Post-Production

Connecting the main sequence:

While Carmen was doing the main rough editing of the sequence, I started working on the last scene where Joe and Joanna are sitting on the sofa and talking to each other.

Carmen and I also talked about the possibility of creating an effect of aperture opening in Joe's lenses when she looks at Joanna before the kiss, similarly to how pupils of our eyes become wider when we look at something or someone that we like/love. I tried to do that with some masking, however, I wasn't really certain about the final result so we didn't put into the final piece. Still, we can add it later to the film if we decide to change our minds.

Later we agreed that Carmen would send me the XML file so I could connect the edit with the dream scene and the final scene. However, we’ve experienced quite a few technical issues regarding opening the timeline. As I edit in Final Cut Pro X and Carmen edits in Premiere Pro, I had to open the XML in Premiere first, then relink every file on the timeline with the footage from my computer separately as for some reason I couldn’t do it in Premiere at once. Then I had to export as an AAF file and open it in DaVinci Resolve, check all the clips again and then export it as FCPXML file to open it in Final Cut. It took me several days and a few failed attempts to understand all the issues in this chain and I finally managed to export the timeline, even though some of the effects and clips went missing so I had to replace them manually. Some of the video clips that were filmed in 50 fps for slow-motion had an odd effect even though they worked perfectly on Carmen’s computer, so I had to re-edit this part as well. Luckily, Carmen has previously uploaded the render of the edit so I could easily compare the missing bits and fix them. Another factor that was really helpful was that we went through the rushes together and both of us knew which clips were being used.

The Dream sequence:

Also, before starting to work on the main sequence I managed to edit the biggest part of the dream sequence. Turned out that creating an animatic was a very good decision that helped me a lot in editing. I didn’t have to edit everything from scratch and used the animatic as a template which made the whole process faster and easier.

As I have already mentioned, we’ve had issues with filming some footage for the dream part so while trying to solve this problem I was leaving the bits of Carmen’s storyboard instead of the potential footage, yet I started liking this effect of mixture between the real image and the drawn one in the context of this idea so I decided to use in the final piece as well as the storyboard drawings are also really connected to the fact that Joe is a filmmaker and starts seeing the world around her as shots.

Working on the final piece:

It took me two days to complete the whole piece after receiving the edit from Carmen and finishing the dream sequence.

• My process consisted of:

• Relinking some missing clips or fixing them

• Adding effects, zoom ins and transitions where necessary

• Connecting the scenes together

• Working with sound designers and receiving their files, connecting them to the timeline

• Colour Grading

Here are some screenshots of my working process:

The editing process had some issues and wasn’t really easy in terms of solving the technical problems, especially connected to moving the project from one software to another, however, it helped me a lot in gaining such skills and now I will know how to organise such kind of workflow if I need to move the project from one editing program to another. It was also really great to receive help from our production teammates during the editing process and sound designers especially-the last few days before the deadline we had to work remotely and reach out to each other all the time in order to quickly solve minor issues, add new sounds and discuss each other’s ideas.