Jonathan Potts
Change Log
Change Log
Dialogue and Sound Effects  First, I found all of the sound clips that were recorded, and found the corresponding shot,
take, and line of dialogue for each shot when necessary.
 Once I had found the correct shot, take, and line of dialogue, I used in and out points to cut
the line from the sound file, and then dragged it into the timeline.
 I used the existing audio from the camera’s microphone to sync the clips recorded with the
boom pole to the footage.
 I also did this for other diegetic sound effects, such as general movement noise, footsteps,
typing sounds, etc. to build a realistic sounding soundscape.
 For the AI, I used a Chorus Flanger to get a robotic-sounding voice effect, that retained a
coherent human voice for narrative purposes.
Music  I used 3 pieces of previously sourced material to use as a non-diegetic score for this scene.
 One of the pieces of music (Home – Synchronise) was used in the montage sequence, and I
was able to cut on some of the beats, for a music-video style effect that in my opinion is
incredibly effective and shows the passage of time very well.
 I added a Low Bass Rise music track to the start of the video, where Abel and VITA discuss the
AI’s problem, tempus, to build tension. I decided this was not suitable, as it added a more
horror-style tone to the filmwhich I thought was out of place.
 To resolve this, I added a different music track (Ethereal Synth) in its place, which gave the
video a sci-fi ethereal feel, which I thought was very appropriate for the existential subject
matter.
Graphics/Effects  After feedback in the test screening, I added a graphic during the montage sequence that
shows VITA being worked on. To make this, I found a PNG of some MacOS windows, which I
then photoshopped to have an all-black background, instead of an all-white background, so
that I would not need to Chroma key the effects that I had sourced to place over the
windows.

Jonathan Potts
 I had previously attempted to Chroma key the effects I had found, but they looked incredibly
unprofessional regardless of the settings that I used, and so I decided to find an alternate way
of including them.
 I placed the effects, which had all black backgrounds, over the window PNGs, and matched
their scale and position in Premiere Pro to create ‘windows’ on the VITA screen.
 I repositioned these 2 ‘windows’ to look as if they had been placed randomly on the screen,
for a more authentic feel.
 I also found a green screen ‘loading bar’ graphic, which I imported, Chroma-keyed, and
placed 3 of in the top right corner of the screen for a more ‘busy’ looking display,
emphasising the complexity of this AI system.
 I tried to add more ‘windows’, but it became too messy and crowded, so I decided to only use
2.
Audio Balance  The audio for this short was originally very unbalanced, as commented on in the test
screening feedback.
 I increased the volume of the room atmos, so each shot was less jarring and the whole film
ended up flowing better, as each shot was connected by an atmospheric audio track.
 The dialogue was also out of balance in some places, so by using the audio level monitor I
could check that all of the audio was staying within the -6 to -12dB range.
 I used volume adjustment for each clip to get it to stay within this range, by adjusting it to be
higher or lower depending on the volume levels of the clip. The VITA dialogue, for example,
needed an adjustment of +4.0dB to remain within this range, while it varied for Abel’s
dialogue.
 The music also had to be adjusted, so that it was not overwhelming, as this would leave the
dialogue inaudible. For the montage, I did not have to worry about dialogue other than
during the fade in and fade out. To avoid causing conflict during the dialogue as it faded in, I
used key frames to ensure it only reached a certain level, where both the music and dialogue
could be heard, until neither character was talking. From this point, the audio level increased
further to reach a point where it was within the -6 to -12dB range, to match all the other
audio. The song had a natural fade out, but I used key frames to make this fade out smoother
so that it would come to a less jarring halt.

Jonathan Potts
Colour Grading  The video did not require much colour grading, as I was happy with the video out of the
camera because of the lighting.
 There were some shots that were more exposed than others, though, and so I used a Lumetri
looks colour correction effect within Premiere Pro, and adjusted the contrast, shadows, and
highlights for some shots so that all of the shots of Abel matched.
 I tried some LUTs on the footage, but I found that they looked good on some footage but
quite bad on others, and because I could not exactly replicate them, I decided to have the
video conform to a standard, realistic look, which most dramas tend to have anyway.