“My Most Difficult Case” Update – 2012 March 25

After a long (too long) delay I am back to work on My Most Difficult Case. I hadn’t done any work on it since last October. I wasn’t even sure what I had to do. I was glad to find that I made some notes back then. The major piece of work left to do is the sound track. Thanks to some good advice from Patrick Aull, I solved the problem I had with noise on the sound from the set.

I didn’t work on the sound this week though. Instead, I tried to modify a couple of brief shots in the film. They are the shots where the killer stalks and kills his victim. These two shots were very difficult to get. I had to shoot them three times before I got something I could use.

The problem with them is that you can see some of the pictures on the wall in the background. If I want to sell the film to a commercial network, I need to get releases for the picture. I tried to find out who owned the rights to the pictures, but got nowhere. I don’t see any way I can hope to get releases for them.

I could likely cut the shots out and not affect the film much. However, after all that trouble I went through to get the shots, I find it hard to just toss them.

I tried several times before to use a garbage key to create a composite to cover up the pictures. I did that successfully with another shot in the film. I didn’t have the same success with these shots. I tried a difference matte this time. From what I read, it should have worked, but it didn’t. I think it was partly because I had a monochrome image and it needed some color to identify the differences. Also, since it was a transfer from film, the grain meant that each pixel would change slightly from frame to frame.

I went back to a garbage key. I reviewed all my takes and found ones where the actors didn’t block out the pictures. This resulted in slightly shorter shots. I am not quite done yet. In the middle of one of the shots, the camera shifts a little and you can see where I covered up the pictures. I think I can fix that without too much trouble.

I was disappointed that the alternative takes were not as dramatic as the originals. I have something I can use now, but I still want to experiment some more and see if I can get a better result. The sound track is the priority now.

“My Most Difficult Case” Update 2011 October 9

My progress on My Most Difficult Case has been slow. A while back, I started to think of it as My Most Difficult Film, and it has certainly earned that moniker.

Last March I arranged with someone to do the sound postproduction. Unfortunately, they didn’t deliver, so I’ve had to cancel that agreement. That was a big disappointment for me.

I turned to Pat Aull for help. He helped me earlier with My Next Film. He came over one day and in an hour he taught me enough to do the sound myself. Obviously, you don’t learn to be an expert sound technician so fast, but I only need a competent sound track.

A major problem I had with the sound was that the sync sound recording had a lot of noise. My attempts to clean it up were not very promising. I used Audacity for my sound work. With it, I could remove the sound, but it also changed the voices in ways I didn’t like.

Pat suggested I retransfer the sound from the original tape. I didn’t think that would help, especially since the original recorder, a Sony Walkman modified with Chrystal Sync, was no longer available.

Nevertheless, I went ahead and redid the transfer. Much to my surprise the sound turned out much better. I really should have more faith in Pat. There was still a problem with noise, but I found that in my tests I could remove the sound without adversely affecting the voices.

The only problem with the new transfer was that the speed drifted a bit. Over the length of the 44-minute recording, it shifted about 15 seconds. I did a speed adjustment in Audacity. I found that the drift varied and in some places, it was still up to two frames off. I adjusted that after I replaced the sound in Premiere Pro.

I see what I’ve done so far as an experiment. I will go back and redo the noise removal and time adjustment before I move on to the rest of the sound work.

I see three more steps I want to do before I feel I’m done with the sound.

First, I want to do some adjustments to the voices. I think that if I add some room ambience and adjust the tone a bit, they will sound much better.

Second, I want to add in some background noises. For example, Bryson closes some books, but there is silence. The screech when a chair moves as people stand would add some realism. I could use some noises, like a coughs to emphasize the dialog at appropriate places. I could do the same with bits of music.

Finally, I need to balance out the sounds, so the voices are all the same level. The background noises should be in the Background.

I had hoped to have this film all wrapped in 2011, and I still might do that. However, with two other movies on the go for next years $100 Film Festival, that may be too optimistic.

Image Cleanup and Composites for My Most Difficult Case

I did a little clean up work on My Most Difficult Case. I noticed some visual glitches in the film: spots, dust, light flashes, and stuff like that. I used the composite feature to replace the parts of the image where the problems were. I’m not sure that anyone would notice, but since I did, I wanted to do something.

One thing that had bothered me was that there was a picture on the wall that I didn’t have a release for. I don’t have any information on the picture, so I can’t even contact the person who did the picture to ask for a release. That is a lesson that’ll I’ll need to take to heart on my future projects. Next time I will contact some local artists to get some of their pictures on loan.

A few weeks ago, I tried to superimpose a different picture, but I wasn’t happy with how it looked. This week I replaced the shots where you could identify the picture with other shots where you couldn’t. I did it primarily to cover up the picture, but I think it improves the film as well. The shots I replaced were wide-angle shots and the replacements are tighter. I think that makes the film more intense.

I wanted to replace another shot I didn’t like, but I didn’t have a shot that would work. I decided to try a composite shot. I combined images from several different shots, eight shots altogether, to create the new shot. I can see that it is a composite, but I do have to look closely. It is only on screen for a three or four seconds, so I don’t think anyone will notice.

I have been at a bit of a loss about what to do next on the project. I think I’m pretty much done with the images, so I should start on the music and sound. I still have some releases and other paperwork I need to do.

My Most Difficult Case 2010 September 12

I contacted some of the people who worked on the film to sign releases. Not everyone has gotten back to me, so I still need to follow up on this.

I read Michael Ondaatje’s book “The Conversations” recently. It is a series of conversations with Walter Murch.

In one section, Murch talks about using music to help a visual transition. There were a couple of transitions in My Most Difficult Case where I thought that might help. I added some music. It’s in the place where I want it, but the music isn’t quite right. I think it will work eventually.

I tried some experiments with compositing. There is a picture on the wall in one scene, and I have no way to contact the person who did the picture to get a release. I want to cover it up some how. I made some progress and I have something that looks OK. It is finicky business and it will take me a while to get it looking good enough to use.

My Most Difficult Case Progress Report – September 5, 2010

I got back to work on My Most Difficult Case (http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_most_difficult_case.php) this week. I didn’t do much in August, because I decided to write and post some articles on Triond. I did six altogether.

My first goal was to recreate what Vildo Sturam did when he did a re-edit a few years ago. I got that done this week. While I worked on the recreation, I got inspired.

I cut some of the Judge’s lines and I want to rerecord some of them with different emphasis. With the defence lawyer’s presentation, I only made a few minor changes. I redid most of the prosecutor’s talk from scratch. Besides that, I did several small tweaks through out the film.

Overall, the film is about nine seconds shorter. There is still more I can do with it.

The sound needs more work. I’ve done some stuff, but I think it is better to get an experienced sound person to help me on the sound. Someone suggested I add more music too.

When I sold My Next Film, I had to scramble to get all the releases in place. I have most of the releases for My Most Difficult Case in place, thanks to the production manager Tyler Shandro. Still, I have several more that I need to get. Mostly from people who worked on the later shoots.

My Most Difficult Case Progress Report – July 18, 2010

I started to edit My Most Difficult Case. http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_most_difficult_case.php Several years ago, I decided to reedit the film before I tried to distribute it. Vildo Sturam did a new cut for me that was a big improvement over what I had done.

However, other parts of my life intruded and the project went on the back burner. Last month I got the video transfers of my negatives converted to computer files and this week I started to reedit those to conform to the edit Vildo did.

Progress has been good. I am about half way through the film, although I have left the transitions, music and some of the sound until later.

When I matched up the video from the negative transfer with the video from the final film, I was struck by how much more detail I can see in the negative transfer. These two images illustrate this quite well. I haven’t decided how far I will go to match the old look because I like the additional detail.

Example of film image

Example of negative image

Another problem I need to consider is that I wasn’t able to get a release for the picture on the wall behind the judge. I asked Vildo to obscure it when he did the reedit. What I would like to do is replace it with another image. I know it can be done, but I’ve never done it myself.