Week 8: Navigating Edits

annaekgoodwin
4 days ago
2 min read

Week 8 brought the kind of creative tension that's both challenging and inevitable when passionate collaborators have strong visions for the same project. As we moved deeper into post-production, the team found ourselves at a crossroads regarding editorial direction. There were different perspectives on pacing, shot selection, and how best to balance the music with our visuals. Rather than forcing consensus prematurely or sidelining anyone's creative input, we made the strategic decision to develop two separate edits: Edit 1 and Edit 2. This approach ensured every team member felt heard and that their perspective was fully realized on screen. Our hope was that presenting both versions to the mentors would provide the external feedback and clarity needed to synthesize the strongest elements of each into a unified final cut. Sometimes the path forward requires exploring multiple directions before convergence becomes clear.

Hero Product Lighting Refinement

This week (and last) I continued refining the lighting on our GEMINI glasses, and our Perforce workflow proved invaluable - Bua and I could pass the Unreal project back and forth seamlessly, building on each other's work without stepping on toes or losing progress. I spent time experimenting with key and fill light configurations, adding light linking to create specific highlights along the frames that would emphasize the glasses' sculptural quality and branding. The lens materials still need tweaking to achieve the right level of reflection and depth. Looking ahead to Week 9, the plan is to integrate the glasses into our actual environments for these hero shots so we can let the Salt Flats, Lab, and Kinetic Stage reflect in the lenses themselves. It's about visual cohesion: proving these glasses don't just exist in a vacuum, but are native to the strange, monochromatic world we've built around them. I'm still learning Unreal, and Bua and Danci's guidance has been instrumental in helping me navigate the nuances - both in controlled studio environments and within our more complex scene setups. Their pointers on light behavior, material interaction, and optimization have accelerated my learning curve significantly. I'm so grateful for my teammembers and this experience!