Diary Entry for the Editing process

Day #1

Today I am with my cousin Bernadette who is also plays the role of ‘Claire’ in my trailer as she has kindly allowed me to use her Mac computer in order to trial imovie. After several technical difficulties at school with regards to Adobe Premier Pro, I have decided to seek further options in order to edit the trailer. A classmate of mine suggested imovie as he found it incredibly helpful, simple to use and contained many more software features. After almost losing most of my footage, I was up and running and testing imovie and all of its applications. Having never used a Mac before it took me a while to learn how to navigate my way around but by the end of the day I felt comfortable enough to start editing. 

 Day #2

Another early morning start and prepared with my footage I begin work on the trailer, however due to the type of file that my camera clips are filmed in, work on the trailer had to be delayed for another few hours as I spent time trying to work out how to convert all my footage clips into a file that imovie would recognise. I soon dicovered that in order to convert the files I had to download an application known as Handbrake which would allow me to change the files from MPEG  to MP4. After downloading the application, I realised that I had to convert each clip one by one as the files were too large. This set me back a couple of more hours however during this time, I looked at my storyboards and remined myself of each individual shot I wanted to create, this allowed me to refresh my mind of my original narrative while also researching into the types of effects I could create using imovie.

Day #3

Editing is now up and running, and I am now starting to upload all the converted files onto 'My New Project' library, I'm so excited and I can't believe Im actually going to edit my very own horror trailer! With my storyboard in hand, I begin placing each clip in order which will help me organise the footage as a whole. Certain aspects of imovie are incredibly easy whilst others needed a couple of hours practising before I could get the hang of it, for instance cutting and extracting clips could not be any simpler whilst merging music and sounds were very laborious.

Day #4

Today I discovered how important it is to do pre-production research into elements such as Soundtrack choice, special effects and lighting as what you produce in your footage may not always appear the same during editing. For example, my initial idea of using a Dubstep track throughout seemed like the right idea when drawing the storyboad but when it came to placing it amongst the footage, it just didn't seem to flow as I thought it would. I am currently overwhelmed by how much I have achieved during this project and by how much I have overcome my fear of the horror genre. 

Day #5

I absoltely love playing around with all the different effects on imovie as there are so many different options to chose from. I decided that the opening sequence should feature an almost dream like/flashback look and that the audience is introduced to the main protagonist with her side of the story, this will also show the audience that while Katie as a demon is horrifying and vengeful, there is also a side of vunerabilty and pain. There were also some areas of imovie which I didn't quite understand, for instance there isnt a save option so each day I was constantly worrying that all my work would have been lost, thankfully this wasnt the case as it does it automatically.

Day #6

Things are finally starting to come together, with my clips in order and special effects added it's time to add the music for my montage. I have decided to go with another Dubstep song as I feel that the erratic beats and base will compliment the quickness of the shots. Imovie has become an addiction for me now and has prompted me to use it in other areas of study for the future, I also feel much more confident in terms of gathering various sounds and effects from websites for instance without the help of youtube and several royalty free sound effects websites I feel my trailers desiered purpose would be alot weaker.

Day #7

Six and a half hours each day and now my trailer is finally complete! I am so proud of how far Ive come in terms of digital media and my technical abilities, each day that I would add to the trailer, I would think of something new to add so I am glad that I spaced the editing out over a peried of 7 days as it allowed me to reflect upon the positives and flaws of the project.