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 a music video at A2) i feel that the post-production stage has been significant because it enabled me to portray the different concepts and genres behind each production, for example the narrative concept for my music video and the thriller genre for my film opening.

Eisenstein believed that editing was "the foundation of film art" and he means by this that editing makes the film have meaning and allows us to connote particular ideas. In this essay i will discuss my skills development using these ideas.

In my thriller opening i used colourisation effects to reinforce the dark and sinister nature of the thriller film. It was through iMovie and the options made available that i was able to adjust the brightness, contrast and colouring of the shot to make it look darker and grainier. This editing effect was used as the protagonist looked intently at a wall covered in pictures and belongings of the girl he was stalking. I developed this particular part of post production into my A2 level production, where i utilised the effect of colourisation further. As I'd already used the colourisation tool on iMovie, i was very familiar with it and used it in my music video to emphasize one of our house colours - blue. We used colourisation in the scenes that took place during the chorus, where a clown holds up a poster with the lyrics of the chorus written on it. It was important to reinforce this colour to the audience as house colours were a vital part of establishing a brand identity for our artist.

In both my thriller opening and music video music was essential. For my thriller opening i had to edit the music in the post production stage for it to be original and also fit in with the tense atmosphere we wanted to create within the film. We chose the song "Lucky You" by Deftones and edited it using the music software audacity. Using this software we were able to slow or quicken the pace of the song to fit with the shots we had filmed previously. Editing the song was essential for creating tension and arousing suspicion from the audience, a typical convention of a thriller film opening. The song was used throughout the thriller opening but created the most apprehension when the protagonist was looking at a wall of pictures and belongings of the girl he was stalking, within which the music fitted perfectly with the movements on screen.