Editing Chantage

Post Production is a very important part in the creating of a film,

without it a film would lack continuity, emotion and detail. For our film, Chantage we used Final Cut Pro X. This software enabled us to do some basic and technical editing. By using Final Cut Pro we were able to add in titles, subtitles, filters, transitions and sound. Each of these individual additions to our film helped us to follow the conventions of film noir. For example, after doing audience research and overall research on film noir we came to the conclusion to put a black and white filter over all of our clips. The top left shows a screen shot of the different styles of filter you can paste on top of any clip. We chose the black and white pre-set which we then modified slightly using the colour enhancement settings.

We increased the contrast of the video which created a chiaroscuro look which is very common in many film noirs. Final Cut Pro is fairly straight forward and so it was very easy to use. The screen shot to the left shows the layout of final cut with the film in the centre, video clips on the left and the timeline at the bottom. This layout was very beneficial when choosing where to cut certain clips as it was exact to the frame. When putting certain clips together to create one scene, we used different types of transitions in order to create a certain mood depending on the scene. For example, in the fourth scene (sweet talk) we wanted it to be emotional as Vivian tricks Ernest into thinking she's hurt and her brother is responsible. This is a very tense and emotional moment because Ernest really believes Vivian because he still has feelings for her and we wanted the audience to feel that. To create an emotional atmosphere we used longer transitions like fade to black and cross dissolve which made the clips blend together in a much sadder, slower pace rather than using quick cuts that might create a quick, action filled mood instead.  In the murder scene we used quick cuts in order to intensify the action and really create a fast paced, rushed and panicked mood which worked perfectly.

The majority of Chantage's transitions were fade to blacks and regular cuts. We didn't want to draw too much attention to the editing in our film so remained with cuts except for at the end of a scene as fading to black really helped to express that the scene was over and a new one was starting. It also represented an end to something, for example the end of Roy's life or the end of the short film. Sound was a big issue when filming, the boom mic we borrowed from school had been abused by some other students who had used it before us and so it didn't work as well as it could have. There was clearly a fault within the microphone that couldn't be fixed without extensive soldering or replacing of parts which we didn't have time for after we realised that it wasn't working properly. When we watched our footage back on the camera just to check that everything was going okay, we figured out that it actually wasn't going okay... The microphone had created this horrible buzzing noise that made it impossible to hear any of the actual audio that we had meant to originally record. Luckily we checked it before we called it a wrap and were able to re-film some of the scenes that had been ruined by the microphone. Some of the audio wasn't entirely ruined though, instead we were able to fix the audio through final cut. Seen to the right you can see how we adjusted the volume, the background noise and the hum in order to revive some of the audio we had recorded previously. This helped reduce some if not all of the buzzing created by the faulty boom mic and also helped to reduce some of the background noise that the boom mic had picked up. 

Another feature we used from final cut was the range selection tool, this enabled us to choose specific sections of the audio and adjust that section's volume. This really helped we having non diegetic music playing while our actors were talking. This meant that we could have the music at a reasonably loud volume when it was silent and we could then lower the volume when our actors spoke so that they could be heard over the music. As soon as the actors had finished speaking, the music would return to it's original volume and carried on until we changed it again. This was a perfect technique for sound effects as well and really came in handy when setting the mood.

Overall the editing process took around five hours, if not more. However, it's one of the most important parts of making a film which is why it's so important to spend so long editing. The editing helped to bring Chantage together and fit the parts together to create one whole story. The editing also helped to create certain moods. The transitions would create tense moods or calm/sorrowful moods. The editing took a long time but helped to make Chantage what it is.