Editing workshop

NOTES FROM CLASS

Editing is unique to fimaking and is refered to as "invisible art" because if it's done well you won't notice it.
The first layer of continuity editing is telling the continuis story, but that doesn't mean that every part of the scene needs to be in the final edit, just the bits that tell the story.
The simple rule of less = more applies all the way through the editing process.
The most creative layer of editing is creating drama of a scene through pacing. rhythm and emotion.
The main thrust of pace is created through how quickly or slowly you cut from one shot/scene to the next.
Ordinaraly, a scene starts wide and slow and then gets closer and quicker.
Every cut must have a reason.
Where you position your characters in a scene is crucial in editing - whose story is it?

EDITS

The first edit had to be the expansive version of the edits and include lots of cuts and given matirial. Personally, I think I'd rather have it a bit shorter because it feels a bit slow due to a third (if not half) of the scene being just walking in and out of it. However it does meet the requirements of the given task.

The second edit had to focus the power on the female character. To do that I used more close ups on her and found the shot where Alan fumbles with the bag the most as if he was nervous about being late. Also, deicded to focus more on Effie's characters reaction instead of Alan's (there's a moment when even though he's speaking, the shot is still held on her).

The third version had to be as short as possible but still make sense. It's probably my favorite cut, mainly because it gets staigth to the point and it was pretty easy to edit. I ended up cutting out the "sorry again" part because it wasn't very important to the narrative.

Comments

DIRECTIONS

The magic 2 every director has to think about is: 1) what's in front of the camera 2) where's the camera positioned. It's important to read the script and break it down to questions: How? - style, mise-en-scene, mood. Who? - cast, crew, collaborators. Where? - locations, set. What? - production, costume, sound design, editing. Key director moments: How you pesent the character. Where you set the story. How you position the light. How you edit the story (rhythm, tone, mood). For our first Directions unit lecture we had to get into groups and have a go at directing a short scene. I found it to be very difficult to direct my DP instead of handling it myself. I ended up with a lot of spare shots I didn't need or couldn't use (mainly because it was hard to get the ball of paper to land into the bin) but the end result didn't disappoint me.

Camera workshop (coverage)

In one of our camera workshops we learned about the importance of coverage. It doesn't matter that in the end we won't use all of the footage and maybe even end up using just few shots, it's important to have multiple shots from diferent angles so that we would have options while editing. During the workshop we had two exercises. One of which was "The Chair": It ended up being pretty short video and I ended up not using half of the footage I got for it. For next exercise we were given scripts and had to interpret it in our own way. While editing I wished I would have filmed few more close up shots and to have actually filmed the whole scene from fixed camera positions.

Studio Idea

Personally, I found it really difficult to come up with an interesting studio production idea. But because "one idea is not enough" (Brown and Duthie, 2010) I came up with 3 initial ideas: 1) Guess the song type of game show, but instead of guessing pop songs, the contestants would have to guess classical music. I got this idea from a game my friends and I loved to play and the way my music teacher used to test my class. 2) Travel guide about how to make the most of your trip, places worth visiting and places that are overrated and not worth your time. I got this idea from my sister who travels a lot and from the way she does loads of research about each and every place she visits. 3) Debate/Game show where 2 groups of people debate about nerdy topics ( whats better Marvel or DC, which Doctor was the best etc.). The idea comes from noticing how much rivalry there is between comic book lovers and overall 'nerds'. I feel like this idea is the stronge...

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