BLOG No.10 Editing

Are you enjoying the editing process?

As the only editor of our film opening, I've really enjoyed the whole process and found it relatively easy to work with without any major technicals issues. At the start of the year when I was first introduced to media studies, I've had some experiences in photography/ editing pictures, and i was able to handle a professional camera knowing all the settings and adjustments (e.g. aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc) that it would make to a photo.

However, as I had completely no experience in film making prior to attending media studies, I was struggling a lot at first on linking all the knowledges I had to filmmaking, especially as the settings and adjustments are just working completely differently. Therefore, as a 'beginner', I had to adjust myself to the whole new system of 'filming' and I started watching tutorials while trying filming to get some hands on experiences before our actual shooting began.

For editing, I kind of had an idea of what to do with the clips we've shot, like the basics- how to import, cut, and export. However, for the more advanced adjustments like sound-matching edits, I've learned it myself by watching tutorials and actually trying it out in the software prior to my actual edit of the film.

What program are you using?

The main software I'm using is 'JianYing'-a Chinese professional application to do edit/sound/color grading. Also, I've used adobe photoshop/lightroom to produce after effects to some images that we shot while we are filming.

This is our timeline

What research have you done to develop your skills?

For the online technologies aspect, I've watched multiple tutorials on Youtube and Bilibili teaching me how to edit and color grade in a professional way using 'JianYing', and how to utilize different lighting positions while shooting such as roof light and back light to create the thrilling effect we want.

Does the editing follow your storyboard?

For the majority of time, my edits had followed my storyboard thanks to the through-rough planning we've done prior to shooting making my life a lot easier. But there were points where the shots have not gone as expected such as in the car scene where there are limits brought by the length's focal length, so certain edits that alternates the framing as well as shot length has to be made in-order for a smoother experience.

Have you applied any special effects? Why have you added them? How have you created special effects?

Special effects/after effects are a key part to my film because they serve the purpose of making our film a lot more intriguing to the audience. I've added multi layers of dynamic effects on to the film to create 'buzzing' and 'visual hallucination' affects when the devil appears in the frame, and this distinctively present the appearance of supernatural force to the audience. Prior to filming, I've seen videos with these types of effects added and thought that they look very cool. And by reading more articles and watching tutorials about it, I've found out sources of plug-ins which allows me to directly drag and drop these effects into the main track which has greatly reduced my work load.

Did you color grade anything in your opening?

Color grading is undoubtedly a very great part of editing, and for me, it is quite the most complicated process. Shooting in RAW format has given me the most space to adjust the settings of each shot, and the first step before all is to correct the white balance. After this, the brightness and contrast are altered to be comfortable to watch by the audience while giving out an overall dim image. And finally, me and my team have decided to go for a two-tone look in the two different settings, which includes a warm filter in the protagonist's home and a cool filter in the car with the devil.

Why is your editing style appropriate for your genre&audience?

With our film's genre being a thriller and the target audience being young people, my editing style is very appropriate to it. The pace of edits are in a mixture of fast and slow, which is a tantalizing technique especially attracted to young people. Also, the sound effects & music used in our film opening are the type that usually gets most accepted by young people, so this is on point as well.

Is the editing a success?

Overall, editing is a big success for me and our group's film, because it has aggregated and improved the moderately filmed clips into a film opening that really brings out the thrilling vibes and suspicious story we want to tell. In conclusion, all the different aspects of editing have gone just in the right way we want it to be in, and this opportunity has helped me to gain a lot of practical experiences that will help in my future film productions.