Blog Post

1. 15/12/2015
Gaucho Edit
The group filmproject Gaucho was an insightful learning experience as well as a challenge,
especially during the editing stage of the filmmaking process. The footage itself required
colour grading due to lighting issues on set and the audio needed to be synced with the
images and later levelled in order to create even sound throughout.
The footage was cut to motion to a slow pace synonymous with the slow moving action
within the shots. This enabled the spectator to view the footage easier as the edit flowed
with the movement on screen. The only challenge with this stage of the edit was the
coverage of footage that was available to the editor. Some pieces of the footage did not
follow on from each other smoothly due to the use of 3 separate cameras on set. To resolve
this, some of the shots had to be cut down to fit together or removed completely from the
final edit.
The footage for the film was shot in a black drama studio on 3 cameras situated in between
5 lights. This created several continuity issues as the different spacing between the lighting
and cameras meant that some of the footage was darker/ lighter than the rest. The white
balancing of the individual cameras also contributed to this issue as one of them gave off
bluer hues due to its distance from the lights. Although attempts were made on set to
resolve these issues, colour grading was required in post- production in order to fully solve
them.
The audio was recorded separately on a boom mic in order to gain cleaner sound. Although
this a produced a cleaner audio track for the footage, it had to be synced with the images in
post-production and later levelled to equalise sound that had been recorded from different
distances from the mic. This was done simply by using Gain in Avid Media Composer on the
waveforms of each audio track and adjusting the levels to -14.0 dB in order to obtain
continuous levels of volume throughout the audio.