How different editing techniques compliments lighting and camera techniques

  When editing the final cut pro for my short film “Upon Fate” I knew I needed to try and use different effects which would drag my audience in. Since I was able to get the final cut pro on my laptop and bring it into school I was able to have more time experimenting with different transitions, lighting techniques and much more. 

First things first I needed to use lighting to fit all my scenes throughout my short film. Some scenes have lighting that doesn’t suit the next scene. To ensure that the lighting fits each scene I have used a editing technique:

In this scene we can see how it looks from outside. Since I filmed this scene on a different day, the lighting was different compared to the other scenes where the actors are in the forest. When using final cut pro I was able to experiment and find any different ways in which to make the lighting similar to the other scenes. The tool I have used to correct this was the colour board which makes specific colours less vibrant. In the image above we can clearly see how I have utilised the effect by adding it at the specific colour such as green and made it less vibrant for the scene. This will ensure that my audience will stay engaged throughout my production. 

When having each of the camera angles I needed to ensure that everything is straight and not wonky. As we can see in the image above there is a rotation tool that I am able to use throughout my post-production to ensure that all scenes are straight. The reason for the camera when shooting may be wonky is because when setting up the tripod and placing the camera above it may look lopsided. When creating the camera angles to be straight I must also ensure that I have zoomed in on the video seen on the image above. The reason for this is because when rotating the video it may cause black spots on the side which can be removed when zooming in. Having straight camera angles throughout my short film will ensure my audience to pay attention without having to move as much to see what is going on in my short film.

In the image above we can see how I decided to create a creative effect where I have added two of my scenes on top of each other and changed the opacity of each. This is to build tension for the audience to help them engage with my short film. When shooting these scenes they were shooted on the tripod with a DSLR camera. I imported both scenes onto the final cut pro and started editing using the blending tool and used the opacity tool to blend both scenes together. When blending both scenes together it’ll change the overall lighting of the scene which determines how bright the scene is which will help engage with the audience seen in the image above.

At the start of my short film I have used a green screen which I have used Green Screen keying to remove and add my own background to. As we can see in the image above we can see the narrator talking in a vampire mediaeval house. I was able to remove the green screen of the narrator and add a background of my choice. However to make it stand out more to the audience I edited the lighting of my narrator to help it fit with the background using the colour board selecting the vibrate colours and changing it to my desired choice. This will help keep my audience engaged since it’s a background that does not look modern but looks real since both the background and narrator have the same lighting.

At the end of my short film in the image above I have added a blur. This is whe Jino is biting Sooha, which will leave the audience on the edge of their seats. When using the tripod and setting up making sure everything is straight for the DSLR camera I have recorded then imported it on final cut pro. This is where blur comes into place which is added right at the end to leave it off a cliff hanger where the audience doesn’t know if Sooha the character has escaped or not. I have also added opacity when the blur creates the lighting to be more vibrant, the opacity makes the lighting stay the same throughout the whole scene. Each different aspect such as the lighting and camera work fit together.