After putting the first batch of performance shots in sequence and making the first cuts I noticed that the footage looked far too dark and the contrast was way too high. The problem with this, aside from the fact that it looked undesirable is that due to the contrast a large amount of the detail was lost in the blacks. My natural instinct was to go into Video Effects and use the Brightness & Contrast tool, as shown on the right, to adjust the respective values to balance my footage out. At first I made an adjustment of -4.0 on the brightness and -16.0 on the contrast. I then saved this as a preset. This meant that I could drag that modified Brightness & Contrast adjustment to each of the performance clips. Because the lighting remained the same whilst I filmed the performance clips with minor refinement the same values of brightness and contrast would work to achieve the same effect on each clip.
However after doing some research I found out that the Brightness & Contrast tool is fairly outdated as it isn't the most effective tool for adjusting the brightness and contrast. After watching a YouTube tutorial, by Creative COW, explaining the finer qualities of adjusting brightness and contrast in Adobe Premier I have decided to use the Fast Colour Corrector tool to adjust the blacks, whites and the gamma of each clip to neutralise it and retain the detail at both ends of the spectrum. The next two screenshots are taken from the video. They demonstrate the difference between using the Fast Colour Corrector and the Brightness & Contrast tools. On the top the Brightness & Contrast tool has been used. As the first screenshot shows the brightness slider has been used to increase the brightness. This has reduced the quality of the clip by lessening the range. What were the blacks in the shot are now the mid-tones.
On the bottom screenshot the Fast Colour Corrector tool has been used and has yielded different results. Instead this time the blacks have been adjusted however unlike the top of the two screenshots the range is still maintained. This is visible by the way that the white tones are still distinguishable and are still white unlike the top one where the blacks have been crushed. On both of the screenshots the reference monitor is clearly visible. On the top the range has obviously been reduced however on the bottom the range remains unaffected however the blacks have changed.