Editing During the Preliminary Task

Editing During our Preliminary Task

We used the programs Final Cut Express and Garage Band to create our preliminary task. It was the first time which we used Final Cut Express so we spent a lot of time learning how to cut scenes, how to edit the sound and how to add transitions/effects. This took some time to understand, but by the third day of editing we had finished putting it all together and had a strong grasp of how to use the program. This was helpful as we now knew how to use the program and this would hopefully stop us from running into any difficulties during the final task.

We created the voiceover and soundtrack on Garage Band. The first soundtrack we use on our preliminary task was called ‘Roller Derby’, which was listed on the software. The tune was happy and laid back, which was a contrast to the content of the narrative. We thought that this could be effective as it leads the audience into a false sense of security, which later provides a bigger shock when something surprising happens. We chose to use this as it was a reference to the Coen Brothers, who were well known for using cheerful music to create a tense atmosphere. The second soundtrack used was far slower which allowed us to make the final death scene seem more sinister and despondent.

To create our voiceover we recorded Elli’s monologue in separate parts. The allowed us to place the different parts of the voiceover in a place which would create the desired effect. We had two main parts to our voiceover, the first at the beginning and later at the end. Having the voiceover in our preliminary allowed us to put into practice what we thought would sound effective with what music, which could help us when we film the final task.

There were no sound effects of a door lock clicking, which we needed for the close up on the lock. We eventually managed to create this sound effect using the sound of a door closing. We found that this is something which we will have to combat during our final task – perhaps by recording sounds individually.

When we had uploaded all of our clips, we discovered that we had filmed far too many scenes to fit into the timeframe. To combat this we had to cut out many scenes and much of the narrative had to be removed. We found that cutting out certain parts of the scenes made it so the narrative wasn’t exactly as we had planned it to be in our storyboard. Some of the clips also had to be sped up, this was mainly true for the establishing shots at the beginning. 

By Rebecca Gatfield