My experience of editing has been insightful and, the dreaded cliche, a turning point. Using Adobe Premiere Pro, editing software that I had no real prior knowledge of, meant that I needed to learn as I went along. Whilst I found this frustrating at first, I felt I gradually became more attuned to the program and I feel as though, for better or for worse I've learned from this experience. Below, I want to discuss what I've learned about Adobe Premiere Pro, the gripes I had with it and how it shaped my film.
Syncing up audio with the clips: Having put the clips together, attempting to audio sync was difficult but ultimately satisfying; the improvement of sound compared to the sound of the raw files was noticeable. I synced up audio by using a human-alternative to a clapper-board: a clap. This was fundamentally helpful as, in the edit, it made the process more easy. I merely matched the visual of the clap with the audio sound, and this gave me a starting point with which to then work on trimming and editing the clip.
Effects: There were many effects I had to use to create my film: text, smoothing out the clip, transforming the clip to black-and-white. Adobe Premiere Pro is such that it's really for the advanced and well-skilled, and even then perhaps don't know everything the software has to offer. As a newcomer, I was completely at a loss as to how to implement these changes- on many occasions I had to consult oracle that is Youtube. This quickfix sometimes worked ("ProcAmp" was what I needed for the black and white- does anyone know what ProcAmp actually means?) and, on other occasions, it took some time to work how I could affect these changes.
Adjusting audio levels: Filming in different locations, with the boom mike sometimes closer to the voice than at other times, it was inevitable that some sounds were much louder than others. It took several days to even realise there were several levels of audio- upon this groundbreaking discovery, I was able to put louder sounds in a level together with lower levels on the appropriate audio mixer, smaller sounds put in a level with a higher audi mixer and so on. This wasn't an exact science, but hopefully the final edit will create an equalised level of sound.
Transitions: I used many a transition in my edit to show the transition of time- handy, right? Whereas some quick transitions were necessary to keep the action rolling, others were purposely slowed in order to create a degree of impact.
Importing clips and audio: Sounds like an easy task and yes, compared to the aforementioned, it was, but made far more laborious by placing correct takes with their audio. Editing, I have surmised, is a monotonous toil.
Overall, I think, of all skills involved in producing a short film, editing was the one where I learnt the most. Unsurprising, given that I had never attempted this before. I feel I could have done with a tutorial on the whole Premiere Pro business; most of my time was spent squirming under the confusing, ostracising nature of it all, time that an expert could have spent on perfecting and producing an edit that looked more professional. Consequently, I haven't enjoyed my experience of editing, but I realise what I'd need to do next time. Learn. Watch a tonne of monosyllabic Youtubers telling me my ProcAmps from my Multiboard Compressors, my Parametric EQ from my Iris dissolve. I am, to use the colloquial lingo, a lone, struggling noob.
