1. 2nd editing session: The next step was to adjust to ambient sound in the footage, I did this
using the essential sound tools and editing each clip individually. These tools provide a wide
variety of settings such as dialogue and music etc, going into even further detail within the
ambience section which allows you to adjust the sound based on the location of the shot
(e.g large rooms or outside). Using the essential sound tools massively increased the quality
of audio for my film, allowing the audience to have a better viewing experience. While
editing the sound I struggled to playback the footage, in attempt to amend this issue I
rendered the video once again (changing the render bar in the timeline from yellow to
green). This was useful because it allowed me to view the clips and monitor my progress in a
higher quality, therefore it helped me be more efficient in my work.
For the first clip I selected it and chose the ambient sound sections, scrolling down to the
’creative’ controls for room ambience and lowered the amount. For the clips I filmed
outside with no dialogue I used the ‘outside’ ambience controls and lowered the clips
volumes down. This means that the audience can still experience the sound and
cinematography that make the filmmore immersive, without it being loud and unpleasant
to hear. I made this choice for another reason, if I completely removed all the diegetic
ambient sound in every clip it would reappear in the scenes with dialogue and make the
edits obvious. The goal of the found footage genre is to make it look like authentic camera
footage, unedited and untouched. The edits I used for the clips without dialogue achieve
this aim without going against the stylistic codes of the genre.
While editing the clips filmed outside with dialogue, I selected the ‘outside’ ambience
controls and lowered the amount (like what I did for the first scene). This lowered the
amount of outside noise without impacting the quality of the dialogue.
After editing the ambient sound in the footage, I moved on to adding transitions and affects.
To do this I imported a short clip of TV static from online, using the hand and mouse tools to
drag the clip onto the timeline in between each shot. Because the clip had audio, I used the
same essential sound tools as earlier and lowered the volume slightly, this allowed the
transitions to reinforce the found footage genre without making them unpleasant to watch
for the audience. Using this clip for every single transition between shots constantly
reinforces the idea that this is found footage, forcing the audience to remember that these
events happened to the characters. I decided to go against the conventions of film editing,
usually editors will try to make transitions etc as unnoticeable as possible so that they don’t
distract the audience from the narrative. My edits do the exact opposite but still gain the
same emotional response, constantly reminding them that the narrative is supposed to be
real makes the film that much more immersive. They feel compelled to continue watching
2. despite not being immersed in the typical way.
To create the credits I used the text tool, after creating a significant amount of space in the
timeline I made a text box. Prior to starting this editing session, I wrote out the credits into a
word document, allowing me to copy and paste sections of my credits into the text boxes.
This made writing out the long disclaimer in the beginning a lot easier and ensured I could
produce my credits to the highest quality. The next tools I used were in the graphics menu,
including the fonts controls. I downloaded a font from a website called Dafont which could
then be used in Premiere Pro for my filmtitle. The final feature I used was the templates, I
downloaded an ending credits template into my library and dragged it onto the timeline.
Using the text tool to change the names so that it fit my film. This tool was beneficial for my
film because it allowed me to create professional/ high-quality credits efficiently.
The next part of my editing was downloading royalty free music that fit into the stylistic
codes of the horror genre to play in my opening credits. However, the OOG file type wasn’t
compatible with Premiere Pro so I imported it into Adobe Audition and simply saved it as an
mp3 file without changing the music itself in any way.
An editing technique I used was called ‘cutting to beat’, where you align the edits in the film
with the beats of the song. To achieve this, I used the controls on the timeline to adjust the
length of the individual’s sections for the credits so that the transitions matched the beats in
the pleonastic background music. This editing technique was beneficial for my film because
it reinforced the genre of the filmand set the tone, creating mystery and unease within the
3. audience.
The final tool I used to edit together my film is the opacity controls, using the same TV static
clip as my transitions I created a glitch overlay above my footage. Dragging the clip, I had
already imported above different shots on my timeline, I went through and individually
adjusted the opacity to 20% and choosing the ‘color burn’ option. The tools allowed me to
create glitch effects with the small amount of resources available to me currently.
Enhancing the shots I used it for.