Other books that Chris suggested, which I'll look for, are:
100 Ideas that Changed Film by David Parkinson
Sidney Lumet Making Movies
Scorsese on Scorsese
Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers
Our first task for this semester is to edit a film called Night Journey from the rushes in the Editing Exercise folder and following the script posted on Blackboard.
The first stage, which we started in session, was to establish what footage and audio files we had and crop down the footage. As the film was shot on 16mm film the footage includes leader tape, and flash frames where recording began and ended. Using Final Cut Pro, my task partner Bex and I set up Final Cut Pro and took it in turns to go through the shots in the rushes and crop out the usable bits of footage and save them as subclips, labelling them with concise, descriptive names that give as much information about the clip as possible. Labelling correctly is important as it gives a lot of information as to whether the clip is the desired clip to work on for anyone using those files. It is important to label correctly in case someone else has to take over the editing. It saves a lot of time as the person wouldn't therefore need to open and view each clip. When labelling the clips it is also a good idea to identify whether the clip has audio or not. If the clip has no audio we put a small dot as a marker in the clip name when labelling. To do this we press ALT and 8 on the keyboard before typing in the desired name / descriptive label.
It is also possible to colour code the clips by using the label option in the Modify tab of Final Cut pro.
From the screen grabs below you can see how the clips have been named / labelled, and the use of the dot to indicate no audio.
Voice overs:
Billy Wilder once said a quote along the lines of "If the dialogue doesn't progress the film any, don't use it". I understand that.
In the session we watched screenings of film clips that show how voice over is used to good effect in films and how the voice over connects the audience to the film.
In Apocalypse Now the hotel room scene shows the character having a breakdown through post traumatic stress, and the violence of the scene is accompanied by the increasing volume of implied remembered sounds alongside his reminiscences spoken in voice over. This includes the famous scene where the blades of the ceiling fan are shown but the sound is that of helicopter rotar blades which the character is recalling from his traumatic war experience. This scene works really well for me as it links the viewer to the character's experiences and makes me as a viewer emotionally attached to the character and sympathetic to his plight. This gives me a firm link with the character and I am interested in his story and therefore want to watch the film to find out what has happened to him. The visuals of the character having a breakdown, the sounds from his traumatic experience, the voice over and the choice of music hint at the reason for the character's mental breakdown and grabs the audience's attention and holds their interest.
nb, note to self: watch Heart of Darkness, the behind the scenes film of the making of Apocalypse Now.
In the documentary film Senna, the story of racing driver Ayrton Senna, we discussed how using a voice over provided by an expert, in this case racing commentator Murray Walker, added authoritative gravitas to the film and how the timing of the voice over allowed time to show Senna in the context of the voice over. For example, where the commentary tells of Senna's successes we are shown visuals of him celebrating a win.
We also watched the opening scenes of The Third Man, which I think is a brilliant film, and which uses voice over in a clever 'chatty' way to establish a setting, time, culture and character. I had never noticed the intricacies of the opening voice over before but when we broke it down we discussed how the timing of the voice over linked with each bit of footage, not only in explicit relation such as the voice over telling the audience that the setting is Vienna in tandem with on screen recognisable imagery which are symbols of Vienna and on screen text saying Vienna, but also the stuttering natural voice over part was put over a stuttering cut and not perfect shooting which subconsciously made a connection in the viewer's mind that the personable, natural story telling voice over, with it's natural conversational stop / start style was matched perfectly by the cleverly edited footage. Therefore we are fully engaged with the narrative as the footage and words are so intrinsically linked. We believe in the authenticity of the speaker, and his words, and therefore buy into the film as a whole. Below is my review of the film The Thrid Man.
The Third Man (1949) Dir: Carol Reed
Carol Reed's film adaptation of Graham Greene's The Third Man is described in the film review section of the Radio Times as 'virtually flawless' and 'one of the best British films of all time'. I agree with this. I love black and white films for the way that you can create shapes and shadows in black and white which aren't as prominent in colour, and those shapes and shadows create a mood for the film.
Although the film is a good adaptation of the story, it's magic, for me, lies not in the plot or acting but in Robert Krasker's amazing cinematography. A lot of the action takes place outside at night in the streets of post-war Vienna where Krasker and Reed have used lights and shadows to great effect and created some amazing images.
The use of shapes and lines are also used to great effect throughout the film and much has been written about the mathematics and geometry of the shapes, the lines and the camera angles, including the frequent tilting camera angles.
An interesting aspect of the film is the use of sound. Chris discussed with our group about the use of the voice over at the start of the film. This voice over follows the titles which are also interesting in using a very close up shot of the zither strings vibrating as the theme tune is played. The sound track music 'Harry Lime Theme' was a huge hit and is a very recognisable. Variations of the melody are also featured throughout the film, adapting appropriately to the mood of the scenes where it used.
There is a good article about the use of the music in The Third Man on the screenonline website at: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/591639/index.html
Other memorable scenes from the film include the ferris wheel scene and the final shot of the film which is the shot of Anna walking away from the funeral down a tree lined avenue whilst Holly waits for her, only for her to walk right past him. The composition of this shot, like so many others in the film, is arresting. The character is walking towards us from a natural vanishing point holding our interest as she approaches closer and closer. We are wondering what she will do.
The vanishing
point is also used in the sewer chase scene where the character Harry
Lime is seen at the head of the sewer tunnel, lit from behind.
I like to think that I have a good eye for photography and for composing scenes but watching this film reminds me that I have much, much more to learn. I experiment with light and shadow and lines as part of my photography projects and will be experimenting in film for our experimental film assignment.
I'm learning a lot by considering things that we have been taught (camera angles, pacing, composition, sound, editing) in my analysis of films that I watch.
This is a link to an article which discusses the use of lines and shapes in The Third Man:
Wrong Geometries in The Third Man by Richard Misek
at: http://www.rouge.com.au/rougerouge/third_man.html
Other links to articles about the film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/441258/
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