The rendered Targa frames were sent into Premiere 5.1 for editing. Since I had already synchronized the picture and music with the preview AVI's, all that remained was to add sound effects. I used a Radio Shack portable cassette recorder and microphone to record sounds like smashing lightbulbs (for the bulb breaking on the floor) and snapping chopsticks (for the branch breaking).

I kept sound effects to a practical minimum so they wouldn't overpower the music. In fact, the music itself sometimes served as a sound effect, as during the train sequence when the Can-can's percussion supplied a lot of the Choo-choo train chug.

After about a week and a half of sound editing, the final video was ready for output. This output was split across five CD's, which I then took to a local post-production facility where they were put onto a DigiBeta tape.

Since Ornaments was rendered at 24 frames per second, a 3:2 pulldown was used for the NTSC master, making it look less like video and more like film. 24fps also meant fewer frames to render and leaner disk requirements.

Later, output to 35mm film was a simple matter since the frame rate was appropriate. In a stroke of good luck, I won a coupon for film transfer as a festival prize. This was done by Gilbert Yablon at Filmout Express, who paid careful attention to the color timing and audio quality. The final result far exceeded my expectations - thanks Gilbert!