Construction:Final editing

Once done with all of the sorting of the video,compiling them in a scene form with different shots linked together on the timeline in Adobe Premier and the syncing of the audio with it, we only had to edit the film.

After syncing the audio, mostly only the dialogues with the video we moved on to the background score. Aiza was more than willing to take on the task of finding the background score so she did it. At first she tried different movies like 'In Pursuit Of Happiness' , 'People like us' and 'Grey Anatomy' etc for the sound effects.She selected a few instrumental tracks that she had me listen to after wards. After listening to all the music the best one I found was the instrumental of 'Grey Anatomy'. It complemented the story line as it went well with the emotions of the character but was intense as well. However when I told Aiza I that i like 'Grey Anatomy' the best-though she was very happy with this fact-she told me that the composition was only named as 'MerDer Theme' .When she searched for the producer or composer she could not find anything useful and valid related to this.Since the track went really well with our storyline we decided to go ahead with it nevertheless.

The track for 'In Pursuit Of Happiness' was good but its was high pitched and did not really go with our story line since we needed a soft tempo beat.

Afterwards we needed to download the ambient and non-ambient sounds for the film so that we could give it a natural feel .Like for example the sound of the kid breathing in scene 1, the traffic sound for scene 3 and the morning sounds of the bird chirping for the morning in scene 2.

After we had added the sound effects we moved on to the editing. For editing Aiza added simple effects like 'Cross fades' to show the transaction from one scene to the other. We played with the speed duration on the scene when the adult Ali Hamza recalls the younger Ali Hamza running in the street. We slowed this scene down so as to give it a dream like feel to it.We also played with the 'Speed Duration' when the teenage Ali is writing his name on the Matric board examination. Other than that we used the 'Color Correction' to change the lighting mood on the scenes that were recalling of memories. Like when adult Ali looks in the review mirror and remember the teenage Ali as he has a intense dialogue with the passenger in his rickshaw. Likewise when the adult Ali recalls the teenage Ali giving his Matric board examination and also when the Younger Ali is seen running on the street. the editing task of adding the effects was handled by Aiza but she refereed to me in every scene and we would discuss where to add which effect.

In the last scene we wanted to show the present playing alongside with the past. This scene was the jist of the whole story. It was to show where Ali had started from and where it had lead him too.How he desired, hoped and finally achieved his destiny...

Last but not the least we added the credits, the logo of the channel that was featuring our film(that was AAG) and our own production company on which we used Prevaelant studios sound as the background score. As for our title page we kept the background that of a blackboard. Since the effect that me and Aiza wanted was not possible on Adobe Premier pro cs3 we did not search for any other software to work on. Rather what we did was that we used Adobe Photoshop here. We had made the title page first in Adobe Photoshop. What we did was that we took the text layer file. We separated the words and positioned them according on the page, in the places that they would appear. Then we made separate JPEG file of each word and place them against the background. If one word appeared like the 'I' at the start in the next picture the 'n' would appear next to the 'I' and so on. This gave a sort of type-writing effect but since these were all separate images it looked as if each word was being pasted separately so that gave it a somewhat unique effect.

Rough Cut

ROUGH CUT from Aiza Yasir on Vimeo.

Construction:Editing-The Rough Cut#2

Once done with all of the shot, sound etc sorting we moved on to the Rough cut on the Adobe premier. We started with with opening a new project in adobe premier that we saved in Local Disk D in our respected folder, 'Aiza and Mahnoor'. We then took the video that we had saved in the 'Raw footage folder' according to the scenes. We imported the files according to the scenes.Using the arrow selection tool we dragged the videos on to the time line on to different layers. By using the razor tool, cut the parts that we needed and the one we did not. Then using the arrow selection tool we unlinked the files separating the video from the audio. The audios we did not need we erased it and the ones we did we did not unlink it.To make our work easier I placed each scene shots on different layers. Like first scene was on one layer and the next was on the other layer. Then the third would again be on the first layer.This also made our work much more easier and systematic.

After cutting and delete the excess part from the video, we ripple deleted the space between them and compiled the scenes together. Afterwards we brought in the audio that we had separately saved. Since we had recorded the videos from various other sources like some were recorded in the camera video, some in the handy cam and some in Hamza's phone. We collected these videos from different places. From the DSLR Camera the voice that was recorded in the camera, that came with the video. Some we took from the handy cam though we first changed its format and then transformed it into a AVI file. Some we took from hamza phones etc and from my own phone as well that we simply transferred using the USB cable and then file sharing it through 'Sir Subhanis folder' on My Computer.

We added the audios to the video according to the respected scenes. Again we used the razor tool to cut the videos accordingly. We tried a lot to sync the voice with the respected scene but its a tough job! however we managed to sync the voices accordingly. We also adjusted the volume by adjusting the volume level on the layers.

 

Construction:Editing

On to the editing!!

As I mentioned before that me and my partner had taken part in a project that  required for editing on Adobe Premier, we had before hand experience. We made countless mistakes the first time around.Since it was our first experience with Adobe Premier we treated it more like Adobe Photoshop.

We picked up different shots from many locations but what we did was that we kept on renaming the file name to our own comfort-ability. Also we transferred the folder to other computers and USB but what happened was that when we transferred the folder we only transferred the Adobe Premier file in which we were working on. We did not transfer the shots or the sound files with it which resulted in the files being corrupt when we opened them in other sources. Adobe Premier would ask us the name of a specific file and we would not be able to locate it either because it would have been renamed or it would have been corrupt because it would be in other computers and we would not have transferred it with the Adobe Premier file.Many a times while rendering our project our entire system would get stuck and the software would just shut of thus we had to start the project over and over again many times.

So yes these were the mistakes that we had to face while doing our music video back in October but it was a heck of a learning experience.

When we started with our final A2 project we had Experience and Exposure. We had learned from our previous mistakes and we learned to use Adobe Premium properly as well. We learned to use tools such as the 'arrow selection tool', the 'razor tool' that we used to cut the video, 'track select tool' that we used to move multiple layers at the same time. This tool helped a lot in preventing us from overwriting with other layers.'Ripple effect' to delete the gap between two shots on one layer etc. 'Ripple edit tool' that we used to adjust a edit point and move other clips in order to compensate it. The 'Rolling edit tool' that helped us to adjust an edit point between two clips without effecting the rest of the clips on the different layers.

So we begin our project.

We first made a folder by the name of 'Aiza and Mahnoor'. We made this foleder in the Local Disk D .This was to be the mother folder and we added other folders to it. We added other folders and named the folders like 'Audio', 'Raw footage', 'Still images', 'Ancillary task' etc. After naming the folders we went through all of the shots that we had captured during our shooting. Since one scene consisted of different shots, we tried two three tries of every shots so in total if a scene consisted of 5 shots we had like approximately 20 trail shots out of which we would select the best shots. Thus we went through all of the shots and then compiled the best ones in one folder that would be located in the 'Raw Footage' folder. We had an approximately 6 scenes, thus we made 6 folders in the 'Raw Footage' folder. We named each folder according to the scene like Scene 1, scene 2 etc. in every scene we would add the selected files in the correct order and rename those files like, 'Scene 1 shot 1' or 'Scene 5 shot 4' etc. this system was very helpful as it was a very systematic way of going about our work. We were better able to locate files and do our work accordingly so we did not once have the problem of the files becoming corrupt since we did not rename the files afterward nor did we transfer our data from one place to another.

We added the audio files all together in the 'Audio' folder and renamed the files like, 'Moeez rickshaw scene dialogue' or 'Hamzas audio' etc. Since we had renamed these files these way we found it easier to use them later. Like wise we added still images to the still images folder. Things related to the ancillary task to its designated folder etc.

Ancillary task:Review Page

Our first review page was totally going against the codes and conventions of a magazine review page. It looked like a mind map that featured a main topic around which we had made arrows that lead to pointer related to this topic. It gave the effect of blackboard presentation. We also used the 'Dadhand' font on it that gave it the chalkboard effect. the background feature a blackboard with the previous dusted off so that it leaves a faded effect on the blackboard. Our font was also different then conventional fonts and a much larger font size as well.However we decided to drop this idea since it was difficult for our audience to understand. The did not know where to start reading from. So we changed our idea.

short film review after first  feedback

This was the second review page. The idea for the review page was rather to have a collage work of two three images that would show all three life stages of Ali Hamza Mahmood. However when we made a collage it seemed to be rather out of proportion. The pictures that we planned to use for the collage were blurred and too grainy since the light was going down and we needed to adjust the ISO on the camera.So therefore we went with the alternative. We decided to use the image on the poster as our main cover story image.My partner cropped the main image from the background by using the 'Magnetic laso tool'..Whilst proposing the idea for the main title of the film we had the idea of using a black board as the background. The blackboard is linked to the learning process that takes place in schools. the teachers write on the blackboard with different colored chalks. this is usually for kinder-garden students and by doing this we are showing the link of a child to education.However it did not appeal to our audience so we dropped the idea.

The important information about the movie, like the directors, release date, running time, channels in association with etc has been written at the top of the main text and has been highlighted by two horizontal  lines so that it can draw peoples attention to it.This was inspired by a movie review page ...

 

We decided to use the same font that we had used on the cover page for the film title.The tag line is under the title just like on the cover page.However we moved it slightly to the right so that be easily readable against the black background. The text is in column form on the right page. The page number is on bottom corner of  both the pages and is written yet again in a simple font but larger size as compared to the text that is written in size 11, following the codes and conventions of review pages. The font used for the text is 'Times new Roman'.

The 'Movie Review' header is given on the top right corner of the page. It is written in 'MS Reference Sans Serif' style font and is written in a larger font size so that it is easily readable and the reader knows what the page is about.

Lastly the most important feature of the page, the name of the magazine that features our short film review.it is written in the top left corner of the page and the font used is the same as of the magazine original title font style.

However after feedback from our audience, they said that the page looked very empty and it had the usual quotes that are usually in magazine review pages is missing. They said that they did not know what the film was about and because there was no quote from the text they were not sure if they wanted to read the review or not. So therefore after the audience reviews we brought a few changes to the film review page.

short film review page before second  feedback

final short film review page 

Ancillary task:Poster Page

I had read a book by Khaled Hosseini 'The Kite Runner' back in 2011. The cover page of the book had really inspired my  back then and it still continues to do so. The child stands behind the wall, peeking into the narrow street. Obviously he is hiding so that his presence is not felt while he watches whatever that goes on in the narrow dark street. Only after reading the book did I realize what unfolded in the narrow street which this peeking child saw. It was a painful chapter indeed. When I linked that back to the image on the cover page I realized that the weight-age of thing that was happening.

What was happening had such a huge impact on the whole story line. At one particular time the lives of so many people had changed because of what had occurred in that narrow street.One afternoon that effected the entire lives of so many people existing and so many people to come. The cover page has a very in depth meaning to it. Whilst it shows just one child, it symbolically shows so many other lives with it. Showing the back of the child in a long shot, with him facing away from the audience depicts the hidden secrets. Some told, some always kept hidden. The contrast of the light and the dark shadowed areas further exaggerates this point,  giving the whole image a sepia tones shows it is a memory.

Our Inspiration

This cover page inspired me for the poster page of our film. Whilst thinking through our films plot I had in my mind a image of the child's running feet, as he runs and hides behind a wall. He peeks very carefully from behind the wall so as to peek at what is happening on the other side of the street. Whereas in the kite runner  the image is of the childs back towards the camera in our cover page the child faces the camera. This was done so as to capture the facial expressions. As I have mentioned before that the kite runner's story had a harsh reality that affected the lives of so many people, hence how the image has been shot.

Our story line runs on a different plot. The reason why I wanted to focus on the childs face was to show that in our story the central focus is the child. By taking a medium close shot of the child peeking from behind the wall I wanted to show the determination in his eyes. His facial expressions and his eyes reflect what he wants. By having the child as the central feature and by keeping only him in the frame has helped us in magnifying his importance and significance in our film. It brings the whole focus on to the child and gives the symbolic meaning of him being larger than life.

Also this gives a look of the child being determined and headstrong in facing the challenges of life.Then the innocence of his face was another aspect I was really attracted to. For both of us, me and my partner we wanted the focus on the kids face but also more on his eyes. Since the eyes are the gate way into the soul.

I was happy with the end product. I was able to capture the image as I had wanted it. Afterwards Aiza edited it as she was eager to take the poster page task. She used the burn tool on the character to give it a slightly sharper look.i was also used at the vertices and edges of the poster. She used the 'Dodge tool' effect on the eyes to lighten them  which resulted in the eyes getting that dreamy look with a enhanced sliver of light in them. I really liked the image after the editing as it brought the focus to the eyes that give a very captivating look. The title of the film is in the bottom half of the page and cuts right through the  middle of the page.

image of the poster before audience feedback

The font style used is 'Dadhand' and is a very large font size. though we have challenged the codes and conventions here by using a font that is not really simple but when me and Aiza were trying out the simpler fonts they did not really complement our image. Thus me and Aiza decided to go with this font.though at first it was not easy to read Aiza added the gradient effect from bottom to top on an other layer which gave it a slightly darker color thus making the text easy to read. However we lessened the opacity of the gradient tool so that the image could be viewed from the bottom in the final poster page after feedback.

The cast names are written on top of the title.It features only the names of the actors who played the role of the protagonist signifying their importance in the film. The tag line is written right under the title in a plain font. Though the size of the font is large enough that it is easy readable. The release date is right under the tagline and following in the same pattern the company logo, the channel network with which the film is associated with and the website. There is a linear pattern of how these things have been written on the cover page. This is done so as to be easily readable for the audience as well as to give them substantial information about the film.We wrote the selling line at the top of the page;'Inspired by True Events' was written in red and embossed a little because neither black nor white fonts were clearly visible and plain red looked really flat so we added an effect on it too.

For our tag line we did not go with a phrase but rather with three words, each that tells the story of the three phases of our characters and of which the audience can only make sense once they have watched the film.
Desire tells the story of Ali Hamza when he was a child and wished to go to school, to study and be among the children of his age.
Hope links with Alis's youth where he is earning and struggling to give his exams, to ace them, to stand on his own feet and to become someone and be successful in the future.
Destiny reflects his achievement and his success. Destiny was used because if it was not for his fate, maybe his hard work and struggle would not have paid off so well; he would have landed a job but not as good and respectable as the one he has achieved.

The 'U' at the bottom of the page means universal, which means that the audience for this film is all age groups, all socio economic classes etc. Basically everyone.

the final poster page after feedback

This is the final poster page.

We added a slightly sepia tone to give it a feel of being like a memory from the past. Also the other thing that we changed in this was that at first the image's compensation was such that the child stands right in the middle of the page thus a lot of the space was being taken by the wall. In our feedback our audience found this to be a bit disturbing. So Aiza moved the image to the left but since the image was not covering the entire page she copied a vertical rectangle pf the wall behind the kid, duplicated it and attached it to the image. Stretched it and then used the eraser tool to minimize the point from where she attached the new layer to the image.

Construction: Shoot#4

We are shooting scene 5 and 6 today. Since Aiza shot the scene 1 I decided to shoot scene 6.

Scene 5 was not very technical. It was to be shot in the same manner same in scene 3, an over the shoulder shot of Hamza as he is driving the car. The composition and framing of the camera is done around the rear view mirror where we can see Hamaz's face. Although again we had the issue of the jerkiness of the camera, but it was less then the rickshaw scene. This scene took us very little time since it didn't have any dialogues. Also since we had already shot the sequence with Moeez on the day of shoot 3 we completed this shoot in good time.

Scene 6 had the same technical difficulties as the ones we faced in scene 1. Though this time we were better prepared since we had already done the shooting of scene 1 before. I took a panning shot of Hamza walking from the car to the house gate. An over the shoulder shot as he open the door to find his mother there.I did not use the tripod this time as it was difficult for us to shoot the panning shot last time with it, so thus the camera was hand held. Hamza was quick on following our directions and this scene was completed in good time as well.I also shot a brief second of shot by satnding on the other side of the car as Hamza stood at the driver seat door and shot him closing the door of the car.

 Also since there was a few minutes of shot that was missing in scene 2 of Hamza's walking out of his house. The location for that scene was Aiza's house so we shot that scene too. Though a slight mishap happened. We had told our actor to wear the same clothes as he had worn in scene 4, but unfortunately he forgot to bring the sweater. Though we tried looking for an alternative by having him  wear any of Aizas brother sweater, we did not find anything that looked similar to Hamza's. Meaning we had to shoot without the sweater!

Afterwards we completed our finals shot for scene 4. The reason why this shot had been delayed was because, our actor(Moeez- since we had to show a child writing his name on his Matric Board Examination) wasn't allowed to come into school due to school policies of not allowing boys to come in the school premises without a valid reason.Therefore we had to change our location. The best location we found out was at Aiza house as the lighting and the desk was similar to what we had in mind. Since I had shot the first half of the axial cut with Hamza, Aiza shot the other half with Moeez. Though her hand was very shaky, she took 8-9 shots out of which I'm hopeful that we can find at least one good shot.

Construction: Shoot#3

While shooting scene 3 we really had a tough time.This scene really played with my patients.

We had to shoot this scene twice as in the first try unfortunately we were very disorganized. We weren't really able to direct our actor well enough .There was way too much traffic sound at the back. Although we tried to cover this up by having our female character hold her phone very close to her mouth and that way we recorded the actress voice on the phone.As for Moezz we placed the handy cam close to him as well as a phone with the voice recording on.

 Although this scene required for movement of the rickshaw in the first try it seems as if the rickshaw isn't really moving but only being jerking around in one place. Since our character didn't know how to drive a rickshaw, and also because we did not want the sound of the rickshaw as it would have completely eliminated the sound of the dialogues we asked the actual rickshaw driver to push the rickshaw from the back. Though we wanted to show the jerky movements so that is becomes evident that the rickshaw is moving we used hand held camera. But in the first try often it happened that the scene would cut out parts of the composition as the rickshaw would be moving.

Also time constraints played a huge factor. With very little time we were not able to manage a lot.

Therefore we decided to re shoot.

In the second try we went earlier than last time so as to cover up the time constraint issue. 
This time we asked the rickshaw driver, and my brother to actually push the rickshaw from the back so that it actually give the effects of the rickshaw moving.
Though the actor were extremely cooperative it seems as if the dialogues were tough for them to memorize. Which is why we had to attach the script to the windshield which unfortunately during shooting somehow managed to come into the framing. Though I think that we can manage with this problem.The second time shooting was much better than the first time shooting.

Again I handled the camera in this scene. Apart from the establishing shot where we used the tripod this was mostly a hand held shooting sequence. .A over the shoulder shot of Moeez as Ali as he talks to the female whilst looking at the review mirror. 180 Degree shots sequence of Moeez as Ali and the passenger. 

Construction:Shoot#2

We decided to shoot scene 1 and 2 next.Again both these scenes had the same location, my maids house.

Aiza wasn't in Lahore when I went for the site inspection or else we both would have gone. I went there with my mum and my maid. I took picture of the site. Since we needed to use a kid around the ages of 4 or 5 we decided to use a kid from my maids neighborhood.The kids there are always roaming around on the street out side of their house so the issues of the mums being overprotective wouldn't really be a bother. Also because we needed to use a school which was very near to my maids house so it was sensible for us to use a kid living in that immediate area. I talked to my maid about the type of kid that we wanted to use in our film and she told me of this one kid who according to her description fitted well into our characters image. While on the site inspection i talked to the mother of the kid as well who informed me that Ali(the original name of the kid) is a confident naughty boy and that he would be willing to act out our scene. Unfortunately the kid wasn't in the house then so i didn't get to meet him. Later when i showed Aiza the pictures of the location and the kid she said that they were fine. Thus we decided on going there again for our shooting.

On the day of the shooting we went early in the morning. We wanted that before the shoot we get a few trail shots so that chances of mistakes could be reduced.

Now here comes the first problem-Ali isn't home!
Ali wasn't at home when we arrived at their place. We told his parents that it was not possible for us to came later so they consoled us saying that he was at his grandmothers place and his dad could go and pick him up but it would take some time. Whilst after receiving some consolation we adjusted ourselves to the situations and decide that instead of shooting scene 2 we start of with scene 3.

Scene 2 required for us to use the rickshaw that the rickshaw driver is washing.Moeez playing the role of Ali Hamza Mahmood in his youth.

Moeez as Ali Hamza Mahmood

Me and Aiza working

Now here comes the second problem-Too much harsh light!
Since it was morning time the sun was blazing. Even though where we were shooting was a slightly shadowed area I had to adjust the exposure compensation, the shutter speed and the aperture before shooting the scene. I adjusted the camera on the tripod and just shot the sequence. This scene was shot twice, once as an indoor shoot and once as an out door shoot. Although we missed out the last few seconds of this shot as it was to be acted out by the adult Ali played by Hamza Khan who wasn't with us then but it also required a different location.One of Moeez's scene involved me taking a slightly high angle shot of him working so i had to stand on a huge brick peice. Moeez's scene finished without any hassle.

Me directing Moeez

But wait for it, the story doesn't end here..
Now here comes the third problem and the final bomb!!
When Ali, our main protagonist who had to play the part of the younger Ali arrived, he refused to act!
He wouldn't even look at our faces!! Ali refused to act as he felt very shy with us and would not try to understand as we explained to him the sequence.That's when I looked at Aiza and she looked at me.
Both of us had blank faces.We just lost our protagonist and coming back another day to shoot this scene again was just not an option we had. A few minutes we were like that but then again, God gave a brain to both of us, and after a momentarily and involuntarily shut down it decide to get in the 4th gear and work its magic.We immediately called for all the kids on the street at that time for auditions, those kids who were ranging from the ages of 4 to 6 came and gave us slight acting performances. Out of these kids we selected Aftab to act for us in place of Ali.

Aftab is on the left

Aftab was brilliant. With a kid who has had no acting experience, he understood and picked up things quickly as I directed him.He did a very good job and though i feel given a little bit more time we would have done a Beretta job it was still a nicely acted out scene. This scene however was slightly technical.It involved a panning shot of Aftab- playing the part of Ali who is the protagonist in this scene-running in the street. Whilst the camera was on the tripod it was difficult to juxtapose the characters feet at the same position in the frame during panning. Aiza was shooting this scene but when she told me that it wasn't shooting properly,  I gave it a try .Not a very futile try. The tripod slowed the speed of our panning so Aiza took it of the tripod and tried it then. This was still slightly better.I tried to do it without the tripod as well and got the same result as Aiza's but I gave Aiza the charge for this scene since I had to direct the kid in how to act and run. Meanwhile I was busy clearing the street, controlling the flow of the people coming from both sides and explaining to Aftab on how to run, where to stop etc. Aiza shot a scene where Aftab runs towards the camera.

Aiza shooting the feet scene

The rest of the shoot went like this. Although at the time when I had to direct so may kids to play around outside the school, I myself was in fits of laughter as they got so super excited to be on camera.

Aiza shooting the over the shoulder school scene

me directing and Aiza shooting

We wrapped up the shoot with the photo shoot of Aftab as Ali Hamza Mahmood. The composition and framing of the picture was set in our minds so we didn't try too many poses with Aftab. We just got the ones we needed according to the image in our heads.I had taken my insspiration from the cover page of the book,'Kite Runner' so I did the still photography for our poster page.

All of the school kids

 We still have a few 2-3 second shot left to be shot of Hamza later, but we will most probably do it on the day when we shoot scene 6 and 7.