P5: Carry out post-production techniques and processes to produce a final original media product in line to the client brief
Editing process
Having gathered all of the footage I needed in my recording days, I will now bring all the clips that I will be using into my editing software and producing my finished product.
Here are the processes I went through during my editing:
Creating Title and opening sequence:
Here are the processes I went through during my editing:
Creating Title and opening sequence:
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Above you can see the editing process that I used to add a title card to my project. I started by dragging a 'text element' into the editing timeline before my first clip of footage. This meant that the title card would appear before any of my footage began playing.
I then proceeded to write the quote "Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs - Thomas Wolfe" as this is a quote that relates well with the cultural diversity topic of the video and festival that it is intended for. Using quotes is a convention of the genre that contributes to making the video feel more authentic and dramatic. Slightly after this text element in the timeline I added a white Cambridge City Council logo to immediately present to the audience what this video will be about and who it was commissioned by. This also fills out the empty space on the screen nicely. So that these elements appear on screen and leave smoothly, I added fade transitions on either side of them so that they would both fade in and out into the next scene. |
Creating transitions:
Transitions are an essential part of creating a natural flow within a production. As this production has quite a slow pace for many of it's scenes, I decided to use cross-fades for most of the scene-to-scene transitions. These work better than using simple cuts as they have the scenes slowly transition into each other, reflecting the slow pace of the shots and music.
In this example, I simply drag into place the cross fade transition element from the final cut pro transitions library, place it between the two shots and adjust the duration to my liking. At the end of this clip here, I actually add a white noise/flare transition, as I thought it was more visually interesting than a fade and works well with the pan up to the sky at the end of the shot. The bright white transition also creates a feeling of vibrancy within the piece, which gives it a positive connotation. |
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Colour Correction:
This is an example of the colour correction that I used for several shots within the project. I use this to enhance the colour, exposition and saturation of certain shots that I found to be too dark. This way I could brighten up the shots enough to make them more enjoyable to watch.
I started by adding the "Colour Correction" effect from the Final Cut Pro effect list to the desired shots. I then went into the effect settings for colour correction and adjusted values for colour, exposition, and saturation until I was happy with the brightness and colour of the shot. On the right you can see an example of a clip that I have added the colour correction to. |
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Finally, I added audio elements for the video. For this, I simply dragged in the Voiceover and music clips and placed them in the timeline along with the videos. I had to adjust the positioning of clips of the voiceover so that they would fit in with the visuals. initially the voiceover clip was one long track including mistakes and retakes, so I had to cut this down to only the lines that I wanted to use. Some of the voiceover clips gave me a bit of trouble, for example one had a cough interrupt it and bleed into the next line, so I had to cut out the portion of the audio clip which contained the cough. I also spread out some of the voiceover clips in order to achieve more of a "Dramatic pause" affect wile still keeping the voiceover natural sounding. Next time it might be a good idea to record all VO lines separately so that there is no confusion and less of a tedious editing process.
I also had to adjust the dynamics of the tracks a bit to fit in with each other. For example, if there was a section with no dialogue, I would want the music to get slightly louder to fill the space. Likewise if there was prominent dialogue, I would want to decrease the volume of the music so that the dialogue can be heard at the front of the mix. In the left image, you can see that I used time markers to make the volume of the music gradually decrease as the dialogue is about to begin.
I also had to adjust the dynamics of the tracks a bit to fit in with each other. For example, if there was a section with no dialogue, I would want the music to get slightly louder to fill the space. Likewise if there was prominent dialogue, I would want to decrease the volume of the music so that the dialogue can be heard at the front of the mix. In the left image, you can see that I used time markers to make the volume of the music gradually decrease as the dialogue is about to begin.
Offline Edit
Here is the offline edit of my project. This includes the visuals in sequence with transitions, but does not include music, VO or the title card.
Final Product
Below is the finished project including title card, voiceover and music.
Overall I am very happy with how the finished video turned out. The title card works very effectively, and the music and voiceover accompanying many of the slow panning shots are very effective at creating a relaxed and positive atmosphere. I also think the voiceover and script did a great job at relaying the message that Cambridge is a great and "Culturally diverse" place, which would fit right in at an award festival celebrating cultural diversity.
There are however many things that could be improved upon. For example, despite using colour correction, some of the shots such as the very first are still quite dark, and could do with more thorough editing or even reshooting in conditions with brighter lighting.
Furthermore, from showing my video to others, one piece of feedback that I received was that the ending could do with another text card, again displaying the CCC logo to remind viewers about who Commissioned the project. Mainly though, this end card should include contact information for the CCC as this would lead nicely on from the final line "If you are interested in any further information... the Cambridge City Council will happily answer any of your questions."
There were a few changes that I made from my original planning. Mainly, I failed to record the interview section outlined in my final script. This was partially as the microphones that I used for the interviews on the day recorded a lot of background audio, and despite my efforts I couldn't fix these audio clips. I went on with editing the video and at the end I decided that the video was complete as it was, and adding the interview section would drag the video on past the point of it remaining interesting.
There are however many things that could be improved upon. For example, despite using colour correction, some of the shots such as the very first are still quite dark, and could do with more thorough editing or even reshooting in conditions with brighter lighting.
Furthermore, from showing my video to others, one piece of feedback that I received was that the ending could do with another text card, again displaying the CCC logo to remind viewers about who Commissioned the project. Mainly though, this end card should include contact information for the CCC as this would lead nicely on from the final line "If you are interested in any further information... the Cambridge City Council will happily answer any of your questions."
There were a few changes that I made from my original planning. Mainly, I failed to record the interview section outlined in my final script. This was partially as the microphones that I used for the interviews on the day recorded a lot of background audio, and despite my efforts I couldn't fix these audio clips. I went on with editing the video and at the end I decided that the video was complete as it was, and adding the interview section would drag the video on past the point of it remaining interesting.