How Important Is Visual Effects In Film?

In my case, visual effects is very important since it’s a huge part of what my film is all about. But let’s rewind for a bit, the news about my grant win was great and I was glad that I’d put in the extra time to create a synopsis, movie poster, and detailed budget to pounce on the opportunity when it presented itself. As elated as I was, I had to push that feeling to the backburner because I still had unfinished business with finishing the editing process of the trailer.

As Alyscia, Ihana, and I were on the zoom call, the editing process continued and for the first time I got to see the backend systems of Adobe Premiere Pro. Quite honestly, I was a confused – seeing the rush of all the blue, orange, and red colors being moved around so quickly as Ihana worked her magic to keep up with Alyscia’s advice made my head spin.

Currently, the trailer sat at 1 minute 38 seconds. Realizing that it was too long I had to accept that it contained too many characters and shots that were unnecessary for the end viewer to see. It was important not to give too much away. So, we had to cut a lot of things out but knowing that they would be shown in the future made me feel better about it. Also, we realized that there was one core scene that was the main premise of the entire story. It was initially placed in one spot, but we decided to chop it up into multiple shots that held specific lines and play them throughout the entire trailer while incorporating 2-3 second supporting shots in between.

Make’s complete sense!

After about 45 minutes we took a little break as Ihana had a fluster of notes to digest. I took the opportunity to finally eat some breakfast, but I couldn’t help but feel tense because I hoped some of the scenes that we had to cut wouldn’t cause friction within the team when it’s time to reveal the final product. People gave their time to be there and shoot and I hate wasting people’s time.

But it is a part of the process.

I quickly finish my food and return to the zoom call where Ihana had finished implementing the changes. The trailer is now down to 38 seconds. Much better. We watch what she’d come up with and we were all relieved and happy with what she’d produced. You could still understand everything and still be left with a lot of interesting questions. Finally!

A week later I send the trailer off to the visual effects artist (Dannie Leigh) who’d been waiting 4 months to receive the footage. After a few days, she sends me an email asking if the footage was shot in S-Log and if it had already been color graded? I tell her “No” to both questions and she immediately asks for a zoom call to catch-up. (That can’t be good. My nerves start picking up again.).

We schedule a meeting and finally meet-up for the first time in months. I was glad to see that she was in good spirits, but she did let me know that because the footage was not shot in S-Log it would be a bit difficult to add in the visual effects. However, difficult didn’t mean “couldn’t be done” only that her stage of the post-production process was going to take a bit longer than normal. (My goodness!)

But, alright. I can deal with the anticipation of waiting a bit “longer”!

Other Posts You May Be Interested In:

• How Important Is Production Design In Film?
• How To Save Money With Archival Footage?
• What To Do When Your Film Shoot Fails?

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