How Editing Can Ruin A Scene

The 1997 film Bean, based on the character Mr Bean, was on television recently, and I had noticed one of the scenes towards the end of the film had been tampered with to where it didn't make sense anymore.

The well known scene.

When the middle finger scene was shown on TV, the cut out the part where the biker gave Mr Bean the finger, and simply shown him driving off straight after Mr Bean takes his photo. Not long after, Mr Bean is shown giving the finger to everyone that him and David drive past. Without seeing the biker give Mr Bean the finger, and confusing it for a greeting, the scene didn't make sense.

The badly edited version for television.

Omitting the one section created a confusing version that simply makes Mr Bean look as though he had a mood swing, as the offensive gesture appears to come out of nowhere, and it then loses the humour that is generated.

Editing Contrast

Films normally have a set rule in which action scenes are quick paced with lots and lots of cuts, whereas a conversational scene would be far sower, with less cuts to accommodate the slower pace.

The Revenant is notoriously slow paced.

The Revenant, despite its overall slow pace, was very well received by critics and audiences; Leonardo DiCaprio even won his first Oscar for his acting in this feature. As mentioned before, the pace of this film is very slow, as a lot of scenes are dialogue based, relaxed, and quiet. The editor reinforces these ideas by using notably long takes compared to other films. This was a standout feature in a lot of scenes, including the famous bear fight scene.

This scene is all one entire take, lasting over 

2 minutes.

What you can take from this is that when you edit a particularly hard hitting or generally action oriented scene in a film, using one long take that gets close to the action can theoretically allow you to focus in on the action a lot better than if the editor chose to make the action sequences out of a lot of takes.

The pace may be affected by the lack of cuts, but the tension of having no cuts is greatly accentuated, and is excellent as this was most probably intended.

Walter Murch's Impact on Post Production

Walter Murch is widely regarded as one of the greatest editors in the modern age of film. Known for his work on the Godfather, Ghost and Apocalypse Now, Walter Murch's editing and sound design techniques distinguished career means that he is looked up to by a lot of budding editors in today's world.

Murch hard at work.

Murch's breakdown of how editing will work in a film involves a lot of areas that have to be covered, ranging from emotion to the story of the film itself.

With regards to emotion, Murch has always asked "Does this cut add or subtract emotion?" Murch believes that no matter what content you put into a film, what it all boils down to is how the audience reacts to it all; how does the audience feel after watching something you have created? 

"If they are feeling what you want them to feel all the way through the film, you’ve done about as much as you can ever do."

Rhythmically, an edit must be especially tight in order to reduce sloppiness and creating an unintended discomfort in the audience. 

“(a cut) occurs at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and ‘right'.”

Eye Trace is also important, as the audience must be able to smoothly follow what the central focal point with ease,

The finger is the focal point here, and must be edited

on the movement in the next shot...

...like so

The 180º Rule is essential to be followed in most circumstances, as the audience's sense of space when watching a film is catered to when following the rule. An imaginary line must be drawn from one character to another, usually in a conversational scene. 

The camera must stay on one side of that line to keep the audience from being disoriented, unless you intend to and the the rule can be broken.

The Rule in action.

Very importantly, the edits you make must propel the story forward effectively. If a scene you are editing does nothing to advance the plot, it shouldn't be included; the audience will not want to see it.

Murch is definitely a figure to research into if one is looking for tips and rules of thumb for editing techniques and reasons for editing film scenes in a certain way.

Switching From Linear to Non Linear Editing

Switching from linearly editing film to editing non linearly was an incredibly innovative idea when it was conceived back in 1971. The first machine to edit non linearly, which meant you could assemble and cut anywhere in the film without disturbing the rest of it, was the CMX 600; only 6 of these were ever produced and each cost $250,000 (unadjusted for price inflation.)

The CMX 600 - the first non-linear editing machine.

1988 saw EMC2, which is now the Dell Computer Corporation, release the first non linear editing suite that was entirely digital, with the films being saved onto optical disks rather than film reels. The year after that saw the release of Avid1, which is now considered to be the go-to editing software for Hollywood films today. Avid1 was originally a Macintosh exclusive non linear editor, and it suffered from memory problems that limited to only being able to produce music videos.

1993 was the year in which Avid1 was upgraded to a system that had a 7TB storage; this was enough to store feature films, thus expanding its use massively. 1993 was the same year in which Lost in Yonkers, the first Avid edited film, was released. A few years later, in 1996, Walter Murch would accept the Oscar award for Best Editor with the film The English Patient, which was cut entirely on Avid.

Today, there are many different options for non linear editing suits and software, including Adobe's Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas, and Final Cut, which shows how much editing has evolved since manually cutting film reels via destructive editing.

Montage

Montage is a film phenomenon that has changed in its use and meaning from its early days to modern Hollywood movies.

In the early days of film, the montage was what is known as Soviet Montage, pioneered by Sergei Eisenstein. Montages would be clips of an event interjected with juxtaposing clips of different thing that would be put together in the audience's mind to associate the two metaphorically.

The stairway scene from Battleship Potemkin.

In the stairway scene from the early film Battleship Potemkin, a town falls into chaos on the Odessa Stairway. As this happens, a mother's child is pushed down the stairs in a pram. Shots of women crying, including the mother, while the pram rolls down the stairs, and the town descending into chaos are all included with each other so that the audience is given a feeling of emotional distress as the events unfold.  The pram rolling down the stairs could metaphorically symbolise the town's descent into violence. 

The training montage from Team America.

In Hollywood films, and the majority of today's films, a montage is used to show the passage of time without having to include too much in terms of unnecessary detail. Rocky is a prime example of this, as the training montage seen in that particular series of films always shows Rocky going through a long time's worth of training but the editor has compressed this down to a short space of time so as not to bore audiences.

The humorous example of a montage from Team America: World Police does a similar thing to Rocky, but includes music that has lyrics relating to montage cliches as a way of parodying this famous film technique.

Thanks to Hollywood movies, montage has stopped being the intellectual and emotion invoking technique it once was and is now used to shorten a passage of time. This means that montage has now simply become a shadow of its former self as it's seen as more of a convenience, rather than something that engages the audience on many different levels, in today's world.

Parallel Editing

Parallel Editing is a recognisable film editing technique where the audience is given the illusion that two different events are taking places right at the same time as each other. The technique is achieved to create a sense of tension for audiences to feel as the vents start to unfold with each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_I82117oAw

In this scene from The Godfather, multiple assassinations are taking place in various different locations. At the same time, a christening is taking place.

These completely contrasting types of events take the audience's interest by creating the ironic juxtaposition of how despite Michael professes to renounces the devil  while all of the murders he has ordered all take place at roughly the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts1x6uADFtM

This scene from the Silence of The Lambs is an interesting take on the Parallel Editing technique. The two scenes include the film's opposing forces, Buffalo Bill, and FBI Director Jack Crawford.

In Buffalo Bill's scene, we see that he has taken a woman hostage in his house, while Crawford's scene focuses on a house raid with the FBI. We are given the impression that the FBI are raiding the house that Buffalo Bill is in, but they instead raid a completely empty home.

Back in Buffalo Bill's scene, FBI trainee Clarice Starling questions Bill at the doorstep about the people she is looking for; this is the point in which Crawford realises how much danger Starling is in but cannot warn her of it.

The tension that is built up is kept going upon the audience's realisation of what is really happening within these two events, which are conventionally supposed to culminate into one climactic end to the two scenes.

Parallel Editing is a useful technique which is best used in more tense scenes to build up audience anticipation, which would fit in very well in an action film, or a thriller.

Watching and Waiting - Scene 37 - Draft 2

After reviewing what changes to make, I have edited a second draft of Scene 37 from Watching and Waiting.

I have raised the volume of background noise at the beginning, while also lowering the volume of the dialogue overall. This made the scene both less empty at the start and less uncomfortably loud at the beginning.

Also, I have included shots of Lisa and Michael leaving the building, as my last edit didn't show the two leaving and made it look like they mysteriously disappeared. The fix adds more continuity here.

A loud door shutting was complained about it the first draft, so I replaced the audio clip with a different one and the ending of the scene is now much better.

https://youtu.be/BQ0KEUKH4Os

Watching and Waiting - Scene 37

I was given another scene, from the film Watching and Waiting, to edit in which ever way I felt necessary. In our practical, we went and watched everyone's work, leaving feedback in the form of 5 positives and 5 negatives about what we thought of what we watched.

Pros
When people watched my edit, they generally thought that I had done a few things very well. The viewers enjoyed my use of a fade at the start and end of the scene as this is a nice and smooth transition.

They also liked how I timed my use of shot reverse shots, as well as my reaction shots, because this propelled the conversation in the video.

The audience particularly liked how I timed the generally cutting, during pauses and mid sentences, between the two characters in the conversation, as this made the edit look very smooth and interesting.

Finally, the reveal of the second character, Dickie, was also very well done as I didn't suddenly have him appear out of nowhere; I used a shot where he was out of focus at first, but then brought into focus as Katherine notices him being in the room.

Cons
One bad aspect to my edit was the loud volume of the dialogue, which can be easily rectified by turning down the decibels on each audio file to a comfortable level at an average volume that is used on the computer.

Conversely, the ambient sound at the beginning sounded too quiet for the viewers, so this made it sound somewhat empty. This can be sorted out by turning up the volume.

When Lisa, the girl wearing white trousers in the video, is supposed to have exited the room with Michael, I didn't include this at all. It gave an illusion that she simply disappeared without an explanation. This can obviously be sorted out by finding the appropriate clip and arranging the existing timeline in a way that accommodates this new addition.

One shot, where Dickie says "There is a time when technology won't get faster, was considered by one viewer to be a little too long. An easy fix for this is to add a shot reverse shot for more variation of content onscreen.

While the general continuity is considered to be very good by the audience, some aspects look somewhat out of place, particularly when Dickie is looking down and then he is looking back up in the next shot. Timing of the in and out points of the clips in question can be rectified here for a more consistent viewing.

Link to video: https://youtu.be/E-ZseHb0GcA

Late - Draft 2

This is the second draft of Late, with only two minor improvement.

The second shot of the video is now audible, so the beginning of the video now makes sense as you can hear the character's exclamation.

We also sorted out the issue with the black screen running at an extended length at the end of the video. By removing the in and out markers, we can now show the video and have it end when it was intended to.

Unfortunately, the audio sync up towards the end cannot be rectified due to time constraints with other modules that we are having assessments on.

The final shot was also left in due to allow it to make sense for the video's ending. Taking out the final clip makes the ending anti-climactic, ruining the humorous effect that we intended to create.

Late

In our final weekly assessment,  we were asked to make a transitional sequence form indoors to outdoors as a way to see if we could show consistency, in terms of lighting and sounds, in both scenarios. 

The story involves a university student waking up late for a lecture. Pacing indoors was very quick because of his rushing to get dressed. The majority of the cuts in this scene last either one second long or less than that, as this emphasises how fast he is moving to get ready for his lecture.

When outside, we couldn't use a boom in the shots because we used long shots that would have easily shown the boom on camera. As a result, we decided to overdub the dialogue to get the boom mic sound that we needed for coherent audio. 

One of the characters is only heard through the phone, and so when we edited his overdubbed lines, we used the EQ effect and spiked the 2000 Hz area, the upper mids, and flattened every other frequency. This resulted in a very phone like sound which our lecturers were very impressed with due to us experimenting our post production methods.

The video does come with many faults due to improper procedure and a lack of time. When passing the project from one computer to another, the audio file from the second shot was lost, resulting in the student mouthing his words and losing the tension of the fast paced scene. 

There was also a syncing problem with our outdoor scene where the student says "We have a lecture in 12 minutes." The dialogue is simply off time and will need to be fixed for a second draft.

The Gunfighter - An Example of Diegetic Narration

Narration is always done via post production; more often than not, it is confined to non-diegetic space in which only the audience can hear it. In this short film, The Gunfighter, the narrator in this video actually interacts with the characters seen on screen. This is an example of a diegetic narrator as it is found within the space of the film's fictional world.

The typical narrator in a film often propels the story forward by describing a character's events and actions to the viewers in a poetic manner. The Gunfighter humorously uses a narrator that propels the story forward by literally talking to the characters, and also describing their internal thoughts to the other characters that can hear the narrator.

In this context, the narrator becomes an actual character that is merely off screen all the way through the video. What this has taught me is that I can use post production to interact with characters dietetically in order to create a non conventional way to push the story forwards.

If I were to bare this idea in mind for a real production, I would have to make sure that the script includes dialogue that conveys interaction with the narrator, rather than simply recording what I want over the top of the scenes, or else the effect will be lost.

Watching and Waiting - Scene 34 - Draft 2

After looking over my first draft of Scene 34, I managed to create a second draft of the same scene. The scene now has better sound, as well as less cutting to better pace the scene, and a better use of my shots.

https://vimeo.com/189168746

Nesting Sequences on Premiere Pro

During my last Technical Instructional session, yesterday, we learned about how to nest a sequence in Premiere Pro.

Nesting a clip is where a highlighted selection of video clips are simply grouped together into one item on the timeline. This means that all of your videos can now be moved around on the timeline without having to select each and every item in the sequence. It also allows for a lot of space to be cleared on the timeline if you are working on a large project.

I will be using my Windsurfing Project as an example.

First, select all of the video clips you want to nest.

Ctrl+Click on the highlighted clips and select 'Nest...'

Call the nested sequence whatever you like.

Every one of your highlighted videos are now nested together

into one large green clip on the timeline.

This technique, as mentioned before, is brilliant for grouping everything together in order to clear space on the Timeline while still retaining your work. All transitions and video effects will be retained; the only difference is how the clip is presented on the Timeline. You can also undo this with Cmd+Z if you wish to.

Watching and Waiting - Scene 34 - Draft 1

For one week, we were given some clips and script pages from a feature film called Watching and Waiting; we were given the media and script pages for Scene 34. Our task was to edit this scene, paying attention to how we pace the conversation.

After editing, we watched each other's edits back and made 3 pros and cons for the way that we composed our edits, while following closely to the original script.

Pros
The edit was praised for how cleanly cut the various shots were. Those who gave feedback commented by saying that the shots were well timed in terms of when they were cut, so the scene was very easy to understand. This is good to know because it will come in handy for future edits when I need a coherently cut dialogue scene.

The second positive point I received was how I blended the audio in the clips quite well. The clips in this scene were notorious for having inconsistent audio; actors would sound too quiet and the sound of the oceans waves, as well as others in the background, were inconsistent. I had to use the Constant Power effect on my audio clips to create a smooth and unnoticeable transition, and I will be using this feature for other projects that require similar fixes.

The final positive was that I used the best takes possible in order to edit this video. I considered which shots were the best framed and had the best audio quality before using them. If I found the video to be good but it came with bad audio, or vice versa, I would try to sync the lips up with a different audio clip. The actors' deliveries were different in each clip, so I had to cut it in a way that didn't make this noticeable.

Cons
The first con that was noted was one continuity error late in the clip. In one shot, Thomas was standing up, but he sat down again in a shot after Katherine asked him a question. This threw the viewers off and can be easily mitigated by extending the clip or showing Thomas at least beginning to sit down.

The second negative point was how quiet Katherine was in some clips.  This could have been improved by using the audio from a clip in which Katherine was loud and clear, and she wouldn't necessarily have to have been seen talking.

The last con was how quickly the characters talk back to each other. This is an easy fix because I can simply extend the clips before and after the characters talk, making a slightly more human sounding conversation that doesn't sound too immediate.

https://vimeo.com/187685863 

Why Are We Here?

In our latest short video assessment, we have been asked to edit a 25 second long conversation. This had to include over the shoulder shots, close ups, a medium shot, and a master shot in or to be successful. Pacing of the conversation had to be kept calm in order to enhance the intimacy of the subject; doing it too fast would have not fit at all while a very slow edit would have been uninteresting to watch.

For humorous effect, we added in some angelic and meaningful music when one of the characters begins to waffle on about life and why we as humans exist. To top it off, we included a record scratch sound effect to abruptly end the music as the other character reiterates his question to "Why are we here, in this room?".

About a Girl (2001 Short Film)

Another short film we watched today was About a Girl by Brian Percival. It depicts the story of a 13 year old girl who talks about being a pop singer, as well as rambling non stop about whatever comes to mind. She talks about being in a band with her friends, as well as her relationship with her family. The chatter is interrupted with cutaways to show how her life really is. About a Girl ends with the girl throwing a carrier bag into a river, which is revealed to have carried a baby inside.

The editing within this short film, like Wasp, is quite interesting in that it suits the events onscreen.

Cuting
The cutting, for the most part, is fairly rapid especially when the girl is talking as she walks by herself. This is because she has a new, random sentence to ramble with each cut; including the pauses for thought between each line would have been awkward and long winded. The quick cuts adds interest and makes the video funny to watch as she says new, out of context sentences for the audience to listen to.

Some long takes, with no cuts, are shown, like at the start when the girl dances and sings to Britney Spears, and when she's in the cafe with her dad. This is done because it gives us a visual-heavy glimpse into her lifestyle. This drastic change between types of cuts and their correspondence to the action onscreen show similarities to documentaries, as interviews are usually cut up to interesting parts of the conversation with cutaways to activities the interviewee takes part in.

Sound
Sound in the video is mostly clearly recorded dialogue, and the Foley of the footsteps etc. The dialogue was edited in by using audio files recorded with a boom mic; the in camera audio would have been unclear and low in quality. Also, her thick Mancunian accent would have made it even harder for her to be heard of they were to have used in cam audio. The Foley allows the audience to get a proper sense of what the characters are doing at a clear volume.

Colour
Colour is mostly dull and mute, and this is possibly done to reflect the hard, poverty-led life that the girl lives. This is similar to Wasp in that the same effect is done for the same reasons. At the end of About a Girl, when the girl drowns the baby, the colours gradually fade into a higher and higher saturation. This could have been done ironically as the bright and happy colours juxtapose the death of a child, or it could have been done to reflect the happy mood of the girl at the end of the film.

Techniques
One action match is seen in the entire short film; the camera starts with a high angle of the girl dropping the bag into the river, then cuts to a close up of the bag upon making contact with the water's surface. This emphasises the action onscreen, making the audience think more and more about what she has really done rather than dismissing it and deeming the action as uninteresting.

About A Girl is interesting in the way it has been edited, making it unlike most other independent films. It's quite experimental in the way it has been cut and this is what makes the film intriguing.

Wasp (2003 Short Film)

I watched a clip from a short film in my lecture today, and this short film is called Wasp. The plot is about a single mother who is struggling with her 4 children in their daily lives. She has a fight with a local and rekindles her interest in a man called Dave by visiting the pub with him.

The family in the film.

The editing of this short film stands out in various different ways.

Cutting
The cutting of Wasp is fairly fast, which goes in hand with the shaki cam used throughout the film, as this accentuates a disorganised and immediate type of mood which accentuates how out of order the famliy's life is. Cutting in this film generally does show continuity, as the story line is clearly evident when played back, but the cutting is immediate enough to not show a very smooth flow in the sequence of events; it's more rough while still showing what occurs coherently.

Sound
Sound in this film is generally quite loudly mixed, as one can hear the wind through the microphone as they also hear the characters' dialogue at an elevated volume.

Colours
The colour grading in this film is shown to be somewhat dull. This could have been done intentionally to reflect the misery that the main characters could be feeling, as well as the general mood that is received in the area that they live. The events of the film are generally not very happy, so if they were then the colours would have been more saturated to show this feeling better.

Techniques
Eye line matches and shot reverse shots are used in the scene where Dave is introduced. This is to convey the intimacy between Zoe, the mother, and Dave. This intimacy that is built creates an onscreen relationship between the two, which further draws the audience in.

David and Zoe in the pub together.

Wasp is an interesting drama piece that has a lot of typical editing conventions, following them closely to what is normally associated with them.

Tools in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro includes various different tools that serve their own individual purposes for your specific editing needs.

The toolbar.

Selection Tool

The selection tool is the base standard tool within Premiere Pro. It's a versatile tool that is capable of highlighting and moving clips around the timeline. The selection tool can also move the playhead on the timeline to view a section of your sequence, and select various work windows in your workspace.

The Selection Tool icon.

A highlighted clip.

The playhead.

Track Select (Forward and Backward)

As the name implies, this tool allows you to select tracks ahead of where you click (forward) or behind where you click (backward) on the timeline. 

The Track Select Tool icons.

The clips in front of the cursor are selected.

The clips behind the cursor are selected.

Ripple Edit Tool

The ripple edit tool allows you to edit your clips on the timeline while moving back clips that are in front of it. This saves having to move individual clips and saves time overall.

The Ripple Edit Tool icon.

Before.

After.

Rolling Edit Tool
This allows you to change the edit point of a clip, while also moving along any adjacent clips so that they are not affected by the edit.

The Rolling Edit Tool icon.

Roll editing a clip.

Both clip lengths have been edited at the same time,

rather than doing it one after another.

Rate Stretch Tool

Changes the length of a clip, and adjusts the frame rate to change the length. It is a quick way of making a clip go into slow or fast motion.

The Rate Stretch Tool icon.

A clip being rate stretched.

The clip is now in slow mo; noticed the

[58.62], which denotes its new speed.

Razor Tool

The razor tool cuts clips into whichever way you want, allowing you to make separate clips that can be deleted or moved on the time line.

The Razor Tool icon.

The clip about to be cut.

The finished result is now

a split clip.

Slip Tool

Adjusts the in and out time of a clip without having to move over clips in compensation. 

The Slip Tool icon.

The Slip Tool being used.

The right hand video panel will show the times of the in and out points of

what you are editing. It also shows the specific frames of each part.

Slide Tool

The Slide Tool moves a clip in the timeline, while also adjusting the in and out points of adjacent clips. It's generally seen a variation of the Slip Tool that affects more on the timeline.

The Slide Tool icon.

The Slide Tool being used.

The in and out points of the clips before and after the one being edited

are being adjusted as the slide tool is used.

Pen Tool

The Pen Tool can be used to adjust keyframe points, meaning you can adjust fades in your video and audio.

The Pen Tool Icon.

Pen Tool about to be used.

The Pen tool has added keyframes, so now this clip fades

from 0 to 100 opacity in the time between the first and

second keyframes.

Hand Tool

The hand Tool simply allows you to move the timeline from left to right.

The Hand Tool icon.

One section of the timeline.

A new section that has been revealed by the hand.

Zoom Tool

Magnifies a section of timeline.

The Zoom Tool icon.

A section of the timeline.

The same section zoomed in.

In conclusion, Premiere Pro has many various tools that suit their own purposes intended to make your editing experience faster and more efficient.

Drinking Tea Dramatically

Even the simplest of tasks, such as making a cup of green tea, can be made interesting by using clever editing. We filmed each aspect of someone making a green tea and edited it in a fast pace to cut it down to the 15 second guideline.

Upon realising how fast paced this turned out to be, we as a group decided to add in some dramatic music to go along with the rapid editing. This creates an ironic effect that makes someone making a cup of tea more interesting to watch.

Pacing, Timing and Rhythm

In film, Pacing, Timing and Rhythm is an often overlooked aspect of editing that can make or break a film's interest factor depending on how it's acheived.

Pacing
Pacing is the overall pace of the film, whether it's generally slow or generally quick; it reflects the overall feeling of the film. An Action film, for example, should have a fast pace in order to correlate to the expected onscreen action. Conversely, a Rom-Com should be more slower paced to fit in with the more intimate feeling of the film. Pace is dictated by how long shots last for on average and also how much action is shown within the cuts.

Breaking Bad is known for its slow pace; the first shot

of this clip lasts an entire 35 seconds.

Timing
Timing refers to how often the clips in a film are cut up. A conversational scene will naturally have less cuts to accommodate for its naturally slow paced feeling. A fast paced action scene, however, will include more cuts than your average scene in order to fit the pace of the action onscreen. More cuts means the audience is kept on their toes when watching something.

The rather erratic timing of the multitude of cuts within

this music video means the video isn't as dull as

it would be with longer shots.

Rhythm
The general rhythm is dictated by both of the above factors when editing a scene. Rhythm is where the cuts and pace are timed in a way that the audience can get a good feel for when the editor cuts during a scene. This allows the audience to get a grounded sense of both pacing and timing during a film; a good example of rhythmic editing is editing to the beat in a music video.

The cuts to the beat in this music video give the video

a sense of drive and rhythm throughout.

Colour Grading

In film production, Colour Grading is a post production process which involves enhancing the colour of the images onscreen in some manner. This can range from subtle differences, such as White Balance, to a stark change in colour (blue to red).

Example of Colour Grading, Transporter 2

Often when filming a scene, the shot will not look exactly as we had pictured in our minds. Camera quality itself and lighting can make all the difference during production, but these can be remedied in the editing process. Adobe Premiere Pro is able to support a plug in that delivers colour correction, as shown in the image above.

Another colour grading example.

Even higher end cameras can be enhanced with colour grading. As you can see here the quality of the image is superb, but the lighting is flat and doesn't set the mood of the subject. The colour grader has enhanced the image by heightening the contrast, darkening the overall image and saturating the colours within the shot. This has made for a more dramatic looking, and potentially painting-esque shot that appears far more cinematic than its previous incarnation.

In conclusion, what I have learnt about colour grading is that it can make a drastic difference to the overall mood and appearance of your film project. No matter if you have a low quality camera, or a professional standard one, colour grading is essential for making your images more cinematic and less lo-fi.

Editing Project

During our first week of Film Production Technology, we have been tasked with taking stock footage of a windsurfer flipping his board on the water. The specific criteria for this production was to make it as interesting as possible throughout, and also make the video exactly 30 seconds long.

To start my video, I created my own title to introduce the video's content. I faded the title in and out for a seamless look, rather than making it look choppy with a basic cut.

Title on Timeline with music fading with it.

Title being edited on Title Window.

The final title in its final form.

Adding music was essential. because using just the camera's audio would have made for a messy audio mix in the final video. To remedy this, I edited some music into the timeline, and cut my videos to the beat of the song. This made it more interesting as connecting each beat to a new cut adds variation of shots and makes the video more rhythmic.

This is the audio on my timeline; no camera audio is included.

The cuts in my video are synchronous to the beats of the song.

Fades are included at the beginning and end to save abruptness.

I had to lower the volume on my music as it would have clipped

in its final version.

Adding so many quick cuts to the beat shortened my video to way below 30 seconds. This problem was solved by adding in the flip being performed in just one shot. To make it more interesting, I faded the flip to black and white/monochrome, then rewound the video to the beginning before introducing the slow motion effects that are seen throughout the quick cuts.

I used Calculations, then made its Second Layer

fully opaque to achieve a black and white video.

The black and white result.

Reverse Speed was used to rewind the video.

I sped it up to 250% to cut to the beat.

I slowed my quick-cut footage down to 20% to

make the shots more interesting to observe.

Final Video

https://vimeo.com/184358549