Editing

I spent a lot of time planning the order of the our scenes and the various different clips that we shot. As there were a lot of different clips the selection process was very lengthy. This is because when we were filming our movie we thought it to be a good idea to capture as many, almost too many, takes of each scene to make sure that we captured at least one good take.

I started the editing process using iMovie which proved very useful and effective. Unfortunately for me I have an obsession with perfection when it comes to editing movies and images. Therefore I decided to upgrade to Final Cut Pro X. It is a very similar software that offers a lot more to the editing process. I only downloaded a trial version of the software because I wanted to make sure that it was worth the £200 price tag, it is. I then transferred everything I had done on iMovie to my Final Cut Pro. I started by gathering every single clip we had filmed onto the software and cutting away the ones that I didn't want to use. Once I had done this I then put them into the correct order and started editing. 

As we didn't have any microphones or anything to record sound with precision the sound in the movie opening is very bad as all we had was the microphone on the camera. This proved the hardest thing with the editing as it was almost impossible to separate the background noise from the dialogue as it was all part the the recording. But I did the best that I could with what I had. I tried my best to reduce the background noise and enhance the dialogue but it was incredibly difficult. 

I added transitions and sound effects to create a more cinematic effect. I used a variety of transitions as our film opening was comprised of a lot of different clips in many locations. This proved very difficult as I am not an experienced editor so I found it very difficult to create smooth transitions. At the time of editing there were still a few things that hadn't been done that needed to be. For example recording voiceovers and sound effects. These hadn't been completed because of a lack of time before our deadline.  

I also used a variety of colour/film filters to create differentiate between different times. I used a darkened filter for certain flashbacks, a custom filter I made myself for the scenes within the detectives office and many others.

I faced many difficulties with the editing process for my movie opening mainly because of my inexperience when it comes to movie editing. I think that the hardest thing was the transitions. I found it incredibly tough to create smooth transitions between the different clips/scenes within the movie. The other main difficulty was a lack of content. When I had reached the final editing stages I realised a lack of sound and action within the opening. Therefore we decided to remove the initial audio of the detective and the wife having a conversation and completely replaced it with a single voiceover from the perspective of the detective. This worked really well to describe to the audience what was happening and gives an insight the the inner thoughts of the detective. It also helped us with the poor audio quality of the original dialouge as it gave us a chance to add in good audio that the audience can hear well and easily understand.