fmp

1. Initial Editing – First Five
Days
CONNOR WIFFEN

2. Day 1:
I spent the majority of the first day after
filming the initial scenes just placing the
footage into chronological order to seehow
the footage flows into each other. As the
days go on I will proceed to edit the
separate pieces together to create the first
initial production.

3. Day 1:
After adding the footage and placing the sequences in order I went
into the colour correction menus and began to test how I could go
about making it so the scenes filmed in the same location actually
looked like there at the same time of day etc which meant reducing
the Exposure from 0 to -0.8 and Whites from 0 to -100, This brought
it closer to how the next shot of her placing the DVD into the
Player as it came across much darker when filming the close up
but I still needed to reduce the Exposure a little to -1.3 which made
the two scenes look farcloser in resemblance.

4. Day 1:
Contrast and Brightness are two aspects of the visuals that I cannot seem to get exactly right – it
is either too dark or not dark enough to be effective. This also occurs on different screens, for
example on the Mac it is rather dark but when shown on my Desktop it is at a comfortable level
of darkness which doesn’t take away the ability to actually see what is happening. I feel as if
this is an issue I will be dealing with a lot throughout the production. However with the blue
hue, it makes the darker aspects far more distinguishable/easier to see. Further more, I added
the TV glitch effect to the end and beginning to add to the mysterious nature of the video.

5. Day 1:
I then used a Glitch effect I found on YouTube to form
the opening for the DVD sequence, turning it black and
white so it would fit with the aesthetic I was going for. I
also used an old TV overlay, again from YouTube to give
the footage an “old film” look as if playing on a classic
cinema projector which works to add mystery to why
this sort of footage would be on a modern day DVD.

6. Day 1:
With the filter applied I decided it would best to
reduce the brightness from 0 to -30 as I wanted to have
the time of day be ambiguous (It had been filmed in
the day) As I was taking inspiration from the footage
on the Video Tapes in The Ring. I also added a royalty
free MP3 of an old projector to add to the “Film look” I
wanted to convey.

7. Day 2:
I then moved onto colour grading which acted more
as an experiment into the matter as I haven’t been
completely sure on what I would like the first section
of the film to look like in relation to my planned
yellow and blue aesthetic which was inspired by early
2000’s J-Horror remakes . This will allow me to see
how it looks before fully committing to the idea as the
editing progress continues.

8. Day 2:
Continuing with the garage sequence at the beginning I realised that the shot of the DVD case on top of a clown mask was
slightly too short and moved around a lot as I believe I didn’t use the Tripod for some reason which could have completely
ruined the shot but thankfully cutting it down to a couple frames and duplicating it for a few seconds to remove any sense
of it not being a static shot. I also went onto do another experiment with the colour grading but this time it was for later on
in the film where the colour is supposed to change to the more blue colouring which represents that the story is moving
closer and closer to the supernatural elements which are just about to come into play, as well as a tonal shift with how the
atmosphere around this sequence is dumped even further into the depths of confusion and unease.

9. Day 2:
Contrast and Brightness are two aspects of the visuals that I cannot seem to get exactly right – it
is either too dark or not dark enough to be effective. This also occurs on different screens, for
example on the Mac it is rather dark but when shown on my Desktop it is at a comfortable level
of darkness which doesn’t take away the ability to actually see what is happening. I feel as if
this is an issue I will be dealing with a lot throughout the production. However with the blue
hue, it makes the darker aspects far more distinguishable/easier to see.

10. Day 3:
Shown above is my first delve in to using a mask to have both of my sister’s characters be on
screen at the same time which prove to be slightly tedious yet rather enjoyable as it was
interesting to see the concept I had envisioned in my head come to fruition. I didn’t initially
want to go too far into this addition to the production as because of what I have mentioned
before with using a laptop in which I wasn’t particularly comfortable in using when it came to
editing but I still feel as if this quick section will help from a foundation for the main set piece
towards the end of the film as I will need to employ similar techniques here but on a much
larger scale in terms of difficulty.

11. Day 4:
Here you can see me attempting to create the sense that this shot is from the character’s first
person perspective as it was envisioned to be whilst filming but I felt as if it needed to be more
obvious to the viewer, especially with the issue of what could actually be seen on screen
depending on the level of darkness I would need to settle on. This was a simple process of
using a fade to black which work to simulate someone’s eyes opening and closing to regain
focus, this is also a good way to build up the tension of the figures first proper reveal to the
audience and the character within the scene.

12. Day 4:
The screenshots above show the previously implemented audio from various sources online
which I needed more as a placeholder for audio I will record at a later date but as they are all
copyright free I could easily fall back on them if any of the recordings fall through. I did make
some changes to the ‘bone snapping’ sound used for the figure clicking its fingers by using the
Studio Reverb effect and adding an echo through the pre-set called ‘Great Hall’ which invokes
an otherworldly feeling to the figure.

13. Summary
The first day of editing wasn’t particularly difficult as it is only the beginning of the process so I didn’t have to do anything too intricate and I wanted
to mostly get back to my the more comfortable editing space at Home (I am away from it for a couple days so are currently editing on a Macbook)
so I didn’t want to go crazy with burning through it all. It involved a lot of experimenting on my part as admittedly I’m not exactly fluent in the art
of Premiere Pro and would have much preferredto fall back onto my first editing software (Vegas Pro) although I wanted to challenge myself as the
only way I am going to learn and be more comfortable with using Premiere will be to use it for the final project I do at college so my area of
knowledge into editing software can be expanded. That being said, I did opt to use Vegas for the DVD section as the presets for the look I am trying
to go for with the footage. There weren’t any problems today apart from getting used to using a Mac as outside of College it isn’t something I do due
to having Desktop PC.
The second day was much the same as the first but I progressed the initial editing to a little further with testing out the colour grading as this was a
piece of the visuals I wanted to get right when it came to implementing it into the film when I am home and in a more comfortable environment.
During these initial editing stages, I won’t necessarily be making huge strives with the progress – just enough so I’m not starting from nothing when
I return home. The issues of the footage being darker on different screens will affect how I approach it in the future as I want make sure the film is
actually comfortable and able to be seen. The third day was slightly more challenging as I hadn’t really practised using a mask within photoshop
before and yet I found it far more successful than I initially thought it would be which gives me some hope for when I tackle the larger version of
this section further into the production. Onto day 5, this was yet again a less eventful day in general due to me wanting to wait till the week after
when I would be back at home with editing capabilities on my Desktop PC – by the end of the day I had what I would call a foundation for future
editing and could see the film I envisioned whilst filming.