Editing- Diary Entry 3

Cut sound and started adding sound effects. Got the majority from Garageband and Soundtrack Pro, but also got some off the internet and recorded some myself (e.g. paper rustling, birds, licking lips).

Editing- Diary Entry 2

Have chopped up all the scenes now, seems to be going pretty well- I don’t think there will be any need for a re-shoot, everything makes sense. Have left in sound for now, but will cut it out and sound effects it to death soon.

Post-Production- Writing Music

The music took 2 days and 1 night to write and record. The basic piano melody was the hardest thing to nail down- I needed to capture the sadness of the scene, but at the same time build up a certain amount of tension and foreboding. So I worked out a pretty simple but effective minor key melody, using chords for the bass notes in a downward progression and a flowing middle F-G refrain with higher notes- middle C,E and high F, A, C and E as measure breakers. The breaking notes get higher as the scene progresses, reaching high E just before Ernest reads the letter. Before he opens the letter, the music is mainly the piano, with some slow strings backing the bass notes and F-G refrain, bass drum in groups of 3 quavers with a semi-quaver break, which builds in volume as the scene builds in tension. There is also a low-volume backing of a high pitched piano and tremolo violin strings that undercuts the bass track and adds another layer of tension.

When Ernest reads the letter, the tremolo strings build at a fast pace to smooth out the transition into the loud, epic finale of the music, which accompanies Ernest’s revelation. Here there is a complex layering of strings, piano (with various effects, including reverb, echo, celestial settings and delay), drums- double pace snare and bass, creating the illusion of a tempo change- the tempo has actually remained the same, with the bass carrying on in the triples in a 4/4 rhythm- crash cymbals backs up the 4/4, with crashes on every 2 and 4 beats. Noise has been added and the main piano that can be heard is a four key arpeggio using the basic notes of the first piano part- middle G,F,C and E. I timed the editing and the music together so the music ends at the end of a measure/bar, the drums tripling to create ultimate tension and tell the audience it is ending before I added the shot effect of gun shots. The music cuts out, Ernest has been shot.

I used Garageband for Mac to record the music, using a small 8-input Mixing desk in which I plugged my Keyboard in to record the piano and string parts. I used a mixture of dynamic Shure and condenser drum mics to record the drum parts, which also went through my mixer. I added effects on recording on the mixer and also on Garageband in production. I also used some Apple loops to add beef and layers to the track. I exported the file as an AIFF and imported it into Final Cut.

Editing- Diary Entry 1

So far with editing I have converted all the clips from HD to SD (MOV. files, COMPRESSION: PRORES 422 (HQ), SOUND: LINEAR PCM, DIMENSIONS: 1024 by 576, BIT RATE: 79,631), put them on my hard-drive, transferred them onto my Mac, created a Rushes folder and new Render folder and imported it into Final Cut.

Production- The Shoots (Diary Entry)

The filming went pretty well I think, spent all of today (Sunday) editing and got a rough draft done. Will post some pictures or videos or something of editing. Don’t think will need to do re-shoots but not 100% sure at this point. Here are some pictures from the two shoots, I didn’t really get chance to take very many...