Charlotte Bracken

During this project I have done many things such as production roles, production logs, photographic document, daily production schedules, and production meeting records, practice edits of piecing clips together to create a short film and also the rough edit of my short film with an analysis to explain what is going to be done or could be done to improve the actual edit. All of these assignments which have been completed and posted onto my blog have help with the final edit of my short film.

By producing a production role list on Microsoft Word, the group I was in was then able to decide what each individual will do so that we wasn’t organised and we were rushing about and getting in each other’s way. Having a clear indication on what each individual had to make the job of creating a short film so much easier to get done. As we started to get into the project, we then started to record all the production meetings we had throughout the course which at the time wasn’t many as we all knew what we had to do so we got right on with the task at hand. During each day we recorded exactly what we did throughout the day on a production log which has each date and a brief summary of what we did. Making a photographic document to show what we did and evidence the work actually being done by us was easy for the fact we already had the camera in which we was using so presenting the work onto the blog through PowerPoint was also easy.

After writing about the rough edit and writing about what could be added to improve the edit, I have took that into consideration and added the extra footage we recorded and more transitions and edited certain clips to make it more ghostly as such to give a better effect of the film. Adding sound effects which are relevant to the short film itself, gives it more of an edge which is in that genre and hopefully makes it that little more uneasy for the viewer’s whilst watching it. For example, I added a sound effect of a little girl saying the character’s name, this is at 0:35-0.37 on the YouTube upload. I added another sound effect which said ‘Tabitha come play’ at the time 1:50-1:56. Another sound effect which we had which we recorded ourselves is the scream near the end at 5:14-5:17. Overall I think these sound effects are vital and improve my final edit a little bit more than I thought it would. It now seems creepier as it is the girl saying the words and the scream at the end is jumpy which the aim of the short video is.

The technical quality of the final edit is a good quality. As we filmed it in HD, the edit itself is in better quality than it would be if we filmed it in the standard quality and plays on YouTube in high quality which is a version which more people are becoming use to which is one reason why we put it in HD so more chance of people watching it. In my own edit, I don’t seem to have used many editing techniques because of the genre, I found out hard to find the right techniques which would go perfect with the short film. I have used techniques which made the sound effects sound as if they are echoing and more ghostly which I thought personally was a strength to the sound effect. It helps with reinforcing the genre. There are not many digital effects apart from a few transitions which are used to try and patch up some of the editing. As the individual recorded footage got edited together, some of them didn’t piece together as well as others so in order to fix that problem, some of the clips where stretched and pieced up to go perfectly yet not stretching the video too much to try and keep its original quality of the footage so it looks like it runs 100% smooth. As editing each individual clip and synchronizing the audio clips to the footage, I think that went well and is perfect over all. Some of the actual recordings seem rather quiet and low and in my personal opinion, that’s a weakness to the short film. The main example of this is seen on the YouTube video from 0:46-0:52, this shows the weakness that the short film itself has.

Charlotte Bracken

During this task that I have been assigned, I have acquired many skills which most have been through the works of Adobe Shop Premier. Using Adobe Shop Premier, I have learnt how to properly synchronize recorded footage and audio clips together to perfect timing and also how to add effects and transitions to the sequence even though I didn’t add many to the short film itself. I also acquired skills within Adobe After Effects which helped me do the title credit and end credits for the short film. Being able to add effects to the writing to make it do the things I wanted it to, to blend in with the genre and fit to the short film, I found that easy to do and I thought it was a useful skill gained.

In conclusion to all my experience of doing this assignment, There are certain things within the short film itself that I would change or add to. For instance, I would like to get more knowledgeable with Premier and add more transitions within the video instead of just using cuts and simple transitions. And I would rerecord the sound which I recorded in the certain areas within the short film where the sound quality didn’t seem up to scratch with the rest of the sound within the short film. I would also get more of the teachers help or someone who knows Premier well in order to give me a better understanding of the program in order to gain that professional quality that I need and help me produce a better quality short film.