As I haven't been the editor for a project for a while, I decided to conduct some research into Adobe Premiere Pro to familiarise myself with the programme once again so that I could work on the edit as efficiently and effectively as possible. I also want to perform some editing techniques that I haven't done before on Adobe Premiere Pro - such as adding a colour grade - so I wanted to ensure I knew how to add things like LUTs to the footage as this is an important part of the colour grading process and affects the visual quality of the final product.
Simple Editing Techniques
Although I join the edit at the fine cut stage, I still thought it would be a good idea to look into inserting clips into the timeline even though this should all be done during the rough cut stage of the project (which would mean I would not need to do any of this). However, I may choose to replace certain clips that the rough cut editor has chosen to insert so it will be handy for me to know how to insert and overwrite clips onto a timeline.
There are several way to add clips to a sequence in Premiere Pro [1]:
- drag the clip from the bin
- drag the clip from the source monitor
- use the insert (,) and overwrite (.) buttons in the source monitor
- drag the clip from the media browser into the programme monitor
The overwrite edit adds the clip by replacing the frames already in the sequence whilst the insert edit adds a clip to the sequence by splitting and forcing clips to shift to accommodate the new clip.
If clips are dragged onto the timeline, the overwrite tool is automatically chosen.
There are then different editing tools to use when the clips are in the sequence [2]:
The selection tool allows you to select specific edit points and perform trims on the clips.
The track select tool allows you to select all the clips in a sequence instead of selecting one clip at a time.
The ripple edit tool allows you to trim a clip and ripple the rest of the clips in the timeline to close the gap between any edit points.
The rolling edit tool allows you to trim a clip by moving an edit point either forward or backwards in the sequence.
The rate stretch tool allows you to either speed up or slow down the clip.
The blade tool allows you to cut a clip wherever you use the tool.
Applying LUTs To Footage
The technique I found on how to apply LUTs in Premiere Pro assumes you already have the LUT you want to apply (otherwise you would need to add the step of finding the appropriate LUT to use for your footage). I already know which LUT I want to use as I used it in the pre-production (using Final Cut Pro to apply it) to test which look I wanted to go for to achieve my desired natural yet cinematic look.
To apply a LUT in Premiere Pro, you need to select either the clip or adjustment layer you wish to work with. Then select the lumetri panel and open the basic correction tab within this panel. In the basic correction tab, there is an input LUT dropdown menu. Once you click on this menu, there is the option to browse for your desired LUT. You then select the LUT of choice and this is applied to the clip / adjustment layer. The LUT can then be altered within the basic correction tab. [3]
Within Adobe Premiere Pro, there is only the option to apply one LUT per clip / adjustment layer. If you wish to apply more LUTs to a clip, more adjustment layers must be created to provide a medium to apply this LUT to.
This is a similar technique to the technique I used to apply the LUT in Final Cut Pro so it should not be too much of a complex task to apply the LUT in Premiere Pro to achieve the look I want.
Sources:
[1] https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/premiere-pro/using/adding-clips-sequences.html
[2] https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/an-in-depth-look-at-the-adobe-premiere-pro-editing-tools/
[3] https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/adding-luts-in-premiere-pro/
Tuesday, 26 March 2019
MAJOR-PROJECT UNIT: Rough Cuts and Feedback
It was Mel's job to sequence the footage and produce the rough cuts of the edit - however, I still thought it necessary that I be present to review the cuts and sit in on the feedback sessions as this would inform how I would take over the edit in the fine cut stage. It was necessary for me to hear the feedback for the rough cuts to ensure that I didn't then unconsciously go against this feedback in my cuts of the edit.
Rough Cut 1:
Rough Cut 2:
Rough Cut 3:
Rough Cut 4 :
The main feedback throughout the rough cuts was that it needed to be cut down in order to give a tighter product. Another constant piece of feedback was that the sound needed to be brought up and clarified, as well as adding more sound design - I will tighten the footage further in the fine cuts as well as editing the sound and adding the sound design).
It was also suggested that it is not clear that Tim has broken in to Tess' house in the first scene - however, this cannot be changed due to not having the coverage of Tim breaking in - instead, we will just focus on making it look like Tim is sneaking around (which gives the impression that he is not supposed to be there). The audience also don't get the sense that Tess is much more successful than Tim as the pictures of here don't clearly display this - however, these were the only images we could get from our actress that made her look successful. Also in scene 1, it works well that the audience don't see the certificate until Tess holds it up, this just needs to be made tighter.
It was suggested that footage or overlays need to be placed over the top of scene 3 when Tim and Luke are driving to indicate to the audience that they are in a moving vehicle - this was always our plan but this will be my job in the fine cut (instead of being Mel's job in the rough cut).
In the following scene, it was also suggested that a clip of a dog in the road be added to make it very clear to the audience what has just happened (on top of the sound design that I will add in the fine cut), this was since added in later rough cuts.
There also needed to be more scenes of the van driving to transition between the scenes (and perhaps a shot of the van pulling quickly into the owl academy to add more urgency to this scene). These transition shots were added in later rough cuts.
It was also suggested that music be added to the night scene to give more of a 'heist' atmosphere - I will do this with the sound design in the fine cut.
Feedback was also given on individual shots that could be made better to improve the overall quality of the production (i.e. a tighter shot on the "I'm VET-MAN" line would be more beneficial to make this more dramatic). Mel implemented these changes prior to handing the project over to me for the fine cut and colour grading stage of the production.
Overall, the feedback on the rough cuts was very helpful as it helped to improve the product. All the feedback was taken on by Mel (or noted for me to adjust in the fine cut - like tightening the product, adjusting the colour and tackling the sound). This gives me a good base for me to build on in the fine cut as the project just needs fine tuning now to allow it to reach its potential.
Rough Cut 1:
Rough Cut 2:
Rough Cut 3:
Rough Cut 4 :
The main feedback throughout the rough cuts was that it needed to be cut down in order to give a tighter product. Another constant piece of feedback was that the sound needed to be brought up and clarified, as well as adding more sound design - I will tighten the footage further in the fine cuts as well as editing the sound and adding the sound design).
It was also suggested that it is not clear that Tim has broken in to Tess' house in the first scene - however, this cannot be changed due to not having the coverage of Tim breaking in - instead, we will just focus on making it look like Tim is sneaking around (which gives the impression that he is not supposed to be there). The audience also don't get the sense that Tess is much more successful than Tim as the pictures of here don't clearly display this - however, these were the only images we could get from our actress that made her look successful. Also in scene 1, it works well that the audience don't see the certificate until Tess holds it up, this just needs to be made tighter.
It was suggested that footage or overlays need to be placed over the top of scene 3 when Tim and Luke are driving to indicate to the audience that they are in a moving vehicle - this was always our plan but this will be my job in the fine cut (instead of being Mel's job in the rough cut).
In the following scene, it was also suggested that a clip of a dog in the road be added to make it very clear to the audience what has just happened (on top of the sound design that I will add in the fine cut), this was since added in later rough cuts.
There also needed to be more scenes of the van driving to transition between the scenes (and perhaps a shot of the van pulling quickly into the owl academy to add more urgency to this scene). These transition shots were added in later rough cuts.
It was also suggested that music be added to the night scene to give more of a 'heist' atmosphere - I will do this with the sound design in the fine cut.
Feedback was also given on individual shots that could be made better to improve the overall quality of the production (i.e. a tighter shot on the "I'm VET-MAN" line would be more beneficial to make this more dramatic). Mel implemented these changes prior to handing the project over to me for the fine cut and colour grading stage of the production.
Overall, the feedback on the rough cuts was very helpful as it helped to improve the product. All the feedback was taken on by Mel (or noted for me to adjust in the fine cut - like tightening the product, adjusting the colour and tackling the sound). This gives me a good base for me to build on in the fine cut as the project just needs fine tuning now to allow it to reach its potential.
Thursday, 21 March 2019
MAJOR-PROJECT UNIT: Shoot Day 8
Shoot day 8 - GVs of the van
Following putting together a rough cut of the project, we noticed there was not a lot to transition between scenes. Therefore, we decided it would be a good idea to get some different shots of the van driving between locations so that these could be inserted between scenes in order to transition the action from one location to another.
I decided to get a range of different shots, ranging from long stationary shots and long panning shots to wide stationary shots and wide panning shots - this would give us a few different styles of shots to work with in the edit. I also had to make sure any corners the van would be turning would ensure that the slogan side of the van would be facing towards the camera - this meant that if the van was driving away from the camera then it would need to turn left to reveal the slogan and if the van was driving towards the camera then it would need to turn right to reveal the slogan.
To make sure the footage was in focus, I decided to use the focus assist tool again which highlights the areas in focus in red so that it is apparent what is in focus and what isn't. This was useful as the van drives past the camera quite quickly so I was able to use the focus assist tool whilst other cars were passing the camera to focus up the shot and then check that the van was in focus whilst driving past by seeing if it showed up in red (which it did).
The locations chosen are filled with natural light from all directions, meaning no additional lighting equipment or reflectors were required to obtain a well exposed image.
The settings I used kept the ISO at 500, an aperture ranging between F/6.3 and F/7.2, a shutter speed ranging between 1/48 and 1/50 and using an ND filter of 1/4. As the weather was quite overcast (cloudy and 12ºC), I only needed an ND filter of 1/4 to get a correctly exposed image - no ND filter would have resulted in an overexposed image whilst an ND filter any higher than 1/16 would have resulted in an underexposed image. The shutter speed of 1/48 and 1/50 allows for a natural looking motion blur within the footage whilst allowing a good exposure. The range of apertures also allows for the image to be correctly exposed whilst remaining sharp and in focus (an aperture above F/10 on this camera would result in a slightly soft image). This exposure allows for all the details within the shot to be seen.
As well as filming these long shots of the van driving around, I filmed the shot of the dog where Tim and Luke have hit it with the van. I had not originally planned to capture a shot of the dog where Tim and Luke have hit it the dog as the director decided this was not necessary as it is implied by the sound design and Tim and Luke's reaction in their low angle shot where they are stood over the dog. However, in a rough cut viewing, Simon suggested seeing the dog would produce a better quality product as it clearly displays to the audience what has happened and, therefore, heighten the quality of the piece. This was a little bit difficult to film due to the dog being quite lively - however, as we had the owner of the dog on hand, he was able to control the dog and command it to lie down so that I could capture a medium shot of the dog lying on the ground. The clip does include the owner's hands moving away from the dog but this can be masked out in the editing process. For this clip I used the settings; ISO 500, aperture F/7.2, shutter speed 1/50 and an ND filter 1/4. This helped to keep the shot well exposed with the highlights of the shot not appearing over exposed (e.g. the white in the dog's fur). This is important as it means that all the detail within the shot (even the bright highlights) can be seen which helps to maintain a good visual quality throughout the product.
As well as filming this additional shot of the dog, I filmed an establishing shot of the river by the Kent Owl Academy car park as the audio for these scenes (scene 7 & 9) is quite distracting due to the sound of the river. Initially there were no visuals to suggest the presence of a river by the car park which made the audio seem quite strange as there was no apparent reason for the high level of background noise - this decreased the quality of the product. Therefore, by filming and adding in this footage of the river by the car park to the edit, it shows to the audience the reason for the background noise in the car park scenes. For this shot I used the settings; ISO 500, aperture F/6.8, shutter speed 1/50 and an ND filter 1/4. This ensured a correct exposure where all the detail within the shot can be seen.
What went well
- I was able to capture a lot of coverage of the van driving around to be used in the edit to transition between scenes. This gives us more to work with in the edit and improve the fine cut of the film. This adds a sense of fluidity to the piece as the action is continued through the movement of the van instead of the scenes feeling very stop-start.
- The footage is all well exposed due to using the correct ISO, aperture, shutter speed and ND filter. This means that the footage will be easy to grade and will retain all the details within the highlights, midtones and shadows of the footage.
What didn't go well
- In some of the footage it is apparent that it is not Tim and Luke driving the van as there is no glare on the window. This means these pieces of footage cannot be used as it is obviously Alex driving the van. However, I captured a lot of footage in a variety of sizes so this does not present an issue.
- Ideally we would have liked to insert a Kent Owl Academy sign in the last image shown above, however, due to another sign being in the way this won't be possible. There were no other corners for the van to turn into where there was a sign positioned well (to put the Kent Owl Academy sign over) and where the van would be turning the correct way to show the slogan. However, I filmed a shot of the van driving past the Kent Owl Academy sign in the original shoot week so this can easily be cut in instead to establish the location.
Following putting together a rough cut of the project, we noticed there was not a lot to transition between scenes. Therefore, we decided it would be a good idea to get some different shots of the van driving between locations so that these could be inserted between scenes in order to transition the action from one location to another.
I decided to get a range of different shots, ranging from long stationary shots and long panning shots to wide stationary shots and wide panning shots - this would give us a few different styles of shots to work with in the edit. I also had to make sure any corners the van would be turning would ensure that the slogan side of the van would be facing towards the camera - this meant that if the van was driving away from the camera then it would need to turn left to reveal the slogan and if the van was driving towards the camera then it would need to turn right to reveal the slogan.
To make sure the footage was in focus, I decided to use the focus assist tool again which highlights the areas in focus in red so that it is apparent what is in focus and what isn't. This was useful as the van drives past the camera quite quickly so I was able to use the focus assist tool whilst other cars were passing the camera to focus up the shot and then check that the van was in focus whilst driving past by seeing if it showed up in red (which it did).
The locations chosen are filled with natural light from all directions, meaning no additional lighting equipment or reflectors were required to obtain a well exposed image.
The settings I used kept the ISO at 500, an aperture ranging between F/6.3 and F/7.2, a shutter speed ranging between 1/48 and 1/50 and using an ND filter of 1/4. As the weather was quite overcast (cloudy and 12ºC), I only needed an ND filter of 1/4 to get a correctly exposed image - no ND filter would have resulted in an overexposed image whilst an ND filter any higher than 1/16 would have resulted in an underexposed image. The shutter speed of 1/48 and 1/50 allows for a natural looking motion blur within the footage whilst allowing a good exposure. The range of apertures also allows for the image to be correctly exposed whilst remaining sharp and in focus (an aperture above F/10 on this camera would result in a slightly soft image). This exposure allows for all the details within the shot to be seen.
As well as filming these long shots of the van driving around, I filmed the shot of the dog where Tim and Luke have hit it with the van. I had not originally planned to capture a shot of the dog where Tim and Luke have hit it the dog as the director decided this was not necessary as it is implied by the sound design and Tim and Luke's reaction in their low angle shot where they are stood over the dog. However, in a rough cut viewing, Simon suggested seeing the dog would produce a better quality product as it clearly displays to the audience what has happened and, therefore, heighten the quality of the piece. This was a little bit difficult to film due to the dog being quite lively - however, as we had the owner of the dog on hand, he was able to control the dog and command it to lie down so that I could capture a medium shot of the dog lying on the ground. The clip does include the owner's hands moving away from the dog but this can be masked out in the editing process. For this clip I used the settings; ISO 500, aperture F/7.2, shutter speed 1/50 and an ND filter 1/4. This helped to keep the shot well exposed with the highlights of the shot not appearing over exposed (e.g. the white in the dog's fur). This is important as it means that all the detail within the shot (even the bright highlights) can be seen which helps to maintain a good visual quality throughout the product.
As well as filming this additional shot of the dog, I filmed an establishing shot of the river by the Kent Owl Academy car park as the audio for these scenes (scene 7 & 9) is quite distracting due to the sound of the river. Initially there were no visuals to suggest the presence of a river by the car park which made the audio seem quite strange as there was no apparent reason for the high level of background noise - this decreased the quality of the product. Therefore, by filming and adding in this footage of the river by the car park to the edit, it shows to the audience the reason for the background noise in the car park scenes. For this shot I used the settings; ISO 500, aperture F/6.8, shutter speed 1/50 and an ND filter 1/4. This ensured a correct exposure where all the detail within the shot can be seen.
What went well
- I was able to capture a lot of coverage of the van driving around to be used in the edit to transition between scenes. This gives us more to work with in the edit and improve the fine cut of the film. This adds a sense of fluidity to the piece as the action is continued through the movement of the van instead of the scenes feeling very stop-start.
- The footage is all well exposed due to using the correct ISO, aperture, shutter speed and ND filter. This means that the footage will be easy to grade and will retain all the details within the highlights, midtones and shadows of the footage.
What didn't go well
- In some of the footage it is apparent that it is not Tim and Luke driving the van as there is no glare on the window. This means these pieces of footage cannot be used as it is obviously Alex driving the van. However, I captured a lot of footage in a variety of sizes so this does not present an issue.
- Ideally we would have liked to insert a Kent Owl Academy sign in the last image shown above, however, due to another sign being in the way this won't be possible. There were no other corners for the van to turn into where there was a sign positioned well (to put the Kent Owl Academy sign over) and where the van would be turning the correct way to show the slogan. However, I filmed a shot of the van driving past the Kent Owl Academy sign in the original shoot week so this can easily be cut in instead to establish the location.
Wednesday, 20 March 2019
MAJOR-PROJECT UNIT: Shoot Day 7
Shoot Day 7 - Reshoot scenes 4 & 6
Due to the time pressures of the original shoot day for these scenes, the footage needed to be reshot in order to improve both the visual quality and to improve the portrayal of the storyline.
The problems we encountered in the original shoot were:
- Our actor playing Sheila was only able to be with us until 12pm, meaning there was a lot of time pressure which caused the footage to look rushed (decreasing the effectiveness with which the storyline was portrayed whilst also decreasing the quality of the visuals as I was rushed in choosing the correct camera settings to use).
- The car park behind Sheila was busy which also added a time pressure to shooting her single closeup as cars behind Sheila began to exit the car park, meaning the continuity of the scene would have been affected if we didn't film this quickly.
- The weather was bright and sunny meaning that there was bright direct sunlight lighting the actors faces, causing quite harsh lighting conditions to work with.
This meant the things I learnt from the original shoot (and noted to rectify in the reshoot) were:
- Communicate with the producer to ensure the cast will be available for the entire call time. This reduced the time pressure of the shoot, enabling me to frame up and expose the footage correctly. This reduction in time pressure also allowed time to wait for activity in the background of shots to calm down in order to ensure continuity throughout the scene.
- Although myself and the producer did check the weather for the initial shoot, we didn't expect the bright sunlight to have such an impact on the footage as it did. Therefore, it was important (when shooting in this location) to ensure the weather would be slightly more overcast. I checked the weather before the shoot which showed the weather to be expected to be cloudy with a temperature of 12ºC - giving a much more ideal environment for filming.
- Due to the lack of time restriction, we were able to wait for the carpark behind where Sheila's closeup single was shot to be virtually empty which reduced the likelihood of background activity which would interfere with the shot.
The Shoot
The first scene we shot was scene 4 - this is because the scene involves the character Tim getting sprayed with blood which remains on the character for the remainder of the scene and for scene 6.
In the original shoot we didn't shoot the scene chronologically because of the little time we had with our actor playing Sheila (we needed to shoot the parts of the scene with her first) - however, this made the shoot more complicated and as a result the footage looked rough, rushed and poor quality. To rectify this, we decided to shoot the scene in chronological order to reduce the complications we experienced in the initial shoot as we had no time restrictions on this shoot.
I filmed the same shots as I filmed for the original shoot (but exposed and framed better) plus three extra shots to give us more coverage to work with in the edit. The extra shots included; a closeup single of Tim in the van during the dialogue prior to the surgery section of the scene, a medium closeup single of Luke at the back of the van during the same section of dialogue and a long shot of Sheila searching for Sooty before she walks over to the van. The additional coverage of Tim and Luke allows the dialogue prior to the surgery to be faster paced and adds to the urgency of the situation whilst the additional coverage of Sheila helps to build the narrative on her part more (before this shot was included, it seemed that Sheila appeared from nowhere when she approaches Tim and Luke, however, this shot helps to establish that Sheila had already been searching for Sooty when she stumbles upon the men and the van).
When we arrived and for the first couple of hours of filming, the location was relatively empty meaning that continuity between the shots could be ensured. However, after the first couple of hours of shooting, cars began to arrive for a meeting in the church hall. As we had no time restrictions for this shoot, we were able to break for lunch while the location cleared again - this allowed for the continuity of the scene to be retained.
As well as being a little overexposed, some of the footage from the original shoot was slightly soft in focus. This was due to the fact the bright sun made it very difficult to see the LCD screen and determine whether the footage was in focus or not. To ensure this wouldn't be an issue again, I used the focus assist tool which outlines all elements in focus in red - this meant I could clearly see which parts of the frame were in focus to prevent softly focused images.
As with the other shoot days, I based the settings on those used on the test shoots I performed with the Panasonic and then adapted them accordingly for the location. As ISO 500 appeared to be the best ISO to use throughout the test shoots, I decided to use this ISO for all the footage and just adapt the aperture, shutter speed and ND filter to adjust the exposure of the footage.
The settings I used ranged from an aperture of F/7.4 to F/6.3, a shutter speed of 1/50 to 1/48 and from no ND filter to ND filter 1/16. This all depended on where the actors were positioned within the scene and how this affected the light falling on them. I typically used an ND filter of 1/4 during this scene as a lot of it was either filmed outside or facing outside which meant there was a lot of natural light entering the scene. As it is recommended that you do not use an aperture higher than F/10 with this camera to avoid a slightly blurred appearance, I used ND filters instead to reduce the exposure of the shot. I also did not want to choose a shutter speed that was too fast as I wanted a natural motion blur that would be consistent with the rest of the scenes within the project. On the closeups of Tim putting on the latex gloves and prepping the other equipment for surgery I did not use an ND filter as this was all filmed within the van which blocked a lot of the natural light from entering the shot - therefore, an ND filter would have meant the shot would have been incorrectly exposed resulting in a shot that was too dark. In the sections of the scene where the characters were positioned against the bright sky (as opposed to being positioned against the trees and woodlands), I used an ND filter of 1/16 as the sky appeared overexposed otherwise. Below I have shown the different settings used for the variety of different shots I captured. These settings allowed for the subjects to be correctly exposed where you can differentiate between the shadows, highlights and midtones of the footage - this produces a visually better quality image which also gives the best scope for colour grading. The correct exposure of the images allows for all the detail within the footage to be seen - if it were over or under exposed, detail would be missing from the highlights or shadows of the footage, however, these correctly exposed images retain the detail in all these areas.
Scene 6 was a quicker scene to film as this only required capturing three shots (originally, I had planned to shoot this scene in one continuous shot, however, to make the pace of the piece faster, I captured two additional shots to insert in the edit).
To capture this scene, the director directed it the same way as before - this meant I could shoot the continuous panning shot in the same way as I filmed it in the original shoot. We did make a slight change to this shot as we changed the position of the sleeping cat to be under a car rather than by the gate - this was to make my camera movement smoother as I could just pan in one direction rather than having to pan back to reveal the cat - this made the shot look smoother and more polished, whereas, the original shot looked a little clunky. The distance at which the cat was placed was a similar distance between myself and the van - this meant I could use the same focus when pointing at the van and when pointing at the cat - this also helped to make the camera movement more smooth as I only had to pan and zoom rather than pan, zoom and re-focus.
The settings I used kept the ISO at 500, an aperture ranging between F/6.7 and F/6.4, a shutter speed of 1/50 and ranging between using no ND filter and an ND filter of 1/4. I used an ND filter of 1/4 for the exterior shot to avoid the footage appearing overexposed, I removed this ND filter for the interior shot as this made the footage too dark and underexposed. However, I did change the aperture to F/6.4 as keeping it at F/6.7 still had the issue of appearing too dark - therefore, this wider aperture allowed more light into the lens, increasing the exposure. These settings produced footage that appeared correctly exposed which will allow me to manipulate the footage more accurately in the post production and colour grading process.
I used no additional lighting for either of the scenes. I had planned to use a reflector to supplement the natural light coming from the north east facing direction, however, due to the overcast weather, this made very little difference to the look of the shot as there was not a lot of strong light to bounce back onto the actors. Therefore, I decided against using the reflector as it is a big piece of kit which could potentially interfere with the shots (i.e. be seen in the reflection of the van or dip into frame).
What went well
- Due to the weather being more overcast, the visual quality of the footage greatly improved as this eliminated the harsh lights and shadows that fell on the actors faces in the original footage. This will allow for a better colour grade as there is a lower contrast on the footage - allowing for more manipulation of the shadows, highlights, midtones and the colours within these areas of the image. In order to test how well the footage would colour grade before taking over with the fine cut of the edit, I graded stills from the footage to see how much scope I would have with the grade. I graded a still from the original footage and from the reshot footage to show the improvement reshooting the scene has made to the colour grading process. In order to keep with the natural yet cinematic look I tested in the pre-production unit, I graded the footage using an orange and teal LUT which added teal to the shadows of the footage and orange to the highlights. I reduced the intensity of the LUT to 28.4% in order to retain a natural element to the footage whilst making it look slightly more cinematic. I used the same grade on both the original and the re shot footage to show how much more scope reshooting has given the colour grading process. As shown below, the strong sunlight washes out Sheila (despite the use of an ND filter 1/16) which makes the footage appear overexposed. This meant that a lot of detail within the shot has been lost due to this overexposure, making it difficult to grade the highlights, shadows and midtones separately (all of these elements begin to merge into one). In the re shot footage, Sheila is correctly exposed - allowing the highlights, shadows and midtones of the footage to be manipulated more accurately to get the desired result. The difference between the same colour grade on the original and the reshot footage can be seen below.
- Due to less time pressure, we were able to wait for the car park behind Sheila to be virtually empty before shooting the scene. The original footage had a car reversing behind Sheila during her single medium closeup / closeup shot, making this a distraction to the delivery of her dialogue as the audience may be distracted by this instead of focusing on the dialogue being delivered by the actor. As we were under less time pressure on this re shoot, we were able to break whilst the car park emptied and shoot when there was very little movement occurring behind the actor - making the core focus of the scene Sheila and her dialogue - this allows the humour within this scene to properly be portrayed without the distraction of background movement.
- In the original shoot, the character Tim touches the character Sheila's left shoulder with his bloody hand, however, because of the angle I was filming from, the subsequent bloody hand print was not too apparent in the footage. This was an issue for the director to rectify - he directed Tim to touch Sheila's right shoulder instead in the re shoot so that I could capture this action more effectively. I also decided to re frame this single slightly so that the handprint would be more obvious to the audience in order to ensure the comedy of this action was delivered as effectively as possible - something which was missing from the original shoot.
- Following communication with the director and producer / co editor of the project regarding the rough cut - we decided more coverage would be needed for the beginning of scene 4. Originally, in my shot list and the original shoot, I used a continuous panning shot to capture the action prior to the surgery section of the scene. I felt that this worked well, however, it felt a little dragged out in the edit as the actors had to wait for the camera to pan back to them before they delivered the dialogue. Instead, I decided to still capture this shot in the re shoot but to also capture a medium closeup single of Luke and a closeup of Tim that could be used to make this scene tighter in the edit. Furthermore, in the panning shot in the original shoot, I was unable to do the minor zooms used throughout the rest of the film as this would have altered the frame size to be the same for both Tim and Luke (which worked when zooming slightly in to Luke due to being positioned further away from this actor, however, it made the shot too tight on Tim due to being positioned closer to this actor). Therefore, by filming a single of each of these characters for this section of the scene, I was able to use minor zooms like those I have been using throughout the rest of the filming - contributing to the continuity between the scenes.
- Part of the feedback from Simon in the rough cut viewings was that the scenes involving the van driving away need to be sped up and moved along as they slow the narrative down. To do this, I decided to capture more footage of scene 6 to break up the long continuous panning shot that I originally shot of the scene. The additional footage I shot included a closeup single of Tim in the van and a closeup single of Luke in the van - these can be inserted in the edit after the characters enter the vehicle to make the scene faster paced before cutting back to the van driving away and zooming in to reveal the cat. This was a success of the re shoot as it means we have more coverage to work with in the edit which will enable us to rectify problems that have been flagged in the rough cut reviews.
What didn't go well
- Ideally I would have liked to film another take of Sheila's closeup single due to the first bit being slightly overexposed (however, this is rectifiable unlike the overexposure from the original footage). The reason this could not be re filmed was that another car had arrived in the car park behind Sheila which would have meant multiple other shots would have also had to be re filmed (which would have still carried the same risk of more cars arriving and disrupting the continuity of the scene). Therefore, I decided not to shoot another take of this and instead rectify the exposure in post production. I reduced the highlights of the footage to -22, the midtones to -16, the shadows to -20 and the overall exposure to +9 and added the LUT I used on the earlier stills (an orange and teal LUT at intensity 28.4%) to produce the graded version of the footage as shown below.
- In the wide three shot of Luke, Tim and Sheila, you can see that there is no dog in the van where Tim was performing the surgery. This is due to the positioning of the characters as previously Tim was stood in a way that obscured the open door of the van, however, in the reshot footage, Tim is stood slightly more forward so it is apparent there is no dog in the van. Although, this is rectifiable due to the amount of coverage I captured of this scene. Instead of using this wide three shot, we can use the medium two shot of Tim and Luke and Sheila's closeup single to portray the action within this scene rather than using the wide three shot. This means that you can no longer see that there is no dog in the van.
Due to the time pressures of the original shoot day for these scenes, the footage needed to be reshot in order to improve both the visual quality and to improve the portrayal of the storyline.
The problems we encountered in the original shoot were:
- Our actor playing Sheila was only able to be with us until 12pm, meaning there was a lot of time pressure which caused the footage to look rushed (decreasing the effectiveness with which the storyline was portrayed whilst also decreasing the quality of the visuals as I was rushed in choosing the correct camera settings to use).
- The car park behind Sheila was busy which also added a time pressure to shooting her single closeup as cars behind Sheila began to exit the car park, meaning the continuity of the scene would have been affected if we didn't film this quickly.
- The weather was bright and sunny meaning that there was bright direct sunlight lighting the actors faces, causing quite harsh lighting conditions to work with.
This meant the things I learnt from the original shoot (and noted to rectify in the reshoot) were:
- Communicate with the producer to ensure the cast will be available for the entire call time. This reduced the time pressure of the shoot, enabling me to frame up and expose the footage correctly. This reduction in time pressure also allowed time to wait for activity in the background of shots to calm down in order to ensure continuity throughout the scene.
- Although myself and the producer did check the weather for the initial shoot, we didn't expect the bright sunlight to have such an impact on the footage as it did. Therefore, it was important (when shooting in this location) to ensure the weather would be slightly more overcast. I checked the weather before the shoot which showed the weather to be expected to be cloudy with a temperature of 12ºC - giving a much more ideal environment for filming.
- Due to the lack of time restriction, we were able to wait for the carpark behind where Sheila's closeup single was shot to be virtually empty which reduced the likelihood of background activity which would interfere with the shot.
The Shoot
The first scene we shot was scene 4 - this is because the scene involves the character Tim getting sprayed with blood which remains on the character for the remainder of the scene and for scene 6.
In the original shoot we didn't shoot the scene chronologically because of the little time we had with our actor playing Sheila (we needed to shoot the parts of the scene with her first) - however, this made the shoot more complicated and as a result the footage looked rough, rushed and poor quality. To rectify this, we decided to shoot the scene in chronological order to reduce the complications we experienced in the initial shoot as we had no time restrictions on this shoot.
I filmed the same shots as I filmed for the original shoot (but exposed and framed better) plus three extra shots to give us more coverage to work with in the edit. The extra shots included; a closeup single of Tim in the van during the dialogue prior to the surgery section of the scene, a medium closeup single of Luke at the back of the van during the same section of dialogue and a long shot of Sheila searching for Sooty before she walks over to the van. The additional coverage of Tim and Luke allows the dialogue prior to the surgery to be faster paced and adds to the urgency of the situation whilst the additional coverage of Sheila helps to build the narrative on her part more (before this shot was included, it seemed that Sheila appeared from nowhere when she approaches Tim and Luke, however, this shot helps to establish that Sheila had already been searching for Sooty when she stumbles upon the men and the van).
When we arrived and for the first couple of hours of filming, the location was relatively empty meaning that continuity between the shots could be ensured. However, after the first couple of hours of shooting, cars began to arrive for a meeting in the church hall. As we had no time restrictions for this shoot, we were able to break for lunch while the location cleared again - this allowed for the continuity of the scene to be retained.
As well as being a little overexposed, some of the footage from the original shoot was slightly soft in focus. This was due to the fact the bright sun made it very difficult to see the LCD screen and determine whether the footage was in focus or not. To ensure this wouldn't be an issue again, I used the focus assist tool which outlines all elements in focus in red - this meant I could clearly see which parts of the frame were in focus to prevent softly focused images.
As with the other shoot days, I based the settings on those used on the test shoots I performed with the Panasonic and then adapted them accordingly for the location. As ISO 500 appeared to be the best ISO to use throughout the test shoots, I decided to use this ISO for all the footage and just adapt the aperture, shutter speed and ND filter to adjust the exposure of the footage.
The settings I used ranged from an aperture of F/7.4 to F/6.3, a shutter speed of 1/50 to 1/48 and from no ND filter to ND filter 1/16. This all depended on where the actors were positioned within the scene and how this affected the light falling on them. I typically used an ND filter of 1/4 during this scene as a lot of it was either filmed outside or facing outside which meant there was a lot of natural light entering the scene. As it is recommended that you do not use an aperture higher than F/10 with this camera to avoid a slightly blurred appearance, I used ND filters instead to reduce the exposure of the shot. I also did not want to choose a shutter speed that was too fast as I wanted a natural motion blur that would be consistent with the rest of the scenes within the project. On the closeups of Tim putting on the latex gloves and prepping the other equipment for surgery I did not use an ND filter as this was all filmed within the van which blocked a lot of the natural light from entering the shot - therefore, an ND filter would have meant the shot would have been incorrectly exposed resulting in a shot that was too dark. In the sections of the scene where the characters were positioned against the bright sky (as opposed to being positioned against the trees and woodlands), I used an ND filter of 1/16 as the sky appeared overexposed otherwise. Below I have shown the different settings used for the variety of different shots I captured. These settings allowed for the subjects to be correctly exposed where you can differentiate between the shadows, highlights and midtones of the footage - this produces a visually better quality image which also gives the best scope for colour grading. The correct exposure of the images allows for all the detail within the footage to be seen - if it were over or under exposed, detail would be missing from the highlights or shadows of the footage, however, these correctly exposed images retain the detail in all these areas.
Scene 6 was a quicker scene to film as this only required capturing three shots (originally, I had planned to shoot this scene in one continuous shot, however, to make the pace of the piece faster, I captured two additional shots to insert in the edit).
To capture this scene, the director directed it the same way as before - this meant I could shoot the continuous panning shot in the same way as I filmed it in the original shoot. We did make a slight change to this shot as we changed the position of the sleeping cat to be under a car rather than by the gate - this was to make my camera movement smoother as I could just pan in one direction rather than having to pan back to reveal the cat - this made the shot look smoother and more polished, whereas, the original shot looked a little clunky. The distance at which the cat was placed was a similar distance between myself and the van - this meant I could use the same focus when pointing at the van and when pointing at the cat - this also helped to make the camera movement more smooth as I only had to pan and zoom rather than pan, zoom and re-focus.
The settings I used kept the ISO at 500, an aperture ranging between F/6.7 and F/6.4, a shutter speed of 1/50 and ranging between using no ND filter and an ND filter of 1/4. I used an ND filter of 1/4 for the exterior shot to avoid the footage appearing overexposed, I removed this ND filter for the interior shot as this made the footage too dark and underexposed. However, I did change the aperture to F/6.4 as keeping it at F/6.7 still had the issue of appearing too dark - therefore, this wider aperture allowed more light into the lens, increasing the exposure. These settings produced footage that appeared correctly exposed which will allow me to manipulate the footage more accurately in the post production and colour grading process.
I used no additional lighting for either of the scenes. I had planned to use a reflector to supplement the natural light coming from the north east facing direction, however, due to the overcast weather, this made very little difference to the look of the shot as there was not a lot of strong light to bounce back onto the actors. Therefore, I decided against using the reflector as it is a big piece of kit which could potentially interfere with the shots (i.e. be seen in the reflection of the van or dip into frame).
What went well
- Due to the weather being more overcast, the visual quality of the footage greatly improved as this eliminated the harsh lights and shadows that fell on the actors faces in the original footage. This will allow for a better colour grade as there is a lower contrast on the footage - allowing for more manipulation of the shadows, highlights, midtones and the colours within these areas of the image. In order to test how well the footage would colour grade before taking over with the fine cut of the edit, I graded stills from the footage to see how much scope I would have with the grade. I graded a still from the original footage and from the reshot footage to show the improvement reshooting the scene has made to the colour grading process. In order to keep with the natural yet cinematic look I tested in the pre-production unit, I graded the footage using an orange and teal LUT which added teal to the shadows of the footage and orange to the highlights. I reduced the intensity of the LUT to 28.4% in order to retain a natural element to the footage whilst making it look slightly more cinematic. I used the same grade on both the original and the re shot footage to show how much more scope reshooting has given the colour grading process. As shown below, the strong sunlight washes out Sheila (despite the use of an ND filter 1/16) which makes the footage appear overexposed. This meant that a lot of detail within the shot has been lost due to this overexposure, making it difficult to grade the highlights, shadows and midtones separately (all of these elements begin to merge into one). In the re shot footage, Sheila is correctly exposed - allowing the highlights, shadows and midtones of the footage to be manipulated more accurately to get the desired result. The difference between the same colour grade on the original and the reshot footage can be seen below.
- Due to less time pressure, we were able to wait for the car park behind Sheila to be virtually empty before shooting the scene. The original footage had a car reversing behind Sheila during her single medium closeup / closeup shot, making this a distraction to the delivery of her dialogue as the audience may be distracted by this instead of focusing on the dialogue being delivered by the actor. As we were under less time pressure on this re shoot, we were able to break whilst the car park emptied and shoot when there was very little movement occurring behind the actor - making the core focus of the scene Sheila and her dialogue - this allows the humour within this scene to properly be portrayed without the distraction of background movement.
- In the original shoot, the character Tim touches the character Sheila's left shoulder with his bloody hand, however, because of the angle I was filming from, the subsequent bloody hand print was not too apparent in the footage. This was an issue for the director to rectify - he directed Tim to touch Sheila's right shoulder instead in the re shoot so that I could capture this action more effectively. I also decided to re frame this single slightly so that the handprint would be more obvious to the audience in order to ensure the comedy of this action was delivered as effectively as possible - something which was missing from the original shoot.
- Following communication with the director and producer / co editor of the project regarding the rough cut - we decided more coverage would be needed for the beginning of scene 4. Originally, in my shot list and the original shoot, I used a continuous panning shot to capture the action prior to the surgery section of the scene. I felt that this worked well, however, it felt a little dragged out in the edit as the actors had to wait for the camera to pan back to them before they delivered the dialogue. Instead, I decided to still capture this shot in the re shoot but to also capture a medium closeup single of Luke and a closeup of Tim that could be used to make this scene tighter in the edit. Furthermore, in the panning shot in the original shoot, I was unable to do the minor zooms used throughout the rest of the film as this would have altered the frame size to be the same for both Tim and Luke (which worked when zooming slightly in to Luke due to being positioned further away from this actor, however, it made the shot too tight on Tim due to being positioned closer to this actor). Therefore, by filming a single of each of these characters for this section of the scene, I was able to use minor zooms like those I have been using throughout the rest of the filming - contributing to the continuity between the scenes.
- Part of the feedback from Simon in the rough cut viewings was that the scenes involving the van driving away need to be sped up and moved along as they slow the narrative down. To do this, I decided to capture more footage of scene 6 to break up the long continuous panning shot that I originally shot of the scene. The additional footage I shot included a closeup single of Tim in the van and a closeup single of Luke in the van - these can be inserted in the edit after the characters enter the vehicle to make the scene faster paced before cutting back to the van driving away and zooming in to reveal the cat. This was a success of the re shoot as it means we have more coverage to work with in the edit which will enable us to rectify problems that have been flagged in the rough cut reviews.
What didn't go well
- Ideally I would have liked to film another take of Sheila's closeup single due to the first bit being slightly overexposed (however, this is rectifiable unlike the overexposure from the original footage). The reason this could not be re filmed was that another car had arrived in the car park behind Sheila which would have meant multiple other shots would have also had to be re filmed (which would have still carried the same risk of more cars arriving and disrupting the continuity of the scene). Therefore, I decided not to shoot another take of this and instead rectify the exposure in post production. I reduced the highlights of the footage to -22, the midtones to -16, the shadows to -20 and the overall exposure to +9 and added the LUT I used on the earlier stills (an orange and teal LUT at intensity 28.4%) to produce the graded version of the footage as shown below.
- In the wide three shot of Luke, Tim and Sheila, you can see that there is no dog in the van where Tim was performing the surgery. This is due to the positioning of the characters as previously Tim was stood in a way that obscured the open door of the van, however, in the reshot footage, Tim is stood slightly more forward so it is apparent there is no dog in the van. Although, this is rectifiable due to the amount of coverage I captured of this scene. Instead of using this wide three shot, we can use the medium two shot of Tim and Luke and Sheila's closeup single to portray the action within this scene rather than using the wide three shot. This means that you can no longer see that there is no dog in the van.
Wednesday, 13 March 2019
MAJOR-PROJECT UNIT: Voiceover Day
As the audio for the scenes in the Kent Owl Academy car park (scenes 7 & 9) is quite distracting due to the sound of the river behind the car park, Simon suggested that we do a bit of ADR to improve this audio. However, when it came to set up the sound recording equipment for ADR, it appeared that doing ADR actually requires a lot more work than voicing over the original audio. This meant that we couldn't do the ADR with the actors who were already scheduled to come in as we were unaware the sound recording equipment had to be set up differently to how it is usually set up - if we had been made aware that ADR requires a different set up, we would have allowed time to set up the equipment for ADR. However, as the actors were already on their way, there was no time to set up the sound equipment differently.
To make the most of the time with the actors, we decided to record some improvised material instead to accompany some of the van driving scenes. This was so that the ADR day didn't feel wasted - this extra voiceover can then be chopped up and used in different areas of the production to accompany shots where the van is seen driving - this will make it more believable that it is the characters in the van driving around from the locations- it will also help to transition between scenes. (i.e. we recorded a piece of dialogue from Luke where he said "It's just up here on the left" - this can be used in conjunction with a shot of the van turning left towards the Owl Academy to transition the action to this scene).
This improv can also be used in the credits as the final shots show Tim and Luke getting in the van and driving away - this voiceover can then be used to suggest they are reflecting on the events that have unravelled as they drive to their next adventure. This also helps to make the credits more interesting whilst keeping with the tone of the production - most credits are accompanied by music and whilst we are considering the use of music within the production to heighten certain comedic elements, it won't be the typical upbeat music as heard in the majority of sitcom credits like It's Always Sunny or Not Going Out. This means using voiceover during the credits will retain the audience's attention right until the very end as the action is still unravelling through their dialogue until the last credit has rolled - this maximises the engagement with the product in the hope of making it be received more successfully.
What I learnt:
Whilst the ADR day largely didn't affect me as DOP and fine cut editor (although it does affect the overall quality of the production), it is still useful for me to listen through all the audio so that once Mel has cut up and re-assembled the voiceover into more fluent pieces of dialogue, I can check this and point out where alternate pieces of dialogue from the voiceover may be more beneficial to the comedy of the production. Mel will insert the audio and I will adjust it so that it fits with the rest of the audio of the production as my job as fine cut editor is to resolve any audio issues. The voiceover audio is already extremely clear due to being recorded in the sound booth, but the level will need to be adjusted to be consistent with the rest of the product.
To make the most of the time with the actors, we decided to record some improvised material instead to accompany some of the van driving scenes. This was so that the ADR day didn't feel wasted - this extra voiceover can then be chopped up and used in different areas of the production to accompany shots where the van is seen driving - this will make it more believable that it is the characters in the van driving around from the locations- it will also help to transition between scenes. (i.e. we recorded a piece of dialogue from Luke where he said "It's just up here on the left" - this can be used in conjunction with a shot of the van turning left towards the Owl Academy to transition the action to this scene).
This improv can also be used in the credits as the final shots show Tim and Luke getting in the van and driving away - this voiceover can then be used to suggest they are reflecting on the events that have unravelled as they drive to their next adventure. This also helps to make the credits more interesting whilst keeping with the tone of the production - most credits are accompanied by music and whilst we are considering the use of music within the production to heighten certain comedic elements, it won't be the typical upbeat music as heard in the majority of sitcom credits like It's Always Sunny or Not Going Out. This means using voiceover during the credits will retain the audience's attention right until the very end as the action is still unravelling through their dialogue until the last credit has rolled - this maximises the engagement with the product in the hope of making it be received more successfully.
What I learnt:
Whilst the ADR day largely didn't affect me as DOP and fine cut editor (although it does affect the overall quality of the production), it is still useful for me to listen through all the audio so that once Mel has cut up and re-assembled the voiceover into more fluent pieces of dialogue, I can check this and point out where alternate pieces of dialogue from the voiceover may be more beneficial to the comedy of the production. Mel will insert the audio and I will adjust it so that it fits with the rest of the audio of the production as my job as fine cut editor is to resolve any audio issues. The voiceover audio is already extremely clear due to being recorded in the sound booth, but the level will need to be adjusted to be consistent with the rest of the product.
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