Editing

Matthew's role was editor, and he put so much effort into the post - production of our film.

His explanantion involved confusing terminology for me! So I'd though it's best to use his summary of the process he took to edit our film:

1. Retrieving the footage.

I started by removing the CFExpress Type A card from the FX6 and (using a card reader) plugging it into my MacBook Pro. However, due to the large file size produced by the camera, I moved the files onto my Samsung T7 SSD.

2. Viewing/playing back the footage.

To view and playback the footage, I used Sony Catalyst Browse. Sony Catalyst Browse works very well with the footage from a Sony camera, as it allowed us to use the cameras gyro-data to stabilise it. We only used this on a small number of shots, but it was nice to have. Catalyst Browse is the best option for viewing footage as it automatically applies an SLog-3 to Rec709 LUT.

3. Pick out all the footage we will use.

This was quite a laborious task. I went through file-by-file viewing the footage in Catalyst Browse, and I decided if footage was either:

- Not needed/not usable

- Decent/possibly usable

- Perfect/Definitely usable

- If footage was not needed/not usable, I left it.

- If footage was decent/possibly usable, I put it in a a new folder (still on my SSD) called "Footage for edit", and I tagged it red.

- If footage was perfect/definitely usable, I did the same as decent/possibly usable, but I tagged it green.

4. Begin sequencing.

I created a new Premiere Pro project. The project settings were 4096 x 2160 (DCI), 24p. Note that I later changed to 16:9 (3840 x 2160) to create a more seamless viewing experience for the majority of viewers.

I pulled the "Footage for edit" folder into Premiere Pro and started laying the footage one after another into the timeline. Note that I always used the footage which was tagged with green, and if there was none, I picked the best looking footage with a red tag. I did this process with a physical printed copy of the script beside me. I used this physical copy of the script, and a pen, to make notes along the way which I may want to discuss with the group.

It's important to note that I did the bulk of the editing on my PC as its faster and I prefer working with bigger displays. However, because I was editing the project 100% off my SSD, the project was pretty easy to work on from both my PC and my MacBook.

If you have experience in Premiere Pro, you may also notice some key frames which I've added on a number of clips. These are subtle "fake camera movements" such as push's and pulls, as well as left-to-right and right-to-left movements as well. I kept these very subtle, and set the keyframes to "easy ease" to ensure they aren't too jarring.

5. Further editing.

While it is incredibly rough, still in S-Log, and has a multitude of other issues, we now had a "rough sequence". From here, further editing had to take place, which included tasks such as music, sound design, special effects, colour grading and credit design.

One thing I did do in Premiere Pro before moving onto the other 5 steps listed above, was adding a simple conversion LUT. This makes the footage look more saturated, and just generally look more like you'd expect to see straight out of a regular camera.

Next Post

(First rough cut... Post - Production)