This week we had the opportunity to go to the Studio to watch the footage of our shoot day, which Matt had already uploaded to a computer, and crack on with the editing process. In our case, this footage included both video and audio files.
Matt reminded everyone of the basic concepts in Premiere Pro, like the difference between bins and rushes, how to change from one tool to another —like the trimming action—, and the quickest way of selecting and organising footage. We watched all of our attempts, although we had already decided that, unless there were any unexpected problems, we would use the last take. We had agreed on that in the shoot day, as that take was the most complete one with the least/no mistakes. ust in case, we reviewed everything. That didn't take us much time because we had stopped filming half way through with most of the video bits when we noticed an error.
We used a new tool that came in handy that was shown to us by Matt and Luke, which is the possibility of labeling the rushes. We labeled the definite one in pink, which clearly was the last one, as expected. An orange tone was used for the footage which was not entirely wrong and could potentially be used or worked from if any changes occured. The process was similar with the audio. We noticed that, unfortunately, about half of the files were useless because the atmospheric sound was too distracting. There was a constant roar that made the whole recording quite confusing.
Going back to the take which we had selected, we watched it a couple of extra times to make sure it was what we wanted. The acting was okay. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the beginning, in which the couple is chatting and Louisa tells Callum to come to bed with her. They shuffle for about three seconds and then Louisa starts telling him to stop. A bit of a contradiction, isn't it? However, it is not a major drawback, and the coordination among all the actors is impeccable. The cinematography can't be wrong because of its simple nature, but what can actually go wrong is what is included in the frame and what is not. That was correct as well. So the only thing to do in terms of editing was to cut the beginning and ending to get rid of the moments of talking and setting everything to be ready. The classic "Rolling" bit. Then, we thought that we only had to edit the moment in which Callum is shot to be over and done with it, thanks to Henry Russell and his "blood package" he has downloaded from Premiere. All the process seemed quick and almost too easy.
Of course, something had to go wrong. The sound was difficult to make out but we thought it would be fine when we watched it in a quiet room. However, Matt came to supervise our work and told us that it was clear that the microphone that we had used in the shoot day —the professional one, not the one that the camera already has— had not been properly connected to the camera and the recorded sound had been filmed with the standard mic. As a result, if we listened closely to the footage, we could perfectly make out that the voices were not perfectly audible in some parts and that there was a roaring sound making it even worse. It was the regular sound you get from any room —ambience—, but ten times worse because the Studio has lots of machinery and electronic equipment turned on, as well as the lighting. If the external microphone, the good one, had been properly used, we would not have had that problem. It is just a matter of aiming the top part at the actors, and the sound is clear without interference.
Matt went on to tell us that this problem is extremely frequent and that lots of films have been completely re-recorded in terms of sound due to different reasons. An example of this is a scene in "Star Wars Episode II". Two characters are having a conversation in a ship, but the recorded sound during the actual shoot was impossible to use because of the excessive wind boycotts the whole thing. As a consequence, the Sound Design crew had to arrange some sessions with the actors to get the sound right.
Matt reminded everyone of the basic concepts in Premiere Pro, like the difference between bins and rushes, how to change from one tool to another —like the trimming action—, and the quickest way of selecting and organising footage. We watched all of our attempts, although we had already decided that, unless there were any unexpected problems, we would use the last take. We had agreed on that in the shoot day, as that take was the most complete one with the least/no mistakes. ust in case, we reviewed everything. That didn't take us much time because we had stopped filming half way through with most of the video bits when we noticed an error.
We used a new tool that came in handy that was shown to us by Matt and Luke, which is the possibility of labeling the rushes. We labeled the definite one in pink, which clearly was the last one, as expected. An orange tone was used for the footage which was not entirely wrong and could potentially be used or worked from if any changes occured. The process was similar with the audio. We noticed that, unfortunately, about half of the files were useless because the atmospheric sound was too distracting. There was a constant roar that made the whole recording quite confusing.
Going back to the take which we had selected, we watched it a couple of extra times to make sure it was what we wanted. The acting was okay. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the beginning, in which the couple is chatting and Louisa tells Callum to come to bed with her. They shuffle for about three seconds and then Louisa starts telling him to stop. A bit of a contradiction, isn't it? However, it is not a major drawback, and the coordination among all the actors is impeccable. The cinematography can't be wrong because of its simple nature, but what can actually go wrong is what is included in the frame and what is not. That was correct as well. So the only thing to do in terms of editing was to cut the beginning and ending to get rid of the moments of talking and setting everything to be ready. The classic "Rolling" bit. Then, we thought that we only had to edit the moment in which Callum is shot to be over and done with it, thanks to Henry Russell and his "blood package" he has downloaded from Premiere. All the process seemed quick and almost too easy.
Of course, something had to go wrong. The sound was difficult to make out but we thought it would be fine when we watched it in a quiet room. However, Matt came to supervise our work and told us that it was clear that the microphone that we had used in the shoot day —the professional one, not the one that the camera already has— had not been properly connected to the camera and the recorded sound had been filmed with the standard mic. As a result, if we listened closely to the footage, we could perfectly make out that the voices were not perfectly audible in some parts and that there was a roaring sound making it even worse. It was the regular sound you get from any room —ambience—, but ten times worse because the Studio has lots of machinery and electronic equipment turned on, as well as the lighting. If the external microphone, the good one, had been properly used, we would not have had that problem. It is just a matter of aiming the top part at the actors, and the sound is clear without interference.
Matt went on to tell us that this problem is extremely frequent and that lots of films have been completely re-recorded in terms of sound due to different reasons. An example of this is a scene in "Star Wars Episode II". Two characters are having a conversation in a ship, but the recorded sound during the actual shoot was impossible to use because of the excessive wind boycotts the whole thing. As a consequence, the Sound Design crew had to arrange some sessions with the actors to get the sound right.
I admit that when we learnt about this problem we weren't very pleased, because that meant contacting all the actors again and getting organised for a good hour of two of sound recording. Furthermore, there is a moment in which we see Callum's face while he's speaking so the lip sync is going to be difficult to do in that part. I am glad that our choice of cinematography doesn't allow us to see many faces while talking. So the next step is to email everyone and work on the sequence once more. I have already done a list of sounds we need apart from the dialogue.
Also, the moment of the shot is going to be achieved in a different manner than we originally thought. Matt said it will be a question of adding a layer with increased exposure mixed with a gunshot to make it look fairly realistic, rather than usingn blood special effects.
Also, the moment of the shot is going to be achieved in a different manner than we originally thought. Matt said it will be a question of adding a layer with increased exposure mixed with a gunshot to make it look fairly realistic, rather than usingn blood special effects.
No comments:
Post a Comment