Final Draft "INSANITY"

Editing Phase

"Compilation of all the clips"

Since I already had quiet a good experience in editing, I had little problem at first. But due to persistant issues one after another, I had to rely on trial and error to fix them. I again used Filmora 12 because I had used it in the past; it was also user friendly. The device I used were also the same I used to edit my preliminaries, Dell E5420 2nd Gen.

Before the importing all the clips in the editor, I finalised which of them were looking good and which I had to dispose. This was no issue because only 1 or 2 scenes needed to be discarded as during the shoot, the screenplay was already finalised, also refering to the the improvised actions too.

"Importing scenes into software"

After that I had to come up with a visualisation of how the each clip would coorelate with the continuity and with music. I personally liked the Joker 2019 OST. Therefore I had to now match the scene transition with the beats and instrumentals of the music, to get a more smooth playback. I also added some fade in and out transitions in some parts of the clips, where seemed appropriate.

Moreover, I also wanted to implement the use of "Sting" towards the end climax scene, where the doppleganger comes into the frame. Another thing was that I didn't really knew how to add the P.O.V shot with the other clips, here the fade in transition worked perfectly, adding depth of emotion to the scene.

"Fade and dissolve transitions where necessary"

"Adjusting the clips and transition timing according to the music"

The main concept was to represent the Joker OST as the "Sound Motif" for the surgeon and this first scene draft imitated this perfectly till the end.

"Initial phase of the cuts, transitions and playback in accordance

with the music"

This was looking pretty good for now but I wanted some emotional depth and connection for the audience to experience what the surgeon was experiencing. So I decided to add whispering voices at the start of the scene, and also merge a typical climax breaker sound. This example of "Sound Mixing" proved to be very dynamic and led to the first perfectly.

"Adjusting both of the audios with the duration of the starting void screen"

To actually add ambience to the scenes; now was the time to add audio effects. I started to point out some key areas where this was necessary and started adding the audios in accordance with the objects which were making the sound in the video. The key areas I pointed out were:

Taking Knife Out Of Body
Throwing Scalpel On Table
The Analogue Watched Ticking
Unwearing and throwing gloves
Unweearing and thowing the mask and medical cap
Stirring the scalpel and drying with bandage
The gunshot climax scene

One thing I wanted to implement was to reduce the ambient sounds as we progressed further into the story. This can be a semiotic code that can be the clue that the surgeon is actually losing his mind.

"Adding Fade and Adjusting volume to the dramatic climax breaker audio"

"Adjusting the pitch and applying equalizer to the whisperings"

Before commencing with the audios, I noticed that the whisperings were a little too squeaky. Basically it actually was noticable that they were being recorded in a public place or auditorium. So I decided to reduce the Pitch to -2 and applied the Rock' n 'Roll equalizer to it; which removed the stuttering as well as made the voices more demonic and heavy.

"Fade In Set To 3.33 for the Dramatic Sound"

"Adding heavy breathing sound and meat plucking sound effect too"

With reference to the sound mixing, I made 4 to 5 cuts of the breathing sound effect and graduallhy started to decrease the decibals. The starting Volume was -14.5 which I gradually decreased to -38.1. Moreover I also added a split Fade in effect to the start of the Breating Effect so that the audio smoothly blends with the transitioning dramatic noise and whisperings. I also added Fade in and out effect to the meat plucking noise adjusting it smoothly with the action of the scalpel being taken out of the body.

"The fade in and out were set as per the requirement"

Adding more ambience, I took a clock ticking sound and adjusted it on the timeline so that it parallels with the actual ticking of the watch. To make it feel real I also cut it and placed it on the next scene, but decreased its volume to minimal so that the ticking is still heard in the background. The First half of the clock ticking is set to 2.4 decibals and the second one is set to -20.

"Adjusting the clock ticking audio"

"Putting On Gloves Audio"

I set the decibals of the glove putting on audio to 5.7 as it fitted right with the scene.

"Throwing gloves audio"

For the split second when the Surgeon throws the gloves I basically cut some part of the gloves wearing audio and decreased its decibal to 8.6 so that it matched with the ongoing action on the scene.

"Removing the mask and medical cap and throwing them"

Again using the same strategy for the mask removal & cap removal and throwing I cut some part of the mask removing audio and then put it on the part when the cap and mask are touching the table. Since the audio itself for this part of the actin sequence was already low, I put both of the audios to -7.7 from -20; they were hearable.

"Stirring the scalpel audio adjustment"

Adding the stirring audio was easy; I just adjusted the Fade in to 0.23 and the Fade out to 0.3 for smooth transition before and after the audio. The volume (decibals) was set to 0.9.

"Cleaning the scalpel with bandages"

I cut and adjusted the timespan of the sclapel cleaning audio by inserting a cloth sound effect when the scalpel is being rubbed with bandages. I did no such adjustments in terms of audio in this and the volume was put on original.

"Got the idea to add heartbeat as the surgeon loses his mind"

Whilst doing the audio effect I got the idea to add subtle hearable heartbeat sound which is hearable as the surgeon gets killed by his doppleganger. I started from the point when he sees that the body is gone, then increase the volume (decibals) from -4 to 1.7.

"Increasing the speed of the all the audio cuts"

Towards the end when the dopple ganger finally emerges and tackles the Surgeon, i wanted so that the heartbeat sound is like really fast as if he is hyperventilating. So i cut some parts of the same heartbeat audio, adjusted them on the timeline and increased the speed of each of them to 1.6 and the volume was se to original (0.00 is original in Filmora 12 ).

"Added whispering sounds too as the editing progressed"

Then to emphasize on the going mad thing; I adjusted the same crown whisperings wiht the same settings as the one before; copying and pasting it on the timeline. I put it right next to the start of the phase where we actually see the gun being put into focus (Focus Pull). I increased the volume of the part where we see the surgeon's face, by cutting and adjusting it on the timeline.

"Copying the same whisperings as the doppleganger emerged"

I copied and pasted the same whispering noise again but this time in a continuous manner until the surgeon gets shot by the doppleganger. I again cut the audio when the doppleganger emerged and tackled the surgeon, and increased the volume (decibals) to 8.6 because already the Soundtrack, Heartbeat sound and this would create a great deal of attention grabbing sound mix.

"Adding subtle breathing audio"

Putting breathing sounds when the surgeon is down on his knees was a must. Using a male breathing sound effect, I cut it into three parts, gradually decreasing the volume (decibals) from -3.2 to approximately -8 as during the climax scene "Luckily" the part of the Joker OST where the beat becomes uplifted and cinematic is played. Then I awent along with the gunshot sequence, cutting it so that the shot is heard as the scene turns black iu the playback. The volume I set the gunshot was the original as the sound was not deafening with the OST in the background; there was no need to inc/dec it.

"Gun shot sound placed at the exact moment"

Putting breathing sounds when the surgeon is down on his knees was a must. Using a male breathing sound effect, I cut it into three parts, gradually decreasing the volume (decibals) from -3.2 to approximately -8 as during the climax scene where "Luckily" the part of the Joker OST in which the beat becomes uplifted and cinematic, is played. Then I went along with the gunshot sequence, cutting it so that the shot is heard as the scene turns black iu the playback. The volume I set the gunshot was the original as the sound was not deafening with the OST in the background; there was no need to inc/dec it.

"Cinematic black bars makes it a 100 times better"

As seen in professional short films and movies; there are two black bars on the upper and lower side of the video. The purpose for these are to show a cinematic effect in the whole film and for certain aspect ratio controls, for display devices. I put this in the form of "Cinema 21:9" effect present in Filmora 12. I extended it until the end of the whole montage. But I had to cut some part of this effect as a pinpoint where certain adjustments to the video clips were necessary. Like I had to move some of the clip up and down so that the objects or sequnce was visible.

"Hover to see how repositioning changed the scenes dynamic"

Using the same thing I repositioned 2 other scenes that needed repositioning to show the foreground of the scene a little bit more. After this was a major point in the post production time stamp because a first draft had been created which I personally thought was good enough, but when I sent them to my teacher, many things were missing so I had to continue.

"Hover to see another example of repositioning"

"How the black bars helped hide the unwanted things (Hover)"

But there were two major things I implemented before presenting the first draft to my teacher. Firstly was I had an ending screen coorelate with the beats of the soundtrack. This scene was similar to how we see some contextual meaning behind the story, I made it so that the audience sees it at the end of the story. This would also cover up the whole non linear story telling sequence to the part of the audience that doesn't understand the meaning behind it.

"End Scene contextual paragraph"

I added a brief text reference so that the audience can clearly understand what is happening in the story. The font I used was "Cormorant Infant Bold Italic" due to its eye grabbing dark style. The colour I used was A Maroon Reddish colour, particularly "#aa0000". Moreover I kept it center alligned and set the size of the text to 20. After that I got the brilliant idea to add the title of the short film during the end climax scene when we see the surgeon die. So I used the same Font and did left alligment of the text; and changed the size to 64. This turned out looking pretty good. I also added the fade in transition in the auto animation for a more dramatric entery of the title.

"End scene title"

One thing that remained was the muzzle flash scene. Hence I got a free muzzle flash stock video from the internet, appllied chroma key to it and then adjusted it so that it alligns with the barrel of the gun in scene. I had to increase the temperature of the clip because the flash was looking a little bit too white.

Draft #1

The things that I needed to change were clear in this draft. There was no composition so the video looked repetative and bland and voiceovers had to be put in a directive order so the chronological phase is understood. But I also wanted to integrate credits too which show up during the whole playback segment.

"Covering up the black screen at the start"

Since the starting black scene looked unfascinating and tasteless, I decided to integrate the credits here too. A parallel copy of this same text will be used for all the other credits too, with the same font "Agency FB". The white colour I used was for the contrast and easy readability for the audience since the atmosphere already looked moody and dark. The size initially I used was 44 but then varied it to 29 and 23 antagonistically as per the requirement. I also added the fade in and out animation to these texts to make the transition between them more natural.

"Adding credits to other parts of the scenes"

Another thing I noticed was that as the video progressed the scenes became grainy, this was a visual error and lighting issue due to which the video was blurry/grainy. I had to do something quickly if I wanted the video to be upto standard, so I used an AI tool called "Vmake" which used Frame Upscaling to ungrain and enhance the video. I cut the part which needed to be upscaled; exported into my phone and used the application to my advantage; and the results were better then I anticipated. I couldn't actually take a screenshot whilst the loading process was occuring due to the potential issue of it taking a long time after lagging.

"Application interface as a proof of how user friendly it was"

Apart from being user friendly it did the job very well. For a comparison below are a series of comparison images which when hovered over show how much of a detailed job this software did, helping me save a lot of time and effort. Another example of how far technological integration have come because just 1 year ago we had to use PCs to just upscale images.

"Hover to see raw upscale examples"

After upscaling the cut part I alligned it and added it to the timeline, over the original clips. This impacted the video in a positive way and enabled the quality to stay constant. Then Was the second last part of the whole re-editing pahse, adding voiceovers.

"Adding the upscaled clips on the timeline above the original"

AI didn't use adobe podcast for the voiceovers because they were recorder On S24 ultra which helped in clearing the audio a lot in a raw manner. So where ever seemed necessary, I just put them wherever deemed acceptable. I had set the volume (decibals) to 1.4 for all the voiceovers as they were already enhanced as said before.

"Compilation of V.O and moving into software"

"Setting the volume to 1.4 for all V.O"

With everything in place, now was the time for composition. I didn't want any of the moody environment to change hence I didn't change the temperature. One exception I want to talk about is that in the second scene where the surgeon is holding the knife; I accidently turned on the warm light during the production. Hence I had to lower the temperature down just so that the warness turned into a white like shade,

"Hover to see the decreasing temperature comparison"

Now for a keen observation I decided to reduce the Highlights & Shadows of each individual clip. The Highlights I changed ranged from -10 to -100 and The Shadows ranged from -24.4 to -100, depending on how I wanted to represent the clip.

"Changing the highlights and shadows of all clips"

The purpose for only setting the Highlights and Shadows was to continue the moody and dark ambience of the clips. By decreasing both of these values we promote the shadows and contrasty look of the colours; which helped tremendously in this expenditure. the following are some examples of how only using this I achieved good results. One thing to know is that since I was using the upscaled videos of the last segment, I also colour graded those only.

Hover on the images below to see before and after colour grading:

With that my final draft was done. One thing my teacher told me about was to change the solour of the last paragraph scene and also the end title because the red was a little too bright, so I ended up using one of the more deep contrasting colours in the colour pallete already showing in the software.

"The dark colour appealed to the genre"

"Colour Palette for INSANITY (Ignoring the red titles at the end)"

MUSIC/AUDIO USED

I.E: ALL OTHER SOUND EFFECT USED ARE TAKEN FROM THE FILMORA 12 MUSIC WONDERSTOCK

MAKING THE BLOG BACKGROUND

For my blog's actual background image, containing cutouts of my favourite characters from various genres of movies (Mostly from psychological thriller films/series). I used Canva & Photopea for this endeavour due to my laptops limitations as well as due to the fact that both of these services are accessible on the internet; and also because both are user-friendly

SEE THE CANVA LAYERING STEP IN ACTION

Download Canva Exported Background

Image File • PNG Format

I used Pixelcut to manually remove like the backgrounds of each image I downloaded, then dedicated most of my time making the characters blend with each other without subtle frame breakage. Moreover I decided to leave the upper and lower area white; whihc would be helpfull in putting the gradient effects in Photopea later.

USING PHOTOPEA TO ADD EFFECTS

Download Photopea Editable PSD

Design File • PSD Format

Reducing the saturation of the image gave me the black and white effect, and using the gradient tool I was able to seemlessly merge the black and white colours with the background image itself.

Premiere Day

The day for the screening was filled with full enthusiasm and truthfullness. The student body as well as parents and teachers were also present and were there to give their full fletched review on our opening briefs. Our Principal even came to see what the first ever batch of Media Studies of our institute have come up with. Most of my peers were having their reviews filled on a sheet but I didn't follow this. I knew how people react and hastely do something when in pressure and when time is on the line, so I had them privately message me on whatsaap after seeing the film. This gave me the opportunity to see honest comments pointing the real flaws in my project but also major positive points for my efforts. My teacher had set a no phone parameter whilst the short films were running (No one was following the rules) so I took the photos in a quick manner.

Slider with Arrows