Sound & Editing

Sound
We had a lot of issues with sound as we realised that without external audio, we would find it difficult to produce the diegetic sound needed for the characters dialogue. However we accomplished this through obtaining an external audio device in the form of a microphone to record speech during filming, we did have trouble when recording as it not only picked up our voices but it picked up the background noise too. Luckily through editing we managed to pinpoint the speech and reduce the background sound. Not only did Final Cut enable us to do this, it enabled us to add in the extra non-diegetic sounds such as doors opening/closing, footsteps, and action scenes involving punches. As well as this we imported sound effects to contribute to the flashback effect and the mood music to give it an eery feel and to convey what we wanted our film to be to our audience. Through feedback from the film i have been told that the music really e

We also recorded a commentary running over the footage in which we recorded ourselves through the computer and importing it over the final edited footage, leaving us with two versions of our thriller opening, a directors commentary in which we informed the audience about the decisions we made, we also did a lot of research into commentaries, and the actual opening.

Editing
Editing wise we used the software - Final Cut Pro X, the latest final cut programme. Final Cut is renowned for its industry like performance and software therefore we were very blessed to be editing on such a significantly good editing software. As you can see in this screen shot, this is the basic layout of Final Cut. In the top left hand corner you can see the various imported clips from the camera, we selected the clips we wanted and dragged them to the editing timeline seen below the preview screen and the film strip. We proceeded to edit through the dragging and placing tools on the editing timeline, as you can see we compounded the clips we wanted to use (film clips are blue) and when applicable, we used various transitions between the clips - we often used these transitions to convey a sense of flashback or when our character loses consciousness. The green bar represents sound. Final cut allowed us to import the sound from the camera separately then connect it with the clips. We also managed to monitor the sound and adjust its volume when necessary as well as managing to expel background sound - something we had trouble with due to the quality of our external audio mic. The preview screen allowed us to view what we were producing during editing, meaning it was really easy to make changes and view mistakes and keep re-doing it until we got our final product. The bar on the far right ops up when you select a certain clip. This allows us to adjust the clip, through this we can change colour saturation, darkness, speed of the clip, clip effects etc. Therefore allowing us to adjust the lighting and match the colour for continuity. The small section on the bottom right has various different options such as titles, transitions, music, and clip effects. We used this to our advantage to create the flashback effect. For example we used certain clip effects and added them onto the specific clip on the timeline to convey the sense of a flashback. We also added titles to the clip to state our various roles in the film and also give the audience an insight to the production of the film. We also added a backing track that we found, to add tension to the film and keep the audience on the edge of their seat.

Editing Timeline allowed us to drag and edit clips as well as add sound to the film (green bars). This allowed us to view our process of editing and monitor the length of the film and the various clips used.