No Film School [ Personal Project ]

What was the scope of the project, what was the assignment?

The project was my classes' feature film, the Kansas City Savior. I was assigned to be the supervising editor of the movie. I was in charge of delegating work to other editors, editing myself, and working with sound and the directors to get the right look.

What was your process (speak to Pre-Production...idea, concepting, storyboards, etc.; Production...the actual creation; Post-Production...editing).
The crew would come back from filming and give me an SD card containing all of their sound and audio. I would take them, organize what was needed, and then either give the footage to another editor to work on or start editing the scene myself. Once the basic sequence was together, I would start putting in the audio, color correcting, and adding music/sound effects.

What did you learn along the way?
I learned a lot. I learned how to work with boom audio, how to color correct more efficiently, how to work with green screens and graphics, and much more. I also learned how to handle huge amounts of audio/video files and how to keep everything organized.

Technically (Software/Hardware etc.)
I started getting some knowledge on how to work in After Effects, which I had never used before. I also started using hard drives for storage, which I had also never done before. But most prominently, I learned way more about Adobe Premiere.

Professionally (Collaboration, Teamwork, Project Deadlines)

I had to work with the other editors and delegate a lot. Editing the movie was definitely a team effort in order to meet the deadline. It took a lot of late-night sessions, but having other people to work with made the process much more enjoyable.

What would you do different? Why?

I would start renaming and organizing the boom audio files MUCH sooner. This year, I procrastinated on that until there were so many audio files I couldn't find the right ones and I had to go through hundreds of them, naming them all so that I could find what I needed. It was a very painful, time-consuming process that could have been fixed if I had just named them as soon as I got them. 

What would you do the same? Why?

Not much, but I'm glad I learned so much so that next year's movie will be a much smoother process to edit. I'm also proud of having enough diligence to take home the computer every weekend to work on it.

What experiences will you draw from to enhance your next project?

I will be more organized and delegate much more. I won't put as much strain on myself to do more than I'm able. When I don't know how to do something, I'll get help (either through youtube or other editors) right away. I will also organize audio files the right way from the very beginning!

General thoughts & conclusions.
Editing the KCS this year was an often stressful and frustrating process, but I learned a lot and I am generally much more confident in my editing skills now. I can't wait until I get to do it again next year with the new knowledge I've acquired. I also feel like I've made some great friends amongst the film crew this year and I'm really happy about that.