That's A Wrap

I cannot believe that this semester is already over and that we have a finished narrative film.  When I play this dvd it will remind me of the grueling hours of arduous work in the dreaded sweatshop/editing lab (but on a serious note they need to leave the air conditioning on over the weekends.. it is outrageous and intolerable when the lab is full of people).  I have learned how to cope with problems and how to work with what you have.  We had an entire scene without sound at all and had to completely pull it together, which I think worked better than I imagined it would have.  Although these situations were not ideal, I think that the end product was something that we can be proud of.  The color correction stepped up the quality of our film immensely.  Cutting out lines of dialogue improved the film as well, because I remember reading the script and thinking certain lines were cheesy.  With our refined cut, I think that there is less on the nose dialogue.  Overall, I have had a great time working on this project and can't wait to see what becomes of it if Taylor decides to enter it into a few festivals!

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL

I cannot believe how the semester has flown by.  This past week we got our ADR recorded, which was a new experience for both of us.  I have more experience in experimental film and have not worked on many narratives, so the tonal quality of the sound recorded on set and that recorded in the booth is a bit different.  We will have to get someone to help us out with a little more experience in sound to add a few filters onto the lines that we cut into the film.  I think they all match up very well to the image and it is exciting to finally see the audition scene with sound.  We also used another piece of music to bridge a transition into the auditorium, which really adds to the momentum.  The producer watched our cut and suggested that we take out a few of the black slugs in between scenes because they make the film a bit choppy.  Some of these dividers had to be left in for pacing reasons, but the work that we did on the few that we edited have really improved the film.  The feedback in the class was pretty conclusive that the film is a lot tighter, and I think that this will help this film with quality as well as programming at festivals.  We still need to work on our sound design with a few foley sounds and levels.  I will also work on the format of the credits in the next week.  We are almost DONE!

Week after easter break

The Method is coming along very well, we are getting close to the end and I am so ready!!!  So far the cut is pretty finalized in image selection, and we are awaiting our music compositions so that we can start to get a better feel for certain scenes.  Christiana, our actress playing Emma, was going to be coming into Wilmington this weekend from South Carolina, so we booked an ADR session with her.  It was so convenient for us because she needed someone to pick her up from the bus station also, and we did not have to pay her to come down here!!  We also booked sessions with Will (Nate), and people to play the judges for the final audition (the shots that were recorded without any sound).  While we have the H4N we will record the foley that we need as well.  To prepare, Taylor and I watched the entire film and made a list of lines that we would like re-done for quality and intonation purposes.  There were a few shots outside that had a bit of wind over the dialogue, so we will re-record this entire scene.  Also, some of Emma's lines that she says do not sound very scared, and we will suggest other intonations in which she can come across more frightened and angry.  We made a to do list of small things that we want to go back over and fine tune.  We also started to level sounds a bit, mostly penning clips in and out for a more smooth flowing soundtrack.  We still have to go through levels and assure that they are all about the same volume.. for the most part it sounds pretty good.  I can't wait to put the music in and really get the audio finalized with foley!  I can't believe it is almost done!!!

week of rough cut & credits presentation

Our entire timeline is finally laid out!!!! There is definitely a lot more to be done, but it comes as a sigh of relief to have the fifteen minutes down.  We will probably cut it down quite a bit, but a rough frame is helpful.  We have to fine tune and add sound.  We got one piece of music composed for us by Sid, which we added into our credits for this rough cut.  Now that we have this cut,  hopefully we can send him a copy and get a little ore music written (more catered to our eerie scenes).  We have a lot of fading to do on sound clips, as well as adjusting levels.  The credits need to be formatted better.  Our class presentation this week went well and we got some great feedback.  I think that the adjustments that we made this week based on our previous feedback has really improved the film.  The cuts that we have made to eliminate dialogue has strengthened the narrative a lot and helps with pacing.  The shot selections that we changed have improved the film as well (in the dinner scene, for example).  All in all, this week has been extremely productive and I am happy with what we have completed!

week after spring break

We are officially on the last page of the shooting script and it is such a relief!!  Spring Break was not as productive as we would have liked, but at the same time it was nice to have a little bit of a break from the project.  Once we were both back in town though, we met up frequently and had small work sessions.  We got through about two pages each day, and are currently in the last conversation.  Today we finished working on the scene where Emma auditions for her role with the company from New York.  There is a small piece missing from this scene that we will go back and finish this week before we present our cut on Thursday.  This piece will be a collection of images representing Emma's racing mind in her anxiety towards the performance.  Finally, the judges dismiss her and Nate is waiting to surprise her outside the theater.  So far, the cutting has gone pretty smoothly with the exception of certain sound barriers.  One argument between the couple, for example, had a lot of overlapping dialogue and sometimes the actors would improv a few lines here and there which changed up the order of the conversation.  We were able to work around all of these obstacles, however, and now have most of the ground work finished.  Tomorrow we will meet and hopefully finish laying out the timeline.  Next, we will go through with our notes and fine-tune according to class and producer suggestions.  Then we will add sound effects and music and adjust sound levels.  I can't believe how far it has come, this semester is flying by!

SPRING BREAK!!!

This week Taylor and I both were extremely busy and did not have as much time to meet as we would have liked.  Luckily, spring break is here and we will both be in town so we are hoping to make good use of that time.  I really would like to get as much cut as possible early on because we all know that the end of the semester is a nightmare.  Once we have an image-lock we will be able to work on the tedious fine tuning and finally sound.  To get ahead of the game, we have tried to look for sound effects on our own time this week.  I’m not sure what sounds will be usable, or even if we should go record a few sounds ourselves.  Once we get a folder of them all we will probably get together and try them out with the images, and then make that decision.  We still need to go back through our class and producer suggestions to make those changes.  We may take the spring break opportunity to do this as well.  I’m not sure if we will change the beginning or just keep plugging away towards the end and then refine, but I think the next time Taylor and I meet we will set our spring break goals.  We will keep you updated on those.

This week Taylor and I were preparing to present our second 4 minute rough cut.  For this cut we included the living room study argument, Emma’s run, Nate talking to Kathy on the phone, and the kidnap sequence.  Continuity gave us some issues, as with all narratives.  We tried to go through the footage with the script supervising notes and color highlight the good takes.  This way, we could easily locate the best performances, and try to find ways to continuously edit those.  When that was impossible, we looked in the non-highlighted footage.

Sound-wise, we haven’t really done too much yet.  We did put audio filters on Kathy’s telephone dialogue though, and we tried to make sure to use the pen tool at least on the ins and outs of the sound clips so that it wouldn’t be so jarring.  We still need to go back and adjust levels overall, I noticed in particular that the scene where Emma bangs on the front door of the apartment yelling for Nate is pretty loud.

I think that things are coming along very smoothly, we only have a few more scenes to add onto the end.  I really liked the suggestion that we had in class this week about moving the title sequence until after the first scene, I never even thought about doing that.  The plan is to keep getting the image and dialogue roughly laid out, and then go back and fine tune the entire movie as a whole using the in-class and producer critiques.  Then we will add foley and music.  I think that we are staying on track and we are trying to get as much done as possible in a timely manner so that we won’t have a lot to do at the end of the semester.

This week we have continued the work on our 4 minute rough cut, which we will present next week. One of the girls that had worked on the film as a producer in 495 came into the editing lab with us and watched what we had done so far. This really helped our group a lot because although she had a fresh pair of eyes toward the edit and helped us fine tune, she also was familiar with the shot selection and had suggestions as to how to replace things or what other shot distances would be more effective. On Friday, we sat down with her and a journal and wrote down her critiques. We also now have someone willing to help us out with sound. He came in on Friday as well and got the rough cut on his harddrive so that he could start to get a feel for the tone of our film. We also showed him footage of the protagonist bound to the chair, because that will be a suspenseful scene and we definitely want him to record eerie music for it. Hopefully, this time in advance will give him the opportunity to be creative. I am excited to see how that turns out! As of right now, we had to postpone an editing session because we were both working on projects, but we have planned to meet tomorrow night to get hopefully another minute finished.

Week of 2/16

This week we had an in-class editing session after assigning our PR/Distribution plan.  Taylor and I worked on editing the next scene in our script.  The plan that we are going for right now is to go ahead and very rough cut the entire film together and then go back through to fine tune dialogue, ADR, add music, etc.. (which I believe I touched on in the previous week's blog...).  In class we cut together the scene where our protagonists are in their living room studying and having a conversation.  We have a wide variety of shot angles and framing, so having excellent script supervisor notes has been a lifesaver.  We also have a hard copy of the script, which has come in handy because we don't have to click all around on the computer to find where we are.  This particular scene is long, but technically could be divided into two separate scenes because the girl, Emma, storms out of the room angrily and re-enters later after a fade to black.  During class we cut the first section, and we also met this Friday (2/17) for a couple of hours to cut together the second section. Timing is still one of our main focuses during this rough cut, because we want the narrative to flow smoothly.  We have moved a few lines of dialogue around, and eliminated others altogether.  My fresh view to the lines provides our team with a new perspective, but Taylor's familiarity with them helps us quickly locate shots and be more productive.  I have probably mentioned that before too, but it is the truth.  So far, I like the direction in which it is headed, and we are staying on schedule.

Week of 2/9

This week Taylor and I presented our 4-minute rough cut.  The class feedback really helped us, and with the list we made we will refine our edit.  I think that the class opinions on the opening shot of the protagonist bound up helped us a lot because I could not really settle on whether I liked it or not.  I think that I liked the shot, but that the dialogue in a further section needs to be re-vamped.  When the girl says that she has the most average life, "happy even," it may give away our plot too easily.  I had this thought when I read the script, but I wasn't sure if it was just me.  Luckily, the class feedback gave us another approach to the narrative, and I think that we will take that line out.  It also helped us to talk about shot choices during the couple's dinner conversation.  I think that including the wide shot of them across from each other at the table would be good, but we may have to color correct it to match the other close ups with the added gel.  I actually had the wide shot in the beginning of the scene as an establishing shot, but we took it out during editing.  We will go back through this scene and see where it would be most effective, whether that be at the beginning as before or after the couple's argument to establish the far space between them.  After we fix these problems, we want to go through and add some sound and foley in.  I want to find music for the opening during the title.  I also want to work on editing the title a bit more, because I really like working with experimental film and I think that small piece has potential to add a lot to the opening of the film.  This week during our in-class editing, we will fix the class suggestions, possibly add music and foley, and then we will begin to cut the next scene.  So far, everything is running smoothly and we will see what we can get done during our class time.

Week 3

The hardest part of projects, for me, is usually the beginning.  Now that we have the intro down, I think this process will be a little easier.  Taylor and I have continued to edit together the opening community theater scene this week, and nearly have it wrapped up.  Timing and rhythm have been essential, and I try to make each cut as seamless and unrecognizable as possible, so as not to draw attention away from the narrative.  Our sound needs to be worked on quite a bit, but I think we are aiming to get the four minutes roughly skeletoned out before throwing in foley and fine-tuning dialogue.  ADR may be necessary in some parts of our film, but so far I don't think we will.  This week we are going to scan the internet for sounds and songs, and finish up our four minute cut.  Once finished with that the goal is to go back and make sure all of the dialogue is audible, and adjust levels.  We are excited to present our cut on thursday and get some feedback!

Week 2

This week we began our in-class presentations, and so far they seem off to a great start!  After we finished all of our class stuff we had some time to work on editing.  Taylor and I already had the intro set up with a foreshadowing shot preceeding the title card.  From there, we worked on adding in the opening scene of the narrative.  This scene takes place in an auditorium in a community acting class.  So far we haven't encountered many problems in the editing process other than minor continuity struggles (with arms especially).  We had to adjust some of our image cuts in order to match.  We cut a section where the actors are performing on the stage, and we had to do some shot reverse shot during their conversation.  We did a lot of dialogue overlaps during this section, and I think it is coming together pretty well.  Luckily, we have a plethora of coverage and shot distances/angles to choose from, and that makes our lives much easier.  By the end of the day I think we had about two minutes or so laid out, without sound or foley.

Week 1

 This week I was added into the class and was assigned to work on "the Method" with Taylor.  First off, he walked me through the setup and I read the script.  His organization of the files was already done (which was awesome!) and he described the breakdown of the bins to me.  He told me about potential problems, such as a mishap in sound that occurred during the shooting process.  Some clips were accidentally shot without sound, but we can still use them for images.  Finally, we began to throw a few clips onto the timeline. I think that having Tayor and I working together has been really beneficial because he is so familiar with the project and knows where everything is and what shots we have. However, my fresh perspective helped us maintaining continuity and noticing structiral problems.  The shots look great and I am excited to get to work on this project!