Welcome back to the blog, readers! Today, I just got done editing my brief in its entirety! I plan to split this process into two separate posts, describing what I did for each scene as well as what processes I used and learned to add certain elements. Let's jump right in!
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What is Scene 1?
There are two main scenes in my brief, one depicts the kidnapping of the mayor, and the other is of Detective Opacus in his home. I worked on editing in chronological order, putting my focus on the crime scene since it was the first (and most important).
What Software Did I End Up Editing In?
I ultimately chose I-Movie as my software of choice for my brief, simply because of its convenience and my prior experiences using it in the past. Going into it, I was not expecting to find as many useful features as I did using Premier Pro earlier this year, but I was gladly proven wrong and was able to use many throughout the process.
Speed Up/Slowing Down
When importing all of the completed clips at once, the movie had a total run time of about 1 minute and 34 seconds. Even though this time was not including the extra details I had not added at that point, such as any additional screens, transitions or the title, I still felt as though some shots had to undergo some editing for me to meet the two minute mark.
That is where I found the clip speed adjustment feature. This allowed me to change the speed of certain parts of a single clip by highlighting with a slider and moving the bottom slider to an either faster or slower clip, essentially shortening or lengthening the clip.
In some instances, I was able to add dramatic slowdown to clips which were recorded too quickly, such as the focus on the pin the antagonist is wearing. In others, I used slow down to delay the time in between actions.
Finding Background Music
I wanted to find an audio track that would fit the mystery and suspense one would feel when watching a crime such as this unfold, so I looked at the music Kevin MacLeod to see if he made anything fitting. MacLeod is an artist who makes royalty-free music, and many of his works are used throughout the internet primarily in videos. I have used some of his music for personal projects of mine in the past, and he has made a surprisingly vast library of music of different genres.
He has all of his royalty-free music posted on his website for download, and has a feature where you can search by genre. I wrote down a few songs from the mystery and suspense mood categories that felt fitting for that of the scene, until I ultimately landed on "Vanishing". This song in particular changes four times throughout 3 minute 55 second duration each changing the mood one may feel while still keeping the mood of mystery at its core.
Coincidentally, with a little bit of aforementioned speeding up and slowing down of clips, I was able to time the different parts of the first scene to different mood changes in the song.
Practicing the Foley Technique
In some clips, the audio was either interrupted or just not captured well, so I looked into a film process similar to Automated Dialogue Replacement, where instead of dialogue being re-recorded, it was sounds. This process is known as the foley technique, and is where everyday sounds are recreated for realism.
I used this technique to recreate the sound of footsteps, and recorded me walking around in different shoes/surfaces for clips I muted involving characters walking/running. I layered these sounds if who characters are on screen at once (as shown in the image below).
What you can also gather from the image above is that the same speed adjustment used for video is also able to be applied to sound. I used this feature many times to sync up footsteps with how fast somebody was walking in a clip, or to express running/walking.
Something else you can see I used in the above screenshot was the audio fade in/out feature, this allowed me to recreate the effect of the antagonist running up from a distance. Other examples I used this was for if a character were to walk off screen, their footsteps would get quieter.
Aside from footsteps, one of the more intricate moments involving other sounds was the initial clip showing the antagonist hold the weapon up to the mayor. This expands upon two clips, but both share four sounds that are only used once throughout the entire opening, as I recorded the other footstep sounds with the intention of using different parts of the recording so that each time I used it they would sound a bit different from one-another.
Of the four sounds used for the initial struggle between the characters, two were frantic footsteps recorded in both my dress shoes and sneakers. In the original clips, which I decided to include the audio cause I caught myself making some grunts (ties to realism), me nor my friend's cousin were really making much sound, thus why recorded some footsteps. Another sound these clips use is the rustling of jackets, which I mimicked by doing the same to a blanket. The fourth sound I recorded, which ended up being an afterthought, was the most complicated. I wanted to pair a sound for when the antagonist raises the weapon, so I got one of my jackets and brushed an ordinary pen against it to try creating what the sound would have sounded like if it were done so during shooting. I have to say it turned out to be one of my favorites. (Audio File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sA7dKfCQ4aCbSAehUP5bqSvc9KkdmunO/view?usp=sharing)
Extracting Audio
I initially experienced difficulty importing my recordings, as they would clash with the background music. This was before I learned that there is an option to move an audio track from the background to foreground and vice versa.
Transitions
There are six transition types iMovie provides:
The three I used for this scene were none (equivalent of a straight cut), dissolve, and fade. I made sure to utilize these in different ways.
For the none type, I used these for clips that were chronologically followed by another. For example, after the mayor mistakes the antagonist for Guise, the clip is followed by a straight cut into the officer searching around with their flashlight.
Alternatively, I used the dissolve type for moments that were extended between two or more clips, such as when the antagonist is shown struggling with the mayor and the focus is then pulled with a clip of the camera zooming in to the pin.
I only used fade in this first scene when transitioning from the establishing shot of the building to the mayor being driven in, as it shows a passage through time.
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Considering this is the primary scene for the entire opening, I made sure to put a lot of time and thought into each feature and element I used. There was a lot of backs and fourths throughout the process, as I had landed on using the techniques detailed above throughout different points of editing. One way my process could have been improved is by doing some deeper research on the "how to" for parts I was stuck on, such as not being able to cut a clip from the beginning or not knowing how to make an audio a background or foreground sound. Overall, I look back on this editing process as a culmination of both what I learned in class and my research, even if the road to get here was a bit bumpy.
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Sites Used During Editing Process:
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Next post will be my second to last regarding my brief, where I will be detailing the process for the other scene of my opening. See you then, readers!
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