Hannah Wilkinson reflects on her process of editing a production project in Premiere Pro. She describes struggles with audio quality between indoor and outdoor clips that were resolved by re-recording. Scene transitions and reactions shots were added to improve flow. Special effects like masks and keyframes were used to create a time travel transition. Sound effects were made in Beepbox and Garageband. Color grading and scopes were utilized to refine the look.

1. Production Reflection
Hannah Wilkinson

2. Process
I started by editing the first scene. The image was simple to edit together however I
had problems with the audio because on one side of the conversation the camera
was inside, and on the other it was outside. This meant that there was a drastic
change between the two people talking making the quality sounded really bad. I
looked at some tutorials to try and fix the problem by editing out reverb and trying
to flatten out the background noise. This didn’t work well so I decided to rerecord
these clips on another day. I will make sure to pay closer attention to the sounds
outside.

3. Process
After re filming, the clips sound much better together and I now feel happy to move to the
next scene. I began to edit scene two and spent some time trying to get a j-cut between
scenes one and two. At first it sounded a bit awkward. To fix this I decided to add default
transitions to the last audio in scene one it created a smooth transition between the clips. I
then started editing together the clips from scene two. The audio sounded good and didn’t
need to be edited because this scene was filmed inside. This meant there was no sound
coming from distant cars or from the wind. I also edited in clips that show the other persons
reaction whilst the other person was still talking to keep the audio running smoothly and
nicely.

4. Process
I began to practice how to edit the final
scene on a different premiere pro save. I
wanted to try out different ways of
editing the time travel before doing the
final edit in the project. I ended up
learning how to create a mask around
the two characters in order to edit them
onto an empty background. I struggled
with this at first as I couldn’t work out
how to start drawing the mask but I
ended up figuring it out and learning
ways to do it efficiently. I then created a
key frame to alter their position and
opacity to have them fade away. The
result didn’t turn out how I wanted it to
as I didn’t do it correctly. I struggled to
create the masks around both people
separately. After this I then finished
editing scene three on the final project.

5. Process
I started today by continuing on with
scene three and putting the rest of the
clips together. I then figured out how to
successfully edit the time travel and
started to do the final version for the
project. I decided to make a couple
changes to make the transition a bit
longer by adding a couple extra key
frames. I felt like the practice was
slightly too fast which I thought wasn’t
as effective. Once it was done I decided
to add a RGB effect as they time travel. I
also added this in a few frames earlier so
that the video glitches just before they
end up disappearing. I have ended up
feeling quite happy with how the time
travel looks especially since I was
sceptical about whether it would work
successfully. I do feel a bit unhappy with
how the positioning of the final clip but
it isn’t isn’t a stark contrast and I think
for the most part it is unnoticeable.

6. Process
I now needed to start creating sound
effects. I needed to create something for
when they get thrown back, one for the
time travel and another sound that plays
through out in the background. I started
out by going onto Beepbox where I
created a high pitched tone that will
drone in the background. I had some
trouble finding the right instrument to
choose as I felt that there wasn’t a wide
variety for the sort of thing I was looking
for. I ended up finding that brass
instruments sounded quite good for the
background sound. Beepbox was good
for one toned sounds but didn’t work
for the sci-fi time travel effect that I
wanted to create so I will need to use
garage band.

7. Process
I went onto garage band and went
through many different sounds to try
find one that sounded good for the
moment the characters travel back in
time. I found that a lot of the sound
effects in the arpeggiator category
sounded quite good and felt like they fit
the sci-fi theme. Two sounds that I
tested from this section were string
cycles and the synth burst cycles. I also
found it useful to use the transform pad
at the bottom of the screen. This
allowed me to create some interesting
variations of the sound. I then put these
into premiere pro and tried to cut short
sections from the sound. I ended up not
being able to use either of these so had
to start creating more.

8. Process
I managed to create some outro
music which fit well with the tone for
the ending. It had many elements of
sci-fi music but also felt like conveyed
an element of mystery which is a good
note to end on. However I am still not
sure if I want to use outro music or
keep it silent. I am undecided on
which sounds the most effective. I
also created some more sound effects
in garage band that work well for the
moment that they travel back in time
that I will use in the final product.

9. Process
I needed to create light coming out of
the candle. This was something that I
could not create in premiere so I
decided to try filming it. I got a red
piece of paper and filmed a torch
coming up from the bottom out of
frame. I placed it on the floor so that
it would be correct on the screen. I
also tried to angle it in a way so that
the perspective would be right.
Otherwise it would look too much like
an overlay and that would be
unnatural. Then when I placed it into
premiere pro, I edited the colour
setting so that the white and red
colours were more distinctive. I also
needed to make sure there were no
shadows as the unedited version is
much darker along the bottom. This
allowed me to key out the red using
an ultra key.

10. Process
After I had all of the clips edited
together I began focusing on colour
grading and correction. I used the
lumetri scopes to help with this by
toggling the RGB parade and the luma
waveform. These helped me even out
the colour so I would know if it needs to
be cooler toned or warm toned. It also
helped me check the black and white
levels. This allowed me to neutralise the
colour and create a more cinematic
look.