The Brief | Final Cut

Balancing Colour

When editing our opening scene and watching our rough cuts i realised that the colours could be improved. I know that colour balancing is very important in films and it is a small detail that if done correctly results in an improved film. This is how i balanced the colour of our clips in final cut.

• This is what the shot looked like originally, It looks too blue. it does looks good but it can be improved. 

• So to improve the clip you have to select it. To select a clip all you have to do is click on it and it will be highlighted this is how you know the right clip has been selected.

• To balance the colour of the clip you have to click the magic wand tool and this will drop down a list of options. To balance the colour of the clip you have to click the first option on the drop down menu or press alt+cmd+B.                           

• Then if you look back at the clip you selected you can see that there is a change in the colour of the clip.

This is a comparison of the original clip (on the left) and the new clip (on the right)

It is also possible to balance the colour of all the clips in the timeline rather than just one. To do this you have to drag the mouse over all the clips so that it shows they are all selected and then it is the same process.

How we select and sort our clips

Folders

We put them all into Final cut and as a group choose the clips we wish to use. We then use a separate folder to put all our primary shots in this means we don't get confused which clip we wish to use.
With the other clips we put them in another folder so if we spot an error we are able to either reshoot or swap out that clip for another.





In terms of grading them we have the best ones at the start of the discarded clip folder. While the other ones are at the back of the folder. Furthermore we have named the clips with a description of the shot and the rank of it compare to the other ones.

Grading of clips

Source:http://wattfilms.blogspot.co.uk/

Last Scene Rough Cuts

The first video is our first ever rough cut for our opening scene 'The Brief'. We had collected enough shots that we would make a rough cut out of what we had. Doing rough cuts is very helpful because means we can see what works and what needs to be altered and changed. We found that for this scene to flow more smoothly and make more sense that we need a few extra clips to put in-between some shots. We also found that it would be better if we re shot a couple of clips to make it look a bit more realistic. All together i am happy with this rough cut because it shows room for improvement but also is a good scene.

The first video is similar to the second there is only one slight change. The change is at the 3rd and 4th shot. In the first video the 3rd shot changes when the protagonist runs out of shot and it changed to shot 4 and this shot starts the protagonist running onto screen. We changed this in the second video so that the 3rd shot changes when the antagonist runs off screen and then the 4th starts when the antagonist runs on. We did this because we felt that it works better with the timing of the shots.

When reviewing these rough cuts we have picked a couple of shots that we wont to re shoot. One of these is shot 3. We feel like it doesn't work that well when the antagonist jumps over the wall and it doesn't look realistic.  The second shot we want to redo is shot 5. This is because the shot is not in focus and the acting could be better. 

The extra shots that want to incorporate are a shot in between 4 and 5 were the antagonist walks up to the bag before looking in, we feel this shot is essential and will make the flow of the scene a lot smoother, it will also make it easier for the audience to understand whats happening. The other extra shot we want will be the second to last of the scene and will feature the antagonist. It will be a medium close up so that we can see the emotions of the actor, we want to portray to the audience that the antagonist is very annoyed and angry about what has just happened.

The music for this rough cut is non diegetic sound. I found some action music on the internet which gave me permission to use, this music will not be used in the final cut because we are making our own music on garage band but for now i have used this as a replacement  

Final Cut Screenshots 1

When using final cut i used final cut i used the Trim option so that i could shorten and adjust individual clips.

This is the zoom in tool. I lets you zoom into the timeline. This is helpful because it means that i can focus on editing specific parts of the movie and edit them parts in detail.

I learnt how to navigate round the timeline. How to trim clips and move clips around.

I learnt you can upload your edit straight to youtube from final cut. You have to make sure that the resolution is correct, that the compression is 'better quality', the video is 'public'. Uploading straight from final cut saves lots of time.

This is the text tool. There are lots of different types of text that you can you use. I used the text tool when editing the prelim task. I used it to give the edit a title so people watching can understand what it is.

This is the sound effect tool. I used this when editing the prelim task. I used effects such as a door opening and closing. 

This is how to create a new event. When creating a new event it is best to set video properties as 'custom' because otherwise if the first clip isn't the best possible quality then this will effect all the other clips by making their quality equal to the first one.