3rd Editing Session

Within this edit, the main objective was to colour grade the footage in order to provide the look and feel I intend on achieving with my project; this is to ensure that the audience grasp a the character's emotional response as the colours within the frame enforce a particular idea on both the characters as well as their surroundings.

I decided to have two separate colour pallets for my project; used for different sequences within the film, as this would help provide my desired intentions for the key moments within the media product.

The Basement

For the colour pallet within the basement sequences, I wanted to have a blue tint over the footage as this provided the scene with a bland look whilst connoting the cold and isolated mind state the character 'Max' is experiencing.

How I achieved this look was by manipulating the RGB curves and reducing the colours red and green but the blue within the frame to given my desired look.

Editing timeline with RGB curves

Example#1 Shot before

Example#1 Shot after

Example#2 Shot before

Example#2 Shot after

The Office

For the office sequence, I wanted a colour pallet that is dull but also stylishly represents the location and the characters within them. 

Within the office sequence, I decided to have a predominantly green look for the location as it reflects the dull environment an office tends to have as there it rarely any form of energy or excitement seen by anyone there. The dull look of this sequence is meant to convey the lack of happiness within Max's life, a bleak existence as   he lives daily with nothing but negative intentions to inflict the pain and suffering onto others in order for him to gain some form of pleasure.

Example#1 Shot before

Example#1 shot after

Reflection

Overall the project is coming together very well with all of the major tasks within the edit now done. The product will be complete after some minor tweaking has been made in regards to continuity and pacing.

2nd Day of Reshoots

For the second day of reshoots, some aspects of the basement sequence had to be reshot due to lighting continuity or performance factors. This session relied heavily on our ability to recreate my actor to match exactly how he was over a month ago with the make up on his face as well as his outfit.

We used images taken of our actor (Aayush Joshi) from the first day of filming; images that had the actor covered in the blood. This was used to recreate his look in order to ensure continuity.

1st Day of Reshoots

We begin the reshoots for 'A Lost Soul' by reshooting the entire office sequence, this decision was made because it ensured the continuity with both the props and with the actors; one of the actors (Sam) had a haircut before the reshoots which then ultimately enforced the decision to reshoot the entire sequence from scratch.

We made changes to the scene, one of the most noticeable changes are towards a moment of dialogue between the two actors that involved too much harsh language and the context of the conversation surrounded on the dialogue previously spoken. This ultimately helped pacing and allowed the scene to flow more smoothly. The other changes made were around the character 'Kevin' not only did I make sure that the actor wore the correct outfit this time but I also directed him to engage with 'Max' during his rant.

Overall the shoot went accordingly, I had gathered all of the footage I intended on capturing from this sequence as I have incorporated the improvements needed to make the scene better.  

Documents in the briefcase (Props)

These are images that Max will uncover within the film as he opens up the briefcase. These images are meant to indicate to the character that he's been under surveillance for a long time; being studied and evaluated. All notions that will unfold through the story as Max discovers the reason behind this violation of his privacy. 

Plans for re-shoots

As I have now assembled a couple drafts of my project, there are sequences that must be reshot in order to perfect aspects from different sequences; lighting, performance issues and continuity are factors that are going to be corrected within the re-shoots. The re-shoots phase will take past over the next month or so where I will schedule 2 days where I will re-assemble my cast and crew where we'll spend a day to reshoot the entire office sequence and on the second day will be spent on various shots from the basement sequences.

The emergency funding of £100 from the budget will be used for catering the crew and any additional payments needed during that phase.    

A Lost Soul (Rough Cut #2)

2nd Editing Session

As apart of my 2nd editing session, my prime focus was to address the new draft of 'A Lost Soul' my amending any editing flaws that were pointed out within the feedback by my media teachers. Another aim I intend on pursuing within my next draft is to incorporate a rough sound mix by including the film's score and sound effects; this will help my progress my project as it will come closer to my final vision.

An example shot that was refined by smoothing the camera motion.

To commence this editing session, I began by reworking on established work and refining the visual aspect of 'A Lost Soul'. This decision was made to benefit my work flow as I got the less time consuming tasks done and out of the way. The types of tasks I am referring to is polishing the sequencing of the footage based from my feedback, making decisions as the director on whether or not these ideas will benefit my story. The decision I made to the visual aspect to my film was to trim down the timings on a few shots that dragged unnecessarily in order to help the overall runtime as well as the pace of the film.

Incorporating the film's score into the edit as times was stressful playing around with multiple tracks and finding which one helped deliver the emotions I desired from a given moment from the film, but the task was overall exciting as I got to see my vision truly come to life as the sound was added to another element to the project; as audio is certainly as important or in cases more important than the visuals.

My most time consuming task within this edit of the film was to not only sync the caller's voice to the phone, but also manipulate the pitch so it sounds deeper. This was done firstly by replacing the reference dialogue I record of myself voicing the lines of the caller with the official audio record of Aayush. Once that stage was completed, I then linked the audio with adobe audition which is the software I used to edit the pitch of the audio heard within the next draft of the film.

In order to create the voice of the caller, I brought the audio into the software and duplicated the audio; the intention behind this decision is to provide the voice with a sense of the supernatural entity as he speaks with multiple voices. The reason as to why the pitch has to be deeper is to ultimately emphasis the caller's seriousness connote that the caller is of significants to the story; implying his dominants both technically within the audio but also over the character Max.

Ultimately this was a successful editing session, I am bringing my project closer to being complete; over the next drafts I'll be looking to: refine the sound mix, adding the footage captured from the reshoots and enter the colour grading stage.

'A Lost Soul' Poster (Draft #1)

This is the first edit of my poster for my project, the sole purpose behind this draft is to create a rough imagining of my vision for the film's poster. 

However I have shown my media teachers, they're delighted to see my progress with the ancillary tasks but there are major improvements that must be worked on within the next drafts.

Improvements

• Too many fonts! - I must use at maximum two different font styles, one for the tile and the credits.

• Poster Footer - This writing on the bottom of the poster has to be made smaller.

• Oblivious - "Twisted Minds" I must make it singular and mention "Twisted Mind" to justify that I alone directed the project. 

• Masking Subject better - The character within the poster needs to be worked on by editing the mask around the subject in order make him fit more organically within the poster.

Im sure other comments will be addressed by my media teachers in a later date; but for now I at least have work to accomplish on this draft.

Poster Inspiration

The poster for 'Sicario' is my prime inspiration for the poster of my project, as I find that to design of the poster is both visually stunning whilst presenting the product's story and promoting the tone and themes behind the film. This is creatively achieved by selecting brief images from the film and merging them together to create a collage of the film teasing what audiences can expect. This ultimately what I want to achieve with my poster, teasing my project's story through visual fragments taken from the product itself.

Rough Cut #1 - Feedback

After screening the first cut of my short film to both my media teachers, both of them a pleased with the overall cut in regards to its potential once it's flaws have been amended. I did receive  feedback from both my media teachers commenting on various aspects of my film; sequencing and performance issues are the main issues that my edit currently has. 

I have made two separate note sheets that address the individual comments my teachers made on the first cut of "A Lost Soul". Both contain specific notes on what feedback my teachers made regarding numerous factors of the edit and will be addressed within the next few drafts of my project.

A Lost Soul ( Rough Cut #1)

This is the first cut of 'A Lost Soul' which is a basic assembly of all the footage I had shot during principle photography. Overall this early cut of the film helps me identify where I need to progress from here in order to improve my project within the next edit. But this edit also helps me visualise all of the footage and learn what helps to achieve my envisioned tone but what else can be done to further strengthen my vision. 

1st Editing Session

To begin my 1st editing session on 'A Lost Soul' I started off by organising all of my footage into different folders in order to help manage my workflow. By breaking my film's footage down into sections, I can focus an assembling individual sequences first and then connect them all together.

     

My main focus within this edit was to assemble all of the footage along side with the animatic ; this is to ensure that the pacing and sequencing of my project following according to my plan. However, the slight alteration I have made to the edit is by extending the office sequence of my film to test out all of the footage I've captured.As well as for editing the footage, for the sake of the first cut I have included a reference soundtrack to help me and testers understand what the emotional intention is behind a particular sequence.

     

      

After assembling the first cut of the film, I screened it and immediately identified areas that must be re-edited in order to refine the visuals or pacing; but recognising potential re-shoots to be made. Overall the first editing session was a productive moment to recollect where I currently am with the project but to also progress from here and where to head in terms of development. 

Summary : Wrapped on Shooting for 'A Lost Soul'

To summarise the overall shooting process for 'A Lost Soul' lasted three days; I found that it went smoothly as I was able to capture all of the footage that I planned to get within the time we had allocated to each set.

We did encounter a few technical issues during filming; however they were able to work around them and come to a solution, despite some of them resulting in me sacrificing lighting styles due to the short power supply we had on set. But I was ultimately able to find a compromise with the cinematography of my film since the lighting didn't come on as harshly on my actor's face, culminating for a cleaner look at the actor's appearance and expressions. 

I'm ultimately extremely proud of how the footage has turned out as well as the performances from my actors; I am extremely excited to begin assembling the footage together and will have a rough cut soon.