Post Production Coffee
Making a good cup of coffee is a process. Grinding the coffee, dosing, distributing and tamping. Lock the basket into the group head and pull a shot. There is a sequence, a step by step process that needs to be followed. There is a simplicity and beauty in the process, that I tried to follow in my edit.
This film had a very clear beginning, middle and end. If you examine the timeline of the edit, you can see that the beginning and end are relatively long single cuts. The reason for this was practical. I was directing, filming and acting in these scenes. I would set the camera on the tripod, frame the shot, and then record the scene.
For the middle, I asked Judah to run through the process of making a coffee from the beginning to the end.
This was a medium shot, that I then cut with close-ups of his hands and the coffee making process. By following my pre-production intention of only using medium shots, and close up shots of the detailed process, I achieved the very clean aesthetic that I was looking for. The only problem was that this created a film that visually felt devoid of emotion. There were no close-ups of the actors faces, or expressions. To the viewer, the film feels distant. This problem was exasperated by challenges I had with recording the audio at the beginning and the end of the film. The camera mounted shotgun mic makes the actors sound as though they are distant from the viewer.
Sound
To try and increase the emotional content of the film, I was reliant on the audio. Judah’s voice over was an excellent start. He speaks with such passion about coffee, that his love for the subject is apparent. For the backing tracks, I initially wanted to use a jazz track. I had actually identified a few tracks on Musicbed, but in the end I settled on In His Image feat. DALE SWITCH! by Lofi Sunday.
There were several reasons why I chose this track. There is an echo to the track that matches the audio that I captured on location. Instead of shying away from this, or trying to cover it up, I decided to embrace it. The timing of the song worked well with Judah’s voice over. It also set the right kind of mood for the film. Most of the sound from the coffee machine and the grinders were captured using the camera mounted shotgun mic.
I did use one stock audio file. I introduced the clock ticking sound at the start of the film. I thought that this helped to create that sense of boredom and being tired that I was trying to convey.
Colour Correction
The lighting in the location was fairly well controlled. The natural light, and the Amaran 60ds allowed me to keep my exposure and white balance fairly consistent. The final look for the film was chosen to match the clean, crisp aesthetic of the film.
