The last task:- Editing the rest of the film

So I first started by putting all the new clips in order to align with scene 1 and 5. Then I put Darren’s voice recording audio. Some of it was pretty simple. For the scenes that we had filmed that were re written, I just mute the audio entirely for that scene, and then put the voice recordings. Also I separated the audio from all the scenes so I am able to arrange them how I like. For example, for the first scene, it has no dialogue in it. But, I took the next scenes dialogue (sound) and moved it to also be heard in the first scene too. This also reduces the running of the film which is good because this opening scene can all be around 2 minutes or so and I had a lot of footage. 

Need to cut down where I can. Speaking of, to make the running time shorter I also made a few clips have a quicker running time by just a bit to save a few seconds. 

I chose the clips carefully where it wouldn’t feel weird or out of place. Furthermore, back to splicing audio, just putting the voice recordings of Darren felt a bit flat. Especially because some if the clips from scene 1 and 5 I was still using had a background noise of a vent buzzing. To over came this obstacle, I had to use my wits. I realized the shot of the film, there is no dialogue and just the back ground noise of the roof. I separated that audio and then duplicated it to then put into scenes where Darren’s recording is heard and it has no other sound. Now, it has the back-ground noise and it doesn’t feel static. The audio feels natural now. 

I did an edit of a shot reverse shot for the film. When Musa and his brother (played by Abbas) are arguing, near the end of the clip, I took a one clip of a medium shot of me and an over the shoulder shot of me and spliced it together so you could see the medium shot then the over the shoulder shot then back to medium shot. Also, while filming, I knew I should do shots where the clips beginning and end matches the visuals of the previous and next clip. Suffice to say, I did very good match cut shots.

 

After all that, there was another issue. Basically, there was two clips where each of them did not work or match with the next shot. So I realized I should film something else between them to bridge the gap. They would be small clips, lasting just a couple of seconds. One was of my foot fidgeting used in scene 3 (firing scene) and the other was my hand making a fist used in scene 5. Each also played a part in the story and were unique visuals so it wasn’t just filler. So, I quickly did the shots, and I added to their respective scenes.

 I looked through the movie one more time to see if there’s any others things I should edit. There was some color grading stuff which I fixed accordingly, I have to put a title too which I did. It was not too hard. Also, I went to our trusty old friend Pixabay to get a sound bite that could work in tangent when the title drops in the film. And what do you know, I found a great one. Took some time but found it. There was also a thing I completely forget. In filming day too, for this scene--- my brother did not say the line we just moved the camera the way it was described. We were going to record his lines later. I realized just now while watching. So when he just came from university, I asked him immediately to record the lines. It didn’t take too long to get the right take. 

Well, I guess I’m finally done with editing. Took a long, LONG time. I started at 6 and finished not too while ago at 12 in the night! But hey, it was worth it. All of it was. The writing, stoy boarding, costume designing, filming, diecting, action, and editing. This was a wonderful experience that I learned a lot from.