Post-Production Diary
Day One: 04/04/2022
Today I started editing the footage together. I used Bensound to download royalty free music- so that when I uploaded the finished product to YouTube I would not get a copyright strike.
I also uploaded the first scene of the documentary as a place holder- just so that I could move the footage along to where I wanted it to be. This would allow me to estimate how long the introduction of the documentary would be. I cut the sound from Bensound so that the music would not be playing throughout the documentary- but I have yet to delete it as I ran out of time in lesson.
Day Two: 06/04/2022
Today I continued to edit the footage I have captured so far. I ensured that the introduction music cut off at the right place, and deleted the rest of the sound after the first shot began. I added some images of technology that I took over the process of filming into the beginning of the documentary- so that the beginning was not just a black screen with text. I also added some text just before the footage started showing- which included the title of the documentary: Generations.
I also included an exponential fade at the end of the introduction music, so that the sound did not just randomly cut off as I transitioned into the voiceover of the next footage. After I did this, I also added transitions to the images and the title- so that the footage would not just cut to the next image.
I also experimented with different transitions between the images to see which one would fit best. First I tried a cross dissolve between the different images. The next transition I tried was a non-additive dissolve- which allowed the title to be placed over the top of the final image before cutting to just the title.
As for the cross dissolve transition between the first two images, I attempted a few more transitions for this, including a film dissolve- which allowed both images to be overlaid on the top of each other. I did not like this transition much- as when it got to the end of the transition it just cut rather than having a smooth transition.
I also added a non-additive dissolve between the title and the first piece of footage in the documentary- so that the title carried over for a few seconds into the beginning of the footage.
After I had went through the first scene and shot of footage, I added the first 'interview' of the documentary. Unfortunately the audio was not picked up very well by the microphone- so I had to increase the audio gain so that the speech could be heard. I raised the audio gain by around 20 decibels so that the audio in the scene was not too quiet. After I had done this I watched through the footage and cut it off just after the interviewee had stopped talking- so that there wasn't any unnecessary silence.
After I had cut and deleted the footage from the interview scene- I began to experiment with transitions from the first scene into the second scene. After a few tries I concluded that the cross zoom was the best transition from the interviewee using technology to the interview.
Following this, I underlaid the audio from another scene that I filmed so that the first scene was not just silence. I recorded another 2 minutes of interview footage alongside the first 2 minutes, but if I don't have enough audio to put under the footage I will include some sort of music beneath it.
This audio was also too quiet, so I had to raise the audio gain of this too, so that it was able to be heard.
Day Three:07/04/2022
Today I continued editing the footage. I added the final scene of this interviewee using technology, scrolling through the news on the computer. I also added the last part of the voiceover from the second interview I filmed with him.
I had to listen to the voiceover to see where I needed to cut it off, as I had already included the first half of the voiceover in the first scene- after raising the the audio gain again- so that the audio was not too quiet.
Before I added music I experimented with different transitions between the two final pieces of footage so that it did not just cut. At first I used a band slide transition, but decided that it did not give the desired effect.
I then experimented with an iris box transition, but as well as the band slide, it did not give the desired effect between the two clips.
After experimenting with several different transition- I decided to use a cross zoom transition, as it gave a smooth transition between the two clips.
After I had completed experimenting with the transitions I got to work adding a little bit of music to fill the small silence at the end of the final clip. I checked how long the music was at the very beginning of the documentary and then took away those first 14 seconds from the music at the end of the footage- so that I could add the music in half way through playing- so it did not just start over and over again.
I then had to cut the music so that it would not play into the next scene, which will be an interview scene.
Day Four:08/04/2022
Today I started to edit the next three scenes into the documentary. The interview scene as well as the other scenes from this shoot were a bit dark- so I looked through the effects tab so that I could brighten the clips.
Once I had increased the brightness and the contrast, the difference between the unedited clip and the edited was quite large- and the clip was no longer too dark to see.
The audio in these clips, similar to the first interview scene with the first interviewee, was also quite quiet, so I raised the audio gain of these clips too- though not as much as the other interview, as this clip had slightly better audio quality.
I also listened to the footage to see where I needed to cut off, as I started filming for 30 seconds before the interviewees talked about technology, just so that I did not waste time trying to make the audio sound natural in a way, rather than having it just cut into the interview.
I also experimented with different video and audio transitions to ensure that the two clips, alongside the music and the speaking did not just cut into each other. After experimenting with audio transitions I decided on a constant power fade, as it gave the best transition between the short piece of music and the talking from the clip.
At first I tried an additive dissolve, which overlaid the two clips together before slowly and smoothly moving to the next clip. I also experimented with a non additive dissolve, however- whilst it still overlaid the two clips together, it just cut to the next clip rather than slowly moving to it. It also blurred the images from the clips together.
I then tried a cross dissolve transition, which was similar to the additive dissolve, but it did not exactly over lay the images together rather than just fade into the next clip. The additive dissolve also had a small flash between the transition, which did not exactly give the desired effect- so I decided to go with a cross dissolve transition instead.
Once I had reviewed this scene completely, I realized that on a few occasions that camera kept focusing itself, which did not affect the footage greatly, but it was quite distracting once you picked up on it. I attempted to fix this issue by using a warp stabilizer. Unfortunately when I had done this- the effect made the footage glitch and repeat some of the scenes- so instead I tried rendering the clip to see if that helped.
Once I rendered the clip, the footage was a little better. I then added another clip of the interviewees using technology towards the end of the interview. I unlinked the interview footage from the audio and cut that out around the 7:30 mark, as the next video I wanted to add in was around a minute, which would be from 7:30 to 8:30. I added the video in and unlinked it from the audio, and then deleted the audio from the footage so it did not clash with the voiceover.
The next clip that I added was also a bit dark, so I used the video effect brightness and contrast feature to brighten the video like I did with the interview footage.
As with the interview footage, after brightening the clip there is a great difference between the edited and unedited footage.
After I brightened the footage I went to the end of the clip and found out that it was 8 seconds longer than the final part of the voiceover. I did not want to delete the last 8 seconds of footage as it added to the documentary- so instead I decided to add more of the music from the intro and the end of the first voiceover. I found out that I had already used 18 seconds of the music so I decided to cut the beginning of the music from 18 seconds rather than having the music start over again.
I then added a transition between the interview clip and the footage of the interviewees using technology. I decided to use a cross zoom as it gave the desired effect for the transition.
I then added an audio transition between the voiceover and the short piece of music. For this I used a constant gain transition, as it allowed the music to get slightly louder until it was the only thing playing.
I then began to add the final clips. I did not have the final interview footage yet so instead I added the footage of the interviewee using technology to complete college work- which I will then either put a voice over from the interview underneath or music underneath- as I am not yet sure how long the interview will be.
I then deleted the audio after unlinking it from the clip and added a dip to white fade transition between the two clips, so that the clips did not just cut.
Day Five: 27/04/2022
As of today I did not have the final interview footage yet, I could not finish editing the first cut of my documentary. I aim to film and edit in the interview tomorrow but until then I will continue to edit the existing footage.
The most recent footage I added in last time was still not rendered, so I rendered those clips first.
I also created a poster for my documentary using Canva. I did try to make a poster using photoshop but I found that Canva was easier.
Day Six: 29/04/202
Today I continued to edit the footage of the documentary. I edited in the last scene of the documentary and cut it down so that the beginning and end of the footage did not have any talking that was not related to the documentary subject.
I then tried a fade to white transition, which dipped to into a white screen before fading into the next piece of footage. 
After experimenting I decided to go with the cross dissolve transition, as it gave the desired effect.
I then began to add the voiceover for the clip of the actors using technology. I combed through all of the videos that I took of the interview scene and selected one that was relatively the same length as the clip so that I did not have to lengthen it or include too much music between that and the next audio. I imported the clip and then unlinked the audio from the video.
I then cut the audio to the desired length, getting rid of the first 17 seconds- as this was mostly the actor talking about what they were going to say.
I then added a constant gain audio transition between the music and the interview audio, so that it was a smooth transition between the two of them. Unfortunately there was still a gap between the end of the first interview footage and the second interview footage, so I began to look at what timing of the music I had already used, so that the music was not repeating.
I figured out that I had already used the first 28 seconds of music during the beginning of my documentary, so when I imported the audio I scrolled through it and cut at the 28 second mark, and then deleted the first 28 seconds from it. I then moved it to be in between the two audios and cut it so that it would not overlap with the interview.
I then added two exponential fade transitions going from the interview to the music, and then from the music to the interview.
After I had done this I rendered the rest of the clips so that the footage and audio was smoother than a clip that was not rendered.
After that all that was left to do was create a credits scene and include a video transition and add more music throughout the credits so that it was not just silence. I figured out that with the most recent music I had added, I had used 33 seconds of the music, so I cut this out of the beginning again so that I could add it to the credits.
I added a constant power audio transition between the interview and the ending music, so that the music slowly got louder as the credits faded in, which I used an additive dissolve so that the clip and the credits did not just clip into each other.
I then added something after the credits as to credit where I took the music from, and a sort of title screen to end the documentary fully.
I then cut the audio at the end of the documentary and added an exponential fade to the audio so it was a smooth transition into silence, marking the end of the documentary.
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