Re-Edit Blog: Fixing the Story

     Now that I have reflected on my peer review, I have to re-shoot and re-edit my final task before I send it to be graded. I have decided to re-edit before I re-shoot my final task. If I edit what I have first, I will be able to see what I can fix through editing and what I have to re-shoot completely. For example,  I thought the shot of the boots was a little too dark. I am going to look through Movavi's (the editing program I am using) features to see if there is a way for me to adjust the brightness without making the shot look bad. If there is one, I will not have to re-shoot that shot. If there isn't a brightness option or I don't like how it turns out, I will have to re-shoot it. I believe that this will be the most efficient way to ensure that my film is completed before the April 9th deadline.

    While editing, I kept the biggest problem I am facing in mind: the story isn't clear. I realized that I can't really fix the story problems through re-shooting without going in a wildly different direction from what I storyboarded. I have to be able to tell the story solely by making smart edits. I had the idea to make text appear during the establishing shot that helps explain the plot a little more. The opening shot now makes it explicitly clear that the setting is an abandoned area in a redacted location. I think this will not only help serve the story, but will also add a more ominous mood to my film. Because I am adding more text to the film, I had to edit the pre-existing credits to appear at different times. I don't want to have too much text on screen at a time. The credits in the beginning, such as the production studio, now disappear faster.

   I made many minor changes in addition to the more major and obvious ones. For example, the audio is louder overall. I changed the script slightly to explain the story more, which meant I had to replace the old voice over with the new one. I had to cut up the voice over to be in sync with the robotic voice. I brightened up shots that I thought were hard to see, such as the aforementioned boots scene.

volume before editing

volume after editing