Editing

Editing the clips

Once we finished all of the filming we had to upload our work onto the computer which took roughly around 5 minutes or so. We again used Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0 to edit our 10 minutes worth of footage, as we only have a restriction of the opening being at the most 3 minutes long. Therefore we had to cut down a large amount of our shots as a majority of the shots ran on for too long and became visually boring. As well as reducing the amount of shots, we also had to exclude a few elements that were originally in the plot as the set boundaries and restrictions that were set wouldn't enable us to keep our original plot. Firstly as a group we decided that the girl's whispers at the start of the sequence would not be an effective addition to our zombie apocalypse, so therefore that idea was scraped, as valueable time can't be wasted. Many of the shots that we had captured were of a high technical quality, but again they ran on for far too long, so we kept the vital movements and actions and edited over the errors and mishaps that occured whilst filming, making our opening sequence flow smoothly.


Editing the chase scene.

When it came to editing the chase scene we had to make sure that it was fast and energetic so that it could counteract the earlier theme of isolation as the teenage boy is now suddenly trapped in this dangerous environment. To do this we cut down the long clips of me running to more shorter and sharp shots as they flowed into one another effortlessly once we had edited, which then created the impression of fast pace and speed. We also had to scrap one of the first shots establishing a cluster of zombies running towards the camera from a far distance, as there was passing traffic in the background, which ruined the overall shot, we felt that this would may possibly ruin the sequence if this shot was included. Finally at the end we reduced the playing time of the shot where i clutch the grass, to create the effect of slow motion which then faded out onto the movie title. I personally think that this leaves the audience engaged as the climax builds towards a cliffhanger, leaving the audience wondering at the teenage boy's unquestionable fate. We discovered that changing the colour scale can make the shots lighter or darker, we decided to lower the tone of colour to produce a grey and dismal atmosphere, which makes the weather conditions less noticeably in the sequence.

Editing sound and music

Firstly we muted a majority of the shots taken from the road as traffic can be overheard in the background, but we did manage to keep some sounds that added to the sequence such as the clinking of lock of the gate and the rattling of me jumping over the fence. I think that these intricate sounds add a nice subtle touch to emphasise how isolated the character really is. We then edited the music on a progam called Audacity which allowed us to chop and change sections of the soundtrack so that it would fit in with the timing and pace of the edited clips. I managed to cut the introduction of the soundtrack 'The Sadness Will Never End' and use it repeatedly throughout out the isolated to walk to reflect this deserted environment. I also enhanced pace on the soundtrack 'Death Breath' to help create a more energetic atmosphere with a few lyrics at the end which helped combine with the zombie scream to create more of an impact. I particularly liked how I faded the song at the end highlighting that the opening is coming to an abrupt end. I personally felt that we could've used a better soundtrack to the chase scene, as I felt the song was too upbeat in places and didn't flow as I thought it would but despite this I was happy with the whole of the editing process.

Editing the soundtrack in Audacity.