Unit 8
Editing
 

Editing Evaluation:

 

For this unit, We were focusing primarily on editing Horror short. This is how it went.

 

Offline:

I think that my offline edit had taken too much time to cut as after reviewing footage, I realised many shots weren't as focused as I'd have liked them to be. Some bits were very blurry halfway through the shot, and I ended up having to use them anyway. Matching the recorded sound to the footage had also taken a while, as the clapperboard that we had was not being held in shot properly, so not only was finding the correct scenes difficult, but aligning the snap of the clapperboard with the sound was a very long process. As a solution however, I opted for using just the sound from the camera instead, as it wasn't too far off with what we had captured with the mic, and took much less time because it was already in line with the footage. I did however use the microphone for key bits like the footsteps and screaming of the actress, which meant that you weren't able to tell. This could have definitely been improved if we were more organised with the clapperboard. Cutting was also difficult to do as I had trouble finding the right flow of the horror short and getting it to feel seamless during each cut. I'm quite happy that I had practice with this during my video essay and don't think I'd have been able to do it as effectively without it.

 

Online:

After finishing my offline, I found that it was much easier to move into the online edit, as things had already been set out. I had initially spent a very long time trying to colour grade as none of the shots matched each other and were all over the place. However none of this was working and I really struggled to get it to look half decent. So I decided to make it all black and white. This was effective, however, this meant that the film was more grainy than I'd hoped but at least gave a decent effect. The bathroom scene with the mimic however I kept red for when the lights turned off, I really like how this was done, although it was a bit ineffective with how fast it was going by in the final cut. I would definitely consider doing this in the future if the circumstances were the same.

 

For the mirror scene, I had done my first set of special effects, Making the mimics pupils black. I found this the most difficult of everything I had done since it took a long time and I found it was very technical for my first try. The key framing kept going wrong and it was worse when the actress got closer and closer to the screen, which was harder to do than if she were just moving to the side. For my first try however, I don't think it looked too bad, however for the future, I'd rather get as many effects possible done during filming than in post. I am glad I did this, however, as I feel more confident using keyframing techniques than I did before this unit.

 

In conclusion, I think the overall final edit was good. I liked the flow of my film, although some bits were dragged out, it was as planned and almost matched what I was hoping for. It was a bit disappointing having to have it in black and white, but I feel like I've learned what to look out for in future projects and units, and have also become much better at editing as a result.