated the orange section that I wanted to change using the HSL Secondary tab which allows you to change the colour of certain objects and colours. I used it to increase the saturation of the orange which made it much brighter and stand out more, giving the location more depth and look visually more interesting. Although these were only subtle changes, they made a big difference to the overall look of the production. 

Scene 1 - No Colour Grade

Scene 1 - Colour Graded

Feedback Sessions:

Our feedback sessions have been really helpful throughout the project, from the beginning when we had just started the edit to closer towards the end when we were just fine tuning the project. Below are the notes from one of our very first tutorials where we had quite a few adjustments to be made. For this rough cut, I had put together as much footage as I could in an assembly cut, following the previously agreed on shot list. Not all of these shots turned out the way we planned them so some of them had to be changed which were some of the suggestions. From very early on, it was suggested that we get some extra clips that we didn't get during shoot week such as Annie's iPad close ups and reshoot scene 17 as it wasn't working. Many of the suggests were easily achievable and I made sure to try everything as there was also the possibility of it being the best option for the production. 

After each of our feedback sessions, we also had a group decision about what had been suggested and what we felt would definitely work and what we would need to consider or adapt slightly to help the edit but still keep with what our idea for the project was. There were times where the whole group didn't agree on certain suggestions that were made. For example, it was said that we could cut out some of the dialogue in Scene 3 as it drags quite a lot and takes us a while to get into the rest of the video. I agreed with this 100% and is something that I have always thought about this scene, however, the other 2 group members didn't agree and didn't want to remove any of the dialogue. In order to decide what we should do, rather than it be a decision based on whether we like the idea or not, it had to be what would be best for the production. I found this to be the most effective way of deciding what would be best.

WWW:

• Having already sorted out the clips into folders when taking them off the camera made beginning the editing process much easier and quicker.
• Editing the visuals before doing the sound, although this was more difficult for the sound editor, it made things much easier for to cut and move around in the timeline as I didn't have to worry about overlapping any audience or taking it out of sequence and creating gaps.
• After editing the visuals on the macs in the base room, taking the project and transferring it into my laptop meant that I could colour grade the project out of the studios as there was a week where I wasn't able to come it. I have a newer version of Premiere on my laptop therefore once I had opened and saved a version in the new update, it could then not be opened again on the old version so we had to be sure that everything we wanted to be done as a group was completed as it much harder to all sit around a small laptop. 

EBI:

• I found it challenging having the director sit with me during the editing process. I feel as though I am much more productive working on something by myself and then having a viewing where the group can watch and make suggestions ask for things to be changed, rather have constant interruptions and distractions which made the edit take much longer.