5
Minute Short- End of the world – In Dark
We were given the brief of creating a
5-minute film based around the last 5 minutes of the earth on 12.03 before a
meteor. Now just a quick brief about the pre production before I continue into
the post. The idea process happened very quickly. Both the Director and I
brainstormed ideas and it was quite obvious that we both agreed on the same
type of idea. Where as people would usually go for a drama or comedy, we wanted
to create a story that was solely character driven.
Then from there we created the idea that
became our film ‘In Dark’.
Now the film has changed phenomenally from
the original script. We have undergone over 7 drafts to get to the final one,
which is presented here, in this film.
The original script was very dialogue heavy
allowing the audience to connect with the characters words. This was then cut
down and condensed because we felt that we wanted the audience to connect with
our character through his emotion (less is more).
And so with the 7th draft
finished, Principle photography began.
Now for the postproduction.
My first matter of things was to set the
footage out into relevant folders to differentiate from day 1 and day 2. Next I went through and viewed each shot and
each take noting down which take was usable from the non usable.
The final part of my post production prep,
was creating a brief Edit decision list choosing which shots would work with
each other and a brief outline of how the film would flow.
Before being able to edit the files, as
they were h264 1080i and this file format doesn’t run properly in final cut, I
converted all the footage to apple pro res 422 using the software mpeg
streamclip.
After this was completed I began on the
rough cut.
Both the director and me got together to
create the first rough cut.
I had an editing setup with my mac
connected into a 32” TV mirroring my timeline for the director to view and
collaborate with me during the edit.
I do know first and foremost that it is integral
to collaborate with the director when it comes to the edit to see and to share
their creative vision to create the film.
I always remember a quote from Robert Bresson “A film has many births
and many deaths. When you are writing the script, your idea is alive, then when
you come to storyboarding it, it dies. Then when you begin filming its starts
to come alive again and when you see the dailies, it dies. Its only until the
edit, it really starts to come alive again”. That is something I think that is
sacred to director editor collaboration.
So from working on the edit together we had
our first rough cut were the story was there, the way the director wanted it.
It was then down to me to touch it up and finish his vision.
Now during the Easter break I worked on a
feature film for two solid weeks, with a small film crew and cast. During the
free time I had I worked on the edit. I realized from viewing the rough cut
back several time that the cuts seemed quite quick. This didn’t feel right with
me. I then seeked some creative advice from fellow crew members. The assistant directors advice to me was to
edit in style of my character, meaning my editing style should reflect on my characters
age and by his age being quite old, the cuts should be more slow and drawn out,
not quick cuts. This solved the problem to the feeling I was having about the
original editing style.
I then tested out this new style of
editing, drawing out the shots, the result I got was a pace and timing that
fitted both my theme and my character immediately.
The next issue I had with the rough cut was
to do with 2 sequences. The first was when our character Robert goes to put
dead flowers into the bin.
Now my original issue with this sequence
was really down to how it used to flow.
Robert approaches the bins, goes to put the
flowers in the black bin, hesitates then chooses the blue bin instead.
During a test viewing of the rough cut many
participants found this sequence irrelevant to the story.
It was however an easy fix. As soon as he
lifts the black bin lid I cut to the next shot from within the bin, avoiding
the irrelevant hesitation. Its not the biggest issue in the world but certain
sequences like this could leave the viewer asking “why? What was his reason for
doing this?”
The next issue came from the next sequence.
One, which I had been, discussed a lot since pre production. This was the
rioters car sequence. Now the whole idea is that Robert is in his own little bubble
and is completely oblivious to the world ending around him. This is shown by
him leaving his phone in the car, which prevents him from being alerted by
family members. The next was by having a car full of rioters pass behind him.
My personal opinion of this has always been that it will take viewers away from
the emotion of the character and feel unengaged.
During the filming process I thought of
creative shots that showed little of the riot car in order for it not to start
looking like an action sequence.
These can be seen here with the close ups
on both the rearview mirror and the steering wheel.
The 3rd picture, which is of the
car from exterior, was unusable as it was not filmed in the same location and
would disrupt the continuity.
The 4th shot is the shot that
appears in the final sequence. When putting this shot together with both the
close ups It could be seen immediately to stray away from the emotion of the
scene.
Unfortunately these two shots had to be cut
from the final sequence. Leaving an extended version of the 4 shot, in which
Robert removes his hearing aid to clean it while the car passes behind him.
This was used to show how completely
oblivious he was to his surrounds by the viewer being able to completely see
everything and he does not.
Now with all the issues sorted within the
edit I had my picture lock down ready for the sound to be added.
Though again I had a few issues with the
sound. Some shots had missing sound, and only one channel had been recorded on
the Marantz. Although issues like this were fixed by altering the pan in final
cut to make the audio become duel channel on the left and on the right. Only
the dialogue from the Marantz and the zoom h4n was useable. All of the other
additional sounds needed to be re recorded.
I made the decision that I would do Foley
sound for the entire film. After consulting with the sound recordest I had been
working with in methods of re recording, I began the Foley process.
For an example, sound sequences like the
interior of the car at the start of the film were played out by myself and
props in a car, re acting the scene exactly the way it was acted. The sound I
recorded from this was then layered with an ambient car sound that I created of
the car engine. This was put together using 5 recording set up, one placed by
the exhaust pipe, two placed inside the car, one placed under the car and one
placed on top of the car bonnet. This was so I could combine the sounds of the
engine running while he is in the car and for when he switches off the
ignition, to get all the sounds of the engine switching off and cooling down.
This was to create a more wider and dynamic sound for the car for one you would
usually expect.
The sequence where Robert takes out his
hearing aid was also heavily reliant on sound, to show how much he was in his
own little bubble. I went into this knowing that I wanted a very cut off and
muffled sound. So to begin with I layered
the car sounds to appear first before he removes his earpiece. Once the
earpiece is removed I created a key frame sequence using an audio bandpass and
audio lowpass on all audio to achieve the sound I wanted, and this to then
return back to normal sound once his earpiece is back in.
The final sound you hear right at the end
of the film is the sound of the meteor approaching. This was created by using
an earthquakes rumble, and making the audio levels increase throughout the
entire final minute of the film until it reaches its final point at the end of
the film. This is to show the approaching danger to the character in a unique
way by having it so you can hear it and not see it adding more suspense to the
sequence.
The final process that I went through with
the final cut was the color grading of the film. Now this was very important,
as I wanted to convey the tone of the film and the lingering threat of the
meteor through the color.
The type of grade I went for is exactly
what the director wanted. Dark and to feel washed out, the end is near so these
are the darkest days type of thing.
Now to get this feel I played with the
midtones to get a darkish yet still bright feel to it. With the whites I added
a slight blue/ green tint. This was to wash out the vibrant color that the
original footage was retaining.
Finally I de saturated the color to the
point It was almost monochrome yet still retained color.
Here in these still is the color I
achieved.
The 4th shot of the interior of
the car is graded slightly darker the others to show its an interior setting.
In Dark 5 Minute film from Alex J Gilbert on Vimeo.
