Editing: Music & Sound

We needed music for our film. It took us a while to find some royalty-free music for our opening scene. We had multiple choices before we all collectively chose a nice mellow song called Summertime. When we planned this video, we wanted the sound to be somewhat quiet. For example, we diegetic sound of the engine starting and the car keys were meant to not be too loud or quiet. When we were filming the scenes, we also recorded the sounds and audios themselves to make sure that they wouldn't be too quiet. Now we would be sure that the audio would be heard in the final product. Then, we finally began to edit the scenes together. We clipped some of the sound audios and added them to the track. We also separated the audio from their original videos, and added them under the correct scene. This meaning where the audio was meant to match with the video. We watched as Rafi separated all of the sound while we placed them under the scenes. While this was happening, we were also looking for music choices and options. The music needed to be royalty-free in order to use it with no trouble. So we searched through many different websites for music, which we invisioned being chill and relaxing. We played it out loud for all of us to listen and see if we liked it. We went through about 7 songs. After a while we found a song that seemed to fit best for our film. The song was by the artist Egozi. None of us have ever heard of this artist before. We downloaded the song from the website we found it on, and then applied it to the editing software. We then noticed that the sound effects sounds off with the music together, so we had to get rid of it.

Editing: Putting the Scenes Together

I have already blogged about editing the scenes together and what we have filmed so far. Our group, like many others, filmed our scenes in multiple days. We had already known from the start that we would have to re-edit, as we filmed more scenes. These filming/editing days were throughout 2 months. We had aso switched to use a different editing software than the first time we edited. This was mostly because we were unhappy with the original editing software. Whenever we get more footage, we always sort it out first before editing. By sorting, I mean that we usually sort out the good footage into a seperate folder, to be used later. On the night we were done filming, my partner Mariapaula, accidentally deleted the footage. This is because instead of moving the good footage into a seperate folder, she just deletes the bad footage. So by mistake she deleted one of the good scenes of me getting into the car and driving away. She knew she had made the mistake and asked the rest of the group on what we should do about it. We initially looked up YouTube videos, which then all seemed to direct us to different websites that were supposed to help. So instead we just looked up websites on our own. These claimed to help restore deleted files from SD cards, but then tried to charge us for year-long membership fees. We as a group decided collectively that this was not worth the price. So in the end, we all decided that we should just might as well not reshoot or try to recover the scene, as the scene was not that important to the film anyways. So to prevent any further mistakes, we then handed the editing job to Rafi to do on his own. He then used a software app on his phone for the editing. Which is what we finally ended us using to produce our film.

Helping A Friend Film

As I've mentioned before, a friend of ours, Macy, came over while we filmed. She was doing her own film while we were doing ours. She needed our group to be in her film, and she also helped us with our film. In her film, I was an assassin with a long lost sister who is also an assassin. We both get assigned to kill each other without knowing. She filmed numerous scenes of me. Many of which consist of me being on the phone or similar things. As for our film, she needed a shot of me shaving in the mirror. So we shot the same scene different times and each used different takes for our films.

Another thing that Macy needed me for was a scene of me grabbing my things in the morning before heading out. This consisted of keys, a wallet, and a knife. The wallet had a photo of my "sister" which fell out. This picture is supposed to be the only picture I had left of her. As well as a scene of me getting a photo album I had and sitting down on the couch. On the couch, I looked through them smiling, then slammed the album shut and got up. Later, we then shot a scene of me talking on the phone with my assistant. My assistant was played by Rafi who was shot separately. In that scene I was in the backseat of a car supposed to be an Uber. I speak about being assigned my new victim and then get out of the car.  We also took some pictures of me meant to be a mugshot, which was then used for a different scene without me.

Final Task: Reviewing

After the peer reviewing activity, our group decided to review our own film. We took in the advice and comments given by our peer reviewers. As well as rewatching all the scenes ourselves together. This was done to see if there had been any errors and any possible improvements we could make. We took a picture of the peer review sheet from our peer reviewers. We looked it over and took in their criticisms and their observations. Before this, our film wasn't "finished," because we didn't add any music or titles. Afterwards, Rafi added music and titles to it, so now we were more complete with it. We rewatched every scene, and noticed how some things would look better cut. As well as some scenes being sped up.

For example, the scene where I was picking out my clothes felt too long still, so we both cut it shorter and sped it us. The same can be said about the scene with Mariapaula's clothes. In this scene she is throwing her clothes onto the bed. This appeared to take too long, so we cut it and sped it up to fit much more nicely in the film. Other than small changes like that, not much else was needed to be changed. We also tried different fonts and styles for the titles, when Rafi was editing it. We settled on the current one, which seemed to fit the mood best. As well as the music. The music is not too hardcore or present to draw attention to it, but still present enough to add character to the film.

Peer Review

On Monday, our teacher was absent and left a list on the wall assigning each group a partner. We were also given a sheet of paper to fill out for our peer review. My group was assigned to peer review our classmate Ambi's final task. My group and I approached her and she sent us her project via AirDrop. As soon as she sent her video, I checked the time and it was 22 seconds longer than needed. So on the paper, I wrote that down when asked about it. In the beginning of her video, she included an eyeline match, which I really enjoyed. It included the kidnappers in a library, where one of them removed a book right in front of the camera, where it then revealed them. This also builds up mystery. It leaves the audience wondering what they were up to. It also is a great way to introduce the character, as it was very smooth. One suggestion I gave them would be to reshoot some scenes, as the audio does not match with the video. As well as in some scenes, the reflection of the cameraperson can be scene. Such as in a scene of the girl getting in the car, the car shows the reflection. Also, I would suggest they make some scenes shorter, as they took too long. Especially since the time was 22 seconds longer. As well as making the scenes more smooth. For the majority of the film it feels very choppy. This can easily be fixed with transitions and less ambient noise and music.