Post-Production

When editing my short film, I decided that it would be easiest for me to edit each scene individually. Then add the individual scenes to a timeline to make the final edit. This made it easier to know where things were and where they were going in the final edit. It also helped me save time in the long run as I was able to go from one scene to another If I started to struggle with a specific scene. This also allowed me to have just one clip and one audio track in the final edit to allow me to control it easier as a whole than if I needed to change a specific thing I just went to that timeline.

Although editing like this saved me time, it ended up taking more storage. I have multiple versions of each scene as after I made any changes to the scene I had to export a whole new clip, however, this didn't bother me as it has allowed me to show improvement over time.

I have been asking for advice and feedback from many different people, these being my tutors, my peers from in my group and outside of my group and also people externally like family and family friends which has been helpful to notice some of the things that I didn't notice myself.

When I sent the first rough edit to Dave to see what he thought and to ask for some feedback, this is the feedback I received:

• I know this is a rough cut and you will add opening credits.

• Do we have an establishing shot before the first shot in the kitchen?

• I’d cover the In the kitchen with music because I can hear a TV.

• Have you used a warp stabiliser on the second shot which we stay on for a while? It's just at certain points. possibly lower the amount. Warp stabiliser defaults to something like 50% so try and dial it down to even like 5% might work.

• The ultra-wide screen will work well on this. I think we tried this with Emily and it looks really good.

• We need to show some form of Passing of time in between the kitchen shot of Mayah and the next one was she walks through a door. simple cutaways or other establishing shot to work this.

• Some really nice shots in this section. Could look awesome with some grading!

• Can't understand the audio when Mayah is walking through the house What is she listening to? and then ditch the cross dissolve. it doesn't work for that shot. Do you have a cutaway to cover this?

• Odd flash at 3.39. Probably just a glitch in Premiere.

• Have you over stabilised this shot? It looks cropped? Or is it from your phone and at 4k? If so you might need to resize it.

• I like the jump cuts up the stair. Your shot looks cropped at some points.

• We need to work on the audio from this section as they are talking, I will help you with this next week.

• The crop you have might look good for some of the shots, Defo the ones of Zac, it will keep it fresh when you cut back to him.

• Why can’t Zac say his lines properly!!!!???! Lol

• I like the outside shot, we could add a small side movement to this, left to right, I'll show you next week.

• Again we need to show the passing of time with Zac in the house, but I do like the fact he is just there and didn’t just walk in. Maybe we hear him come in but not see it. This would be easy to do.

• Mayah plates this end scene well. We could crop in a little one of the other shots of Mayah and it will work with the extreme close-up better. Can we stay on Mayah more right at the end??? DO we have Zac leaving the building from outside? That would be a good ending?

• I was worried this story would be a nightmare to follow in a short film but you have made it work. It needs little bits here and there but it's a cut so that's to be expected. Are we able to get anyone outside shots?????? Just simple ones????

Once I got this feedback, I took it away and spent the following day going through each point and editing and changing what he suggested.

I asked for feedback after creating what I thought was an alright title for my edit, the title I had didn't get the response I expected it to get so I looked online for some free titles and found one I liked and all the feedback after using the title I found has been positive. I then created a credits sequence, as I wasn't sure how to do this to start with I sat down and watched multiple tutorials on how to do this and I created rolling credits for the end of the film.

Another thing I got comments about when I asked for feedback was the audio levels so to resolve this issue, I went through the edit with headphones on and I played around with the audio levels until I thought that it sounded right.

Phone call scene timeline.