Software Use

Premier Pro

The actual editing of my video didn't take too long due to the fact that the majority of footage was A-roll and so I didn't really have to think about where B-roll could go. However, we did manage to record some alternative shots for some parts of the scene which turned out to be useful. Editing this video has helped me become more accustom to the amount of time it takes to edit videos/film. It is a long and quite draining process but the end result was what I hoped for so I am happy with myself and the result. There isn't really much for me to say about how I used Premier as my main focus was on the use of Audition this project, I did mess around with the colour grading in Premier Pro and found that one of the presets best fit my vision, I decided to use a Noire effect and I like the way it turned out. I feel like I maybe could have spent a bit more time and thought into the colour grading but I feel like this works well.

Audition

When it comes to using Audition, my experience was pretty lacklustre and so the process did take a lot longer than expected. The process was very tiring due to having to filter through all of the outtakes whilst attempting to find which ADR recording was best to use. The way I decided what was best to use was with a few different things in mind; does it match the lips? Does it have the right emotion? Does it look real? These 3 things were important to consider when doing the ADR as I wanted it to look as realistic as possible when replacing the audio.

Next, I had to sync everything up, this didn't go originally as planned due to there being too much reverb on our microphones that Audition was unable to use the 'Automatic Speech Alignment' feature. This meant that I had to align the voices manually one by one, which further increased the amount of time it took to get the ADR done. Once I had it all aligned it was time to make sure the audio sounded like it came from the stairwell, this meant adding the right reverb and the correct directional positioning of the audio. This process was fairly enjoyable as the end result was very pleasant, this meant that I would be willing to do it again and spend the same amount of time on it, if not more.

After all that, it was time to adjust the levels (which I almost neglected), and this took a fair amount of time but once I listened to the before and after, it proved to be worth the time and effort as the quality was drastically increased. When I was adjusting the levels I realised that I need to pan some of the audio for further realism, and so I started off by panning the voices to whatever direction they are coming from which was a pretty easy task. I think if I took more time with the panning then the result could have been better as I didn't really pan the audio with the actors movement, so if I really wanted to add more realism then I could keyframe the pan so it follows the movement, I would like to think that if I had more time to complete this project then I would follow through with this.

Premier Pro to Audition and Audition to Premier Pro

Trying to get these two programs to work hand in hand is a real struggle. There are a few methods for transferring files between them and I will go over the ones I attempted to use and discuss which one worked best for me.

Firstly I needed to get the video into Audition so I could add the ADR, I tried to look for a way for the software to directly link the two applications but I settled with exporting the video as an .mp4 file then added it as a video track in audition. This was disappointing as I was hoping there would be a way of using both in real time so as I change one it edits the other. Despite this, I still find the adobe software extremely useful and easy to use.

Once I had edited the ADR I needed to put the audio back into Premier Pro, this is where things started to get difficult. Firstly, I thought that exporting it as an .mp3 (or equivalent) then placing it into Premier Pro would be best as the audio was already in the correct position. However, when I placed the .mp3 into Premier Pro I noticed that I could no longer change the levels of individual clips and it would only effect the overall volume. So I went back to Audition where I looked around a bit and found the "Export to Premier Pro" option (which wasn't working at first) then after some messing around with some settings I managed to figure out how to get all the audio from Audition into Premier Pro on separate tracks. My only issue was that all the audio on track 1 had been merged into one long clip along with all the other tracks. This made rearranging clips a struggle so I decided to go back to Audition and make sure everything was exactly where I wanted before exporting. Back in Premier Pro I then made last minute changes to levels before rendering. 

Problems with Adobe

One problem I have with the Adobe software is when it comes to saving, every time I have worked on something at home then tried to bring it on a USB, 90% of the time clips are missing from the project, so I have to wait until I get home before editing again. I feel like this could be an easily implemented feature to make sure clips are saved with the project so you can easily transfer the project onto other computers.