Johnny - Video Files

Renzo - Sound Files

Morgan - Visual Effects Files

There is a specific format for us to follow for the files in each of our hardrrives. This will allow editing easier for us all, when we edit together.

I believe the visuals/SFX of bubbles would be a good idea and add some personality to the robotic fit we will use.

Vedad, our director, will also supervise our efforts.

We will likely have to use Premiere Pro to match the majority of editor's needs and typical editing softwares, but I may suggest to copy the file over to Davinci Resolve so we can colour correct and add specific effects that could be executed more professionally.

We will also need to use a voice recording studio to get the best voice overs possible regarding the phone calls.

There were some issues with absences but nothing major, I enjoyed the rehearsal sessions.

The sound equipment was easy to use and setup as I was already prepared from the practice sessions. The set itself was outstanding and I really liked the colours choices.

A lot of times I had to record afterwards footsteps and moving things around shots as well as the room tone, as the rustling of the carpet and clothes was a little interfering. I was able to clean this up mostly in post though during data wrangling.

Data wrangling was difficult to do as the H8 recorded with individual folder files, with the actual audio files within them, so I had to individually open, listen, rename and move the audio files into a singular folder on my harddrive.

I assisted with the Jib setup and the camera too, as the sound equipment was easy to setup for me.

It took a while to set everything up s there were some absences or equipment problems, but in the end of the shoot most of it was unavailable to use as one of the actors' outfits was deemed as 'offensive'.

I liked the set colour choices as they consisted of a nice 'healing' green, indicating that it was a turning point in the story for Lena, the main character, who would later find a better decision for herself to release the Goldfish into the wild.

In the end, we managed to get the last shots filmed in the last few minutes before we had to leave as there was another booking of the room straight after us, and we made good progress in the limited time we had, as we only had until 3PM to film too.

One major difficulty for me was that my sound partner who recorded on the day I was not in, recorded on a very low volume, which meant that I had to increase the decibels on Premiere Pro in order to here even just the clapperboard, to then name the file. This meant going into a couple hundred individual folders, importing the sound files, and renaming them from there.

As a lot of the shortlists were mixed and there were often changes of plans, this made the shots a bit more difficult to sort editing wise, but it was still extremely useful in t he editing process.

I have a very big hard drive too, so I was able to copy over all of the video files to my hard drive for editing later on

The plan was that the cameraman/video file sorter (same person which was useful, similar to me being the sound operator and sound editor), would create a timeline of the video. I would then link up all of the sound files on his Premiere Pro timeline, and lock the video track. This was a good choice made by Vedad as it was much easier and coordinated. Then, the effects editor (Morgan) would do her magic on the video after my sound edits.

I was very focused in the editing sessions, and was a little obsessed with getting everything right, even the smallest sounds or errors in the fades/constant power effects (constant power is where the previous sound clip mixed seamlessly to the one after). This required especially more focus as I learned from Vedad after he instructed me to do so, that each line and word of dialogue should fall between -18db and -12db on the sound tracker in the editor app. This meant I had to cut between each line/word sometimes and raise or lower the decibels/volume accordingly. As well as this, I had to make sure that each word/line did not have too much noise/reverb/'ess' effects from the noise reductions and decibel gains.

I also used 'free sound.org' to source some foley sounds such as the washing machine door creaking when closing and shutting, and I even used different creak sound so it didn't sound copy and pasted. As well as this, doors opening in the meeting hall, placing items down and phone ringing effects were sourced.

For the voicemails/phone calls, I also added the 'telephone'/'intercom' sound effect to the lines in the telephone scenes, to make it sound more realistic. I also added a 'dynamics focus' effect to make it sound closes/further away in the scene so it was more realistic.

After a long day of editing, I listened and watched back the final edit of scene 3. I realised the silence of the ending of scene 3, which was made to indicate the thought processes going one in Lena's mind. However, I suddenly had a great idea of adding the previous judgemental/advice lines from the meeting hall/group therapy scene, but to indicate that it was coming from her mind, and to add more immersive/emotional effect, I made it sound more echoey/reverbed.

Music wise, Vedad sourced a very good sound from free sounds.org.

I learned a lot during editing, and realised how I could enter a focused state when I made myself get into the process.