Editing Continues.....Forever

So I've been editing, not as much as I should have been, I've been getting distracted because I've been wanting to be distracted, but that's a whole other story to be saved for another day.

So the issues with the sound have been causing me a nightmare, do I reshoot or do I dub it all, ADR as it's known in the trade. I had to look it up. That's what happens when you avoid going to film school and do journalism instead, every day is a learning curve, and an interesting one at that.  The HELP button becomes a firm friend.

So fixing the problem.

I've decided to do a mix of ADR and creative technical wizardry, in other words, It's going to be too difficult to get everyone back together to repeat everything, so I'm being creative instead.  using the on camera sound, which is terrible, I've removed as much unwanted noise as I can, then made it sound like a telephone call.

Why a telephone call I hear you quietly asking no one in particular, well, all the dialogue apart from about 10 lines are spoken over the phone, so it works, sort of.  The bit I've done so far is about three minutes in, so if I get the start sounding perfect, this bit should pass as ok, but I won't really know until there are bums on seats in front of the film.

The one bit about the audio issues is it means I'm now going to have to use music more, I really didn't want to have to do that, I really wanted everything to stand on it's own merit, with just a little bit of music, now it will take a more important place in the story, which is a worry, as I'm not a composer.  I do have a music man on the case, and I'm going to get another to have a look as well, I may be able to mix elements of both, see what works best, but for such an emotional piece, I'm nervous.

On the plus side, next weekend I'm going to the Brit Flick Film festival in Portsmouth, which should make for an interesting couple of days. Not least as I think I have a short in it. I'm not sure about that yet, I haven't been told or seen a programme list, I only know as one of the organisers told the actress in it on facebook that it will feature, so I'll wait and see.  If you want to come along and see it, look the festival up on facebook, or get in touch with the Goundlings Theatre for tickets.  If you can;t make, it, you can watch it on YouTube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjoWVoEUHM.

Now then, seeing that I don't want to work on the film right now, I'll be doing a lot of ADR tomorrow, I'll get back to that distraction again.

Live well, Love Life, Have fun.

Roger.

Editing Part……Forever!

So the process has begun, but filming hasn’t finished.  I need to wait for it to stop raining, or it will look a bit strange.  Still, at least I have something to keep me entertained.  And when I say entertained, I mean massively annoyed.

The footage looks good, but the problem I now face is sound.  It looks like a technical issue means I’ve lost about an hour’s worth of audio recording, which puts me in a bit of a pickle.

Do I reshoot everything missing, or do I use the audio gained from the camera’s on board mic?  Part of me says I should reshoot, but as there’s no budget, I don’t want to ask people to give up their time again for free. 

It was all indoors, so I can play about with it, and it should be ok, but it’s an issue, and it means the overall quality of the sound will drop.  This is a bad thing.  There is nothing worse than bad sound, bad pictures can be forgiven, but the sound…..well not so much.

So what do I do, do I continue and see if I can get away with it, or reshoot?  I’m thinking of putting the hours in trying to fix it, but having tried to do that before, I know how hard it is.  I suppose the best option is to see if I can fix it, but basically I’m just trying to put it off.

On the plus side, even with a very basic, quick edit, I’m pretty happy about it.  It could be a lot worse so I can’t really complain.  Time to put the hours in I think, more syncing, more mind numbingly boring work, but essential.  Then it will be time to start thinking about the music I will need to include to try and hide the audio problems.  Not a good solution, as Mike Figgis says, once you add music, you can’t take it away.

Other than the filming and editing, I'm extremely happy.  It's nothing to do with filming in any way, but I just wanted to share!

Live well, love life, have fun.