Category: Post Production

In a fruitless effort to avoid tackling the bear that is my final project, I decided to edit the bloopers. I thought the bloopers would be relatively easy to make but I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were not at all easy to make and actually took me a bit of time. I used this opportunity to practice my iMovie skills and comedic editing techniques, as well as to further reflect on the entirety of the production process.

Editing The Bloopers

Like I stated previously, I have edited with iMovie before, but I feel like I still have a lot to learn (ha, see what I did there?) about the program. I went into this without having researched anything about iMovie and how to use various tools in it; this was made with my (minimal) knowledge.

I messed around with different sound effects, titles, and transitions. Sometimes it worked out well, other times I totally screwed it up and had to hit undo around 20 times. I don’t think I will be using that many transitions in my final so I am not concerned with that as much as I am the fonts. I don’t really like iMovie’s titles and fonts; they are super cheesy. Because of this, I am thinking I will have to use another editing software to do this.

Reflecting Yet Again…

After watching all of my footage over again, I can see why the editor hates their life. There is so much to comb through, and what’s even more annoying is that half of it is useless. In this case, I was looking for the useless shots, but STILL. It’s super excessive, but also extremely necessary. If the cinematographer doesn’t take enough footage, then the editor doesn’t have enough to work with, but if they take more than enough the editor has to spend hours going through it. I guess the latter is better, but it is still dreadful. Editing my final should be easier since I’ve already done my rough cut and have my shots in order, but only time will tell.

Sources

• Link to download iMovie: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id408981434?mt=12&ls=1&v0=www-us-mac-imovie-app-imovie
• https://www.apple.com/imovie/

I decided to reflect upon my rough cut and get one of my peers to reflect on it too. This way I can get a better impression of what I need to fix. The criteria I used is:

• How much continuity does the video have? Are there any places where the continuity can be improved? How?
• To what extent is the video readable as a film opening? Can you understand that it’s an opening? Why or why not? What can you do to make it more readable?
• To what extent is the video readable within your chosen genre? Can you tell it’s a horror/thriller/comedy/coming-of-age etc.? How can this area be improved?
• Partner with someone who doesn’t know anything about your video. Record their answers to the following questions:What is setting (time and place)?
  • Who are the characters?
  • What is the movie going to be about?
  • To what extent is it readable as a film opening?
  • To what extent is it readable as a [insert genre] film?
  • Overall, how might the clarity of meaning in the video be improved?

Continuity

In my opinion, the video has decent continuity. It is easy for me to see that it is following a girl who is going from her house to school. I’ve mentioned this before, but there is a shot that I had planned to use in my title sequence that I later decided to cut. However, after watching my rough cut, I want to include this shot for continuity. My peer said she could follow my storyline. She told me she understood that my character was late for school and was rushing to get ready. Once I told her about the shot I wanted to add, she said it would help continuity but that it wasn’t necessary. She also said that the part where my character get out of her car isn’t as bad as I think it is. I hated it because I didn’t do it in one long take so it looks jumpy. By my peer said it wasn’t awful.

Understanding of Film Opening

I think this is readable as a film opening. It is ambiguous enough to not give anything away, but some main ideas are revealed. My peer also thinks it is readable as a film opening and not a trailer.

Understanding of Genre

I feel like the coming-of-age genre is very apparent, but the comedy aspect may be lacking. However, my peer noticed the comedy right away when my character fell out of bed. When I asked her for my genre she said coming-of-age first, and then comedy. This slightly concerns me because I pitched my film as a comedy, but I feel like comedy elements will really come in during post production.

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Throughout the production process, I have been making rough cuts for the footage I have shot on a particular day. Well I’ve finally put everything together into one rough cut! However, I am not entirely happy with the results. I love the first half; the continuity is good, the shots are diverse enough, it feels lively. The second half, on the other hand, is kind of garbage. There’s a much worse version of it on my Second Day of Shooting blog post, but the improved version isn’t much better. My problem, as previously stated, is that for the scene when my character gets out of her car, I didn’t do one long take; I filmed it separately. I also MOVED THE CAMER ANGLE SLIGHTLY (can you tell I’m mad about it?) which is making it difficult to fix in editing. I fixed it slightly from the original by tilting and zooming in on the video, but it isn’t the greatest. There are obvious cuts that I don’t want to be there. Also, just like before, I’m afraid the tracking shots of my character walking to class are too boring and not energetic enough. I may have to go back and reshoot, but I’ll continue to play with what I have.

The full rough cut for A Lot To Learn can be found below. As of right now, my it is exactly 2 minutes. This is going to need to be cut down some because I have to add some title images and production/distribution company names. Just like my other rough cuts, this one has no sound.