Directions: Editing- Drama

Once all the filming for my Drama was complete, it was time to edit. I have not gone into too much detail here as a lot of the work involved tiny fine tuning details.

EDITING: DRAMA

Some of the bins

I began the edit by importing all of my footage into Adobe Premiere Pro. I then used the bins to organise all of the footage and audio. For example, I had a bin for each scene; a bin for all the separate audio; a bin for the sound effects; and a bin for the music. I also created five sequences to work in: Scene 1, Scene 2, Sync Clips, Credits, and Final Cut. Next I went through each clip and created an in and out point for the sections I thought I could use in the final cut.

The sequences

SCENE 1

Step 1: Assembly

Next I started to assemble the footage in Scene 1. I didn't worry about fine tuning any cuts yet, I just wanted to get all of my shots in order. I went through the footage and selected the shots I wanted, and then assembled them in the sequence. Whilst I was assembling the footage I noticed that, as I had expected, the extreme wind had ruined all of the sound, even the shots inside the car because we had to shoot from outside the car. I will have to fix this later when working on the sound design.

Step 2: Fine Tuning

Next I watched the sequence back and began fine tuning the cuts, using the ripple delete and rolling edit tools. I adjusted the cuts, and swapped a few shots around. After viewing the opening shot back, I decided it didn't look very good. The wind meant that the shot was very shaky, and so I went back the next day and filmed the shot again, using the same car. Because it is shot from a distance, I didn't need to worry about getting my actor to come back.

Step 3: Sound Design

Next I began working on the sound design. This was a very important step as I had none of my original sound to work with. Before starting, I went out to the car I used are recorded the sounds of the engine being turned on and off, as I didn't do this on the shoot day. I then went onto the YouTube Audio Library and downloaded all of the sounds I thought I could use.

Once I had done all of that, I began putting the sound into the sequence. I started by adding in my ambience sounds which were the sound of crickets in the distance and the sound of a light breeze in the air. Next I added in all the foley sounds, like Walt's footsteps and the sounds of his movement inside the car (e.g. handbrake pull, ignition key turn). Then I added in all the sound effects, like Walt's phone ringing; and the sound of the car as it pulled into frame. Finally I added in the dialogue, which was just Gus's line that is said through Walt's phone.

After I had added all of the sound layers, I had to mix it all together. To do this I used the track and clip mixers. I used them to adjust the balance and dB levels of each audio clip, cutting it in time with the shot changes. I had to think carefully about how I could blend all of the sound layers together so they sound like the how they would all sound if you were there in real life as the scene took place. All the sound you hear when you watch the scene back was added in post as all location sound was unusable.

Using the clip mixer

Once I had locked down all of the sound design, I started working on the music. I had chosen two tracks from the original Breaking Bad soundtrack to use. The first track, "Long Walk Alone", was used in the original scene, however the not the entire scene. For the second half of the scene I had to find a different track. I chose to use one entitled "Baby's Coming". I used the clip mixer to mix the two tracks together.

Step 4: Colour Correction & Grading

Now that I had sound and visuals I was happy with, I began colouring the footage. I started this process by first correcting all of the footage. This meant I was adjust the levels to bring the colours back to how they looked in real life, not how the camera saw them. To do this I used the Lumetri Scopes and the RGB Curves. I went through each shot and balanced the RGB levels and the black and white levels. After I had done this, I could see that the colours and the blacks and whites were more true to how they were in real life.

Using the RGB curves and the Lumetri Scopes

Once I had corrected the footage, I used an adjustment layer and the RGB curves to grade the footage. It's incredible how much grading you can do with just one tool. By adjusting the RGB curves for the highlights, midtones and shadows, I was able to give the footage the look I was hoping for. For this scene I went for a very golden look, as I felt this fit the Breaking Bad style.

Before and after colour correction & grading

And that was it for Scene 1.

SCENE 2

Step 1: Assembly

Before doing anything, I used my sync clips sequence to sync up my dialogue and my footage. I recorded all of Walt's dialogue separately on a clip mic.

Next I started to assemble the footage in Scene 2. I didn't worry about fine tuning any cuts yet, I just wanted to get all of my shots in order. I went through the footage and selected the shots I wanted, and then assembled them in the sequence. For the shots with dialogue, I just copied the clips from the sync clips sequence. Whilst I was assembling the footage I noticed that all of the audio, apart from the dialogue, had been ruined by the wind, something I had expected. This meant, like Scene 1, I would have to do a lot of sound design work.

Step 2: Fine Tuning

Next I watched the sequence back and began fine tuning the cuts, using the ripple delete and rolling edit tools. I adjusted the cuts, and swapped a few shots around. I had to work carefully to cut each shot so the pacing of the scene was right.

Step 3: Sound Design

Once I had a usable set of visuals, I began working on the sound design. This was going to be an important step as I couldn't use any of my original sound. I went onto the YouTube Audio Library and downloaded all of the sounds I thought I could use. I then imported all of my sounds and began adding them to the sequence.

I started by adding my ambience. For this scene I had chosen distant highway and nearby city traffic sound effects. I also decided to add in a distant ambulance and a helicopter flying over, two sounds I heard in the original scene from Breaking Bad. Next I started to add in all of my foley sounds, like Gus's footsteps; and Walt's body movements inside the car. After that I began to add in all of my sound effects, like the sound of Walt's radio turning on.

After I had added all of the sound layers, I had to mix it all together. To do this I used the track and clip mixers. I used them to adjust the balance and dB levels of each audio clip, cutting it in time with the shot changes. I had to think carefully about how I could blend all of the sound layers together so they sound like the how they would all sound if you were there in real life as the scene took place. All the sound you hear when you watch the scene back was added in post as pretty much all location sound was unusable.

Once all of the sound was mixed, I added in a music track. I was able to use the full soundtrack from the original scene. The track is called "Parking Garage Standoff". Because the timing of my scene was slightly different to the original scene, I did have to cut and mix the track so it fitted my cuts and action.

Step 4: Colour Correction & Grading

Same as before, now that I had sound and visuals I was happy with, I began colouring the footage. I started this process by first correcting all of the footage. This meant I was adjust the levels to bring the colours back to how they looked in real life, not how the camera saw them. To do this I used the Lumetri Scopes and the RGB Curves. I went through each shot and balanced the RGB levels and the black and white levels. After I had done this, I could see that the colours and the blacks and whites were more true to how they were in real life.

Once I had corrected the footage, I used an adjustment layer and the RGB curves to grade the footage. By adjusting the RGB curves for the highlights, midtones and shadows, I was able to give the footage the look I was hoping for. For this scene I went for a very grey/light blue look, as I wanted the scene to have an industrial feel to it. I wanted all of the concrete to stand out, and the sky to look natural.

Before and after colour correction & grading

OPENING TITLES AND CREDITS

For the opening titles I used After Effects to recreate the Breaking Bad intro and add my own custom text. This can be found here

For the closing credits, I used Premiere to recreate the style of the Breaking Bad credits. This style involves making the first letter of the first name of each person green. This was pretty simple but effective. I then used DaFont to find a font that closely matched the one used in the show.

Recreating the closing credits

And that was it. The rough cut was complete.

(UPDATE) EDITING AFTER THE ROUGH CUT FEEDBACK

After receiving feedback on the rough cut, these were the changes I made.

I changed the ambience in Scene 1 to something that was more British sounding. I used the sounds of birds singing in the distance as this was what I could hear when I stood on location in real life. I also changed the build up music to a track called "Searching for Jessie". The music fit the scene better and helped build up the tension very effectively. I then used the clip mixer to mix all the sound again.

I had to make a prop bomb and attach it to the car I used in the scene. I then shot some footage of the bomb so that I could cut it into the scene. I decided to add it in after Walt picks up his walkie talkie. I then used After Effects to add a little red light to the bomb, so the audience knew it was active throughout the scene.

And finally I edited a few of the cuts to make them a little tighter.

(UPDATE) EDITING AFTER THE FINE CUT FEEDBACK

After receiving feedback on the fine cut, these were the changes I made.

I adjust a few more cuts to make the scene even tighter. I also swap two shots around as Gus approaches the car to help avoid any confusion as to which direction he was facing.

And finally, I moved the bomb reveal further up the timeline so it cut in after it is revealed that Gus is approaching a car.

And that was it. the final cut was ready for submission.

The final sequence for Scene 1

The final sequence for Scene 2

The final cut with both sequences, titles and credits