Week 8: Get With the Program

     As mentioned in my previous post, I downloaded a video production software called HitFilm Express for the purpose of editing the audio for our opening after Sil finished with the VFX.  Since this is a new software that I've never used before, I expected there to be some kind steep learning curve like I usually experience with these things.
     Fortunately, I seem to be mistaken.
     First off, they have a nice little reference manual for new users.  Or, "little" may not be so accurate.  Take a look at it if you want.  It is quite extensive.  This was initially very intimidating, as, while I have plenty of free time right now, I don't really want to spend an entire day reading a manual.  However, this isn't as much as an issue as it originally appears to be.
     There are about a hundred feature sections to read through, but due to my job here, the only one I need to worry about is audio.  Out of the entire manual, there were only a few sections I had to look at in relation to audio.  To sum that up, it tells you about audio tracks, syncing up audio with video (I'll get to that in a second), and audio effects.  The audio effects section will mostly just be relevant to me trying to make the audio sound like it wasn't recorded in someone's living room (which it might be, who knows).
     HitFilm has a pretty nifty feature that allows you to sync up separately recorded audio with a separately recorded video so long as the video was also recording audio.  The program then uses the video's audio to sync up the footage with the new audio file.  Very convenient stuff.  However, I believe I could run into a problem with the video being sped up.  If the lines are just spoken at the same speed as the mouth movements in the sped up video, then there probably won't be an issue.  On the other hand, there may be a situation in which I also have to speed up the audio, which could lead to it sounding abnormally high pitch.  To be honest, this sounded like a bigger issue before I started writing this, but it'll probably be fine.
     I'll have more updates on my work with HitFilm and I expect Sil will be done with her VFX work somewhat soon as the final week quickly approaches.  See you then!