Post Production - The Gentlemen’s Brewing Collective
The Gentlemen’s Brewing Collective took the longest to edit. This was in large part due to the nature or genre of the film.
If you look at the timeline of this film Above, you will see the numerous cuts in audio and b-roll. The reason for this is that the beginning and the end of the film were scripted. As the editor, I had to find the central part of the narrative amongst the “actors’” responses to my questions and somehow edit this together into a cohesive narrative.
My goal was to limit the film length to five minutes, and that meant I had to limit some of the meaningful content that could not be fully explored in a five-minute film. This scene of Lee consoling Dez when he shared he was a “pity invite” was a painful victim of my disciplined editing approach.
Of my three portfolio films, this one was by far the most difficult to colour correct. Filming at night with mixed lighting caused some challenges with white balance. This was particularly true with shots that had significant depth, or were shot near the doorway to the brewery. The outdoor spotlight would reflect off the tree leaves, giving a green hue to the shot. Thankfully, the door frame had some white paint on it, and the instax picture frames could be used for balancing the colour. In hindsight, I should have used Xrite colour passport more during production, but the chaotic environment, and the run and gun style of filming made this difficult.
For the final look, I wanted something that was warm, and reflected what the brewery was actually like. Despite the difficult colour correcting process, I was pleased with the final outcome.
Creating a Soundtrack
During the editing process for The Gentlemen’s Brewing Collective, I realised I had a problem. None of the music that I could source on Musicbed seemed to match the timing or the emotion of the film I was trying to make. I was fortunate that two of the “actors” from the film happened to be musicians. They offered to help me create a bespoke soundtrack that could match the emotion of the film and the timing of the edit.
I was initially leaning toward an acoustic, folk backing track, but our collaboration led us towards a “heist” theme for the film. This fit well with the emotion that they, as musicians, had experienced in watching the rough cut of the movie.
I learnt that creating a soundtrack is difficult, but the reward of collaboration is that you have a film that reflects the character and skill of the collaborators. There is a joy in creating something with other people that is difficult to explain. This is why I am so keen to study film. I want to learn how to be a better filmmaker. I want to learn how to collaborate well and collectively make films that we can all be proud of. Films that evoke emotion and speak to the soul.
