Post-Production- Editing III

Jack and I are still working on the editing. Today we focussed on making the audio sound fluent and even, equalising sound and using audio transitions to smooth out gaps in the audio. We have finished cutting up the shots, we are now refining audio and video tracks, transitions, colouring, etc... The music looks good with the opening title scene, as does the voiceover, which is good.

Post-production- Music

Jonjo and me have written and recorded the music for the opening title scene. We did so in one night, using Garageband for Mac at my house to do so. We were happy with the end result, and when we gave it to Jack to listen to, he was also happy with it.

We used more modern instruments than are perhaps conventional to 1940s/50s soundtracks, but we attempted to bring in conventional styles, timings and genres to the soundtrack, so that it would not appear out of place despite its modernity. An example of a soundtrack that has also used Film Noir conventional soundtrack styles but with modern instruments is the Sin City soundtrack, composed by John Debney, Graeme Revell and Robert Rodriguez.

The instruments we used were: electric guitar, bass, tambourine and keyboard- using a wide range of keyboard voices to construct a Noir inspired modern piece, such as strings, slow strings, trumpet, flute, piano and tenor sax.

I also recorded the voiceover with my brother, the actor who plays Hunter, which I added noise, grain, compression effects and EQ’d it to make the voiceover sound both old and authentic and clear and understandable.

Below are some pictures from the music writing process

Post-Production- Editing II

Editing is going well, the only problems we have had so far is a stray microphone in the bottom right corner of one of our best shots, but we have managed to get around this by cropping the shot. The editing is being done mainly by Jack and me.

We shot the scene using two cameras, so one of the hardest decisions we have had to make it which shots to use where- considering which work best for framing and stylising; portraying the power struggle between Hunter and Riley- the conveying of meaning; and which shots are most conventional for Film Noir, whilst paying attention to filmmaking rules such as making sure we don’t cross the line- arranging shot order so we avoid doing so.

Post-Production- Editing I

Editing is underway. We managed to successfully sync the audio recorded on the various microphones with the footage, which gives it professional sounding audio- I was worried that this would not work, as it is the first time I have tried to take separate audio recordings.

Production- The Shoot in Pictures

‘The Shoot’ took place on 27^th February. Everything ran pretty smoothly, we ran over the scheduled time by about half an hour, but this was predicted. There were no breakages/arguments/disasters, and so it was successful in nearly every respect. Below are some pictures taken on the day of props, cast and crew.

Pre-production- Review

So far, in terms of pre-production, we have:

-          Written the synopsis of the opening and a brief overview of the story

-          Written the script

-          Written the character profiles

-          Written the shot list

-          Decided the name

-          Assigned actors

-          Set a film date

-          Issued actors with a production schedule, detailing the film date, what they need to bring, when they need to be there, what they will need to do and how long it will take.

-          Issued actors with script and character profiles

-          Rented out equipment for the date of filming

-          Set a location and carried out a recce and risk assessment for the location

Pre-production- Risk Assessment