Evaluation

In this evaluation, I am going to critically reflect on my portfolio of work that I have created for this module. Throughout the module, I have edited three films which are, Night Journey, which is a non-sync drama exercise, In A Climber’s Hands, which is a documentary exercise and finally Out O’ Date, which is a comedy exercise.

During the module, I read through a book called How to get into and survive Film, Advertising and TV post-production - The Alternative Guide, and I found a quote that stood out to me which explains the process of editing very quickly that shows all of the basic processes involved.

“This is where elements from the shoot are cut, assembled and seamlessly combined with the elements created in post-production through editing, grading, visual effects, motion graphics and sound.” (Cermak, K; 2012; p21)

The quote above explained briefly the processes involved in the post-production stage of creating a film and made me remember how much goes into the post-production. It also reminded me that colour correction was an important part of post-production if it is required.

Whilst editing Night Journey, one of the very first things that I learnt was how to create sub-clips in Final Cut Pro. I was originally given five files that contained all of the footage and I went through the footage and every time a shot changed, I set in and out points at the beginning and end of the shots and used the shortcut ‘Cmd + U’ to create a sub-clip of each shot.

Once all of the footage of made into sub-clips, I had to label the footage. I learnt how to label the footage correctly during this process. In the past, I would just write what the shot was, but in the early stages of the module, I learnt the correct format of labeling clips. This format was

Shot Type – Day/Night – Interior/Exterior – Shot Description

This format that I had learnt was very helpful when it came to searching for clips, making it very easy to see what the shot type was and also what was in the shot without having to watch the shot. I also learnt that by adding a ‘•’ to the beginning of a filename means that the shot is muted without any sound attached to it. All of the footage for the Night Journey project was muted so all of the clips had the mute sign before them.

During the Night Journey project, I learnt that I found it difficult to edit side by side in a pair because there were so many ideas going around from each person that it was difficult to agree on what would be best for the piece. I was working with Lewis Hague and we decided in the end that it would be best to edit separately and send the Final Cut Pro file backwards and forwards between each other and explain what we had done with the edit to each other. This sped up the process of the editing because when we edited together we got easily distracted and didn’t get as much work done as we would if we were working separately.  

Whilst editing the Night Journey film, myself and Lewis both came up with how we wanted the film to start and I then passed the edit over to Lewis and he did fine cut the bit that we had edited together before adding a little bit more to the film before he sent the file back to me. I then came up with the bulk of the story, showing that the cannibal wanted to eat the victim. I think the idea I used at the end of the film worked very well, using the shot of the empty room before cutting to the shot of the cannibal walking away from the train with the victim in the reflection to resemble that he is a ghost.

I think that one of the main strengths of this project is the pacing of the film. I believe that the film flows smoothly and the story in the film works very well. I think that the introduction of two of three of the characters that are seen at the end of the film is good to show that they aren’t just random people looking in the cabin and they have interacted with the cannibal and the victim earlier in the film.

I believe that one of the weaknesses of the project is the continuity in some places, for example, at the end of the film we see the empty cabin from the three character's point of view, however in this shot, the curtains are pulled across and in the next shot they are open again.

After Night Journey, I was introduced to my new project, which was a documentary editing exercise, In A Climber’s Hands. The first thing that I learnt whilst doing this project was to check through tapes to make sure that you have all of the footage. I was given a large amount of footage but I was also given the opportunity to look through the original tapes to make sure that I had everything. I learnt that it is good practice after being given some footage to check through all of the tapes to make sure that nothing was missed or deleted in the transfer that could become useful later in the edit.

Another thing that I learnt during this project was that labeling footage is very important. I labeled mine by putting the shot type at the beginning and an in-depth description of what was happening in the shot. When I received the project file back from Lewis after he had renamed the rest of the footage, I noticed that some of the footage wasn’t labeled and was just labeled with the colour red meaning that it was a bad take, but because it wasn’t labeled I didn’t know why is was a bad take. I went through and labeled these shots to make sure that I still had them if I needed them later in the edit.

Whilst editing this documentary project, I learnt that it is very important to understand the subject of the documentary before starting to place it together. I tried to start editing it together but I didn’t know the interview footage very well so I went through and listened to and watched all of the interviews and sub-clipped them so they were easily accessible when it came to adding them to the film. After listening to the interviews, I had a better image of how the documentary should look and what shots should be included, for example when the climber talks about Stanage Edge being a famous place, I wanted to show the location.

Originally, I wanted to end the film with the climber having an interview after he had finished climbing at Stanage Edge, however, when I got the project back from Lewis, he had changed the ending to end on another bouldering scene after the interview. After we had screened the film, we were told that the film had two endings and needed sorting to only have one ending. I talked to Lewis and we agreed that we would move the bouldering section to the middle of the film, after the first bouldering scene and before the rock-climbing scene, ending on the original interview clip.

I think one of the main strengths of the film is that it has a clear structure, showing the climber waking up, going bouldering, then onto another bouldering location before getting to the most extreme part of the documentary which was the rock climbing scene and finishing with the interview of how the day went. I also think that the sound in the film worked very well, having interviews together to establish what was happening and then as the climber was climbing, there was music that fit the piece well so the audience could enjoy the visuals without having to try and take in information been told by the climber.

I think the main weakness of the film is the amount of information in it, as I don’t believe that there is much of it. If I was to do this project again, I would like to try and add more information to the film to give the audience a more in-depth look into rock-climbing so they would come away from the film thinking that they had learnt more than they would have now.

The final film that I edited was a comedy edit called Out O’ Date. For this exercise I was given a script to read through and then I had to decide which scene I would like to edit myself, as this project was an individual exercise. I chose to do the opening scene of the film because the scene looked like an interesting and funny scene to edit and I thought that by editing the opening scene, I could open the film how I wanted to and show the story my own way.

One thing that I enjoyed the most about this project was being able edit the scene myself as it was an individual project and this meant I could do the entire scene how I wanted to. Whilst labeling the footage, I made sure that I labeled it all in the same format, which was:

Number - Scene Number/ Shot Number/ Take Number – Shot Type – Description

I added a number to the beginning of the shot to keep them all in order of the order that they were shot in. This made it easier for me to be able to find the footage easier. I also wanted to include the shot number and take number to make it easier to me to find the shot that I was looking for.

Whilst editing this film, I started with the assembly, just adding the shots that I wanted onto the timeline without trimming them too much just to get a feel for the film. Once the assembly was done, I duplicated the timeline and called it Rough Cut, so that I always had a copy of the assembly if I ever needed to go back to it. In the rough cut, I started trimming the clips down and adding a few extra shots on top, such as the close ups during the dialogue, and then added crossfades and made sure that it was all cut together nicely.

One thing I learnt during this project was the importance of using shot-reverse-shot sequences during a dialogue part of the scene. I used this a lot whilst the characters were speaking because I thought it was very important to see the character’s reactions to what was being said, for example when Alf calls the manager of the shop a cow, I wanted to see her reaction before she kneed him.

I think the main strength of this film is the sound in the piece, as I spent a lot of time going through it and making sure that it was all cut nicely, as in the early stages of the editing, I noticed that whist using the crossfades, I could hear some dialogue from previous shots that I didn’t want to hear. I spent a lot of time going through and getting the sound right and adding an atmos track beneath and I also added some sound effects such as a thud when Alf gets kneed and the sound of a handbrake when the milk float pulls up to the house.

After watching the film back again recently, I thought one of the weaknesses that I noticed was the length of time that I allowed for Alf and Tony to get out of the milk float and into the house. I thought that this scene went on for a little bit too long and could possibly be cut down slightly.

During the module, one of the main books that I read was In The Blink Of An Eye written by Walter Murch that I had spoken about earlier in my blog. One of the key quotes that stood out to me from the book was were he speaks about an ideal cut that should fit into all of the following six criteria at once and the importance of each criteria.

“1) Emotion                                                    51%

2) Story                                                           23%

3) Rhythm                                                       10%

4) Eye-trace                                                     7%

5) Two-dimensional plane of scene                 5%

6) Three-dimensional space of action              4%” (Murch,W; 2001; p18)

I kept this quote in mind whilst I was editing the dialogue between the characters, making sure I only cut when I needed to, for example, I cut to show the character’s reactions, which kept the emotion part of the criteria in mind throughout.

Overall, throughout the module, I believe that I have learnt a lot, many little things that are very important, such as not using .mp3 files and making sure that they are .wave files to make sure that they are the best quality. I also feel as though I have learnt a lot about documentary editing and also drama editing using shot-reverse-shot to show the character’s emotions and reactions to what has been said. I think that the module has been very useful and has greatly improved my editing skills.

Bibliography

Murch, W; 2001; In the Blink of an Eye (2^nd Edition); Beverley Hills, USA; Silman-James Press

Cermak, K; 2012; How to get into and survive Film, Advertising and TV post-production - The Alternative Guide; Hertfordshire; Clouds and Ivy Ltd