Joshua Jones: Television Production

Major Project: Editing 'Bobbie & Clive'

For this project I am also the editor. I will be in charge of assembling the edit, colour correcting the footage, carrying out any visual effects work, creating the credits, and mixing the sound.

EDITING 'BOBBIE & CLIVE'

Editing this film was a very long and complicated process. This was the most time I've ever spent editing anything, and the most work I've ever put into an edit. I will try to put every detail into this blogpost, but there are a lot of fine tuning details that'll I'll probably leave out.

As I had already set up my edit and logged all of the footage, I was able to get straight on with the edit.

Syncing

Normally the first step of the editing process is to assemble all of the footage on the timeline and start cutting it together. However on this occasion I chose to sync all of my footage and sound up first, as I felt further down the line this would save me time, and it would more difficult to sync everything up once I had started cutting things down.

Premiere Pro does have a auto syncing tool but in the past it hasn't worked very well for me so I chose not to use it. To sync the sound up I created new timelines for each scene which I called scenename_SYNC so I could identify them in my bins.

My syncing sequences

I then added the clips first to the timeline. For each clip I zoomed in on the camera audio and found the spike created by the clapper board. I then found the corresponding audio clip and spike and then synced the clips up on the timeline using the spikes.

Syncing using the audio spikes

For each clip I had two audio clips as we recorded using multiple mics. The first audio clip has the boom mic and Clive's mic on it, and the second audio clip has Bobbie's mic on it. Once all the audio was synced for each clip, I went back through and slit the three mic channels up onto separate timeline tracks and labelled those timeline tracks so I could easily find them. This would make the editing process easier further down the line during the sound mixing process.

Splitting the clips up into their separate channels

Once all of this was complete, the syncing process was done and I could begin to assemble the film.

Assembly

The next step of the process was to begin assembling the film. Earlier on in the process of making this film I had created a shooting script that pretty much was an edit of this film but on paper. So to assemble this film I just followed that shooting script.

I began by doing all of the smallest scenes as I knew they'd take less time, and then I worked on the longer scenes. For each edit I did a small about of sound mixing by blending the sound between clips which helps blend the edits and make them seem less obvious.

Set-up for the assembly edit

The hardest part about the assembly process was choosing which takes to use. As I'm also the director, I went through each take for each shot in each scene and made the decision as to which I thought was best. They will most likely change as the process continues.

Once I was happy with the assembly cuts of each scene I moved onto the next stage.

Fine Tuning

My next stage was fine tuning. I went back through each sequence and used the ripple delete and rolling edit tools to tighten up some of the edits I had made. This was a very quick process as I had already created quite a tight edit during the assembly process.

Sound Design and Mixing

Before doing any sound design or mixing, I first sound cancelled everything. For each clip I opened it's audio in Adobe Audition and use the noise reduction tools to remove any background noise. I found that overall this improved the entire sound edit of the film and helped blend some of the sound edits even more.

Using noise reduction in Adobe Audition

Once all the sound reduction was complete, I moved onto sound design.

An example of some of the sound design tracks

For sound design I was working with Ellen as she was the sound designer. My involvement in this part of the process was placing the sounds onto the time line where Ellen wanted them and then mixing them into the edit. The sound design mostly involved adding in atmos and foley, which really added to each scene and made it feel so much better. More information on sound design can be found on Ellens blog.

After all of the sound design was complete, I began to mix all of the sound. I was aiming to level everything out at about -12db as that is a good level for playback at a good level on most devices. To do this I used the built in audio track and clip mixing tools. I went through each scene and each individual audio clip and levelled it. I found this to be quite a long and difficult process. Trying to balance out everything, and also keep certain sound effects sounding realistic was a challenge but in the end I think I got all it to sound good and well balanced.

Editing the sound in Premiere Pro

Once I was happy with how all the sound was level, and Ellen was happy with the sound design, I moved onto the next stage of the process.

Colour Correction

As part of my role as editor I am in charge of colour correcting all of the footage so it is ready for the colour grading process. The film will be graded by the DOP Ellen. By colour correcting all of the footage, the colour grading process will be made easier because all of the footage will blend nicely pre-grade and so will hopefully blend really well post-grade too.

I used Premiere's built in colour tools to colour correct everything. I used the lumetri scopes as a reference as the two monitors I was using to edit seemed to be showing me different looks for the footage. Most of the footage was already well coloured, however scene 7 had some major issues. Most of the footage was very off in terms of white balance, and so I had to use the white balance tool to try and correct it as best as I could. This was a challenge, and I still don't think I've ever got it perfectly correct. I wish we had set the right white balance during the production days.

I slowly worked my way through each clip white balancing it, colour correcting it and trying to blend each one so the film looking consistent throughout. As I mentioned, this would make the colour grading process a lot easier.

Colour correcting in Premiere using the scopes

Colour Grading

In terms of colour grading that was Ellen's job as she is the DOP. As director I still have a small say in it, but Ellen will lead. My only involvement was finding a good preset to use as a starting point. I found a Premiere present called SL Blue Moon which is designed for Canon 7Ds. Ellen and I had previously discussed that we wanted to go for a natural look with the colour grade, but one that was more cool than warm and I felt this preset represented that quite well. Ellen agreed.

The colour grading process started with us putting the preset on top of the entire film. We then went through the edit, fine tuning the grade for each individual shot. It was a long and challenging process, but I'm happy with the final outcome. I think that starting with a present designed for the camera we used was a good idea, and it definitely saved us a lot of time, as did me colour correcting all of the footage beforehand.

Before grade and colour correction

After grade and colour correction

Visual Effects

There is one visual effects shot in this film, but it is not too obvious. During the filming process we discovered that for our final scene we couldn't actually open the storage room shutter door on for real because it was too loud and slow. So instead we filmed the shot with the door already open with a plan to edit a shutter door opening in post-production. In preparation for this, I took a picture of the door in the same lighting conditions as it would've been in the scene. I then took this picture, and the original shot into After Effects.

In After Effects I added the picture over the shot. I then cropped it and zoomed in so it would match it's positioning if it were there for real. Once this was done I used the position tools to animated the door as though it was opening. I then added motion blur to make it look more realistic. Finally I added some colouring to the door image so it would match the original shot and blend into the colour grade well.

Editing the shutter door effect in After Effects

Back in the main edit, Ellen provided me with a sound effect to put over the shot to again help sell the effect.

Finishing Touches

Now that the main bulk of the film was edited together, I began working on some of the smaller details:

- I added the Triptych animated logo to the start of the film, and mixed some of the sound design over it to blend it into the beginning of the film nicely.

- I put a letterbox on top of the entire film to give it the cinematic look we are going for.

- I added a special credits sequence I created for the film, which I have written about in a different blog post.

- And the final touch was adding the UCA end card to the end of the film.

- At this point in time I hadn't added any music.

And the film was finished. This is a run down of the edit over time. All of these processes did not take place on the first rough cut, they happened over many rough and fine cuts. Feedback over time was mostly about changing some shots around, adding and mixing some more sound design, and adding some music, which we did do for the final edit, including our custom credits track composed by Matthew J Saunders.

Throughout the final stages the colour grade caused a few problems because the film seemed to look different on different screens. We worked very hard on fixing these issues and I believe the final version of the film, with it's colour grade, it's honestly the best we could do. If I were to colour grade a film ever again, I'd probably get a professional to do it.

Overall I am very happy with the final edit. It is a very tightly cut film with great sound design and cinematic clean visuals. The colour grade is natural and cool as intended. I really enjoyed editing this film and watching it take shape.

The final timeline for 'Bobbie & Clive'

Thursday 19 April 2018

Major Project: Poster Design

An important part of any film production is the design of the poster.

POSTER DESIGN

Having already created a logo for 'Bobbie & Clive' earlier in the process, designing a poster wasn't going to take too long because we had something to work off. I completed some research into the heist genre and their designs for posters. Here are a few examples:

They all use a mixture of the colours red, white, and black. They also all have images of the main cast on the front in action style poses. As well as this they all have distinct logos and dark tones.

The poster for the original 'Bonnie & Clyde' looks like this:

Like the others it uses the colours red, white, and black and features the main characters in an action style pose. I like the tagline "they're young... they're in love... and they kill people". I think I might adapt that and use that for 'Bobbie & Clive'. I also like how the images on the poster are painted on, instead of just being printed photographs. This was a common style around the time 'Bonnie & Clyde' was released. I would like to use that style on my poster too.

For the 'Bobbie & Clive' poster I wanted to go for something that looked similar to our logo design. I also wanted to use some of the ideas shown in other heist film poster examples, and the 'Bonnie & Clyde' poster.

After messing around a bit in photoshop, using photos from our shoot, I came up with this:

I adapted the tagline from the 'Bonnie & Clyde' by rewording it to match our film. Bobbie & Clive are middle-aged, they are married and they do need cash. It follows a similar flow to the 'Bonnie & Clyde' tagline, but matches our storyline better. I have use the colours red, white, and black as they are common in this genre of posters. The red, yellow and purple are also the colour scheme established by the logo for this film. Overall I prefer the portrait poster more.

As a group we continued to work on this poster, making small changes to the layout and animated look of the image, and eventually this was our final design:

I think this final poster design represents our film very well. It stands out which is always good for a poster, and I think it will draw people in to watching the film. It follows the genre conventions of a poster and uses the correct layout for a film poster.

Wednesday 18 April 2018

Major Project: Credits Creation

I recently saw a film called Game Night which had an interesting credits sequence that'd I'd like to replicate and adapt for 'Bobbie & Clive'.

CREDITS CREATION

In the film 'Game Night' a group of friends accidentally end up getting involved in a kidnapping when they believe is it part of a game night game. It turns out that their neighbour had set the entire thing up as a joke because he never gets invited to the game nights. The end credits sequence details this neighbours plan for this set up. It does so by showing up a series of clippings and photographs all pinned to a pin board in his basement. It's a really interesting credits sequence that draws the audiences attention and makes them stay to watch. It also represents the style of the film really well.

This inspired me to do something similar for 'Bobbie & Clive'. I wanted the credits sequence to provide the audience with the details of Clive's plan for the heist to fail. I feel this will work well because the audience don't actually what Clive did to make sure it did fail. This will give the credits sequence some purpose and will prevent it from just being another generic white text on a black screen credits sequence.

I will create this credits sequence in Affect Effects and Photoshop. The background images of the information on the pin board will be made with Photoshop, and I will animate them and add text in After Effects.

I created a visual script for the credits sequence so I could work out what visual should go with each credit. Some of the visuals link to the credit. For example, for produced by I will create an image with a schedule for Clive's plan in it, as the producer creates schedules for the film production.

My next step was to create the background images in Photoshop. I want each one to look like a series of clippings pinned on to a pin board. Below are some of the images I created.

Next I put all of the images into After Effects, added the credits text, added some small movement to each one and created this credits sequence:

Overall I really like this credits sequence. I won't say it's unique because the idea for it comes from another film, however it does make our film stand out. It's something people will hopefully remember and hopefully people won't switch off before the credits finish. This sequence will be edited into the final cut of the film.

Sunday 25 March 2018

major project, Production

Major Project: Production Day 3

Almost a week after production started, it was time for our third production day.

PRODUCTION DAY 3

Upon arrival we discovered that the location had changed again since out last production day. The company had moved some furniture around and we were not allowed to move it back. We quickly came up with a solution to this. All we had to do was reshoot our wide shots for scene 7, as you couldn't tell were the furniture was in our close ups and additional shots. This was not ideal as we were already behind schedule but we had no other choice.

Once this was solved we moved on to redressing the office and storage room. Unfortunately we couldn't keep everything set up during the week so we needed to do it all again. We had taken lots of pictures during the second production day so we had good references for the posters, props and boxes.

Our actors arrived on time (we had asked Sophie to come in later as we didn't need her for the start of the day), and once they had settled in I ran them through the changes to the day. We had to shoot scenes 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, & 12, so we had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it.

We began by filming the second half of scene 7 with Craig in it as Frank. I ran the actors through the scene, blocking it out with them and then rehearsing it. Once everyone was happy we began shooting the scene starting with all of the wide shots. We then moved into the close ups and additional shots. It was at this point that the actors highlighted an issue with part of the scene. I was able to resolve this issue and we carried on filming.

When we were happy with the coverage we had we continued by filming scene 9 as it takes place in the same location and uses the same two actors. Again I started by blocking through the scene with Nik and Craig and then they rehearsed it a couple of times. Once we were all happy, we began filming. During filming, Sophie arrived so Ellie went to get her ready so we could continue into scenes with her without having to pause for too long.

Once scenes 7 & 9 were wrapped, we filmed scene 8 that had all three cast members in. During the blocking it became clear that part of the scene wasn't going to work at all, so I had to come up with something else. Originally the toy laser gun was meant to fall out of Bobbie's pocket and onto the floor whilst she was hiding. We didn't have a way of doing that. It's something we forgot to plan for, but luckily we were able to come up with an alternative that still worked well for the story. Once this was sorted, we rehearsed it and carried on filming. We also made time to reshoot the wide shots for the beginning of scene 7.

After completing scenes 7, 8, & 9 the office location was wrapped and de-rigged. By doing it at this point, we saved ourselves some time at the end of the day.

We had a break and then continued filming by moving onto scene 12. This is the final scene of the film, and was the last scene we needed Craig for. As with all other scenes I began by blocking through the scenes with the actors, and then they rehearsed it. Once everyone was happy we began filming starting with the wide shots and then moving in for the close ups and additional coverage. For this scene we used George, a student on the course, for a minor character role. He did a very good job and took direction well. Whilst filming this scene we had a section where Craig had to drop a box of apples. I had the idea to shoot this part with two cameras so we could get two angles of it at the same time. This saved us having to reset the box twice as many times.

Once we'd wrapped scene 12, we sent Craig on his way and continued by filming scenes 3 & 4. Because we were running very behind, I decided to cut scene 3 down from 4 shots to one shot. We shot the scene in one shot on a stabilised camera. Fingers crossed it works out in the edit and we don't need anymore coverage for that scene. We then shot scene 4, which was a simple three camera set up so we were able to get through it quickly. Finally we shot scene 10, and all we had left was scene 1 which we could do without the actors so we saved it until last.

As we ended up saving some time filming scenes 3 & 4, we went back and reshot some stuff from scene 2, as when we reviewed the footage during the week, there were some extra angles we wanted to get.

We managed to wrap pretty much on time, but it ended up being a late finish for the crew because we had a lot of de-rigging to do. We did however save some time because we de-rigged the office earlier in the day, and whilst we were filming outside we had people de-rigging the storage room.

Overall I am happy with how the final production day went. Although we had to rush a few things, I think we still got enough coverage and good performances to fill the edit with. I'm looking forward to editing this film together, and I'm very glad the production days are out of the way.

Here are some behind the scenes photos from production day 3:

Monday 19 March 2018

Major Project: Footage Logging and Setting The Edit Up

Although we haven't finished production yet, I wanted to get an early start on logging all of the footage and sound as I know it will take a while.

FOOTAGE LOGGING

In this instance, when I say footage logging I mean watching back the footage and listening to the audio and logging everything so it's easier to sync up in post. To do this I will rename each clip using the slate information. By doing this when I'm editing I will be able to work out which clips I need to sync up just by looking at their file names.

Below is an example of what this looked like in the end:

The numbers mean:

6.9 (shot number) _6 (scene number) _1 (take number)

The sound files with the (2) are there because each take has two channels of audio in two separate files. The first is the boom mic and Clive's mic, and the second has Bobbie's mic and a blank channel. This means during the syncing process I will need to split the channels up onto three timeline tracks so I know which is which. By doing the logging now, that process will be made easier.

This was a long process, and I still have more to do after the third production day, but overall it will save me a lot of time during the editing stages of the production. Sitting and watching all of the footage and listening to all of the sound has also highlight a couple of issues, so we will need to reshoot some things on our third production day. I'm very glad I did this.

SETTING UP THE EDIT

To save myself more time in post, I have set my edit up already. This just involved configuring all of the settings, creating and organising all of my bins, and importing all of the renamed footage and audio clips that we have so far.

These are my sequence settings:

My research and own personal experience tells me these are the correct settings for our short film.

These are my bins:

I believe that by organising and setting all of this up now, as well as by logging all of the footage now, I will save a lot of time during post-production which is good as we already have less time because of shoot reschedules.

Sunday 18 March 2018

major project, Production