Blog 10 - Editing

I started using Final Cut Pro when I was in Y6. Therefore even though our teacher Mr, Wunker, has recommended DaVinci Pro as it's capable of sharing projects and does a better job in the Secondary colour modulation sections, I still choose to work around with Final Cut Pro.

The editing session is not hard for me as no montages are involved. I have to spend a lot of time sticking the footage on the drumming beat of the music. But I'm having trouble with colour gradings as I have never used them.

Instead of looking at tutorials, I decided to learn them by myself as I do photography, and I'm pretty familiar with all the ones I'm looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAh83khT1no

I learnt some basic knowledge about using the panels and I tried out them selfs. Basically what you have to drop the footage in to do primary modulation - dropping lut on Logs to recover the colour and do stylistic modulation - colour gradings.

➡️Because I forgot to switch Clog-3 on, I do not have to do colour corrections. Consequently, I only get 8-bit videos that are easier to appear colour faulting during extreme colour gradings. Therefore I select a natural tone for the footage at the beginning so that I don't have to worry about seeing a piece of red crashing into a piece of orange in the depth of field. In addition to that, since our storyboard involves stylistic oppositions, we start with a romantic film genre and turn it into a comedy. A natural tone does fit the genre itself. ⬆️The clip here uses warm grading with cold shadows and minimal Exposure corrections to give that romantic feel.

⬇️ In The later part of the film, I gave Danny a warm shot to create a romantic atmosphere. I grade the shadows a bit colder so that the overtone does not get too warm and starts to feel unnatural.

I also adjust HUE vs SAT to ensure Danny's lips remain sexy and his hair is glamorous.

⬇️For the shot of Louis, I'm creating a figure that looks like a gang boss when he drags out the rose as if he's pulling out a gun; I increase the contrast to make that Thriller feel, outlining a stylistic opposition to from irony and seems stupid as it supposed to be.

Due to the genre that we are producing, there's no point in using any special effects in this opening and I don't know how to make them as well.

The session went quite smoothly. I do love how we combine thriller and romance and comedy in the opening and how I emphasise them with colour gradings. Colour gradings are challenges for me as it does not work like Lightroom and Photoshop RAW 1.15.3 which I've been using constantly. But I do think it's quite successful.