Post-Production

“The post-production process can be the most important part of the filming process”.

How important has the post-production stage been in your foundation and advanced portfolios and how have your skills developed over these two years?

Across the two productions I have created (a thriller opening at AS and music video at A2), I feel that the post-production stage was significant because without it none of the footage or stop motion images would have made sense or created a story on their own. Eisenstein believed that editing was “the foundation of film art”, and he means by this that it holds together a piece of work, and essentially makes it what it is. In this essay I will discuss my skills development using these ideas.

In my thriller opening I used a black and white colourisation effect in the scene where a conversation takes place between the protagonist and his sister to represent a flashback. Black and white flashbacks are a typical convention found in thriller films meaning that the audience are aware it is a flashback, and the colourisation tool on iMovie allowed me to create it myself. This editing technique was simple to use but still had an effective outcome. I also used a slow motion effect when the 'main dealer' stood up from his chair to exaggerate the sense of danger and anxiety, and make the audience aware of the villain. If the original raw footage for this section had been better then this effect would have worked better, but having not used this before we could not predict how it would turn out.

In my music video, the editing effects that I used were much more complex due to the stop motion feature. In particular, splicing had to be used in order to trick the audience into thinking the camper van is moving and travelling on its own. Splicing simply means placing still images from the unedited selection next to each other to achieve a moving sequence. Having the image change on every beat meant that a relationship between music and visuals was produced, which is a vital element of any successful music video. Again colourisation was used, but also to match the beat of the music and correspond with the story of the video. The swap between blue and green as the camper van jumps up the stairs makes the jump even more prominent and continues the colour theme from after the blue and green water in the kitchen. Although in my thriller opening the colourisation was used to create a particular effect, I thought a lot more about how I was using it in my music video due to having to consider matching music to visuals and cutting on the beat. The bright colours added to and emphasised the playful feel already created by the toy camper van and upbeat genre of music. I would like to think that I used Eisenstein's editing style called 'intellectual montage' in my video to suggest ideas. For example, it is not clear who the guitarist is, but hopefully by having them play in sync with the music it made it obvious to the audience it is a band member.

I feel I have progressed greatly from AS to A2 due to having previous experience with the editing software, and being given a more challenging task with the introduction of new conventions and theory and using them in my own music video. The post production stage made it a lot easier to actually create a convincing music video with all these conventions because of the effects on offer. Although the material which has not been manipulated is important and has to be correct in order to produce what is needed, the post production stage brings the footage to life and in essence creates the final, polished outcome which is the most important.