The making of Brooke Parker; Editing, Rough Cuts and Music

Here are a few clips collard together from our time filming. This has allowed me to see what needs to be done next and enabled me to look back on my work and discover what parts need improvement. I feel like this is a good point to notice flaws in my work as it is easily rectified at this current stage.



Editing diary entry 1:

Editing is going well! We have managed to re-film the shots we needed to as mentioned above!
I have started to think about sound as well.
I have looked at several tracks on YouTube under the specification of 'suspenseful', 'thriller', 'action' and 'chase sequence'.
These tracks are characterized by a building tempo and dynamics.
However, the tracks I looked differentiated from dupstep-style tracks to classical pieces made for more slow action.
Our sequence needs a good variety of music as it is slow at the beginning; no action is taking place, yet we want a sense of tension to build throughout the opening sequence. This part is where the more classical piano tracks would work.
However, this would not be fitting for the actual chase sequence in which we aim to give a fast paced, yet still tense feel. This is where the dubstep music would fit nicely.

Taking this into account, I took a few copyright free tracks from YouTube and edited them together to make a short track that can be manipulated (cut, looped etc) to fit our chase sequence and adapt to the four individual edits within my group.

After working for a while on Audacity, I managed to create this track that in cooperates both the classical and modern elements of music that appeal to our target audience.

Here is the final track, having compared its duration to my rough cut, it is unfortunately not long enough for my film opening sequence, luckily, I can cut it and loop it to extend the track and make it fit to the relevant frames.




Editing diary entry 2:

So it's been almost three weeks since we began filming and during the whole time, I have been roughly editing the clips that we gathered, now that all the filming is done I can begin to create the final product.

I have edited in the flash back frames and coloured them appropriately so as they are clearly presented as flashbacks. However I still need to colour correct the rest of the sequence.

I have leveled the sound on all of the clips, using both digetic and Foley sounds; the sounds of running were not clear on the recording, so I edited them in, whereas the sound of Brooke dropping her bag, is a great on screen sound which didn't need any further improvement or enhancement.

I have recorded and edited our simple voiceover.

I have also managed to edit on my music track to fit and make it seamlessly loop for as long as I need.

Here is a second rough cut of what I have created so far:

I have added a lot more ambient sound to compliment the background images. For example, I noticed there is a frame in which, behind Brooke Parker, the trees are blowing around, so, I added a quiet sound of wind.

I also filled in the gaps in which there was no sound at all, mostly adding in footsteps.
Whilst I was lucky enough to have found most of the sound effects I needed on Final Cut Pro, however, I required a few extra sounds such as fumbling as Brooke Parker takes off her bag.
After searching YouTube for a while, i found a sound named "Rustling Plastic Film' and used this to create the sound of Brooke removing her bag and placing it down.

All that's left to do is the colour correction! I'm hoping to make the frames seem warmer in colour and have a bit more clarity.

The next step for Brooke Parker is to show it to classmates, friends and family members. This will provide us with a range of feedback that will give us points for improvements, and parts that work well. I am going to be sharing the film of the social networking site Facebook so as not to have a biased view that close friends and family may give.
My group and I also are going to leave the room when our classmates watch it so as they feel confident enough to give feedback without worrying about offending us, which I will be able to act upon in the final stages of my editing.

Editing diary entry 3:

So, I thought I was done, but after reviewing it with my tutor, we took a look at the sound perspective and the length of some clips.
After looking at the clip where the antagonist first appears; we chatted and decided that the clip was too long and it drew away from the already built tension.
I played around with sound and visuals as well so I decided on a black screen with the sound of a heartbeat over it, the banging sound that accompanies the antagonists first appearance sounds almost like a gunshot and the pace of the clip means audiences may not have noticed whether the antagonist is armed or not, amplifying the tension.
I looked at maybe bringing in the music during this window of black,however, it didn't work for the rest of the sequence.

The revised clips now are more tense and certainly add to the thriller/action genre that I am aiming for.