I kinda forgot to post for most of May. Sorry bout that. I moved, and put on a big event for my day job, and you know, life bullshit. So I stopped blogging. But if you worry I stopped working on Diamond Bar, fear not; I'm making steady progress on The Edit: Round Two.
The Edit: Round Two is a hybrid pass at the edit. The first step was watching through the rough cut with master cinematographer Ken / good, DB-unaffiliated friend Maddy. Ken took notes, and afterwards we had a good chat about what needed fixing/cutting/polishing. Now, I'm back at my Final Cut bay (also known as the futon in my living room as I hunt for a new desk, the old one couldn't fit through my old bedroom doom), taking a look at each scene, and fixing it; sometimes just sightly tweaking the edit points, sometimes wholly reconstructing it, sometimes even leaving title cards where I intend to put pickup footage to be filmed soon. It's a challenge, not least because of Ken's enigmatic notes (what the hell does "flow interference -1" mean?), but also because second passes suck. Writing is more fun than rewriting, and editing is more fun than re-editing. As a writer, I often get away with first drafts, because I'm lazy and talented, but I'm determined to get this edit perfect, and that means real re-edits.
At the same time, I'm creating the sound mix. This means first and foremost layering the Flip-recorded sound with the lav-recorded dialogue I painstakingly labeled and categorized back in February, but didn't include in the rough edit. Finding each line, and adding it to the mix at a precise position and volume to sound clear and avoid double-tracking is a bit of a chore, but it's made much easier because of the earlier labeling I did. I think using multiple sound sources on every line will give me a rich vocal sound that's, dare I say it, quite impressive for such a low budget. It's hard to tell at this early date; I'm eventually going to have to import it into another program to compress, equalize, and perfect the mix, but at this inbetween stage I like it a lot.
Also involved in this step; creating and adding SFX (thank you freesound.org!), and replacing most of the temp music with budget-friendly, contractually approved music (more in another post). Plus recording every line obscured by any sort of noise or mic error, to be redubbed in a June looping session. After the loop, it's time for the final sound mix, a short round of pickup footage with Chelsea and Nick, the final edit with incorporated new shots, and topping it off with a round or two of color correction and adjustment. It's a process, but it's fun.
Listening to: Michael Mayer, Slowfood (the German techno producer, not the fictional serial killer.)
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