Final Cut and Conclusion

After removing the block of text about history and the voice over, with rearranging it in a more poetic style we believed it ran a lot better. As soon as I settled on the structure of the interview I started to think about the use of non sync sound with the visual cutaways. It was hard a first to figure where to cut and how long to leave each shot or how long to leave Simon on screen. However with introduction of a music track to the edit sequence it helped me piece together the shots more tightly and creatively.

I really focused on creating a smooth paced edit, i felt that the start ws really nice and poetic and opened up the film nicely. The following sequence I felt worked really well witht he use of cut aways as i had plenty of coverage, artistic shots and archive footage to aid the interview. However it was hard not to use all the good footage in one place and really had to think about spreading it out and making the edit paced so it did not fall off in the middle of the sequence.

One main problem I faced was the shaky footage which had been captured on the pans and same close ups or really zoomed in footage. I took steps to rectify this by sometimes slowing the footage down slightly and using Final Cut Pros smooth cam. I think its really worked well in some places but in others it distorted and bent the footage too much.

Colour correcting was fairly simple in this edit as the visuals and very colouful scenes helped themselves. However the dock footage was very dull compared to the Chinatown footage and i didn't want the visual to tail off when switching between the two scenes. So i took a lot of time and effort to colour correct this. I mainly enhanced the blacks and midtones as well as raising the saturation slightly and making it more red to make it warmer like the chinatown footage.

Overall I am pleased with outcome of both the video and the project. I feel that the whole group worked really well and contributed greatly. I think the project ran smoothly due to the overall organisation that we had all learnt to make from previous projects. As well as there being more crew members than before and each person fulfilled their role brilliantly as well as working well with others.