In this lesson, continuing on from our last lesson where we were introduced to FinalCut for the first time, we got into our groups, and continued experimenting and discovering new tools and techniques within FinalCut, as a practice for when we come to properly use it for our thriller film opening. After we had another play around with the program, we decided to start editing the beginning scene of our film. During this, George found some music (not sure where from...) and we added this on top of the piece. In addition, before we were even introduced to FinalCut, a few lessons back, we went outside and filmed purely diegetic sound. We recorded the sound of trees, myself walking through bunches of leaves and natural wind. This was all in one continuous take and we did this so that when it came to the actual editing process of the film, in the beginning through the forest/woodlands, we could play the natural diegetic sound we recorded over the initial clip. We did this because after we would've put the non-diegetic music on top of the clips, you wouldn't be able to actually hear the diegetic sound that was recorded on that day through the camera. So, by adding the recorded sound, we were able to manipulate the natural diegetic sound which would've been recorded on the day of filming the beginning sequence. Diegetic sound and natural woodland environment sounds were vital for the opening part of our thriller film, so this task/process was really important.
Because we had already edited a rough draft copy through iMovie (before we were introduced to FinalCut), we knew exactly what clips to use and where we wanted them. So, with this being done, we imported all the clips we know we were going to use into FinalCut, and re-assembled them in there in the order which we liked and originally found through the rough draft copy in iMovie. After all the clips were re-assembled and put together in a smooth, continuous sequence, it was then time to add the on-diegetic sound. As well as the music, we needed a large, echoed and distorted gunshot sound which would play (and echo/fade out...) when the screen went blank, after the gun is seen being held. We all searched for a good gunshot SFX together, and we finally found one which was perfect. After we found it, we immediately imported it straight into FinalCut and placed it over the part in which we want it to be. This took a small bit of time as we needed it dead-on and precisely at a specific time (when the screen goes black after the gun is shown) to ensure that it was effective and flowed well with the sequence. When we finished altering the gunshot SFX (we had to trim some of the sound file as there was a huge gap of silence before the actual gunshot sound) and putting it into the film, we added the music on top as well.
The music was a very eerie and strange piece but it fitted in extremely well with the sequence. As I said, I am not sure where George actually found the music, but it was still brilliant and worked very well. We wanted eerie and sort of unsettling music at the beginning so this was great! After trimming down the music to the specific amount that we wanted and placing it over the sequence, we played it the whole thing back. I was extremely pleased with how it turned out (bearing in mind that this was our first actual edit of our film through FinalCut - discarding the practice session where we used the preliminary task) and I thought that all of the non-diegetic sounds worked brilliantly.
Because George's main focused area of the film is the editing, George did the majority of the editing today, with myself and Jess watching it through and Jess also taking some involvement with editing. Although, Amy wasn't here for today's lesson so she is yet to see it.
Although we have edited it the beginning sequence of our thriller film opening, this may not be the finalised version. For example, we may find some better music or find a better gunshot SFX. But, I love the music and the SFX which we have, but we may get better ideas and want to change things.
I'm not sure where George has saved the sequence to (the editing was done on his mac account), but hopefully in the next lesson we can all get hold of it and post it in future blog posts.
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