It's a Wrap

Post-Production Journey

Filming pick-ups went smoothly and now that filming is over, editing has become the top priority for my group. We decided to distribute the clips using our iPhone's AirDrop feature as a quick way for us to view the footage. The purpose of doing this was to allow all of us to go over the clips my editor would be working with. We collaborated with my editor outside of our meeting periods; helping to comment specifically on what clips should stay in the film and what is unnecessary by having all the footage on our own devices. 

Implementing Editing Tips 

To develop a general knowledge of editing, I watched a "Beginning's Guide to Video Editing" video that my instructor recommended. This video was highly informational for the organizational style it suggested and for giving an overview of basic editing tools.

The video I watched to provide me with the basic fundamentals of editing. 

"A-Roll" was used to group headshots together and "B-Roll" for footage of objects and landscapes. To review the film clearly, this method proved beneficial. I created two albums titled with the same terms and separated the footage based on what was being shown so that the next step of editing (deciding on definitive takes) could be done with ease.

The albums I created to divide the clips according to whether characters or objects are being shown.

When discussing reaction shots of the film's characters with my group, I could open the album titled "A-roll" and find these clips neatly grouped away from the rest of the film, isolating certain scenes to discuss with my group for revision. Looking back, this is something I wish we had done earlier as we reviewed the film throughout production days. Once editing began on the first day back, I realized some of our reaction shots had auto-focus on after production had already wrapped up and I think by grouping shots this way, we would have noticed this error from having the reaction shots side by side and done them again. Nonetheless, I learned how important it is to group film this way during the process of not just editing, but production periods going forward as a filmmaker. 

Another editing tip discussed in the video was to edit scenes backward; putting the last takes of a scene first instead of how it was filmed (chronological order). This thought process here is that if we redid takes for a scene multiple times, the last one tends to be the one we put the most effort into because of the learning growth experienced in the takes beforehand, therefore they are usually the definitive takes. I was able to rule out takes more quickly with my group and compare the same scene done in various takes more efficiently. To support my editor as director, educating myself on editing techniques, no matter how basic, developed my understanding of his role to work better alongside him and sustain the vision we originally had for the film during this editing process.