4/20/09 - 4/24/09

Monday: Editing resumed after the Easter holiday. I finally let the editor and director do whatever they want with the footage we had. I went on a different computer and reviewed the sounds that I had downloaded. Throughout the lesson, I literally did nothing. I went around looking at other groups' works in progress, I paced back and forth the lab, I fiddled with the sounds but actually didn't do anything with them, and I took a look at the director and editor to see if they were doing they're doing their jobs. Yes they were. Zero productivity was not something to be proud of, but at least I wasn't being a fuhrer; I was being a producer, which was what I was supposed to be. But to go to such extremes and do absolutely nothing during a lesson? I did my job as a producer, and as a sound editor, I was to record Alec's voiceovers today after school. So I had nothing to do during the lesson. I recorded the voiceovers after school with the Music Department's sound recorder that Mr. Chiang asked for (thanks!) and imported them into the computer. I also transferred them into my USB so I could do some editing at home with Audacity.

Tuesday: Compared to Audacity, Soundtrack Pro is over the moon. It is not a freeware like Audacity is and it is as professional as Final Cut Pro. Cleaning the white noise in Audacity at home proved to be difficult, so I decided to edit the voiceovers at school using Soundtrack Pro. I didn't know how to use Soundtrack Pro, so I watched a couple of tutorials on www.wonderhow.com in the morning. I was an inquirer. I gained knowledge from those tutorials and applied it during my first sound edit session at lunch. I did the same after school. Not a lot of progress was made since it was my first time using Soundtrack Pro.

Wednesday: I was able to use Soundtrack Pro smoothly as I had fiddled around with it the day
before and in the process had become knowledgeable enough. During the lesson, Louise briefly forgot about her director's role; she sat on another computer and was making a poster for our film. I took notice of that and told her to supervise Ella, the editor, and told Andy to work on the poster since he had nothing to do. I continued to edit the voiceovers and managed to finish. I started putting in the voiceovers after school and did some cutting to make the voiceovers in tandem with the footage. I will download extra sound effects tonight to ensure that every action in the film has a sound effect to it.

One thing I noticed when I opened Final Cut Pro was the color correction done to the footage. It was, well, to be frank, nothing special. Most of them looked normal, as in nothing had been done to the footage. I checked to see if effects were applied. Yes. But perhaps they were too subtle. However, I was impressed by the color correction done to the scene in the abandoned school hall and courtyard. But I still couldn't get over the fact that it was so normal. But this was the director's vision after all, so I let it go. I can always color correct the footage to my own liking after the screening.

Thursday: I went over the film today and saw a cut made to the film that was wrong. I remembered it was correct when I saw it cut originally, so I decided to ask the director if she made that cut or not. It was a yes. Here is description of the wrong cut: Andy is chasing Alec. Alec climbs over the railing into the foliage, while Andy has yet to climb over the railing. CUT TO. Andy is over the railing. He is standing on a tree. He continues to pursue Alec. Clearly this was a continuity error. I changed it back into a match on action cut as the changed version just looked unnatural and wrong. I didn't consult the director beforehand but I made the change anyway. I later told the her about it and she justified that cut by saying "you don't have to show everything in a film". I told her that you don't have to show everything only when the subject is performing the same action in different shots. But demolishing a match on action looks both unnatural and wrong. In a way, it was wrong to sabotage the "director's vision", but I was not going sit by and ignore such a mistake. I was principled and was a communicator by telling the director of the mistake that she made. And it was a good thing to make a mistake because we improve by learning from mistakes.

I added all the sound effects into the film. I made a few cuts and shortened some clips so that the sound effects fit. I was satisfied with the fast forward effect that the editor and director had added on the punching shot; I gladly added the punching sound effects. The result: a shot with a slightly twisted but comedic effect. It reminded Julien of Fight Club, a movie which I actually drew inspiration from at the start of pre-production. Happy with the sound, I left the multimedia lab. I'll be adjusting the audio levels to keep them consistent tomorrow. I will also have to shift the sound effects back to their original positions because I accidentally shifted some of them forward towards the end of the editing session.

Friday: The editor said she would be free Thursday after school to make the credits, but she never set foot into the lab. I was disappointed and quite angry. I ended up spending some time making and animating the credits. Yes, animating the credits. Our film ends abruptly, so it would be a shame if the credits were not as energetic as the film itself. Anyway, I "stole" the editor's job because she was being lazy (she wasn't being a communicator so group members like me would misinterpret her absence as laziness; she better come up with a good excuse on Monday). I already did all I could as a producer by making sure people do their jobs, but there was nothing I could do to rid them of their laziness. This paralled an experience I had previously. I was the director during the first project and I told the actors to memorize their lines. They never did. I couldn't do anything about it. I consulted Louise about whether I should make the credits or not and she let me do so. She also let me improve upon the color correction, which I didn't really get to in the end, because I had to adjust volume levels to make the audio consistent throughout the film. We also agreed to export the film on Friday. I was going to, but the technician didn't let me because it would be a waste of electricity to leave the computer running for over the weekend. I'm afraid to say that I agree with him, even though the screening is on Monday and we don't have an exported version of the film. Uh oh.

If I were to export it, then I hope the class looks forward to watching a fast-paced chase sequence which lags every two seconds, since the computer can't handle HDV footage very well....

UPDATE: Ella was actually not free for the whole week. Someone should have informed me about it... OR i should have asked her whether she was available or not. We're not very good communicators.