41 • Editing Reflection

When we plan to make a film a key aspect of this production process is editing. Editing is arguably the most important part of the film making process as it allows us a filmmakers to craft and create a piece of film. Add style and meaning to the footage that we have captured before hand. We now use digital media to create film which involves state of the art editing software to edit footage. Before this digital age, scissors and tape was used to edit film. And arguable some of the greatest films in the world were edited using scissors and tape. The editing process technically involves the selecting process where we choose the clips from the library of the footage that best suite the interest of the film maker. Then the composition phase which in involves taping the footage to gather to create a piece of art.

There are many important decision to be made when creating a film, for example the order and designing wether to keep with chronological editing or switch to a non liner storytelling approach. Also another decision I had to make in the editing process was the mood and feeling that we wanted to convey during the film, with long and tedious shots to connote dread and show suspense. Or quick action cuts to convey action and energy. Finally another key decision we had to make was the length and pace of our film, do we make it longer to increase impact but could lose attention, Or quick and snappy but lose emphasis. These were key decisions throughout the editing process that we decided upon to create the best piece of film possible.

Before coming into this process I had an advanced understanding of the process of editing, and so the exceptions were nothing that I had not seen before, as always nothing runs as planned one of the expectations was having all the correct shots and angles that we should have captured on the day, being in the editing library. But unfortunately this is never the case and we could that we were missing several shots that we were hoping to have when it came down to editing, be this lack of organisation on the day or just forgetting. This is one expectation that I wish had followed through.
When you are editing a film the key idea is to be left with something ‘awesome’ at the end of it. If a craftsman spends hours whittling a chair out of a plank of wood, but after all this time is left with a plank of wood he has not done his job. It is the same with editing, if we can not create a movie from this footage we are not editing. The process of editing is creating the film. Not just playing the raw footage.

We edited the footage we had collected in the media teams editing suite, but certain things were expected of us when using this space. For example we had to book in times that we would be editing in the suite using the timetable planner, as we were sharing the computer with three other media groups we would need good organisational skills in order to use the space properly. 

Also we had to be responsible for our footage, and keep a record of our editing process. We did this by creating a notebook in which to write down a small record of everything that we did during the editing process. This would be invaluable later on in the course.

When editing film there were several different digital editing softwares that we used to create our film, Our primary editing software was a bend between, ‘Adobe Premiere Pro’ this is shot composition software that allows us to take our libraries of footage and select certain clips from the footage and place them within a set project time line that would contain the project. 

We can also adjust time, speed and shot duration using this software. We also used ‘Final Cut Pro’ along side with ‘Premiere’ to select key areas of our film and to select shots.

 For VFX and edit the project with sound design in mind as I believe ‘Final Cut’ is a more useful software for composing sound alongside with visual media. Also our thriller contained VFX ( visual effects ) Which means we had to use several visual compositing softwares. We used ‘Boujou’ motion tracking software.

To 3D motion track our footage and create a 3D visualisation of our scene, this allowed us to apply floor plans and a match move to 3D CGI ( computer generated images ) within 2D footage, once the 3D space was applied in ‘Boujou’. But ‘Boujou’ only applies a track move to the footage, In order to composite the 3D elements into our scene, we used ‘Adobe After effects’. 

Another piece of software from the adobe family, that we used to apply the 3D track to several 3D CGI graphics in order to create realistic but stylistic VFX to our scene.

But this is not all, we also needed to apply a colour grade to our footage using ‘Black Magics’ ‘DaVinchi Resolve’ this software allowed us to create a colour pallet to our film and really explore adding tint and tone to the footage,

this would allow us to create connotations between the tone and feeling of the movie. Making the film cooler in colour to represent starkness and dark feeling. Or a more warm tone to represent brightness and warmth. 

• We select and review shots to short list the best footage that we have captured and select the so called ‘best bits’ of the footage. This is important as it cuts the fat of the footage making it easier to edit the final piece.
• The timeline is used as a playback function, where the piece comes together and can be seen and reviewed, also this is where all the selected clips from the library can be all in one place.
• It was important to name shots with the specific angle that the shot was conveying. Wether that be a extreme wide, mid shot or closeup. As this allows us to have a structure to the film process.
• The bade tool allows us to cut up footage and create a shorter shot duration to clips, this is an essential tool. as it is quicker to use than retiming, and saves going back into footage bins over and over again.
• When deciding upon shot composition, the tools allowed me to really trim up the footage and sort the frames we wanted and the frames we don’t, it was important for me when editing to literally go frame by frame through a piece and decided which should be in the piece.
• We had to use a set structure when editing the clips, placing the clips in such a way so they do not overlap with each other and and never cancel out the audio or visual files that we were editing. 
• Our pice was designed to be chronologically edited to create a clear sense of story within our opening. We used the time line to create this chronological story, placing the clips in order from left to right.
• This provided continuity by creating a seamless story from our footage, this meant that the story was sound and would make logical chronological sense.
• We used up to five layers when editing our piece this was so we could overlap footage and play footage over each other but keep the audio playing underneath.
• WE HAVE NOT DECIDED UPON TITLES YET!
• I decided to delete all of the original sound that came with the clips, as this was useless and noisy. Instead I decided that I would create the whole underscore using folly and sound effects. I had access to these atmospheric sou effects and folly from my personal, audio library.