- Add an overlay / colour burn to give the impression that the van is moving (scene 3)
- Add a shot of a dog where Tim and Luke have hit it (scene 4)
- Tighten the shots to help the flow of the whole production (e.g. opening sequence a bit long)
- Add sound effects (i.e. printing sounds, owl sounds, owl punch sound, the sound of the dog being hit)
- Add music to the night scene to add to the humour and emphasise the element of sneakiness
- Re-do the owl punch to make this flow better
- Work on the sound and colour of the whole production
The first thing I did was tighten the shots and switch out any shots I felt could convey the narrative better. I worked through the project from start to finish, working scene by scene to remove any pauses between the shots that felt too long and would slow down the narrative. To do this, I mainly used the ripple edit tool and the blade edit tool. The ripple edit tool is used to trim a clip and ripple the rest of the clips following it in the timeline to close gaps created by the editing points. This was handy when trimming clips on the same sequence in order to tighten the shots as this meant no awkward gaps were created between the edit points when tightening the shots. Following my research into Adobe Premiere Pro, I opted for this over the rolling edit tool as this is used to move the edit point either forward or backward which changes the in and out point of a sequence. This means by trimming the end of one clip using the rolling edit tool, the following clip's in point is altered - this is not something I wanted to do during the fine cut as the in and out points of each clip were selected by my co-editor during the rough cut as the points that work best to convey the narrative. My job was to simply tighten these clips and replace any that did not effectively convey the narrative, making the ripple edit tool and blade tool a lot handier for the fine cut of the edit. The blade tool is used to cut a clip wherever you choose - this was handy when I wanted to split a clip (either to remove a section of the clip or to insert another clip such as a reaction shot during a sequence of dialogue). I used these tools on each scene to cut down the project to make it tighter in order to make the delivery of the humour punchier which is especially important in a comedy as humour can be lost if shots are lingered on for too long.
In scene 2, I replaced the shot where Tim gets out of the van to observe the slogan. I did this because the shot used in the rough cut breaks the 180 degree rule slightly as I was capturing Tim's reaction shot to the slogan (which meant the camera needed to be positioned opposite where it was when Tim was sat in the van which was the last shot we saw of Tim). Therefore, it feels a little odd to see Tim from a completely different angle with no shot to transition between these completely different angles. So, instead of this shot, I decided to cut to a wide shot of Tim exiting the side of the van but crop it in so that the slogan can't be seen (which would limit the impact of the following zooming in shot of the slogan). This makes more visual sense to the audience as they can now see that Tim has changed positions from inside the van to outside the van, whereas, before it seemed slightly visually confusing as to why Tim was suddenly facing the camera in a different position to where he was previously sat. I may still put in Tim's reaction shot to the slogan as this adds to humour, but I will place it after the wide shot to retain the better flow of the scene and ensure it still makes visual sense.
One sequence which I completely re-did was the owl punch sequence in scene 11. I re-did this as it didn't seem to flow as well as I envisioned it would, causing some of the comedy of this action to be lost as the punch did not appear as frantic and dramatic as originally planned. In the rough cut, this sequence is made up of 9 clips which delays the action occurring and makes it seem less frantic. In the fine cut, this sequence is made up of 6 clips instead. I still wanted to keep a few different angles as the multiple angles from the multiple clips helps to add to the sense of panic that the character is feeling - however, I knew I wanted to cut down the number of angles from the rough cut as this delayed the action too much. I feel I found a good middle ground where there's still multiple angles in quick succession, but the action keeps flowing. I also swapped the clip and cropped in the shot where Tim punches the owl - it went from being a wide / medium two shot to a clear medium two shot. This closer shot emphasises the punch further, making it appear more dramatic. I swapped the clip as the punch in the original clip didn't look like it had as much impact as the clip I chose - this again works to emphasise the humour as the more impact the punch has, the more shocking the action feels. Cropping the shot in also means the fake owl is in shot for less frames - this is important as it is imperative that the audience cannot tell that the owl has been swapped for a fake owl. Therefore, by making sure the fake owl is in as few frames as possible, the idea that Tim is punching a real owl becomes more believable which works to emphasise the humour. I also adjusted the clips following the owl punch to emphasise Mollie's reaction to the owl being punched out of the air - there are now slightly more feathers falling from the air so that the audience are very clear on what has just happened, and there is also now a zoom in to Mollie's reaction to emphasise the expression on her face.
I also added overlays to scene 3 in order to make it appear that the van was moving. I had originally planned to film a tracking shot travelling under some leaves - so that there would be a moving shot of sky and leaves. I then planned to layer this over the top of the shots of Tim and Luke in the van and change the blending mode and opacity so that this footage made it appear that the leaves were shadowing on Tim and Luke to simulate the movement of the vehicle as they drove by. However, this did not turn out as effective as I had hoped. It looked like some leaves were shadowed on Tim and Luke, but it did not look like the van was moving. I then decided to simulate the movement myself. To do this, I knew the shadows on Tim and Luke needed to change as shadows change when you're driving due to the movement (this was one of the major problems with the technique of overlaying the footage of the leaves as they did not move enough to make it seem like the van was moving). To simulate movement, I added segmented black overlays and added cross dissolves between them. These segmented overlays mimic the look of shadows from trees which natural fall on vehicles when they are driving. I then adjusted the opacity on each one so that the shadows falling on their faces varied - this gave a more realistic look as natural shadows are varied and have different densities so it would look unnatural for the shadows to all be of the same opacity. I changed the blend mode to 'hard light' and then changed to opacity to range between 10% - 20%. I then made sure to cut the overlays when Tim and Luke have hit the dog as they are no longer moving in the vehicle - this helps to show that the shadows are there to show movement as they no longer appear when the vehicle is supposed to be stationary.
I also added in additional footage that had been shot such as the shot of the dog once Tim and Luke had hit it and the shot of the river by the Kent Owl Academy car park. These shots aid the narrative of the production. Showing the dog helps the audience to clearly realise what Luke and Tim have just done. Adding the clip of the river helps to suggest why there is a lot of background noise in scene 7 and 9 due to the car park being positioned next to the river. Although I attempted to rectify the audio in scene 7 and 9, it still proves to be a little distracting without the reason that they are next to the river.
Following these adjustments to the visuals of the production, I took on the task of tackling the audio and making this all match from scene to scene and making sure the audio sounded as crisp and good quality as possible. I worked through the audio from the beginning, focusing on one scene at a time. I selected the audio for each clip and altered it in Adobe Audition as this gives you more creative control over the sound.
I began by capturing the noise print for each clip. I highlighted a segment that was only the background noise and captured this as the noise print of the clip.
I then applied the noise reduction effect and altered the percentage by which the noise would be reduced, the decibel level by which the noise would be reduced, the spectral decay rate and the smoothing. I altered these slightly differently for each clip as I didn’t want to just set certain numbers to work by, I wanted to listen to each clip and match it audibly rather than relying on matching the numbers (as matching the numbers doesn't necessarily produce the same sound depending on the original sound that was captured). Although I performed the noise reduction by ear, I tended to keep the numbers fairly similar as the original audio for each clip was already fairly similar. I chose to keep the percentage of noise reduction quite low (between 20%-40%) as any higher than this caused a slight echoed effect which would reduce the quality of the production. I kept the decibels reduced by between 6 - 10 which ensured that the audio levels stayed similar. I altered the spectral decay rate differently for each clip depending on how much background noise / echoing there was - hovering around 10% seemed to produce the clearest audio (but each clip varied slightly). By treating each clip separately, I feel I was able to achieve the best audio as I was not attempting to use a 'one size fits all' technique. Although, I had to ensure that the background noise within each clip was consistent (if it could not be removed in its entirety) - so, even though I treated each clip as individual audio clips, I had to be sure to recall what the audio levels were like in the other clips within the production so that the element of consistency could be retained. Then for each audio clip, I amplified the audio to bring up the level to around -18db.
Once the main audio of the production had been corrected, I took to adding sound effects to the project. I added:
- the printing sound effect (scene 1)
- engine sound (scene 3)
- hitting the dog sound (scene 3)
- engine sound and purr (scene 6)
- squawking and flapping (scene 11)
- punch and owl reaction (scene 11)
I worked through the project from start to finish to pin point where I needed to add the sound effects.
The first sound effect I added was the sound of the printer in scene 1. This really helps add to the comedy of this scene as before, this was just a painfully awkward silence between Tess and Tim and Tim's following dialogue of "printing" did not make sense. Now that this sound effect has been added, the dialogue makes sense and the silent gap has been bridged. I had to trim the audio so that it fitted perfectly into the gap, without trimming it too far that the printing sound got cut off. I also adjusted the level so that it was consistent with the rest of the audio.
In scene 3 I added more engine noise so that it is clear to the audience that the van is moving. Furthermore, I added the sound of the van screeching to a halt and the sound of a dog being hit and whining. This helps to suggest to the audience what has happened before being shown exactly what has happened by the following shot. This also makes it more convincing that the van has hit a dog - this is something I found through my research into "Filming a car hit scene". In the clips I analysed from The Office and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the sound design is the most important part of making it seem like a character has been hit. To make this sound design as convincing as possible, I added multiple layers such as the engine sound, the sound of the tyres screeching and the sound of the dog whimpering.
In scene 6 I also added engine noise from the moment Tim and Luke enter the vehicle which again highlights to the audience that the vehicle is on and about to move - it would make the production feel unnatural and unbelievable if there was a lack of engine noise which would take away from the natural / observational goal of the product. I also added the noise of the cat purring under the car to highlight to the audience that the missing cat is here and sleeping - this sound effect again works to heighten the humour as it is quite a soft sound following quite a frantic beginning to the scene. This contrast works well to emphasise the humour.
In scene 11 I added squawking and flapping noises as Mollie is handling the owl. This is to highlight that something has been done to the owl in the previous scene by Tim and Luke. These noises help to convey the chaos of the scene - this was missing in the rough cut as it just appeared that the owl was flapping a lot. With the additional sound, the scene feels more frantic and chaotic which works as a good build up to the owl punch.
In scene 11 I also added the sound of Tim punching the owl and the sound of the owl squawking as it has been punched. This helps to make this action even more shocking to the audience as the punch did not feel very severe prior to this sound design. Now that the punch seems more severe, the humour has been restored to the scene. I opted to keep the sound after the punch as minimal as possible as it makes the punch seem more dramatic and stand out. The silence adds to the air of tension and compliments Mollie's reaction to what has just happened to her owl.
Fine Cut 1:
What went well
- The scenes where I swapped in different clips in (scene 2 and scene 11) worked to make the production flow better. Replacing these clips helped to rid any sense of visual confusion and also helped to keep the pace of the film pretty fast. A moderately fast pace is essential for a comedy as the audience is being set up to laugh and find humour in the action and dialogue which is difficult to do with a slow pace as they would be waiting too long between laughs which may lead to boredom with the film. Furthermore, I found that replacing some of the visuals also helped me to be able to communicate the narrative in the way I had envisioned. This is something I found through my research into acting as both a DOP and an editor - I contacted Tom Baker to ask for his advice and about his experience being both a DOP and an editor. He suggested that by doing both, you care more about the shots used in the product because you were there for both of these production stages and, therefore, know the shots better. This is definitely true of working on VET-MAN - being in control of shooting the shots meant that I knew which ones worked best and delivered the narrative in the best way, whilst my co-editor was not DOP and, therefore, did not shoot any scenes which meant she did not know if there were any particular shots that were better to use than others (i.e. shots where I felt the zooms were slightly better positioned which would make them more effective in delivering the humour). By taking over in the fine cut, I have been able to replace any shots that I feel could be communicated better through other shots as I have a better knowledge of all the shots that were taken throughout the production as I worked as the DOP.
- The sound effects worked to enhance the production. Throughout the rough cuts, it felt like some of the humour from the script hadn't quite delivered, however, this turned out to be due to the lack of sound design / effects present in the rough versions of the project.
What didn't go well
- Correcting the audio of the production appeared to be the most difficult task. I brought up all the levels to be around -18db - this worked well for most scenes and the audio sounds crisp and clear, however, for scene 7 and 9 the background audio is still distracting. Although I performed noise reduction on the clips, the background noise levels rise and fall throughout both of these scenes which distracts from the dialogue. I will attempt to rectify this for the second fine cut - I will attempt to level out the audio so that it all remains at the same level, rather than dipping when there is no dialogue between the characters.
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