As part of the submission, we were required to produce 3 action shots and 2 behind the scenes shots for VET-MAN. As director of photography, I took on the job of selecting the shots to be submitted and editing them so that they fit with the style and tone of VET-MAN - this made sense as I have been concerned with the visuals throughout the production so I know the visual tone that we want to convey through these shots.
These were the selected behind the scenes shots - both shown before colour corrections and after.
These shots display the collaborative production process that happened throughout all the shoot days.
The first image shows the director checking the sound levels to ensure the best quality is being captured by our sound assistant.
The second image shows the director checking the shot I had set up for this clip. This shows how my research informed the production - I found through my research that whilst it is the director of photography's job to determine the shots that will best visually communicate the production, the director should still be brought in the confirm these shots to ensure they fit with their vision for the entire production. This ensures that both the DOP's visual vision is being fulfilled, as well as the director's vision for the tone / overall elements of the production.
These were the selected action shots - both shown before colour corrections and after.
The first shot shows the relationship between Tim and Luke - Tim is the one with the plan who is trying to convince the confused Luke to follow along. This shot also shows the vet van which is a key element of the production - however, we didn't want to show the side of the van so that the gag line is not revealed.
The next shot again shows the relationship between the pair - Tim is ready for action, whilst Luke still has a confused expression on his face. Their expressions also lead the audience to wonder what is about to happen.
This final action shot displays Tim with a black eye - this leads the audience to wonder why Tim has a black eye and when this happens within the narrative, enticing them to watch the full product.
Overall, I feel these shots clearly display the collaboration that happened in order to produce VET-MAN, as well as showing a few key scenes that evoke excitement for the production. The edited stills carry across a similar colour look to the production as they all have a slight orange and teal tint - I did this so that the stills and the production have one continual look so that the tone is set through all elements of the production (from the promotional material to the film itself).
Following the first fine cut, there were a few changes to be made. I decided the audio still wasn't as good as I wanted it to be so this all needed to be re-done. I also wanted to alter some clips in scene 2 and scene 5 to better the flow of the scenes. Finally, I needed to colour correct and grade the entire production.
The first thing I did was to replace the footage that I felt needed replacing. In scene 2, I decided to add back in the reaction shot of Tim and Luke to the slogan of the van and shorten the length of the shot that shows Tim's exit from the van. I initially decided to replace the reaction shot with this longer shot of Tim exiting the van as it clearly displays to the audience that Tim has got up and out of the van and has moved positions (whereas previously, with just the reaction shot, it was unclear when Tim stood up and moved positions). I now think that the reaction shot is still necessary to heighten the humour of the scene as their reaction to the slogan sets up the audience in anticipation of the slogan. I, therefore, decided to add it back in after a short clip of the wide shot of Tim exiting the van. This is so that it is clear to the audience why Tim is stood in the new position in the medium two shot reaction shot and ensures that the 180 degree rule has not been broken.
I also wasn't happy with the long pause between Luke knocking on Sheila's door and Sheila opening the door in scene 5 (although this is needed to make it feel natural). Because of this, I decided to use a J-cut so that the audio of Luke knocking is heard over the last shot of the previous scene - we then join scene 5 when Sheila opens the door. This helps to cut down the clip to make is quicker and punchier and cuts out the awkward pause between knocking on the door and opening the door.
There were certain suggestions made during tutorials which were ignored due to trying them and deciding that the original idea was better. I.e. Simon suggested that in the transition between scene 11 and scene 12 that I cut straight from Mollie's reaction to Tim punching the owl to Tim sat in the pub with a black eye. Whilst this sounded like a great idea in order for the audience to associate Tim's black eye with Mollie's reaction, it did not work when attempted. It felt too jumpy and didn't reinforce the idea that Mollie had given Tim the black eye any more than the original clips used. Therefore, I decided to stick with using the cut to black from scene 11 and the establishing shot of the pub in scene 12 prior to seeing Tim's black eye as this helps to convey the narrative more effectively and establish their new location - plus I feel the association between Tim's black eye and Mollie's reaction to the owl punch can be made quite easily by the audience.
Once I had tried the suggested alterations and decided on the final visuals of the project, I decided to tackle the audio again. I left the audio until the visuals were complete because once the audio is extracted in Adobe Audition, you cannot alter the length of the audio clip if you wanted to change the length of the video clip. I decided to leave all the audio clips slightly longer than their visual counterparts as I wanted to fade between the audio to prevent there being any blocky cuts between the audio (as there were a few of these in the original fine cut). I used constant gain transitions between all the audio pieces which helped to merge all the audio seamlessly.
To re-do all the audio clips so that I was happier with the audio, I followed the following steps for each clip. I captured the noise print on an area of solely background noise. I then applied noise reduction to the entire clip - keeping the percentage reduced by between 20% - 50%, keeping the decibels reduced by between 7db - 15db and adjusting the spectral decay rate as I saw necessary. This helped to reduce the background noise whilst preventing any echoes forming due to this noise reduction. In the previous fine cut, I then amplified the audio so that it levelled at around -18db - however, this still appeared to be too quiet. I decided against just amplifying the audio this time as this brings up everything, even the background noise. I decided instead to use the speech volume leveller tool which mainly affected the level of the dialogue, rather than the background noise. I used this to bring the audio level for the clip up to around -15db to -12db to ensure the clips were loud enough but didn't peak and cause distortion. To bring the levels up to this, I had to set the speech volume leveller to specific limits. I set the target volume level at -17db, levelling amount to 100% and the target dynamic range to 73.2db. I applied this to each clip separately and then used the amplify tool to match up the audio clips so that there was a consistent audio level.
Following using this tool, I used the dehummer effect which helped to remove any distortions in order to make the audio sound a lot more crisp and clear. I set the harmonic slope for this at 90% for each clip which meant that the effect on the clip was quite weak. I didn't want this effect to be overpowering as it would remove too many of the bass tones within the clips and add too much in terms of treble. This would produce an artificially clear sound which would make our product seem less natural and observational and more structured and produced which goes completely against the desired effect.
I then took to the task of colour correcting and grading the production. I again tackled this by working through the project from start to finish, correcting each clip separately. I worked on two different tracks for adjustment layers. I created different adjustment layers for each clip for the colour correction then applied one adjustment layer over the top on another track with the consistent colour grade for the production. The colour correction for each clip varies due to each clip requiring different corrections in order to bring them all to the same level. To correct each clip I adjusted the exposure, shadows, highlights, temperature and tint - I altered these for each clip to result in a consistent look between all shots to allow for continuity over the entire production. I aimed to bring the temperature down for a lot of the shots due to the LUT containing an orange toned highlight so I did not want to overdo the orange tones as this would take away from the desired natural yet cinematic look that I outlined in the pre-production package. The aim of the colour correcting process was to give a good base for the colour grade - this meant matching up the colour for each clip so that a consistent visual look could be established. Once all the clips were corrected in terms of colour and exposure, I set about applying the colour grade over the top. As tested in the pre-production unit, I used a FGCineTealAndOrange LUT for the colour grade to give a cinematic look to the project due to using the complimentary colours teal and orange. I then reduced the intensity of this LUT to 38.9, sharpened it by 2.7, adjusted the vibrancy to -5.9 and left the saturation at 100. I then adjusted the shadow tint to have a slightly light green look and the highlights to have a slightly light purple look to balance the teal and orange in order to retain the slight natural element to the visuals. By using the LUT at an intensity of 38.9 and balancing it with the purple highlights and green shadows, I have achieved the natural yet cinematic look I aspired to achieve.
Below are examples of an original shot, the colour corrected shot then the final colour corrected and colour graded shot to show the progression of this colouring process. I have left the settings for the colour corrected shots visible so that the specific corrections made to each clip can be seen. I thought it was worth showing this as this affects the way each of the shots look - the colour corrections for each clip help to balance out the colour so that when the colour grade / LUT (at the specific settings I have already outlined) is applied, a unified look is produced across the whole production. As already stated, the colour corrections vary for each clip (in terms of the adjustments to the exposure, contrasts, highlights, shadows, temperature and tint) with the aim of ensuring all clips have a similar visual look to each other so that the LUT could be evenly applied - this meant increasing the exposure on underexposed clips, reducing the exposure on overexposed clips, warming cool toned clips and cooling warm toned clips in order to produce this consistent look.
Fine Cut 2:
What went well
- I feel that the audio has improved greatly due to the new techniques used on it. It is now a lot crisper and clearer which allows the dialogue to be heard accurately and improves the overall quality of the production. Scenes 7 and 9 still need work to even out the audio levels as they still rise and fall at the moment - I attempted to remove the background noise but this has caused many rises and dips in the audio. I will, therefore, restore the audio to its original and then apply the new techniques to it rather than attempting to remove the background noise as this results in distracting rises and falls of the audio levels.
- The colour adjustments and grade work well to give the product a much more finished look. Previously, in the rough cut stages and the initial fine cut, the product had no colour adjustments whatsoever so some of the colours between the clips do not exactly match which breaks the continuity of the scenes and disrupts the flow of the film which, in turn, lowers the production quality. With the individual colour adjustments applied, and the overall colour grade layered over this, the product has a much more put together look. The desired natural yet cinematic look has also been achieved through adding these colour adjustments - the natural look already existed through the shot types and movement used, the cinematic element mainly comes from the orange and teal LUT which was applied as the colour grade.
What didn't go well
- Certain suggestions made by Simon in feedback tutorials didn't make sense to use when applied (e.g. cutting straight from Mollie's reaction in scene 11 to Tim's black eye in scene 12) - this felt too clunky and didn't work to make the association between Mollie's reaction and Tim's black eye any clearer than the original sequence - I, therefore, decided to keep the clips used the same in this sequence as the original clips help to establish the location and the association between Mollie's reaction and Tim's black eye is still just as clear.
