Production Blog: Working Overtime

The day after filming, I decided to put all the clips together. The three days' worth of clips increased the video from one minute and 41 seconds to seven and 42 seconds. Some scenes overlapped, so I cropped them and other clips that I thought could be shortened, bringing it down to six minutes and 54 seconds. I still had to take into account the opening scenes, which would need a few extra seconds for the production company, and the closing scene, which also needed a few extra seconds for the quote. In total, it would probably go back up to seven seconds. We need to go down to five, so this is an issue. As I watch the video, I notice a lot of the audio has really harsh wind overshadowing it. I'm not usually in charge of audio, but even I can tell this will be hard to isolate. As an alternative, Ash and Siena could individually do voiceovers, and we can mute the audio of the original clips and replace it with the voiceovers. Then we could add a softer wind sound in the background so you can tell we're on the beach, but it's not overshadowing the talking. We can also add walking and birds in the background to make it more natural. My only concern is that their voices won't match up with the emotion on their face. In the moment, they were acting, but at home, they were alone and not in the moment, so it might be hard to recreate their original emotions.

Another thing that needs fixing is the lighting. In the parking garage and the hallway, it's a little dimmer than I would like it. Since it was supposed to be set mid-day, I can make those scenes a lot brighter, so the day doesn't look as murky. I can also make the night scenes darker, so it looks like the hunt went on for longer than it did. Overall, I need to go back and crop out a lot more filler clips. I will try to bring the time to around four minutes and 50 seconds so that we have a 10-second wiggle room for the opening and closing. It will be tricky to cut that much off because I didn't see that much that needed cropping on my first two run-throughs. However, I like a good challenge, so I'm ready.