Summer soon summer soon summer soon

Dance Video - Post Production

Here's the thing - I am not a good editor. There are numerous things in this industry that I think I am good at, but editing - seeing what looks good with what, colour correction, sound editing, etc. - is just not one of them. So for this project I figured, its time I actively bring on an editor, so that we can properly put together this project. So that's what I did. Originally I had to talked to Rufaro about editing together, but on the day we decided to start I had already edited sound with Nina, so we decided to carry on with the video too. Rufaro was okay with this, and agreed to be credited as Camera Operator, while Nina would be Sound & Edit. 

For the sound we first discussed what I had in mind, and what she figured would look good with the edit she had in mind. We started piecing together something we thought would give a nice rhythm to it, and create an interesting piece to edit to. The background sound gives it a nice atmosphere, and creates tension and works really well with for an example slowed down clips. The beat we put in with the guitar creates a pattern that we could edit to, and musical beats that would sound good with visual cuts. We also decided to add heartbeats to make it more intimate and to help with the beat, but as we didn't want this to be the main focus, we lowered the audio gain on it, and slowed it down so that it would only we barely visible. This was also done so that you might not even think about it being there, a listener might just accept it as their own heart beat. We also added a rain effect, as we didn't want to record anything during the shoot. Also, because it is an added sound we could control how much there is, and how the rain increases until the point were the dancer breaks. 

As for the edit we faced a couple of problems. We quickly realised that we should have filmed more, possibly extended the shoot until the day after. Even though we felt like we didn't have enough material we still managed to put together a rough cut that day. It had the general tone of the project, but was missing something to make it feel more complete as a video, but also as a narrative. We decided to leave it for that day and look at it with rested eyes the day after. 

We started the next day of editing by looking over the areas of the video that we didn't especially like, and that we wanted to change. We then played around with the clips to find out how they might fit together better. At times it felt like a puzzle, where we just had to find the right pieces for it to become complete. I decided I wanted to slow down the beginning quite a bit, to better see the crescendo into the middle of the video, and also to get a complete visual of what the dance is supposed to look like. That way it would be easier to understand how the water is interrupting the dancer, and how she has to change her routine. 

As for colour correction we started by all over lowering the highlights, and making her skin less bright. There were also multiple shots where the background is glistening because of the water - we tried our best to make up for that in the correction, but it only worked to a certain degree. If I could I would probably in the future make sure that the background is far enough away so that it doesn't get wet. We also added a 25-30% saturation in the beginning and all the way towards the breakdown to symbolise how the dancer is just mindlessly repeating the same routine, and only gains more colour and saturation towards the end when she finally accepts the water, and dances with it. 

I all in all like the edit, although I wish we had more material to work with. I would also have liked to use a better camera so that we could capture her movements and the water even better. But Nina did an outstanding job with both the sound and the visuals, and I can't thank her enough for working with me. 

-TJ

Creative commons:

I Am Running a Marathon with Thousands of Other Highly av Chris Zabriskie er lisensiert under en Creative Commons Attribution-lisens (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Kilde: http://chriszabriskie.com/honor/

Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/

Eastminster av Kevin MacLeod er lisensiert under en Creative Commons Attribution-lisens (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Kilde: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100719

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

"Editors deserve so much respect"

Avid - The choices I made

 

Over the course of three weeks we were tasked with editing the rushes from our studio shoot late last year with Avid, the editing software we have been taught through the Professional Toolkit unit. I chose this unit because I this year wanted to improve my technical skills, and become a better artist by being able to better edit and complete my own projects. Avid is probably the most complicated software I have ever been taught, and I would be lying if I didn´t say I found it very difficult. 

So starting off I wanted to make an edit that was different from the script and the planned story. Having been DoP for the studio shoot I was a big part of the pre production and production of this film, and thusly I´ve had a very close relationship to how the film developed and ended up. For this reason I wanted to challenge myself and create something other than just the normal narration of the film. 

Trailers

The last month I have been obsessed with the trailer for the upcoming movie "Logan". It´s a very simple trailer, but it really intrigues and catches the watcher, and by the end of it you almost can´t wait for the film to come out. 

As you can see it resembles the beats of many trailers, in that it has an old song, it crescendoes towards the end, revleases just enough to intrigue, and tells part of the story. I think trailers are their own unique type of media and they don´t get nearly enough credit compared to films. Of course films take way longer to create and edit, but when it comes to the financial success of a film, a trailer can either make it or break it. I want to create a trailer for Exhale, My Love, and try to create that sense of intrigue and interest that the trailer for Logan did. 

During the editing process I sadly didn´t take any screenshots, but I can explain everything I did and why I did it. To begin with I created bins for all the rushes (one bin for day 1 of the shoot, one bin for day 2, one for the audio, one for the foley etc) I then proceeded to go through all the clips, marking what the contain and if they were of interest for my edit. I wanted to build my trailer traditionally with it starting out with one or two scenes from the film to establish the conflict and set the story, and the give a glimpse of the rest in short clips meant to intrigue. 

I decided to use clips from scene 2 were Elliot first started coughing, and the following scene when they visit the doctors to find out whats wrong. By showing these two scenes in not too much detail but enough to give a rough idea of what´s going on I show the viewer the main plot of the story and what starts the conflict, without giving away the course of how the story evolves during the reminding scenes. 

Poster by Natalie Hodgins

The editing process itself was fairly straight forward, for the short clips I used bits of the film that I knew would be interesting, and would make people want to see the film itself. For an example, there is one suspenseful shot of Elliot sitting by the table eating and looking very angry and upset. Now, if you know the film you that he´s not actually angry, but rather confused and ill, and the scene it actually showing the straining relationship between him and Bella, but by using that clip out context I hoped to create some wonder about what the film actually about, and make the viewer question in what direction the film would go after the intial scenes. 

I ended the trailer with two longer clips around the title because I wanted to slow it down towards the end to let the viewer relax and process what they just saw. The final clip is of Elliot crying before you see the clock on the wall start to blink. I wanted to make that the final clip to make people wonder what the blinking meant, and why he was so upset about it. Is it an alarm? How is it connected to him? Does it have anything to do with his disease? Those are the types of questions I want people to have after they finish the trailer. At this point I was happy with the length of trailer and the clips I had used. I am aware that it´s shorter than what the brief wanted, but I felt that if added more clips it would feel drawn out, and crowded. 

After that I moved on to sound. First I muted all the audio tracks that belonged to the actual footage, and then added 4 more audio tracks. Mono left and right for music, and mono left and right for foley. For the foley I looked for key sounds that would give the clips some dimension and space. In the beginning of the trailer I added sounds of the keyboard, walking, cereal, and Elliot sighing. I mostly only wanted foley in this part of the trailer because I wanted the music to take over after the first scene and towards the crescendo, before dying out after the title and the final clip. In the final I again added the sounds of Elliot crying, to bring the trailer back to reality, and to the seriousness of the film. 

"Cello Suite No. 1" by Beethoven

As for the music for the trailer I wanted something that increased in intensity, but almost had a beautiful seriousness to it. I know it´s very in to use music from the 70s and 80s in trailers nowadays, but that wasn´t the feeling I wanted for the trailer. But when in doubt, classical music to the rescue! This piece by Beethoven not only fit the trailer perfectly, but it also fit my edit - as in that the piece became more instense around the part of the trailer where I started to increase the intensity. I then made it die off at the title, so that the impact of the final clip was more effective. 

In the final part of the edit I did colour grading. I didn´t do too much here because I didn´t want to change that much, but I did want to make the hospital scenes lighter, and the room scenes a bit darker. I did by adjusting the hue and gamma in the colour correction tool, to fit the scenes, but also depending on which character was in the shot. Our actress for Bella has a fairer complexion than our actor for Jacob, so in scenes with her I would get rid of things like redness. 

All in all I´m very happy with my edit. I think that as a trailer it does what it´s supposed to do - it creates intrigue, and it prepares you for the film without giving too much away. 

TJ