Learning to move on

         With the final project deadline fast approaching, there are not many changes that can be made without wasting time. Because of this, any further editing I choose to do will have to be done in post, as re-recording takes time and requires a good environment, primarily a silent one with matching natural light.

        Considering I am at home, I can afford to re-shoot simpler scenes, but the more complicated ones will be harder to pull off. Choosing to re-shoot is very important, as it's an obvious commitment. It's always better to try and fix lighting in post. When you're lucky and know what you're doing, you can fix up a shot only by changing a few settings.

        Both shots are the exact same, but some effects such as lumetri color, Red Giant, color balance, and others all allow to change brightness, contrast, shadows, and other video settings. Color correcting is usually subtle, and is usually done to make every scene look similar in terms of lighting/coloring. Because it doesn't take much time, it is much easier to leave perfectionism for later as it usually works out. However, sometimes you aren't so lucky.

        Again, we see the same exact scene, before and after editing. While post-editing looks MUCH better, looking at it closely reveals an extensive amount of grain. Even when playing around with settings, it can be unlikely to find a perfect solution. In this case there are quite a few solutions. One thing you can do is replace a scene with B-Roll. This is much more common in larger productions, as scripts are sometimes written to counteract unpredicted events, such as actors leaving or unprecedented weather. Reshooting is also an alternative, as sometimes you just NEED a shot. This was the case with my scene, as it was relevant to the "plot". Keeping the original while re-shooting is important as you can see exactly what went wrong, and work to counteract it. 

        Small cameras with LCD's are usually subject to under-exposure, as they are not always accurate to what is captured, and tend to show brighter footage than is actually being recorded. Because of this, it's good to remember the approximate ISO levels when recording, as bumping it up a bit results in a nicer-looking shot.