In this module I have produced three pieces of film
editing work and a research blog in which I have recorded the following:
- My notes from the classes
- Areas and subjects which I have researched further
- Tips on how to achieve desired edits
- Influences on my work
- The development of my ideas
- Reviews and analysis of other media that I have engaged
with
- A record of the processes that I have followed in my
editing of the films for the tasks
Through the work I have done in this module I have become
more au fait with the functions and
capabilities of Final Cut Pro. A lot of
functions that seemed quite fiddly and confusing when we used Final Cut last
year have now become second nature. For
example, Inserting and manipulating text and transitions, altering sound and
speed controls, and basic colour correction.
I know that I have only scratched the surface of the functions that
Final Cut offers, but by using the product more, I am finding out how to use more
controls and the possibilities that it has to offer. I am never frightened to ask questions or
seek help from other members of the group or tutors, or to research online if I
need to apply a certain edit and don’t know how to do it. By the same token, I have also been able to
advise other members of the group about how to do certain things in Final Cut
when they weren’t sure.
I have read a lot of online articles, which I have
reviewed in my blog, and from these I have learned a lot about the history of
editing and the work of some of the pioneers of film making and editing such as
Georges Melies and Edwin S Porter, and I have also read Scorsese on Scorsese by
Martin Scorsese in which he tells of his experiences in film making. I have also learned a lot of good practice
about documentary making from the online features by a writer and documentary
film maker called Oliver Peters, this included setting up interviews, shot
selection and construction, ie, what visuals work and when, and the use of
voice over. These articles confirmed,
and expanded on the material that we were taught in our lessons about the
construction of documentary films. As
with other areas of editing that we have been taught throughout the module I
have enjoyed researching these subjects further.
The combination of taught lessons, group work, research, tutorials
and practical work has definitely developed my understanding of the whole
creative process of editing. I think
Chris Hall has a very clear way of explaining what works in an edit and
why. With a lot of film theory it is
easy to get snagged up in the jargon and the concept and forget about the core
aim, which is to understand the processes required to create a body of work
either for your own satisfaction or for an audience. In our lessons we were taught the theory and
then shown practical examples of why something did, or didn’t work. If something didn’t work, Chris was able to
point out clearly why it didn’t work and what could be done to make it
work. An example of this was when we
reviewed the rough cut of our Rock Climber film and we discussed how the scene
that I had put in that featured the bedroom training scene in black and white,
was a montage that followed on, more or less straight away, from my opening
montage. When we replaced it with a
straight forward colour sequence with the voice over of the climber talking about
his training wall, it made a lot more sense and showed that the documentary had
begun and the film became more interesting and informative.
I have read three interesting books this year about film
making, and in particular editing, and they have really helped me to understand
the process of editing, and creating effective films.
The first is a really useful, and very interesting book
called Get Started in Film Making by Tom Holden.
This is from the Teach Yourself range of
books and despite it’s rather naff title, the book itself is really
informative, and written in such a way that it guides you through each stage of
the film making process. It takes the
mystery out of film production, explains the terminology and tells you how
things are achieved, for example, it has diagrams and pictures of the best way
to frame certain shots, why eyelines should match in editing, why we use cut
aways and so forth.
Similarly, Cutting Rhythms: Shaping a Film Edit by Karen
Pearlman also explains what processes and techniques are used in film making
and why they work. The book tells how rhythmic
intuition and pacing works and how the process of editing is akin to
choreography to create a flowing rhythm.
I like this thought.
The book, like
Walter Murch’s In the Blink of an Eye, helps explain a lot of things that I feel
I already instinctively know about cuts and editing, and pace and rhythm, but
have never quite put into coherent words.
I have thought a lot about the rhythm and pacing during
my work on editing the three films for the assessment tasks, I have also taken
it upon myself to practice further by creating my own 90 second montage under
the same restrictions as our class exercise, and also creating a second film
using the footage that I filmed for my experimental project. My criteria to myself for that film was that
it was to be a completely different style to the assessment piece that I
produced for the module assessment.
I am really proud of myself for achieving my aims for
both films. The experimental film that I
submitted for assessment was a structural film with very, very quick cuts and a
multitude of editing effects such as negative effect, reversal of clip footage
and speed adjustment to an original clip, with each edit effect being
determined by a randomly generated number programme, and applied at a given
number of frames, also determined by a random number generator. This meant that I had to execute very
intricate edits as the number of frames that that effect could apply to could
range from just one frame to over twenty.
It was very good practice for me, as, just by the amount of work
involved, it made a lot of key strokes second nature to me.
'Dice Roll Editing', the quick cut, edit effect laden experimental film that myself
and James Reid created for our Experimental project
'The Undiscovered Country', my alternative experimental film
in which I concentrate on pace and rhythm
The alternative experimental film that I made was far less
frantic but relied heavily on the rhythm and pace of the piece, building slowly
into a tempest of activity before a journey takes place and then calm is
restored. My idea for this film was
influenced by the book that I am reading at the moment: The Lovely Bones by
Alice Sebold, which tells the story of a schoolgirl who has been brutally
murdered and is watching the emotional aftermath from her heaven, and by the
book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
During the cutting of this film, The Undiscovered Country, I was mindful
of the ideas explained in Cutting Rhythms and paid particular attention to the pace
of the piece and the ‘disturbance’ within the film.
Of all the films that I have worked on in this module it
is the 90 second trailer that I created that I am most proud of. This was extra-curricular but it was very
good practice for me to review and log footage, find links between clips, match
up action within clips, to be ruthless and exact with my cuts and to get the
cuts precise so that it works.
'90 Second Trailer', I am so proud of the timing and cuts that I made in this film
I have enjoyed working on all the films in this
module. I have learned a lot, and have
been able to put what I have learned into practice.
I have listened carefully to the advice that Chris has given us and I
have also encountered a lot of problems along the way.
The main thing that has stuck in my head is what Chris
said about always approach the work as though we are doing this in
industry. Always organise your project
well, and leave the project in such a state that should I get run over by a bus
on the way home, anyone could come in and finish the project. They should be able to understand what stage I
am at, have the material organised and labelled and the timeline organised. I like this approach. I like being organised and methodical (albeit
with regular flairs of creativity!).
When working on the Night Journey edit exercise I learnt
how important it was to label all the clips effectively, and also the
importance of time management and scheduling backwards from the deadline date
and building in contingency plans where possible. This was vital to the project, when due to
circumstances beyond my control I had to rearrange schedules to work on the
editing of the film. Although, despite
it being an intense week for me to complete the film, I really enjoyed
knuckling down and working hard to get the job done. I have a strong work ethic and am proud that,
just because I was running short of time, I didn’t shirk or take shortcuts. I still followed the process of assembly,
rough cut and final cut. The project was
well organised and I critically reviewed the work that I had done at each stage
and made all changes that I felt appropriate.
I don’t have a “that’ll do” attitude.
If I’m going to present something, or put my name to something, then I
want to be proud of it.
With the Rock Climber documentary I referred to what we
had been taught in class about documentary styles and the use of voice over,
and referred to the Oliver Peters articles which I mentioned earlier.
Working in pairs for the Rock Climber was good. I worked well with Alex. He has a thorough approach to the work and
some very good ideas about how things look visually. We discussed our ideas and shot decisions and
produced, what I think is a very good film.
What I particularly enjoyed about that project was taking out the black
and white scene and re-thinking the shape and structure of the film and the
knock on effects of that to the rest of the film that we had organised. This was another example where my good organisation
(forward planning, labelling, keeping good project notes etc) proved valuable
and meant that we could be flexible enough to make a major change like that and
it not cost us in valuable time.
Especially as the revised film looked so much better than the original rough
cut.
Now that I have gotten into the habit of planning the
edit stages, scheduling my time, properly reviewing the rushes and audio files,
making notes, labelling properly and making sure the settings are correct, and
because I am comfortable with the most frequently used editing functions, I was
happy to make a huge change to my comedy edit in the last few days before the
deadline. After the review of the group’s
rough cuts Chris suggested that those of us doing the dinner party scene should
concentrate on the character’s relationship and David’s drinking habits. So I dumped the whole second half of my original
idea for the scene and introduced a new second half which works a lot better.
I feel that I have progressed a lot this semester and I
have gained a lot of experience with Final Cut Pro. I have also started to learn how to pace
films. To allow time for action to
develop and also to be ruthless where necessary and cut out footage that isn’t
right for the scene. I have proven that
I am flexible and happy to rework scenes that don’t work, and not just settle
for a lazy option.
I must admit that I don’t feel as confident with the
sound aspects of my projects. I think my
sound on Night Journey was good, but that there were a couple of places where
it could have been improved. I do put a
lot of work into getting the sound right, but it’s obviously different hearing
the audio through the headphones to how it sounds on the big screen. The lesson there being that, when I review my
films throughout the course of the project, I should review them on the big screen
to understand how the audio sounds, and how the audience will hear it.
Another area where I feel that I need to research further
is the subject of aspect ratios and the relevant settings in Final Cut Pro. Chris helped me with this when I encountered
problems with my Rock Climber export. I made
notes of how to correct the problem and how to avoid it happening again, and
will keep practising on Final Cut Pro so that that too becomes second nature.
In my research blog I have described in detail the
processes that I went through (preparation, assembly, rough cut and final cut),
and the functions that I have used in Final Cut Pro, in editing the films. Functions such as colour correction, audio
controls, speed controls and the use of transitions and text.
I have recently acquired Final Cut Pro on my Mac at home,
so am looking forward to playing and experimenting further over the Christmas
holidays. I am also seeking work
experience for the holidays, to further my experience using the editing
packages and also to see how the industry works.
I must put on record my disappointment and frustration
with the appalling state of the facilities and maintenance of the Macs in the
edit suite, which has caused myself, and many others to waste a lot of time
moving from machine to machine trying to find one that works properly. To be told that the Stores technicians aren’t
allowed to come and look at problems with the machines now, and then being told
by the IT technicians that they are unable to fix the machine I was working on
because they “don’t really deal with Macs” wasn’t productive. Having worked in the faculty for a long time
previous to joining the course, I understand the set up and can see both sets
of technicians were wanting to help, but couldn’t. That is annoying.
Other than that, it has been a very well run module. I have enjoyed it a lot and feel proud of the
advancements that I have made.
References
Holden, T,
2010. Get Started in Film Making. London: Hachette
Murch, W,
2001. In the Blink of an Eye (2nd Edition). Beverley Hills, USA:
Silman-James Press
Pearlman, K, 2009. Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit. Oxford: Elsevier
Peters, O. 2012. Documentary Editing Tips. Online blog available at http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/documentary-editing-tips/
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