Post-Production: Recording the Voice Over

Following the sound tests we conducted on a Macbook Pro, we realised that we would have to use more sophisticated equipment to record the voice over for our film. We therefore used a standalone microphone to record the voice over, along with a pair of earphones that allowed us to listen back to the sound in real time to ensure that the quality was at the level we wanted. We then exported the recording and laid it over the top of the footage. We decided to use iMovie for this as it is a software we are both more familiar with. We therefore exported our final film,with the music, then started a new project in iMovie.

We cut the voice recording into smaller segments and laid each bit of of the script over it's corresponding footage.

Post-Production: Choosing a Voice

In our script the narrator says that she is 'turning 21 this year'. As this is a key element of our narrative, we wish to cast a narrator that appears mature. We narrowed our choices down to two teachers at our school. We recorded sound tests for both voices, in which we asked our actors to read the script. We then laid this over the top of our film along side the music we had chosen, and decided which narration we preferred. Ultimately we decided to choose to use our teacher, Miss Montague, as the narrator for our film.

Post-Production: Creating the Ending Quote

As our film comes to an end, the narrator leaves the audience with the final line: 'don't waste your youth growing up'. We wanted to make this line impactful and therefore decided to have the quote appear on screen behind the protagonist as she walks across the frame. To achieve this we used Premiere Pro. Firstly we created a text box to go across the screen, and selected a font that would look slightly like graffiti. We then used the effects control to create a 'mask path' for the text to follow. We moved the footage along a frame at the time, the moved the text so that it followed behind the character. This resulted in the text appearing as Molly walked across the frame.

Issues We Faced in Our Second Draft

When editing we found that some of our clips did not have any audio. This was due to a fault in one of the cameras we had been using. However, after adding the soundtrack, we found that the additional audio distorted the sound of the music. We therefore made the footage silent, and this technical problem turned out not to be an issue.

Editing: Colour Correction

Following the feedback from our first draft, myself and Lucy decided to use colour correction in order to make our film look more visually interesting. For this we used the three-way colour wheel on Premiere Pro to allow us accuracy and control over the brightness, contrasts and tones on each clip.

We later decided that we would also add a filter onto the whole film. We found this filter on the Premiere Pro software, and found that it provided a more cinematic look for our film.

Below is an example of a shot before and after we have added the effect.

Improvements To Make To Our First Draft

To reflect upon the first draft of our film, we gathered a group of our target audience and asked for them to provide us with suggested improvements.

The first suggestion we received that appeared to be unanimous within the group, was that our initial draft was not long enough. The OCR specification that we are following requires our short film to fill a five minute time frame. Therefore we may need to have another filming day in order to collect enough footage to create a further 2 minutes of film.

Another improvement that was suggested to us was that we should alter the opening of our film and perhaps use the title sequence at the very beginning of the film. Upon further reflection, both myself and Lucy have decided that we are not happy with the montage at the beginning of the film as it appears out of place. We will therefore be beginning the film with our title sequence and then following that with the birthday cake scene in which the camera slowly rotates around the protagonist. This will therefore allow us to slowly build up the the fast editing sequences rather than jumping straight into it.

We have also decided that we would like to include some colour correction or a filter to the footage in order to create a more visually interesting film.

First Draft of Short Film