Video editing

First shoot. Episode N1

Process of creating star was quite tricky:

1. We did not have enough candles

2. The ones we had did not want to stand

3. We could no realise how it looks like at first

We decided to make it with masking tape, as scene were dark anyway, and just fill out the space with available candles. We took the idea of star of candles from the Sceleton key movie.

Shooting episode N2

As whole idea was about supernatural things we used different books as props to help settings and the mood.

Little house Episode N3

We wanted to hove house burning, but because

we could not burn real house, we tried to burned

hand made 2D house, to make it look more

realistic we coloured it. Eventually it did not look

good so those of us who used fire scene used

one without hand made house.

Trailer editing

We had long raw footage, so we had plenty to

work with, however when it came to editing you

realise what was wrong, how could you reshoot

and what is missing. Unfortunately we were

limited in time, so we had to work with what we

had.

Actual editing

Software I used to edit trailer

Cut the scenes downWhen you upload your footage it come I one little square and everything is together.

First what I did was cutting into different scenes, after that I was cutting the scenes down and deleting what I did not need. To cut scenes I was using arrow buttons to find the exact second and then pressing Command +T

Colour adjustments

First scene I was working in was Flashbacks from the past where

mother is reading the spells book and sister doing the same but in

present.

To show flashback from the past I added black and white tone, as

past is always grey, however because of the quality of our footage

most of the video was grey, so you could not really see the difference,

so I decided to use sepia toning instead.

Ghost trails We had the moment in our trailer when Katy I running away from the

sister. We used hand held camera for that scene to make it personal –

sister running after Katy, to enhance the scene I added ghost trails

effect. To add effect you go to editing video FX ghost trails

Overlap I used overlap effect when two

episodes from one scene were

not cut exactly at right timing, so

to smooth the transition I used

overlap, or when I had lots of

cuts from scene and to make

them very quick and go

smoothly I applied overlap.

After editing After finishing editing I had to find a soundtrack for the trailer. It was really hard. In fact I was

looking for them while I was still working on the editing. After spending hours on trying to

make cuts from different songs work well together and go smoothly I decided just to use one

track over whole video but with adding voiceovers recorder by ourselves. Editing process

was very complicated, not because it was hard to crop or something, but because it was

really hard to work out the right order, put the bits and pieces together so they work well, the

make you scared but nor reveal too much. I made the most stupid mistake at the beginning, I

was too concentrated on trying to make everything right so I forgot to put the main character

– Katy into the trailer. Hard to believe, it is just too stupid, luckily I realised it before submitting

and twisted everything all the way around. Also during the process I realised the power of

flashbacks, how much does it change the video and what feelings it creates. I love the

dialogue scene where in-between you see Katy’s sister dead on the ground, I think it works

very well! Even thought we were limited in time we still had a bit of reshooting, but that

because we had no choice, some scene I also had to shoot myself because I was the only

one who wanted these scenes for the trailer. This task was also challenging for me because

everyone in our group decided to work by themselves, and for me it was really scary to edit

myself, I was always scared that I am doing something wrong and will not even get to the

finish, however I got there and was very pleased with the work. It could always be done a lot

better. I am sure someone with better skills than me can do a LOT better outcome, but I still

think I have done great job. Thanks for the teacher, girls from my group, and the audience

who had to watch the trailer again and again together with the poster and magazine front

cover.