The challenged and solutions of the post-production process

The Challenges and Solutions of the Post-Production Process

When it came to the postproduction process, I faced many different challenges in all stages. One of the main challenges I faced revolved around the shots I decided to take during the shoot. I wanted to get some shots in a negative frame and other shots which had a more central composition. This affected me in the edit as I realised that I did not achieve all the shots I set out to when planning the shoot. I should have taken more shots, for example, close ups without a negative frame/more over the shoulder shots/dirty shots which covered the whole script, this would have allowed me more options in the edit. I felt limited in the editing process as to which shots I could use due to this. I quickly realised how I could have made better editing choices by getting even more coverage than I had originally planned.

After a rough cut review, it was discussed that I should only use the negative frame shots when using them to symbolise the relationship between the two characters. I agreed with this constructive criticism but due to the limited shots I took I was unable to act on this. Another downfall of the negative framing I faced was that I struggled to cut from a negative frame to a more centrally composed frame. This was because the subject would physically move within the frame while staying stationary. It was very unnatural, and I had to overcome this by using different shots when cutting away from a negative frame.

To take a more dynamic approach to the scene I attempted a few shots in which I applied a slow zoom on the characters at an influential part of the scene. This did not go as planned therefore it did not have the intended effect in the edit. I only ended up using a small segment of this shot as the zoom speed was far greater than my intentions and the shot appeared unnatural. I also wanted this to be a discreet element of the scene however it was more obvious due to the speed. In hindsight, I should have used the track to achieve these shots as the camera I used had a minimum zoom speed. With the track I could have gotten a slower and smoother shot which would have satisfied my intentions.

I also added an adjustment layer and cropped this by 10% on the top and bottom to change the aspect ratio, to make the scene appear more filmic. This also helped hide the boom pole which slowly crept into some shots. For one shot I had to scale the shot up to remove the boom pole in the top right corner as much as possible. I also added a vignette using this adjustment layer to darken the edge of the frames which helped with over-exposure and colour grading. I ensured I feathered this to around 90% so it appeared as natural as possible.

When developing the project, I aimed to take long shots and make long cuts in the edit in order to build emotion/tension. However, due to needing a stand in actor last minute I had to use a teleprompter, this led him to reading the dialogue at a faster pace and in a more energetic way than I was aiming for. To accommodate for this, I made shorter cuts to match the pace of the actor. The actress had more time to prepare for the shoot so performed at a slower pace which meant I could still use longer cuts like I intended to. This helped build emotion for her monologue, I think this benefited the piece as it put more emphasis on her outlook on life after death and ended on a more hopeful note compared to the other, more realistic, outlook on the afterlife.

Lighting on set was difficult during the shoot as we struggled with natural light alternating from one shot to another. Due to location restrictions the windows could not be covered meaning some highlights were extremely visible and not in-keeping with the ‘warm’ look I set out to create. This produced challenges in the colour grading process as some shots were far too warm and orange and I had to bring this down to a more natural level in premier pro. Despite my best efforts some shots still look too warm compared to others. I used LED lights on the shoot paired with tungsten filters to help create this warm look. One of the LED lights had faulty batteries and stopped working and I had the wrong power leads so could not run the lights off the mains. This really affected my ability to control the lighting and the colour grading process as I was one light source short nearer the end of the shoot. When colour grading, I used the colour wheels to change the level of shadows, mid-tones and highlights as well as bringing the blacks and saturation down. This allowed me to get as close to my intended look as possible. I found the comparison view and apply match tools useful in the colour grading process as I could easily reproduce the same look across multiple clips.

I made some mistakes with sound on set which made the edit hard. For example, I did not sue the clapper board correctly and I did not announce each shot at the beginning of the take, this made it hard for me to link each audio clip with its corresponding video clip quickly and proved very time consuming. This was also made hard because we forgot to use the camera mic which also would have aided me in matching the sound and visuals.

I found sound design to be a challenge as I wanted to underscore the piece without overpowering the dialogue and taking away from the performance. I used a deep, rumble like sound to run throughout and build tension with higher, and a more uplifting sound to score the more uplifting elements of the scene. The scene comes from a series which operates within the horror genre, so I began using a similar style of music, however, the scene has no elements of the horror genre, so I change the sound design to make it feel calmer and more emotional. This took some trial and error to compliment the scene without being overpowering. To achieve this, I used the audio mixer to change the levels of the audio. One of the main parts of my rough-cut feedback was that I had not changed the audio from mono to stereo, this was the first thing I fixed by going into effects>special>fill right with left. I then used the audio mixer to adjust the level of the dialogue, bringing it up or down, to reach the target audio of -3 - -12 dB. When adjusting the music I used the same technique but brought the audio levels right down in order to nor overpower the dialogue. I also used the Lowpass audio effect to muffle the music so it was less overbearing, for some I changed the level of Hz in the effect controls to create an even more muffled sound.

Overall, I enjoyed the editing process but wish I had filmed more coverage and had better control over the lighting which would have resulted in me creating a better final piece.