Post 19: Post Production Report

Post Production Report

Post 19 is the post production report and after we were all happy with the footage we had captured, we then had to go about sorting all of the shots and deciding which ones we wanted to use in our production, this is called logging. Logging required us to individually look through every shot we took and log when the shot started and finished on a Microsoft word document. This was called the Edit Decision List or EDL. We also had to write a description of each scene as well as writing YES or NO next to each shot, yes meaning we would use it and no meaning we wouldn’t. The aim of this is to make it very simple when capturing, as we could just enter the times of the shots we needed and the editing suite (Adobe Premier Pro), would then take the files and add them to a list where we could then select them in the correct order. It is vital that capturing is done, as it would be near impossible to look through every shot and take the ones that you like as you see them and it would also take a lot longer.

I was amazed at how long the logging took us, taking just under 2 weeks to log a film that was meant to be under 6 minutes long, so I am really started to see how strenuous and time consuming the whole process can become and a cannot imagine the effort involved in the making and producing of a full length feature film such as Lord of The Ring, which is over 3 hours long.

Most of the logging went to plan and I was pleased to see that the group was happy to give up their free periods and after school time to get the logging finished. Their was slight issue involving footage that was not actually ours, ending up right in the middle of our footage that we had shot and I was bewildered as to how it had gotten there. I thought that we could just log the shot as well and discard it later on but we asked our teacher, Miss Shipp and she confirmed to just log it and list that we would not need it later on when in the process.

 After we had finished logging, we then had to go through the word document and add all the shots that we had written yes next to, to the adobe premier pro. This process is called capturing. The editing suite would then run through the whole tape, extracting the shots that we had entered and we would then end up with the footage we needed on the suite. Capturing did not take the group very long and once we had finished, it was then the time I had been waiting for since we started the course, editing.

Before we started editing and in past posts, I had made a note that I needed to familiarise myself with the editing suite which would ensure that I knew what I was doing when the editing time would finally come. Just before we shot our film, I had attempted to make a very short film about a train, just get myself into editing again as I had not attempted it in over a year and I knew that there would be many aspects that I would have forgotten. I made a very short and very quick little film about 1 ½ minutes long, and instantly the knowledge such as how to add in a cross-dissolve and how to add the titles and edit them once they had been written came back to me and I think that this was very beneficial to me as it gave me the confidence to sit down and start editing my production groups final piece.

Below is the video I made to Reacquaint myself with the editing Suite - I have used Sony Vegas Platinum 9 Edition to create this short clip

As the Director and script writer of the film, I started the editing and wanted to overlook everything that went on as I had a clear idea of how I wanted production to look. I started by adding in the shots, one by one, cutting them down and making sure they were exactly the length that was needed. I used my past experience to add on the cross dissolves to the clock scenes, although I consulted with my piers before hand, but as a whole, the production of Synchronicity was coming together very well.

Ever since I had written the script for Synchronicity, I had been looking for the correct copyright ad loyalty free music which I could use within the film. I know that there was a scene within the film where I wanted a scary/horror version of the ‘Ringa ringa roses’ nursery rhyme and I also needed to find music to accompany the opening and closing titles and credits. I found this royalty free website where I found this track called “Zombie” which I played to the group and we decided that this would be the piece that would start our film.

Unlike my small home production of a locomotive, our production had to incorporate the universal counter leader and the universal indicator at the to start, which made the whole production look very professional and this also helped us to get the sound at the optimum levels as the counter leader and indicator had a high pitch beep which we would have to adjust the volume to accordingly, and only after the volume was set to the right levels would we alter the sound of the production.

Nicola then took charge of the last part of the editing and I was extremely excited when Nicola called me to say how much they had achieved. The next day I went into the media editing room and I was excitedly greeted by the group who were dying to show me the final stages of the production and the work that had been accomplished.  I was also told that there was a list of things that needed to me adjusted after half term and these things were:

“scene 6 had many continuity errors especially of character movement. We decided we would edit this after the news reported scene had been shot (After half term). From scene 3 onwards, we need to check the brightness and darkness in the office. Scene 11 shot 1 take 2 needs to be cut accordingly, and scene 11 shot 2 take 2 may need some editing of the news reporter. And lastly scene 6 shot 1 take 9 needs a clear sound mix”.

Nicola informed me that while she was editing, she had noticed that the camera had reformatted to 4:3 from 16:9. This was a small problem and a praise her for spotting it. She said that to get around the problem, she had to zoom in on some of the shots which affected some of the quality of the shots but there was nothing that could be done about this.

Nicola also told me that there were some continuity errors with certain shots that I had not noticed and that to fix the issue she had to add some cross dissolves. Nicola states “An example of this was when Isabel is skipping  into the office we could have used a hard cut, however  we decided to cross dissolve it as the motivation would be seen more effective”

To conclude the production before half term, the final piece of music which was the ‘Ringa ringa Roses’ part was actually a recording of some children singing it. Echoes and reverbs where then added to the song which gave it the scary characteristics that I wanted.

It was very pleasing to see that all the groups hard work and that all the time we had spent on all the different stages of production had finally come together and produced what I thought to be a really well made short film.


Logging Rushes
Below are the logging rushes we used in the production of our short film "Synchronicity".