Post Production Log #6

📆 Date: 15.04.2024

📍 Location: Home

💻 Device: ASUS VivoBook 15

💾 Software: DaVinci Resolve

Day 1: Monday, April 15

I initially thought that I would only have 5 rough cuts but I still felt like improvements could be made after rough cut #5, therefore rough cut #6 appeared. I made these adjustments after conducting the marketplace feedback, but even before carrying out the survey and recording data, I already had a shot and scenes where I wanted to make extra improvements. The marketplace feedback however does give me some high-quality suggestions on how to improve the product further, and a few were also similar to how I thought it could be improved. 

Firstly, I wanted to enhance the look of the blood, to make it stand out to the audience for the thrilling effect and complement the convention of the thriller genre. I also wanted the blood to look different depending on the timeline flow of the sequence. During the murder scene, I intentionally adjusted the color to be brighter, stating that the blood is new, while the blood at the murder scene in the morning was a lot darker, connoting that it have been drying throughout the night. I was a lot more confident working with nodes after the previous rough cut, therefore the process of adjusting the color of the blood was quicker than I expected, which I'm happy about

I also wanted to make further adjustments to the gossiping sound that is heard at the beginning of the sequence, as I got suggestions on how I could improve it to connect it better with the flow and the context of the sequence. I decided to add some echoing effects to the sound, as well as add in a layer of high-pitch sound, that could connote the gossiping was a flashback of Anne's memory. I actually have to find different ways to add in the echo effects, as it needs to be easy to hear but not too loud that it makes the audience lose their concentration on the overall context of the scene. In the end, I felt like it turned out well, and I liked it better than the previous attempt.

Regarding the sound, I also took in the suggestions from the marketplace feedback that it was too disturbing and loud, so I adjusted all the atmospheric sound (thunderstorms and rain) as well as the dramatic sound (glitches and high-pitch) to be a bit lower, to reduce the disturbance that may affect the audience experience while watching the opening sequence. Despite my plan when having those sound effects so loud is to create a disturbance, I think that it may be too much which might be a backlash if I refuse to reduce it. Also, I decided to remove all the zooming effects to make it more professional, avoiding the chance of being viewed as an amateur product. 

In the end, the photo on the right is how the final timeline looks, I could find a way to capture all the layers of sound but it is briefly how all the footage looks when put together. Compared to the timeline at the beginning of the project, I would say that I'm proud of how far I have come and that regardless of the results, I will still be happy that I have tried my best to produce the best product for my ability. In the beginning, everything was very vague and I really didn't know where to start, but as the process progressed, I was more comfortable editing. Therefore I felt like there is always room for improvement no matter how much I have already adjusted, but considering it is my first professional media product, I would say that I'm satisfied with the outcome. 

Result: Final Cut

Please refer to Rough Cut #6 to view the evaluation.