LO3: Apply Video Effects and Titles and Graphics to the Materials

Colour Grading:

I plan on colour grading the footage as the colour temperature of the raw footage doesn't often match the tone/ mood of the scene (see example below).

The scene that contains this shot is supposed have dark and violent theme, which the warm, orange light doesn't match.

After colour grading this scene, I found that it had much colder and violent themes, connoting the main characters intention.

To colour grade, I started by opening the 'Colour Workspace' in premiere pro by going to 'Window' and then 'Workspaces' and then 'Colour Workspace.'

From here, I expanded the 'Project' window and pressed the 'New Item' button and selected 'Adjustment Layer.'

I then dragged the adjustment layers and extended them to cover the footage I wanted to colour grade. As I was in the colour workspace, all I needed to do was select the adjustment layer and navigate to the 'Lumetri Colour' window where I am given options to change the colour temperature, tint, brightness and other options. I adjusted these settings to how I wanted them for each shot and scene I was colour grading.

Gun Flash:

The reason I will be adding this effect is simply as a way to propel the narrative forward.

I originally created this effect by adding a matte colour layer, shortening it to 1 frame and lowering it's opacity, but this looked tacky and low quality.

So, instead of creating the effect this way, I used the 'lighting effects' effect and customised it to make it look how I wanted it to.

To add this effect, I cut a segment of the footage out, to match the length of the gunshot and applied the 'lighting effects' effect from the effects panel.

Then, in the effect control panel, I modified the settings to match my preferences.

The first change I made was to change the light type to 'omni' this is because it creates the effect of a flash of light that is brightest on Ava's face while still lighting up the surrounding area. I also found that the brightness was too high, so I lowered it to 95%.

Titles and Graphics:

My short film features two main graphics. The Opening Title and the credits.

To create the opening title, I used the text tool to type the title out and then I used the essential graphics window to centre it.

After this, I changed the font to my chosen font and modified the size of the words on either side of 'Mercer'. and adjusted it in the timeline so that it appeared and disappeared when I wanted it to.

The reason I applied no effects to the title is because I wanted it to cut in jarringly as to suit the conventions of the genre.

The rolling credits at the end were very simple to make as all I needed to do was type them out include each role and name how I wanted it and then apply the rolling effect in the essential graphics window.

LO4: Demonstrate Control of the Audio Tracks in the Editing of the Materials

I added in foley effects such as the gunshot and ambience to my short film. These are all examples of diegetic audio that help to add depth and narrative context to the visuals. As well as this, my film featured dialogue as its main focus with it being a conversation based narrative. Furthermore, the use of music at the beginning and end of the short film enhances the mood and establishes the short films genre.

While post-producing my audio, I came across two main issues. The first was unbalanced audio, mostly in relation to the dialogue in comparison with the sound effects. To solve this issue, I balanced the audio levels of all the different dialogue recordings and then individually adjusted the audio levels of each sound effect to the balanced volume of the dialogue.

An example of a time that I needed to balance audio levels was due to the difference in volume between Ava's last line and the gunshot sound effect.

I also came across an issue with reverb in some of the recordings that were captured in the interrogation room with Ethan. This is due to it being quite a large and uninsulated room. To remove/ reduce the echoing, I applied the dereverb effect to the audio clips and adjusted it in the effect controls panels until the reverb was as reduced as it could be.

LO4: Final Production

 

The final production of my film is the improved version of the first draft. I improved the first draft through both self evaluation and audience feedback within both a focus group and online questionnaire.

LO4: Evaluation, Codes and Conventions

My short film, The Mercer Case is of the mystery genre. the conventions of the mystery genre are generally the consistent use of low key lighting and flashback sequences. Throughout a lot of popular mystery genre films, close-ups are used towards the beginning of the film with wide shots and medium close-ups towards the end of the film. This is a method used to connote the discovery of information throughout the narrative.

The use of low key lighting helps to connote that the audience and the 'detective character' doesn't have all of the information. It also helps to tell the audience that there is more to the plot than has been discovered so far.

In my film, I stuck to this convention by using the same low key lighting to show that there is still more information to uncover.

In mystery genre films, close up shots help to convey tension and to show the subtle facial expressions and 'tells' of the characters, helping the audience to learn the plot at the same rate as the detective. When used in a linear style with wide shots (lots of close ups at the beginning and lots of wide shots at the end), it can connote the uncovering of information within the narrative.

I had initially planned on following this convention by using lots of close ups and extreme close ups at the beginning of the film and medium close ups and full shots at the end of the film. However, I don't believe that I executed this as well in the production phase as I had envisioned in the pre-production phase. While I do think part of this was caused by the lenses I used not allowing for that high quality close ups, I also think that the time period I was trying to convey the narrative in didn't allow for as in-depth use of shot types and camera angles as I was ambitioning for. I did stick to the convention of using close ups to show the more subtle facial expressions and 'tells.'

Flashbacks in any film, but especially in mystery genre films is a way of filling in the narrative context by showing what a character is remembering throughout the scene.

I stuck quite closely to the conventions of flashback scenes in films by applying a desaturated effect to the footage. As is conventional in most mystery films, the intent of the flashback scenes in my film are to fill in the missing narrative detail as the detective figures more and more out.

I ended up making a lot of changes from what I had decided on in pre-production simply due to them being 'too ambitious' with regard to the equipment I had available to me (e.g. I had planned to have a dolly zoom shot). Throughout the production phase of the film production, I removed a lot of the camera movements as I found it was very difficult to get a moving shot to move smoothly, and thus it lowered the quality of the footage I was getting. More in terms of special effects, I had to drop the use of the gunshot flash special effect I was going to create using a photography flash light as the light flashed too quickly. So, instead of using the SFX I had planned to use, I applied a flash effect as VFX in post-production. I also ended up needing to change a lot of my plans for cinematography on one of the recording days as the room I had planned to use became unavailable due to the weather (the microphone was picking up the rain sounds). In post-production, I also made some creative editing choices that differed from my storyboards. The main reason for this was due to the footage I had planned on getting wasn't obtainable in production and me deciding that a different bit of footage suited to mood more than what I had planned.

My biggest self criticism about my short film is the unnatural dialogue. I believe that it sounds robotic. In future projects, I want to make sure I take more time to listen to the dialogue spoken out loud to ensure that it sounds natural and human. I could achieve this by running an initial script read where I pay special attention to the phrasing and nature of the dialogue and then work on amending any downfalls to form a new draft of the script. Moving on from this, I could run a second script read to ensure that the changes made were worthwhile. Despite the fact that have previously stated that my planning to use moving shots was ambitious, I believe that the use of moving shots can help to make the scenes feel more dynamic and engaging. This is something I would like to try and integrate into my future projects.

Something that helped me to get a grasp onto where my short film was being held back (especially in the editing process) was audience feedback. While editing, I tend to lose touch with which parts of my film look good and are engaging, and being able to present it to a group of people who haven't been working on the film allows me to gain a fresh perspective on the highs and lows of my short film. Furthermore, having non-media person suggestions on how I could bring a desired effect into a scene allowed me to consider new ideas and methods of creating that desired effect, perhaps in a way that I wouldn't have thought about without a prompt to do so. An example of this is the desaturation on the flashback scenes. While running a focus group, someone said that the flashback scenes weren't obvious enough, and this prompted someone else to suggest removing some of the colour from the scenes to suggest that it is a memory.

LO4: Reflection on Audience Feedback

Loud Unbalanced Dialogue

There were multiple scenes containing Ava that had some loud and overly unbalanced dialogue. To fix this, I went through all the dialogue and set each one to a reasonable volume. I then selected all of the dialogue and opened the audio workspace.

In the audio workspace, in the Essential Sound panel I assigned it as 'dialogue' and pressed auto balance. This feature brings all of the audio levels of the selected tracks to a balanced level which can be finetuned to preference afterwards.

Flashback Scenes

One of the bits of feedback I received was to make the flashback scenes more obviously flashbacks. To create this effect I desaturated the footage by creating another adjustment layer and placing it over the flashback scenes. Then, in the colour workspace, on the lumetri colour panels, I adjusted the saturation of the adjustment layers.

LO4: Gathering Audience Feedback

Focus Group

• Loud, unbalanced dialogue during living room scene and Ava's interrogation scenes.
• Dialogue at end is too quiet.
• Flashback scenes should be made more obvious.
• Maybe desaturate them
• Up the contrast on some scenes
• 2nd Gun Drop
• Slow the Ava shot down
• I tried doing this, but slowing this clip down made it seem jumpy and low quality, so I will be leaving it at its normal speed.
• Ethan leaving the house scene
• His head is too close to the edge of the screen.
• I will be unable to fix this issue due to not having footage I can use to replace it. While I could cut this shot, it has relevance and importance to the plot.

Online Questionnaire/ Survey

LO3: Drafts

Draft 1:

This is the first draft of my short film, The Mercer Case.