Unit 13: Extended Project in Creative Media Production - Post-Production

DISCLAIMER: I confirm that the attached portfolio is all of my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself.

Monday 24th May 2021

After helping Amiliyah, as a Script Supervisor, on her film (which I spoke about on my Production blog: https://harriettothefuture.blogspot.com/2021/06/unit-13-extended-project-in-creative_9.html), we both came back to the classroom and I was finally able to look through all of my footage from the past couple of shoot days (as I wasn't able to watch them at home due to a problem with my MacBook laptop). 

As I was checking all of the footage, I then made sure to label, and take notes, of the specific shots I wanted to use in the film as I had a lot of footage and didn't want to get confused or be unable to find a certain shot that I wanted for any scene of the film. I didn't make much of start on the edit as I came across a few problems. The main problem was the quality of the footage on Premiere Pro, for some odd reason, the computers at our college have a very up to date version of Premiere Pro, however when you watch back footage, it starts to lag and become fuzzy and, even, pixelated. Even when I tried to render a shot, or two, to improve its quality, it still wouldn't work and made the clip look awful.

As I was worrying about the quality, I then continued to look through all of the footage and take notes and label the shots I would be using in the edit of the film. I was also unsure if this problem was going to affect the overall quality of the film, once I had finished editing it all and exported it. Though, this was a problem I was going to have to face later on and, when it hit 12:00 pm, me and Amiliyah went to the studio to meet up with all my cast and crew to get ready for filming on the third shoot day.

Tuesday 25th May 2021

Before starting on my edit, I first helped Amiliyah, as the Script Supervisor, on her final day of shooting. This was the final and most intense scene of the entire film, as we were filming the murder of the victim and finding out who killed her. 

Again, my job was pretty simple, as I had to make sure no one was walked through the shot, along the path behind Chelsea and Brooke, and making sure there was no continuity errors as there was quite a bit of prop work in the scene. Luckily, the scene is silent, so we didn't need to worry about picking up any background noises and we didn't need to check if the actors knew their lines as there was no dialogue. 

We hadn't really blocked the scene through properly, so after a few attempts how Chelseas and Brooke should act out the murder. We also needed to figure out how Brooke falls into the same spot that she was in when we filmed the crime scene investigation scene. So, we found a way where Brooke would try to swing the prop knife at Chelsea, where Chelsea was then able to push her onto the floor, in the same spot. After filming the confrontation, we then moved onto the final part of the scene where Chelsea slits the victim's throat and then runs away, leaving her for dead. This was a simple scene, as we were showing Chelsea actually slit Brooke's throat and all we needed was to see a blood splatter and the blade of the knife dripping in blood. Tom was able to bring in some of the fake blood he used on his film, where I then placed a few drops on the knife and we quickly started to film it dripping from the blade. 

Once we finished filming Amiliyah's film, we then went back to college and I was able to start editing my film together. Before making a start on the edit, I then placed all the footage from the day before onto my hard drive and started to look through it all. I did notice, the final takes, a shot of Kate and Sadie at the front door and running out of the front door, on the windowsill, in the background, there were a few of my belongings on top (including my script, pencil case and production file). I wasn't happy about this as not a single person noticed the problem, this may have been due to the overexposure of light on the camera, as well as not thinking the windowsill would be in the shot. Although, this wasn't a problem as we were filming at the same location the following day, and I decided to reschedule that one part of the scene (scene 7) for the final shoot day. 

After the small hiccup with the shot, showing my belongings in the background, I then moved onto editing. I first started editing scene 2, when we are first introduced to Gemma and understand the status of her and Katie's friendship. This was a really tough scene to film, and it was even tougher to edit all together. This was the only scene I was able to edit, on this day, as there was a lot to try and work around because of continuity errors (mainly how the actors were positioned in a slightly different stance in one setup and then the other), as well as performances being better in one take than another. It was also difficult to get the right deliverance of dialogue as I liked the way a line was said in one take, but I liked the look of the performance in another. So, I had to come up with ways to have the great performance shot, for example a shot of Kate, and then cut it to the next shot, of Sadie, with the dialogue from another take that I liked.

This was a hard scene to edit as there were so many shots, and the scene is quite long, and it was so fiddly to get smooth transitions from one shot to the next. It was extremely tough that it took a whole lesson just to be able to edit that one scene, however I wasn't happy with my edit. I knew later on, once the whole film is pieced together and I could start making sound corrections, colour grade it and edit shots to transition from one to the other as smooth as possible, but I still wasn't confident in the edit and I didn't know how the rest of the film was going to turn out. I felt there were so many mistakes and that I was ruining the original charm and story of the film.

Thursday 27th - Friday 28th May 2021

Over these next few days, I was piecing together the whole of the film, as I had now finished filming everything and could now focus on the edit. Luckily, I had a lot of footage to work from, and Amiliyah was able to help me label them and note them down as we knew which shots should be used in the edit, remembering takes and shots that we filmed, on each shoot day, that we thought were great.

Whilst editing on Thursday, I picked up where I left off by filming the following scene, which was scene 3. Scene 3, along with scenes 4 and 5, were the easiest to piece together as they only included 3 different shots of different setups, using the 180-degree rule. Although this was simple, this was quite tough for me to edit as Kate had been consistent in both shots she was on camera, two shot of her and Sadie and a mid shot of just herself, however, Sadie was doing something in each and every take we did. For example, in the two shot, she had her arms folded, as in the mid shot of Sadie, she had her arms down by her side. So, I was unable to use any of her mid shots in the scene, only using Kate's to cut in between. This was such a shame as there were some great performances from her that I would've liked to have used in the film, but I was unable to use them as it would've looked strange of Sadie had her arms down in one shot, and then crossed in another. Luckily, this continuity error was only in scene 3, and the rest were pretty easy to piece together, including both of the actor(s) mid shots to cut in between.

I also really liked my edit of the cutaway style shot of Sadie trying to throw a skittle into Kate's mouth, and Kate trying to catch it. On the day, this was a bit of a nightmare to film, as I said in my production blog, and we had so many takes of Sadie throwing a skittle and Kate attempting to catch it. It took a long time but we were finally able to get one. After we filmed it, everyone had the idea that the failed attempts shut be quickly cut together and finally showing the successful shot of Kate catching the skittle. 

This was only a few seconds long, but it makes the ending of scene 3 quite entertaining, as there are a few attempts with many different reactions from Sadie and Kate. Whether they start laughing a bit, or seeing the skittle bounce off of Kate's face, or Sadie sighing when she thinks Kate catches it in her mouth. It's a fun part of the film that enjoyed filming, and it's pretty funny in the scene, especially the relief of Kate and Sadie when they finally have a successful attempt and cheer. 

After finishing piecing together scene 3, I then moved onto scenes 4 and 5 which, again, were much easier to piece together. My favourite, as it also was my favourite to film, was scene 5, which is a homage to the film 'Lady Bird' (2017). I loved the look of the shots whilst we were filming them, and even when we checked the footage on the camera just after filming the scene. They looked so good once I started piecing them together, of course they would need colour grading and rendering. It was also pretty easy to piece these shots together, only use a mid shot of Sadie to see her reactions much closer. I wasn't really able to use mid shots of Kate in the scene as it was hard to piece together the continuity from the two shot to her mid shot, but it worked out well anyway as the two shot of them together was performed really well and they were both prepared when they started filming it.

Once I finished piecing together scene 5, I then moved onto scene 6, however it proving to be quite difficult to edit all together. There were so many shots and being able to cut them together, without continuity errors, was tough as there were certain shots I wanted to use to cut together, but some of them didn't cut together well and there wasn't smooth transitions. It was also tough to be able to piece together Sadie's dialogue as she would say something different in every take of every shot, and she would ad-lib a lot which wasn't the same as what she said in one shot. As I was finding a lot of difficulty with it, I then decided to move onto another part of the film which was the opening montage. Luckily, I had enough shots to be able to piece it all together as smooth as possible. I tried making this is as short as possible, as I didn't want it to take up a lot of the time in the film, and I felt it didn't need to be long. I wanted to be able to introduce both the location and the character Katie, rather than jumping straight into the first scene when she walks into the house. I made sure all the shots were the same length, apart from two, one where Kate walks through some trees on the field, and the other when Kate walks down the drive and through the front door of the house (this is where the title would appear, but I would be adding that once I had pieced together the whole film).

The following day, I continued piecing together the film by starting on scene 1, when Katie walks into the house and has a conversation with Jackie (Gemma's mum). I actually found that the toughest scenes to edit together, throughout the whole of editing, was the scenes with Jackie (scenes 1, 6 and 7), as Katie (who plays Jackie), kept forgetting her lines to the point where we had to film individual shots of her acting and delivering each individual line. It was difficult to find the best takes and best performances from Katie, but I was soon able to piece together certain shots, even if I needed to cutaway from Katie's performance, back onto Kate and hear her reading from the script in the background. 

After editing scene 1, I then went back to scene 6, which was the scene I had been struggling to edit the previous day. It was so hard to cut together as each time I tried to cutaway from the two shot of Kate and Sadie, either a mid of just Kate or just Sadie, depending on who was speaking or a closeup on either actors reaction. Although, this was difficult as in Kate's mid shots, you were unable to see Sadie, however in Sadie's mid shots, you could see Kate and the transition from the two shot to Sadie's mid shot was always difficult to cut together as Kate was sometimes looking another way in one shot than the other. It was also difficult to try and piece the dialogue altogether due to Sadie's ad-libs and many different line deliveries in each take and shot in the scene. It was hard due to continuity issues, but I was able to piece it all together. It wasn't perfect but I thought it was alright and I would come back to it later on. 

After scene 6, I was also able to piece together scene 7, however, as I had run out of time, I wasn't able to put the film dissolve effect on the last shot of the scene, where Katie and Gemma walk up the drive and the last thing we see on camera is there hands grasped together as it goes into the lens. My idea of the transition from this shot to the next is for the shot to fade out and then fade into the beginning of scene 8, which is a montage where we now see Katie and Gemma at a field. 

Now that I had finished scene 7, all I had left to do was piece together scenes 8 and 9, and then work on basic corrections and other elements to develop the films style and visuals, such as texts (picking an appropriate font for the title and end credits), colour grading, music and sound effects. Although, I wasn't going to be able to edit again until the half term when we come back to college, which is even more stressful as that is also the week we have to meet the deadline and hand our films in. However, I tried to not worry about it too much and start making plans and notes of what else I would like to add into the film, or correct.

Monday 7th June 2021

As I got back into college, after the half term and not being able to work on my film for a week, I got straight back into the swing of things and immediately started editing the rest of my film. All I had left to edit now were scenes 8 and 9.

I first started with the montage at the beginning of scene 8, with a variety of shots of Kate and Sadie running around, messing about and having fun. As Eve had sent me the final version of her original song, 'Scrapbook Memories', during the half term, I had been thinking about different ways to piece the montage together. Although, I wasn't able to check the footage on my laptop throughout the half term, I was able to remember certain shots that we did, thinking about my favourite ones and how to cut them in between one another. I first edited this by placing the song onto Premiere Pro, with the intro of the song first playing when Kate and Sadie run out of the door at the end of the previous scene (scene 7). I then started to place the shots, for the montage, in the appropriate places, trying to make them as chronological as possible, as well as making sure they fit together well and cut between each other as well as possible. I was really happy with the montage, and it didn't take me very long to piece together.

After editing the montage at the beginning of the scene, I was then able to edit the rest of the scene, which also didn't take very long to piece together. As we only got a few shots and had certain takes to use in the film, so it was easy to piece it all together. My only worry was that, because it is quite a dialogue heavy scene, and one of the most emotional and pivotal moments in the entire film, that when we filmed the scene, it was a very windy day. So, a lot of the wind was picked up on the microphone and it was sometimes hard to hear the actors, especially Kate as she would speak quietly. I wasn't sure how I was going to mask the sound of the wind, I knew there was some way around it, but, for the moment, I was going to leave it for now and come back to it once I had finished piecing together the film. However, I thought it looked great, some of the transitions weren't as clean or smooth as I would've liked them to have been, but I thought I'd done a pretty decent job.

After editing scene 8, I then edited scene 9, which will also be playing throughout the end credits. This was simple, as it is one shot and one take, however I was unsure of how to transition from the photo to the real-life version of the photo, seeing the younger versions of Katie and Gemma. However, Sam was able to help me and used key framing. This is where he was able to adjust the positioning of the shot whilst it rotates into the centre of the picture, seeing the backs of the two girls much closer, as the picture was originally at an angle and too far away. He was also able to put a cross dissolve effect at the end of the shot that smoothly transitioned from the picture and onto the real-life version of the picture. I was really kind of him to help me with the effect and it was so effective, and the picture transitioned perfectly as Libby and Evie looked exactly like the picture, in the exact same position and everything.

After Sam helped me with the transition from scene 8 to scene 9, I then started to add to make corrections and add different elements into the film. I first started by adding the music, first starting with the second original song Eve wrote and performed called 'People Stay the Same', which I placed at the beginning of the film. I did have to cut some of it down as it was very long compared to the length of the opening montage, but I also needed to edit my Ufilms intro and my own production company's, 'Pinhead Productions', intro. Again, Sam was able to help me do this as my idea for the Ufilms logo, to personalise it, was to have a spinning record in the centre of the 'U'. The reason why I needed to edit this first before placing the song was because I was going to put a sound effect of vinyl static when the needle is first on the edge of the vinyl, and then the song will start to play after the static is heard for a few seconds. The way Sam edited the logo was by placing the Ufilms intro onto the software, and then duplicated the shot where it was only an image. Sam then added an adjustment layer, which he made the same colour as the 'U' on the Ufilms logo, which was orange. He then ultra keyed the Ufilms logo and then added the cross dissolve effect onto the adjustment layer, to then have the shot of the record spinning around appear in the middle of the 'U'. This was a really cool effect and I was happy that Sam was able to help me do it, and it took him no time at all to create it which was even more impressive. I then quickly added the production company name onto the spinning record, making sure it was in the centre of the screen, and vinyl, where I was then able to add the sound effect of the vinyl and Eve's song. It worked really well, and I thought it was a strong intro.

After Sam helped me with the intro, and I added the music, sound effects and text to the production company intro, I then started to add all the text that was needed in the film. That only being the main title and the end credits. This didn't take long too, as I really liked the font I was using throughout the film called 'Century Gothic', and thought it was appropriate for the film. I also loved the end credits as the space in between the title of the job role and the person's name, Libby and Evie were always seen in the centre of the shot and were perfectly in the spaces of the text.

Luckily, there wasn't much left to do now and I was close to finishing my film. All I needed to do now was make some more corrections, especially trying to fix all the audio, and add some more sound effects where it was necessary. I wasn't too sure how I felt about the film at this point, as I had cleaned it up yet, so hopefully tomorrow I could have a much better view on the film and figure out if it was successful or not.

Tuesday 8th June 2021

This was my final day of editing and I was quite proud of the final outcome of the film. I first started by adding the last of the sound effects needed, such as:

• Glasses smashing and box dropping - This was for part of scene 1 where Katie and Jackie are about to leave the living room and hear an almighty crash and thud from the kitchen. I was able to find two separate glass smashing sounds on a compilation of glass sound effects, making the sound of the smash quite violent and an immediate worry. I was also able to find the sound of a box being dropped on the floor, which was quite soft, which worked well as the smashing of the glasses would be much louder than a box dropping, in reality.
• Natural sounds - I was able to find a two-minute audio clip of natural sounds from a park, which would be placed at the beginning of scene 3, mainly hearing the sounds of birds chirping.

After adding the sound effects, I then started to correct the audio throughout the entire film. It all sounded pretty good, making sure to either increase the audio gain of certain audio clips, or decreasing the volume, also, using the audio gain setting. Although, the sound was much better than before, I was still unable to mask the sound of the wind in scene 8, where Katie and Gemma talk about the future of their friendship at the field. It's unfortunate that I forgot to pack the muff that especially helps to not pick up the wind, and the wind was bad in certain parts of the scene, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was and decided to leave it. 

After correcting all the sound, Amiliyah then helped me add the cinematic bars onto the film. Amiliyah first added an adjustment layer, over the entire film, apart from the production company logos at the beginning, and added a crop effect onto the layer. She then went into effect controls and changed the percentages, using the crop effect, on the top and bottom controls to 7%. This then, simply, created black cinematic bars at the top and bottom of each shot. By simply adding the cinematic bars to the film, made it look much more professional and the empty space in some of the shots were not gone and only consisted of the two actors, Kate and Sadie.

After Amiliyah helped me put the cinematic bars on the film, I then did my final part of editing which was colour grading various shots in the film, which made the overall film look cinematic and much more effective. Some of the shots looked really great using the basic correction tools in the colour setting on the Premiere Pro software. I was able to play around with a variety of settings, either increasing or decreasing the temperature, highlights, shadows, contrasts and, especially, the saturation. I didn't realise how effective the shots would look once they had been colour corrected.

However, not all shots were successfully colour graded. This was due to overexposure of lighting in the background of some of the shots. For example, the shot below is a mid shot of Sadie before and after it was colour graded. There isn't much a difference between the colour corrections on the two shots as it was difficult to correct it because of the lighting coming through the window. I tried to brighten up Sadie in the shot, however, she still looked quite dark. 

However, some shots that had some light exposure, for example, the shot below, shows the colour correction of Kate and Sadie in front of the window. The lighting in the window still doesn't look great, as there is a lot of exposure, yet, I was still able to use colour correction to be able to visibly see Kate and Sadie in the scene. This also helped that we had used an LED light, on the day of filming, having another light source on the actors. This was probably something we should have done for the other shots and scenes with this similar problem, but we weren't able to go back and film it all now and had to try and work around the colour grading issues.

After I finished colour grading, my film was then done. The following day I exported and rendered it, which took about four hours in total, and then uploaded it to YouTube. 

I was quite happy with the finished piece, it's probably the first time I've felt quite proud of my work and to be able to feel like I achieved my goal. Although, I knew there were a lot of mistakes and it wasn't perfect, I was quite proud of the end product and thought it justified my original vision and story. I was now mainly nervous about showing it to an audience, at the Ufilms Film Festival on 24th June, hoping they would like it and understand the story and, possibly, relate to the themes and representations throughout the film.

'Changes' - Short Film

'Changes' - Short Film (FINAL)