We may also be asked about post production and how our skills and knowledge of the software we are using has improved. Here is the fourth mind map which will be turned into a draft essay.
Plan
- Final Cut
-Day into night – after our LAFTAs production I was more aware of how to shoot so that I could use colour corrections to make it look as if it were night time, I knew not to get the sky in shot as the shot from the boot looked odd.
-Colour corrections and filters – I became more aware of what filters looked more cinematic, as time progressed I realised that the vignette effect didn’t work at all, so I knew not to use this in my A2 project
-Transitions – I was more aware of the appropriate use of transitions during the A2 projects and that dissolves weren’t always the right transition to use especially in horror because it draws attention to the cut as opposed to masking it. Therefore I tried to create hidden cuts in my final project.
-Key Framing – I was more comfortable with key framing, especially using it with sound and using it to make it smoother and less disjointed with silent parts. I also used this with a blank frame to hide the hidden cuts. - Sound
-Music – I found that it worked better to find this earlier in the process so that the filming and editing can be done with this in mind and the pace matches the music.
-Sound effects – Recording sound on set was often not enough during our AS project, I found that we had to use a lot of foley effects so therefore during the A2 year I decided to use more foley effects because they often sounded better and more cinematic.
-Rerecording – Both shots and sound, where I would have left something during AS, I realised at A2 that some things needed to be redone. For example, shaky shots. During our LAFTAs project we realised that the crowd saying “surprise” sounded like too few people to we recorded more people saying this and added the sound in. I was therefore more aware of what wasn’t at a good enough standard at A2 and went out and redid this.
Describe a range of creative decisions you made in post-production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. [25 marks]
Version 1
In our LAFTAs production, ‘Uninvited’, we created a night time effect using colour correction. We knew that we couldn’t film at night because this would mean our shot wouldn’t be as clear as it could have been and we also knew from experience that simply adding the day into night filter made the shot look a little purple and artificial. This experience taught us that we can’t rely on post production for the effects and that we had to do certain things when filming to achieve the night time look. For example, I knew that I needed to ensure that the sky wasn’t in shot because this would mean that the end result wouldn’t look right, I had this in mind when filming my A2 short film, ‘Familiar’, and the effect is therefore more realistic.
When editing my AS production of ‘Blackhaven’, I made the mistake of adding too many filters and colour corrections, such as vignette and teal and orange. As time progressed I realised that these didn’t look good and I felt more aware of what looked cinematic and what didn’t. I therefore knew for my A2 project that I needed to keep colour corrections to a minimum, I only added cool tones which was only at a low opacity. However, I did learn from AS that letterboxing my scene did make it look more cinematic, so I added this effect in to both ‘Uninvited’ and ‘Familiar’. The same applies to transitions, I knew that fancy fades and dissolves between shots didn’t look cinematic and I needed to hide them more because they often took away from the narrative I was trying to convey in my films. As a result, I kept the transitions very simple in ‘Familiar’, I used a simple cut and often masked them with shots where the camera appears to go through the floorboards or a wall which meant I had a greater effect on my audience as a horror film because the editing was less noticeable.
There were a number of things that I struggled with at AS that I struggled to solve. However throughout the course I became more comfortable with how to key frame and I soon realised that using this could have solved many of my problems. For example, the sound often seemed disjointed and there were odd silent parts to my scenes, however I knew at A2 that I could solve this by fading sounds in and out using key framing on the volume so that they sounded smoother. I was also able to use key framing on a blank frame, which I was able to mask my hidden cut through the wall with. I have become more aware of the wide range of effects that key framing can do, I have therefore used it a lot more for my production of ‘Familiar’ in order to allow my scene to run more smoothly.
Using Final Cut Pro X also gave me the opportunity to watch through the footage that I had whenever we liked. I therefore did more screenings throughout the post-production process during A2 than I did for AS. This allowed me to get feedback from the class and therefore obtain new thoughts and ideas and change parts that I needed to change. As a result the feedback that I got from others meant that my production of ‘Familiar’ was more successful because I had a greater range of ideas and input from others.
Throughout AS, I would often leave shots or sound recordings that didn’t work. However by having screenings more regularly I realised that there were some things that needed to be redone, such as shaky shots or times when the pan wasn’t as smooth as it could have been during my first shoot of ‘Familiar’. At AS I felt that once we had filmed we needed to focus on editing, however I realised that part of successful editing means to go out and rerecord things or to create foley effects. In our LAFTAs production of ‘Uninvited’, when the party group said “surprise”, we realised that it sounded like there were too few people in the audio which gave the impression that there was a very small group. We therefore went back with a sound recorder and had more people say “surprise” so that we had more audio to put on top of what we already had existing. This gave the shot more depth to it, as a result of all of our rerecording we had a finished product that was of a higher standard that at AS.
I found music for ‘Blackhaven’ once I had completed editing together all of my shots. I found that this meant that finding music was made more difficult because it often didn’t match the pace of my editing, especially as we were only able to find and use music that was copyright free. I therefore realised that for my A2 production of ‘Familiar’, I needed to find music earlier on in the process so that I could match my editing to it rather than searching through a lot of music to find one that fits well.
Version 2
In our LAFTAs production, ‘Uninvited’, which we made after AS and before A2, we created a night time effect using colour correction. We knew that we couldn’t film at night because this would mean our shot wouldn’t be as clear as it could have been and we also knew from experience that simply adding the day into night filter made the shot look a little purple and artificial. This experience taught us that we can’t rely on post production for the effects and that we had to do certain things when filming to achieve the night time look. For example, I knew that I needed to ensure that the sky wasn’t in shot because this would mean that the end result wouldn’t look right, I had this in mind when filming my A2 short film, ‘Familiar’, and the effect is therefore more realistic.
When editing my AS production of ‘Blackhaven’, I made the mistake of adding too many filters and colour corrections, such as vignette and teal and orange. As time progressed I realised that these didn’t look good and I felt more aware of what looked cinematic and what didn’t. I therefore knew for my A2 project that I needed to keep colour corrections to a minimum, I only added cool tones which was only at a low opacity. However, I did learn from AS that letterboxing my scene did make it look more cinematic, so I added this effect in to both ‘Uninvited’ and ‘Familiar’. The same applies to transitions, I knew that fancy fades and dissolves between shots didn’t look cinematic and I needed to hide them more because they often took away from the narrative I was trying to convey in my films. As a result, I kept the transitions very simple in ‘Familiar’, I used a simple cut and often masked them with shots where the camera appears to go through the floorboards or a wall which meant I had a greater effect on my audience as a horror film because the editing was less noticeable.
There were a number of things that I struggled with at AS that I struggled to solve. However throughout the course I became more comfortable with how to key frame and I soon realised that using this could have solved many of my problems. For example, the sound often seemed disjointed and there were odd silent parts to my scenes, however I knew at A2 that I could solve this by fading sounds in and out using key framing on the volume so that they sounded smoother. I was also able to use key framing on a blank frame, which I was able to mask my hidden cut through the wall with. I have become more aware of the wide range of effects that key framing can do, I have therefore used it a lot more for my production of ‘Familiar’ in order to allow my scene to run more smoothly.
Using Final Cut Pro X also gave me the opportunity to watch through the footage that I had whenever we liked. I therefore did more screenings throughout the post-production process during A2 than I did for AS. This allowed me to get feedback from the class and therefore obtain new thoughts and ideas and change parts that I needed to change. As a result the feedback that I got from others meant that my production of ‘Familiar’ was more successful because I had a greater range of ideas and input from others.
Throughout AS, I would often leave shots or sound recordings that didn’t work. However by having screenings more regularly I realised that there were some things that needed to be redone, such as shaky shots or times when the pan wasn’t as smooth as it could have been during my first shoot of ‘Familiar’. At AS I felt that once we had filmed we needed to focus on editing, however I realised that part of successful editing means to go out and rerecord things or to create foley effects. In our LAFTAs production of ‘Uninvited’, when the party group said “surprise”, we realised that it sounded like there were too few people in the audio which gave the impression that there was a very small group. We therefore went back with a sound recorder and had more people say “surprise” so that we had more audio to put on top of what we already had existing. This gave the shot more depth to it, as a result of all of our rerecording we had a finished product that was of a higher standard that at AS.
I found music for ‘Blackhaven’ once I had completed editing together all of my shots. I found that this meant that finding music was made more difficult because it often didn’t match the pace of my editing, especially as we were only able to find and use music that was copyright free. I therefore realised that for my A2 production of ‘Familiar’, I needed to find music earlier on in the process so that I could match my editing to it rather than searching through a lot of music to find one that fits well.
Jess Marshall's A2 Media Studies Blog 