top of page

Unit 8
Final Major Project

Introduction to Film

I am going to be editing a short film about a boy who has returned to her mothers farm after her funeral and finds a mysterious man and when one thing goes weird everything started being weird.

Synopsis

Archie who is grieving the death of his mother gets drunk after her funeral.  He is spending the next few nights in his mothers manor house that he inherited to pack up her belongings. Him and his mother were never close as she was always away at work or they were arguing. After pouring himself another drink of whiskey he sits in a old leather chair and cheers the portrait of his mother out of respects. You can see on his face that he feels like there is a part of him missing.  He ends up sleeping in this chair the whole night still in his funeral suit. 

The next morning he is on the phone with his aunty jane as she is checking up on him. They start uncomfortably talking about what to do with the manor as it is too big for him to live there alone.  They discuss ideas to sell it. Archie starts to walk down the hallway to a landing with photos spread across it. Picking one up he shows a small smile and then dusts it off. Wondering over to the window he looks at the view of the estate But from the corner of his eye he sees a hunched figure who turns and looks up at Archie with a grin that could creep any human out.  Archie releases it is just the gardener. Although he knows this he is still curious so goes downstairs to the backdoor to look for him. He can’t see anyone or even clues that there was anyone ever there.

Archie starts to get hungry so he goes to the kitchen in hope that there is something to eat.  He's looking in cupboards but there isn't anything he fancies. He looks in the fridge and there's some expired milk, a few rotten vegetables and a container with a note on. He picks it up to inspect it, its cabbage soup with a note saying ‘Fresh From The Garden’.  He thinks its a little odd but he's so hungry that he doesn't care. Moving over to the huge dining room with a radio on that is echoing and dull. He sits down and starts eating his cabbage soup slightly. After taking another bite he looks a bit concerned as he pulls out a long hair that is similar to his own but far to long.  He shrugs it of thinking his mother made for her maid or something.  Suddenly the radio stops and the lights flicker out.  Frustrated he gets up to investigate and get a torch.

As he walks outside to the junction box he looks at the grounds taking in its emptiness. He creeks open the box and looks at it cluelessly as he has no idea what to do. He spots a switch out of place,  he puts his torch on his shoulder and with this you see the gardeners behind his with a shovel that is lit up with the light from the torch.  Flipping the switch the humming from the electricity gets louder until Archie turns around and nothing was there. Archie decided to investigate the grounds more and relive some memories from his childhood. Walking down the long gravel path looking sombre.  Archie starts walking through the gardens and reaches an overgrown area.  You can hear crunching from Archies feet,  him thinking it is just some rubble but it is actually pearls. He sees a little shed that he never had the curiosity to explore when he was younger but now has a burning curiosity to find out what is inside. 

Pushing open the creaky door he sees a lit candle next to some gardening tools.  As he looks closer he realizes there is a photo of his mother surrounded in other lit candles which almost looks like a shrine for her. He looks creeped out and keeps looking, seeing a perfume bottle he takes a whiff and he recognises the smell but cannot pinpoint what it is. Lifting up the photo he sees that there is a nightdress underneath which he recognises was his mothers. There is also a tin which he rattles and then opens finding a box full of teeth which he drops on the floor out of fear. All of the candles goes out. Looking around he sees the gardener in the mirror standing outside the window with more candles ready to replenish his shrine. 

After catching the gardener standing, staring deadly at Archie he swings open the door of the shed.  Terrified he looks around looking for the gardener but once again he is nowhere to be seen. Feeling like he is being watched Archie starts running back up the gravel path, almost tripping along the way. He runs into the house and locks the door frantically and then finally stopping for a second to catch his breath. Scrambling around the kitchen to find a knife but they are all packed away so the best thing he found was a rolling pin to defend himself. Looking outside he sees the gardener standing just a couple feet away from the porch with a spade in one of his hands. He sprints up the stairs and tries to open any door he can get into but he finds that all of them are locked shut until he comes to the drawing room. Almost giving up hope he tries the door knob and to his surprise it opens. Losing all hope he pours himself a drink whilst standing face to face with the portrait of his mother. Whilst taking a big swig the gardener creeps up behind him with the spade raises high above his head. Suddenly the glass slips from Archies hand and plummets to the floor.  Blood splatters all over his mothers portrait and gets ripped apart by the old rusty spade. The gardener looks down at the boy who looking up at him with merciful eyes. The whiskey and blood slowly seep together and blend into the carpets. All the gardener does stand there, with a look of achievement on his face. Archie closes his eyes accepting his fate.  BANG.  The spade strikes into Archies head for the very last time. 

The gardener is putting the last little piles of dirt on a grave like mound that is surrounded by cabbages.  It seems to be a cabbage patch. There is a slightly older looking dirt pile next to it. There is a fair amount of dried up blood that is on the spade being used to finally pat down the final dirt pile.  The gardener looks happy with himself like he has just succeeded the plan he has been coming up with since Archie was a child.

Editing write up

The first step I did when editing an offline is I imported and organised the folders. I then set up premier pro and added all the bins to make it more organised. I then reviewed the footage and decided what clips I wanted to use and imported all the clips onto premier pro. After I colour coded the clips by scene and made sure it was clear which scene was which. Next was I structured the time line and cut down all the different clips. Lastly for offline I exported the edit and gained peer feedback. 

​

For the online edit I began with following the feedback. I trimmed more clips down and added in more clips, I missed a very important scene in the murder which was the hit scene and my peers mentions that so I added it in. After I began the sound design. I synced the external audio with the camera audio. Doing this I dragged each clip separately to the whole clip and synced it and cut it back down again. Next I added additional sound effects like will stone on the audio doing an interview and then i balanced the audio levels to make sure it sounded good. After I added Auntie Janes ADR phone call and synced that, this was difficult due to not timing it right. Lastly I added music, this took a while as I couldn't find songs that fit the film and also I was struggling as I felt it was too repetative. I got a peer to help me with balancing the levels of the music and making it sound better. I didn't add any colour grading due to lack of time and I haven't done any research on it so I don't really know how to use it. 

​​

​

​

In evaluation I believe the film as a whole turned out okay. It defiantly could have been better but it wasn't awful. I think I did very well with my organistion of the files and colour coding. I also think I did very well with cutting the clips and syncing the audio. I spent lots of time on balancing the audio levels and I think this reflected positively within the film. I think the music was good but it could have been better but with the time I have I think it was good. I do not like the title card font and should have changed it.  I also didn't do any colour grading. These were all due to not giving myself enough time to finish the final edit. In the future I will make sure to plan my edit and finish it with time to do extra tweaks. I didn't like timing the audio on the phone call as one of the clips were to short so there was a long awkward pause but a teacher came and helped me fix this by cutting up the clip and leaving less awkward gaps. In the future I will make sure everything is timed perfectly. Overall, I do like my finished film and i am proud of how it turned out, even though there are a few mistakes I still think it is good and next time I will learn from the mistakes I made. This project was very frustraiting at times but was also lots of fun and everybody was very helpful. 

Evaluation

Extra

Screenshot 2024-06-27 at 13.24.56.png

For the offline edit I added in all of the clips I wanted to use the sorted every scene into a different bin for organisation. Then scene by scene I added the clips I wanted to use in and cut them down to the correct length and order. I did this on for each clip. This took a couple of days to complete. I then colour coded each scene so in the final edit it was easier separate the scene and work on each one individually. I started adding sound and then realised I didn't need to until the online edit so only the first 2 scenes have sound.

Moving on to the online editing I needed to add in the music, sound, transitions and sound effects. I chose to make it simple so it wasn't too overwhelming with noise. This was a good choice as it created a dull but effective effect. The music was difficult as I didn't know when to add it in or make it repetitive. In the end it turned out okay and if I had more time I would have spent more of it on fixing the music and making sure it fit, I found this the most challenging bit. I didn't add too many transitions within the film as I wasn't confident in my use of them. Next time I will do more research about transitions and make sure to add in more. Lastly, I needed to add in the speech of auntie Jane and make it sound like a phone call. This was very challenging. I got the audio and cut it to the right places but some of the timings were off and sound strange. I then went to my teacher to ask what to do and she helped me fix it and make it sound right by spacing out the audio to sound like Auntie Jane was taking breaks in her speech. If I were to do this again, I would make sure to time everything and make it sound better. Overall, I think the editing went well but, if I used my time more wisely, it would have been much better. Next time I will make sure I am asking for help more and researching about the things i do not know. 

Offline Edit

Final Film

The Game

A student of boomsatsuma: (01179) 428 429
hello@boomsatsuma.com

© 2022 by Boomsatsuma. Proudly created with Wix.com

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
bottom of page