Post production: Editing Film

The most difficult part about editing a film has been choosing what music should be part of it. I think I struggled with this the most in editing because there was too much choice and what I wanted was unclear. I chose a song but knew I still needed some guidance with this and spoke to my mentor Sharon. She explained so simply what type of music needed to be included and afterwards I went ahead and knew exactly what I needed to do next. I think this experience taught me that when there is a struggle, asking for help is a positive way forward. I just hope that I am able to dig deeper within this type of research and understand further how to match music to the mood of films or anything for that matter. I chose 4 songs to go into the film as adding one sounded too boring as these are repetitive tunes. I chose two that matched the romantic and sad emotions of the film and another two to match the Baz Luhrmann theme as he likes to use old music at the beginning of some of his films e.g. Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby. I think these song choices match the film so well to give it that silent film aspect to it as there is no speaking but only actions and emotions.

I want to include smoke to the characters with cigarettes but have also struggled to create this effect. I took the initiative of asking a film student and professional on how to add this effect. I went through the process as I had been instructed but when the overall look of this was still not realistic. I decided to cut this out because it was also so distracting and not subtle within the scenes. I do think the cigarette smoke does hold the film back slightly but at least I have done a trial and error within adding the effect and know that it will not work. I think in future if I want to have cigarette smoke I should find a studio that allows cigarettes to be lit or the use of a green screen but this simply was not possible in the studio and the set up I was using.