Post-production process. Part 2

After few days of work in Final Cut Pro application we managed to put all pieces of video sequence in a right order and started to work mostly with sound background which caused some problems. First of all our whole film was overloaded by Marilyn songs, sound effects and some pieces of sound borrowed from YouTube. However we decided to concentrate only on Marilyn songs later so it made our film brilliant in sound part and because of the fact that Monroe’ songs are recognisable in any part of the world and it will give a viewer a massive clue what will be this film about without any words in the office scene.

After we dealt with all songs we added some sound effects as 50’s bell ring and
crowd murmuring when filming crew started to move around in the frame. Then, we tried to transform our sound into two different ways: first one would be a sort of TV noise and then the sound becomes followed by an echo to give a perception that this sound is playing in a large room of film studio. That was a place where some problems appeared because the sound started to be either too loud or quite or absolutely unsuitable for our film so we tried to work in Soundtrack Pro application and with basic Final Cut audio filters. Finally, we managed to get a right sound by using HiPass Filter to create a TV noise during all sound background in the office scene as well as Reverberation effect to create a ‘large-hall’ sound. At the final part of the sound work we fixed all volume levels of the whole sound background to make it more stable and smooth. Then, the next part of our post production went to titles. First of all we decided to move the main ‘Monroe’ title up to the end because no matter how hard we tried our title still slightly moved in a frame which was unacceptable so we put it to the end of the whole film and now it was more look like a real opening of the future film. After this fixing we put all titles at the beginning. Firstly, there was a distributor name ­– Fox Searchlight presents. Then, the name of production company – A Seventh Sky Production and after we placed just created names of filming crew, actors and editor and then our own names with our special roles such as producer role of Heather, mine original score of the film, Tatjana’s mis-en-scene part and Gabby as a director who was placed the last.

Just couple of words to explain why we put all these titles:

According to cinematography rules the name of distributor is appearinf at first because they are the company (or a person) which actually gave money to create this film. Moreover a distributor and a production company which follows as second title provides a promotion and premier of the film in cimemas.
Then, as introduction of the main actress which was unknown before we wrote 'Introducing Joanne de Boer as Marilyn Monroe' and underlining the fact that this film is a star vehicle for her. After the main character name we put other acors names just as A-B-C-D order without any addings and this will also show viewer that Joanne is the main character in the whole film.

Our roles were put in order to their importance as Tatjana came at fist as Director of Photography, then me as responsible for orginal score. Two final titles represented Producer as a main person who provided money for the film and is an actual face of Production company, The last name is the Film Director is the main person who made al this film.
We put them in the order in order to film rules where the less significant roles goes to the most one’s as Producer and Director right before the film itself and the final part which is still should be done is a pasting of the Fox Searchlight intro with their logo.

Finally, the last part of the post prodiction was a colour side of the 1950-60's scene. We used Adobe After Effects application to make a colour of the film more dingy and make it more contrast to the first modern days scene of Detective's Office and the scene of Monroe live performance. This was a real key point which made our opening much more sophisticated and elegant so after the final work with colour filters in After Effects we checked in and out our film to convert it in QuickTime film format.

After that our film was ready to be published in YouTube.
And there is a final result!

MONROE!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hurtwoodhousemedia&search_type=&aq=0

The start of post-production process

After our shooting day and filming all material which we needed for a 2 minutes opening film sequence, we went to editing room to continue our work now as editors. The main task was to create a whole sequence from the separate pieces.
Back to October 2009 we remembered some useful knowledge and refreshed basic skills of using Final Cut Server and Pro applications with help of Matt and got to work.
First of all we imported all pieces into Final Cut Pro application and put them in separate folders. In comparison with our October preliminary task our present film and technology of its creating is much more sophisticated and complex because we should have different log bins and much more tracks where were not only video but the sound tracks as well and different pieces of videos should be edited more accurately to fit the whole sequence and provide a smooth transition from one frame and one camera position to another.
So we started to choose every piece of sequence which would fit the best in a film.

After that, when we made our first film draft with all pieces of it we started to think about titles. That was a moment where some difficulties appeared. Fist of all Matt introduced all of us how we actually should do the titles. We had a bit special willing to make a heading title not just in a black screen with white letters on it but to integrate the heading title in the film itself. So the background should be a shadow of an old-fashioned 50’s video camera, ‘Monroe’ title appears and then camera slightly goes down to Director and Producer faces (Luke and Jason) and the title remains where it was. The problem was how to make this title not to follow the camera and remain in the centre of the shadow from the camera because every time we tried to put it where we want to, then it followed with a camera to Luke and Jason faces. After a time we realised how to make it not to follow the camera but we faced another problem. Now our title was floating on the whole frame because we set up different spots in every frame where this title should return.

After all at the last day of half-term our group succeeded in this task and, finally, the title stood still right where we wanted to.
Second part of our post production was a sound background of our film. I managed to find lots of Monroe songs in a good quality and some videos where was useful sound as well, like it was the voice of 50’s broadcaster who declared that Marilyn Monroe is dead so we could enlarge the excitement of potential viewer dramatically if the video frame of Monroes' dead photos would be followed by this very American voice. We experimented with all these things to match the best combination of video and sound. We tried to paste a song before the video and give a viewer a perception that Marilyn Monroe is going to be the main character of the film even before we will show something. We tried to put some creepy sounds in moments when we can see a suspect board and Monroe’s dead photos and provide a crossover between the golden age of Monroe pop-idol and its inglorious end with very mysterious circumstances.
But we refused this idea soon because our film started to be overload by different songs, sounds and effects. We considered to concentrate exactly on Marilyn most popular songs which could be recognised almost in any part of the world and attract attention of viewers in this way. However the real success what we did with a sound was a song 'Diamonds are girls best friend' which perfectly fitted to the video because it was a 50’s filming scene of the video clip for this song and how the sound and heading title matched to each other because ‘Monroe’ title appeared exactly at the time when fanfares started to play so we made the beginning of the film almost triumphal and very exciting
So we managed to paste necessary songs in our film but we still experimenting with sound background field and we still working to make a final version of the film sound.