Final Film Edit
Welcome back!
I have been working on editing our film opening for the past week, and I had to solve a few problems along the way. After cutting and moving a bunch of clips, I eventually ended up with something cohesive, but the camera moved too quickly and I had to figure out how to slow the clips down. The footage isn't of the best quality, and I think it would have come out better if it had been filmed slower originally (I'm glad I asked the cameraman to re-shoot it slower because this could've come out a lot worse otherwise), but it works. I had to mess around with transitions before I was able to find some that make sense; the transitions consist mostly of additive dissolves and dips to black. The opening credits are put in front of black backgrounds that fade in/out with the dips to black. I made them kind of long, not only because I feel that it helps maintain consistency with the speed of the camera movement, but also because I think that it gives viewers a chance to feel uncomfortable and think about what they have seen.
Color grading was somewhat of an issue for me. Not only am I just not very knowledgeable in the subject, but also the lighting at my house is not ideal for filming. The lights aren't the same kind or the same color throughout the house, which created a difficult problem specifically in the living room. Though the lighting does vary in some of the other clips, it isn't as noticeable because of the timing of the credits and the other cuts in the opening; however, the warmth of the lighting very visibly changes in the middle of the living room. I tried for a pretty long time to fix it (both using premiere's auto color grading and also by messing with things myself) but I couldn't get it to look right. I eventually ended up splitting the clip up into many shorter clips, then trying to adjust the lighting on those, but that made it worse. In the end I had to delete those clips, insert the original footage again, and cut it again to the proper length.
Then came the sound. Ironic that I don't like sound editing, considering that I want to record music, but nevertheless: I was not looking forward to this part. It felt like I'd finally gotten stuff done (the visuals were set), and then I just had to get at it again with the sound. I mentioned to Chloe that I was stressed about doing the sound (I believe I also mentioned that I'm not great at it), and she told me to send her what I had so she could get it finished. The due date was coming up and I had to pack for a two-week vacation abroad (I am not writing this post from home), so her offer helped with some of the stress. I did have some free time one night when I was half asleep, so I worked on the sound myself a bit anyways. I don't know how far Chloe has gotten or what she's been doing and I don't want to pester her about it, but mainly I just want to see what I'm able to create myself.
I kept some of the background chatter from the living scenes and I added a creepy sound that I found online. In addition to a song I found online, I mixed (and sort of wove) these sounds together to go with the visuals. Here's what my premiere looks like, as well as my version of the final product:
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