Editing Evaluation

Now we have finished our editing we can look over the process of how we got to our finished product.

When we first began our editing, we made three bins in which we stored certain shots.
1. the ones we definitley wanted to use
2. the shots that were irrelevant and hade to be discarded
3. the shots we weren't sure about but could possibly be helpful for further use

We ended up discarding a lot of shots as in many of them the cast had begun laughing or there was someone walking in the background. This was up to about 20 or 30 shots in total, however we did not discard any of them, we kept then in the bin just in case we needed them for sound use etc. We kept shots that had a clean run through and had good lighting. We also knew the order of scenes from the car to the outside of the container to inside, which meant that some shots were definitly not going to be in use as they were not part of any of those scenes (as we had filmed some extra shots just incase it wasnt long enough to last for two mins).

We then put all of our shots into a logical order before cutting them down to fit each other. Starting with the opening of the conatiner, inspecting the body the note then the car. We then cut them at each side of a shot so they ran smoothy, we also decided to put the car at the beginning which meant we had to reverse some shots and rearrange the sound, so it looked like they were getting out of the care not in, this was comlplicated but it worked in the end and I learnt a lot about how to use final cut pro.

EXAMPLE OF PUTTING SHOTS IN ORDER-

inside the car


outside the conatiner

flash backThe shots included some moments towards the end that revealed more about who the people were and that they were detectives, with lines such as "look at the hands print" and " does it mention dancing horses?". These lines show how the detective has already figured out everything to know about the crime scene as he says it before we even see the note ourselves, in which "dancing horses" is mentioned. 

 

We then felt that it was lacking a shock factor so therefore put in flash backs to moments of the killing, shots which had origionally been placed in the discarded bin for purposes such as this. For this we had to speed up the shot, make it black and white and blur it a bit, so it was clearer that it is a flash back.

 
After cutting the clips and then adding in the flash backs, we had to look at the sound carefully. This was what caused the most problem, as when we listening to it intently we realised that there were a lot of random sounds, such as birds tweeting or people talking in the background, however we still needed the speech to fit the actors mouth. To overcome this we had to cut out the moments where the extra sounds were made and then copy and paste a moment where similar appropriate, ambient sounds would be made and use them to replace the extra sounds. We also copy and pasted the sound of a car door being slammed from another shot. The first slam it slightly quieter and we see it closing before the second it cuts to a black out, the moment that we hear the bang the title "zirgi" comes up. This is dramatic and effective.
 

We then added in some sounds effects that carry on the whole way through. These were sounds of wind to give a cold feeling, and we edited it so that when they stepped inside the container we took away the high pitched frequences giving it more base sounds, to make it sound realistic. We then felt that the flashbacks didnt have enough shock factor so we added in some dramatic sounds getting louder and more piercing each time. This sounds process was the most difficult and took up the most time.
 
During this whole process, it seems that editing was a single man job. Therefore I took charge and occasionaly worked together to see if there was anything else that needed tweaking. We often got outsiders to watch it so far to see if they understood what was going on. This was very helpful as it often made us notice things that we hadnt before as we obviously we watched it more scrutinisingly when others were over our shoulder. Although we occasionally worked together, it seemed that most of the editing was done by myself, as i spent more time i learnt mroe abotu how to use it quickly and how to put in sounds and effects therefore was more efficient and quicker if I worked on it by myself, working on the feedback from outsiders.
 
This editing was a dramatic change from our prelim, we were more adventurous with our shots and the special effects made it mroe creative and interesting for us to learn about.
 
Through this experiance I have learnt that I should always make lots of shots of one thing even if we think it is perfect as when we listen or watch it in editing time we may see something that is not correct and would liket o have more options to make itless complicated to take out the imperfections.