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.