Figure 47. Example of an EDL giving precise times for all edit points.
EDLs are used to recreate versions of an offline edit for an online edit or auto conform, as well as for grading of the takes that will be used. Most editing systems are capable of generating them, and because they relate to the original source material, they can be read by other editing systems, or people such as editors or neg cutters, who then use the information to create the online.
Auto conform
An auto conform or conform edit is the process of reassembling the master version of the film based on the EDL.
Rendering
Most editing systems allow you to work with virtual versions of your master footage. Small compressed files are used for speed and efficiency instead of the full-resolution larger files. Any effects such as transitions that you apply to the virtual timeline version need to be created with the original files. This takes longer than with the virtual versions, resulting in the processing times involved in rendering.
Digitising
Digitising is the process of converting analogue information into digital. This used to be a time-consuming process with many early digital editing systems, where analogue video had to be captured and digitised. Now that video formats are predominantly digital, this is not as much of an issue, with many transfers directly from cameras or VTR decks using a digital transfer such as firewire, where no digitising is required. Many capture cards for analogue sources still provide digitising, but, due to processing speeds, this can often occur in real time.
Storage
Working on NLE editing systems, the amount of information and the speed with which you can work with it will be two of your major concerns; these factors are not governed by the software you are using, but by the computer it is running on. The speed of the computer processor and the amount of RAM will determine how quickly the computer can process the type of files you are working with. The amount of footage you can store on the computer will be governed by the hard disc space available. Computer storage used to be slow and expensive, but firewire hard drives are quick and efficient means of storing and retrieving footage for your film. Depending on the format and resolution of the files you are using it is practical and fairly cheap to store several hours worth of rushes on a single hard drive, or array of hard drives.
Backing up
One of the most important considerations when working with digital files of your film is backing everything up. Keeping at least two digital versions of your rushes on separate external hard drives is really a must. As stable as most computer systems are these days there is still the potential for things to go wrong and work to be lost. Backing your progress up to external hard drives allows you an element of security if everything goes haywire.
Titles and credits
Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere both have the ability to create high-resolution titles and credits for your film, which can be outputted to the final version. For anything beyond the ability offered by these programmes there are a whole host of other programmes that can be used to create titles and credits, from Adobe After Effects to plain old Photoshop. The most important consideration when using other programmes outside of your editing software is that the file formats and resolutions are, or can be, matched to your film.
Digital effects
Just as digital software has put editing into the hands of most people with a computer, it has also allowed amazingly sophisticated effects and compositing programmes to become domesticated. Whereas outside of Hollywood computer-generated effects for films (CGI) used to look really rubbish, these days you can easily purchase state of the art software programmes that are the same as the ones used on massive-budget feature films. Adobe After Effects or Apple’s Shake are regularly used on multi-million-dollar Hollywood films, yet for often a few hundred pounds can be purchased off the shelf and quite happily used on a reasonably powerful home computer. Learning how to use them or finding someone who does is really the only thing that will stop you from being able to generate realistic digital effects.
Figure 48. Apple’s Shake compositing programme.
Locking the edit
Once you have fine-tuned your edit then you need to lock the film off. This means that you lock the timeline and video tracks so that the clips cannot be moved. This is important as it allows sound designers and composers to work on the film potentially using the time code and clip lengths as a guide. If they are working with an unlocked edit they might complete their work to find that you’ve changed the durations meaning that they then have to recompose.
SOUND EDITING
Mixing and editing the three components of your soundtrack (effects, score and dialogue) can be performed either within the editing programme or in dedicated programmes designed specifically for soundtrack composition or editing.
Final Cut Pro and Premiere offer extensive audio editing that allows you to run large amounts (often up to 100) tracks of audio simultaneously. Working on the same principle as editing your footage, you can create complex compositions of audio by working on the individual tracks in turn, using time code or visual references to sync the score, dialogue and effects with the film.
Sound editing, although an intricate process, can often be performed by whoever is cutting the film. When working with a composer or sound designer, who is working on a dedicated music programme, it is easy enough to choose a digital format that can be shared between the programmes. Just like video clips and files, there are also dedicated audio files. The most ubiquitous of these are WAV and AIFF file types. These are again container files, and so different codecs can be used to encode the audio data. Because audio files generally contain much less information than video files, there is often no need for them to be compressed, allowing any transfers required for composing and editing to occur at full quality, whether on a CD or sent over the Internet.
Figure 49. Soundtrack Pro by Apple works in tandem with Final Cut Pro.
Sound mixing
Although sound syncing and editing can often be performed by an editor, sound mixing is a much more complex task. Once all the elements of your soundtrack are in place, a mix is performed to adjust both the volume and the frequencies of the individual tracks that make up the whole soundtrack.
Although most editing programmes will allow you to perform this function, even offering effects such as reverb and equalisation, creating a professional mix really requires somebody with talent and experience. The most obvious element of sound mixing is adjusting the volumes of the individual tracks, allowing the most important elements to be clear and audible. The second and much more complicated role of the sound mixer is equalisation, whereby the soundtrack is adjusted so that different elements such as voices or instruments each inhabit their own frequency range. A basic mix will separate types of sound and the emphasis required for them into different ranges. Steps in frequency between bass, middle and treble are used so that the final mix allows all the different elements to coexist within a dynamic range, giving your soundtrack a finesse and depth that it might otherwise lack. Depending on how complex your soundtrack is and the production values of your whole film, a professional sound mixer may or may not be required. If you can’t get a sound mixer and you feel you need one, it’s worth looking into programmes like Soundtrack Pro from Final Cut studio, which offers soundtrack analysis programmes that will auto perform basic but effective mixes of your finished soundtrack.
26. SOUNDTRACK
With so much of your attention focused on the visual side of the filmmaking process, it’s often easy to forget the importance of the soundtrack. Without the extra dimension of sound, your film would lose a lot of its potential impact. Even though we often take it for granted when watching films, it is amazing how much the use of sound adds to our viewing experience and our ability to absorb the images. Even the subtlest of sounds when added to an image has the potential to bring it alive and give the audience the focus that you are intending. The soundtrack has t
he potential to draw the viewer into your film on a subconscious level and amplify the action that is taking place. The same piece of film, when seen with different pieces of music, or even ambient sound, can come across very differently, and the mood can change dramatically even though the footage remains exactly the same.
This is why organising the time to give the soundtrack the importance it deserves will pay dividends when it comes to creating your film. Whether you are intending just to use your location and dialogue recordings or are planning on a fully orchestrated score, it is an important element to start planning early in the film’s pre-production.
DIALOGUE
This consists of recordings of the dialogue from your script. It is often recorded on set when you are filming (see sound recording section). It can also be recorded in a studio at a later date and then synced to the film. This process is known as Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR). Any narration in your film is normally recorded afterwards in this way too. Although ADR recordings are generally better quality it can be a complicated and time-consuming process to synchronise ADR with footage of actors already delivering those lines. So ensuring that the sound quality of your location recordings is as good as possible is essential.
SOUND EFFECTS
Figure 50. Sound effects library downloadable file options.
The sound effect section of the audio is often made up of a combination of both location sounds, recorded at the time of filming, and additional sounds that are either created by a foley artist, or sourced from a sound effects library. Location sound recordings alone often don’t have the necessary impact, so the sound of a door slamming, an engine starting or a gun firing are often replaced with the relevant effect afterwards. On feature films, it’s the foley artist’s job to create ultra-realistic sound effects, normally from unrelated objects, and recreate bespoke sound effects: the sound of a bird’s wings flapping made with rubber gloves, for example. On a short film, the budget would rarely allow for the hire of a foley artist to create sound effects. However, there are lots of online sound libraries where you can acquire either foley artist effects or extremely high-quality live recordings. Larger sound library websites allow you to audition multiple options for even the most random of sounds. Once you have selected the right one it can be downloaded directly as a high-quality sound file for a fee. The files are in formats supported by most editing programmes so they can be imported straight onto an audio track and mixed into the rest of the soundtrack.
http://www.sound-effects-library.com
http://www.f7sound.com
Sound design
Sound design is the creation of ambient or atmospherics for a film. Unlike a music score, sound design doesn’t involve classic composition techniques, but relies more on layering textures of sound to create a mood or tone. Sound designers often work closely with composers so that the score and sound design complement and extend the same moods and themes of the film.
MUSIC
Traditionally films have an original score created by a composer. This score is then played by musicians and recorded, then synchronised to the film. The number of musicians involved can range from a huge orchestra to a lone music programmer.
Whatever the style of music, film scores generally contain a central theme or melody. This then reoccurs throughout and gives coherence to the soundtrack as a whole. This use of musical themes is sometimes broken down further so that each of the main characters – protagonist/antagonist – has their own accompanying theme or leitmotif.
There is no orthodox method for creating short film scores and there are as many approaches to soundtrack composition as there are styles of music. Whether you want classical, songs by a band or ambient textures, the one thing that you should avoid is using music that has already been commercially released because it will be subject to publishing, broadcasting and synchronisation rights and need clearance to be used in a film. Unfortunately licensing music is an expensive and complicated procedure that would generally far exceed the budgets of most short films. As tempting as it may be to even use only a small snippet of unlicensed music in your film, the result may well be that your film will not be accepted at festivals and will not be eligible for broadcast. If you are adamant that you want to license and clear a piece of music then you can find more information at the following sites.
http://www.ascap.com
http://www.mcps.co.uk
The exception to this rule is music that is now public domain. This means pieces of music that are over 50 years old. Recordings of these pieces are still liable to royalties and publishing rights, but you can legally record a version of them. See the following sites for more information.
http://www.pdinfo.com
http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com
There are also audio or sound libraries that stock thousands of pieces of pre-recorded music, for which, as with sound effects, you can pay a flat fee, giving you exclusive rights to use the music in your film.
Original score
Generally the most interesting option is to have a composer or sound designer create an original score for your film. There are a huge amount of composers and musicians that are looking for opportunities to compose film soundtracks. The challenge is to find someone that will create a soundtrack that will complement the atmosphere and mood of your film.
INTERVIEW WITH RACHEL HAMILTON (COMPOSER)
Rachel Hamilton is a classically trained musician and multi-instrumentalist with a passion for old synthesisers, Theremins and harps. She has composed original soundtracks for over 20 short films as well as recording solo projects. Further information can be found at www.rachelhamilton.com.
At what stage of the short filmmaking process does the director or producer normally get in touch with you and is there an ideal time?
Usually they get in touch when the film is almost ready for music, but I’ve had one occasion when I was onboard even before the script was written, and the scriptwriter/director had some of my pre-written music playing while she wrote! Ideally I’d like to be signed up with a bit of notice so I can keep that time aside in my diary if it looks like a good project. But I don’t want to be writing music for a film that gets re-edited beyond recognition, so when the film is getting into shape and nearing its last stages of editing is good.
How do you normally go about working with a director while composing for their film?
Generally we watch the edited film together for the first time, then talk about ideas, watch it again and discuss what kind of music needs to go where, and swap ideas. Then I go away and write some music, and we talk about what I’ve done, what needs changing, what doesn’t work, what does work. And so on until it’s ready. This can be done in person, or over the phone or by email. I’ve done a lot of work with comments bouncing back over email.
Do you find it easier or more difficult if the director gives you a lot of input and is more exacting about what they want?
Generally this is really helpful; it can be inspiring to work with constrictions, and if ideas spark more ideas that’s great. Composers are meant to hate temp scores but they can be helpful too, especially if time is very tight. A director who doesn’t have a clue what he wants could mean a wonderful blank canvas for the composer, or it could be he’s indecisive and doesn’t like anything.
How do you go about the process of beginning to write the score for a short film? Do you just start at the beginning and finish at the end?
No, rarely. Maybe there’s one bit I’m itching to write some music for, or something comes to me straight away, so I just start with whatever is ready to be written in my mind. Once the score is started it opens my mind up to what might happen in the rest of the score. It’s a tense period when I’ve written the first bit and I’m waiting to hear from the director if it’s what he or she wants. I don’t want to write an entire score and have to start again.
Technically, how should the filmmaker present their film to you for you to begin creating the soundtrack?
A DVD or video is great to get started on, so I can see the full picture on a decent sized screen, but when it comes to the final cut I like working with a smallish QuickTime file as this is really easy to synch with my music software.
Technically, how do you then fit the film with the music, what programme do you use for this and what does the recording process entail?
I use Digital Performer, a Mac only sequencer/audio package. I usually begin by recording ideas in midi (rather than recorded audio) so I can move them around, change the speed, cut and copy. Digital Performer is very good at finding a tempo to synch hit points with the music successfully. I don’t use hard synch as often as I used to, but it’s a useful tool to have on my sequencer.
What happens once you have done something that you think works well? Do you then go back to the director and see what he thinks?
Yes, I try to do a good mock up with samples, but don’t spend too much time shaping the sounds and recording live instruments. I might be inadvertently on the wrong track altogether, so it’s better to get it to him quickly but well enough recorded that he can hear what the music is about.
Short Films Page 19