Question - Post-Production

The answer will look at the development of post-production skills from the foundation portfolio, a thriller opening sequence, to the A2 advanced portfolio, a music video. It will look at how post-production skills affected creative choices made during the final stages of the production.

Gathering footage is an important part of post-production as it controls how creative one can be. The amount and type of footage one collects is what affects the choices one can make during post-production. The quantity of footage that was collected during my foundation portfolio limited my choices as I did not collect enough. Our footage consisted of specific shots we thought we wanted. Other angles or shots were not taken and we did not experiment with what we could have done. This stifled our choices and creativity in post-production as we had to work with the limited footage we had. My approach changed when working on the advanced portfolio. I gathered more footage which included many different types of shots, (close-up, medium etc), experimented on-site as well as gathered specific shots we required. By experimenting on-site, we got different shots and angles for the same verses of the song. I could then be much more flexible in the editing process as i could use different shots of the same scene if there were mistakes. Having more footage allowed a more creative outlook and chance as i had more to work with. I could mix and match different shots together and see which one worked well with each other which is something that could not be done in the foundation portfolio.

Final Cut Express was used in the editing process in the foundation portfolio. I had never owned a Mac computer so had never used the program Final Cut as it was a Mac only application. But i was able to get the fundamentals of editing after some practice. However, due to the lack of knowledge i did not know how to utilize effects effectively and used another application instead, Adobe After Effects CS4. I had used this program to try and add more flair to the texts (credits) in the sequence and to fix some footage by changing the brightness and contrast settings. I tried to remedy this problem when working on the advanced portfolio. At first i had continued to use Final Cut as my non-linear editing software, and as i more accustomed to the software it was easier to use and edit my music video. But i was still finding it a little difficult to use the effects. Since i had used Adobe After Effects the previous year i had tried Adobe's non-linear editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro, and had found it easier to use than Final Cut. I could integrate the effects with the video better than i could with Final Cut and since both Premiere Pro and After Effects were made by Adobe integration between them were good. If i needed any complex effects that could only be made on After Effects i could make them and easily transfer that to Premiere Pro and edit the rest of the video. Using Premier Pro made it easier to edit the video and since it could be used on a Microsoft PC i could also use it at home (on a trial bases). This allowed more flexibility and gave me more time to work with the footage and with the final stages of production.