Are you satisfied with the final result? Did the editing require more/less time than you originally thought?
I am
satisfied with the final result of my project, though there are some parts that
could have been better, but I believe that it is much better than the rough
edit was. The complete editing didn’t take as long as I originally anticipated,
though some aspects took a bit longer than I thought they would. The soundtrack
took much longer than I believed it would, as I am not very good at music but I
like things to be the best I can get them to be and therefore I spent a long
amount of time trying to get the music to my liking and to fit the film best.
The editing wasn’t as hard as I thought and that’s why it didn’t take as much
time. It also didn’t take as long as I thought because I had named every shot
and placed them all in folders and bins once they were in Final Cut Pro, which
made it much easier to find when I needed them. It also wasn’t as hard because
I listened in class and picked up on most things fairly quickly, so it didn’t
take long to do things I needed to do.
Would you like to change any aspects of your final film (scene editing, music, dialogue etc.)? If you could start the project again
I would
have liked to improve some aspects of my project, such as some parts of the
editing, soundtrack and some of the shots. Some of the editing in my film
wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be, because I had to make it into the time
limit, which caused me to extend a few shots that didn’t need to be that long.
I also could have used a few better loops in the soundtrack, but I was running
short on time, so I decided to perfect the film rather than the music. I believe
some of the music didn’t fit as well towards the genre as I thought it would,
but I am still happy with how it turned out. I could also have rerecorded some
more of the audio rather than just the part I used, so that it would stay at an
even level of sound rather than going from soft to loud. As I was editing, I
also found out that a few of the shots were a bit too shaky and I also realised
that we probably could have shot a few more scenes/different angles to further
enhance the film. If I could start the project again, as a group I would plan
the film much better and ask more questions regarding the storyline. Throughout
the process we had a lot of issues regarding the storyline, which could have
been resolved if we had thought about it a bit more and asked the important
questions. I also would have made better use of the time we had in class and
after school. As well as this, I would try and communicate with my group a lot
more, as we had a lot of issues with that.
Discuss whether your film has turned out the way you pictured it?
My film
has turned out how I pictured it. The rough edit wasn’t how I pictured the film
to look at all. I wanted it to be much more storyline throughout the movie
rather than at the end, but this didn’t happen, mainly because the others
didn’t picture the film the way I did and we also didn’t have enough footage to
complete it the way I wanted to. Coming from the rough edit, I am extremely
happy with the way the film has been completed, and is the way I pictured it
from the beginning. There are some aspects that were not the way I wanted them
to be, such as angles, locations and ways some scenes were shot, but my vision
changed a bit as the process went on and I think that in the time that we had
and with the restrictions we had, the film did turn out how I pictured it. I
also believe that some shots dragged on a bit too much, but overall I am happy.
Describe
whether your film clearly depicts the intended genre and describe some specific
editing techniques you have used to achieve this.
I
believe that my film does clearly depict the intended genre of Film Noir. I
believe the storyline is that of a typical film noir film and the techniques
used in the editing process helped to depict the genre. Specific editing
techniques I used to achieve this include; the use of black and white in
flashbacks, which is typically used in film noir films, and also occasionally,
the use of shadows/lighting. Also, using filters (brightness and contrast) to
make the movie a bit darker, which is also seen in a typical film noir film.
Did
you have all of the necessary shots to complete your film? Would
additional footage or reshooting some scenes have helped during the editing
process?
I don’t
think that we had all the necessary shots for our film. We definitely had
enough to complete the project successfully and well, but we could have had
more to make the film even better. There were times during the editing process
when I was stuck because I couldn’t find an accurate shot to put in the film.
There were also times in the film that dragged on because we only filmed one
angle of that particular shot. Also, some of the storyline didn’t make a lot of
sense because of the lack of shots, and I had to go bad to some of the old
footage to find something that fit into the storyline. Additional
footage/reshooting some scenes would definitely have helped during the editing.
Having more shots would have made it easier to edit, as I would have had more
variety of shots to choose from whilst completing the task. I would also have a
bit more storyline to go off.
Describe
whether your group worked effectively or whether most of the work was left to
one or two people.
I
believe that our group didn't work very well together. We had a lot of
communication issues and issues of some members of the group doing everything themselves
and others doing nothing. We had a lot of issues during the planning and during
the production. A lot of times half our group was busy on days the other half
wasn’t which created time management issues. The majority of the time, I
believe Sasha and I did most of the work, with managing the group and making
sure we got everything done, but I also believe Sasha did a lot too
independently. Millie and Maddie started off badly, but I believe by the end of
the project they had both improved in their teamwork skills a lot. Also, Maddie
and Millie got distracted a lot during the filming and caused some problems
with time management as well. Overall, our group didn’t work very well together
but at least we got the project done.
Explain
whether you used Final Cut Pro to effectively
organise your project (through the use of appropriate clip names, bins,
sequences) and what you could improve for future projects.
I believe that I used Final Cut Pro very
effectively to organise my project. I named all of my shots so they were easy
to find and know what they were of. I placed all of my shots into bins in Final
Cut so they were as well, easier to find and use. The bins were extremely
useful, as they made the project much less cluttered and made everything much
easier to work on. In the future I could probably name some of the shots better
than I did, as a lot of them were just named things like, Gun1, Gun2, Gun3 etc.
This made it a bit hard to know which one to use and sometimes they didn’t
clearly explain what was in the shot, but I am very happy with how I used Final
Cut to organise my project.
Describe
any problems or difficulties you encountered during post-production and editing.
These may include; technical difficulties, corrupt or missing files, difficulty
using the editing software, problems exporting sound or video etc.
I didn’t
run into too many problems during the post-production of my film. There were
some difficulties sometimes when I forgot to reset the scratch disks, but
luckily I hadn’t done much on the project at all and could afford to start
again before I ran into any trouble for this. Another problem I faced was once
I had exported the sound and placed it into Final Cut, there was a part where
the soundtrack went staticy which was weird, but I fixed this by exporting the
music again, but this time Mr Andrews had showed us how to do it properly, so
it worked. Other difficulties I ran into include; some files not being
converted properly, files not importing into Final Cut and having trouble
applying some effects.
Clarify
how you made use of storyboards, shot-lists and the rough-edit during the
editing process. Discuss
whether you made effective use of the EDL and Sound Design templates to support
the editing and decision making process.
During
the editing process, I used the shot list and rough-edit much more than the
storyboards. The shot list helped a lot whilst creating the EDL, which I didn’t
use as much as the shot list. The shot list helped to clarify what I had
envisioned to come next in the film and to choose which shot to use next. The
rough edit also helped a lot, as it showed me what shots looked good together
during that process and what parts needed improvement. Also, because I didn’t
really like the rough edit, it showed me what not to do during the final
editing process and what parts the audience didn’t like. I think
that I used the EDL fairly well, but not the Sound Design template. The EDL
helped organise my thoughts on which shots to use but the Sound Design template
didn’t really help that much, though it did clarify what type of music (mood) I
needed for each section of the film. I think I left the Sound Design template
very late to do. The EDL was definitely more helpful and useful to me than the
Sound Design template.
Clarify
any time-management issues you or your group encountered during the editing
process and describe the steps you took to improve in this area.
Our
group did encounter some time-management issues. We hadn’t finished re-shooting
our footage when we were supposed to and we cut the converting and renaming
very close. Millie and Maddie getting distracted during the process sometimes
didn’t help with time management, and when some members of the group were
available to film, other weren’t. Our group didn’t make effective use of the
class time and we definitely did not organise enough afternoons to film. Steps
I took to improve this was taking a bit of charge and making sure everyone was
focused during the class time we had, and Sasha also helped with this by being
very organised.
Discuss
whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to throughout your
project. Have you provided enough evidence to support your work? (Look back at
your blogs/journals and think about whether it looks like a whole terms worth
of work).
Looking
back through my blog, I do believe I could have put more effort into my reflections
by adding more with more detail. I kept forgetting to post on my blog because I
was very focused on getting my project finished and on other subjects, but I
still could have found more time for my blog. Even though there isn’t as much
as possible on my blog, I do believe that I provided a sufficient amount of
evidence to support my work. In the future I will remember to make blog posts
by reminding myself (writing in my diary, etc) and by not stressing to much and
making time for everything else as well. It doesn’t take very much time to
write a blog post, so in the future I will make sure to blog more.
