Readings:
While planning for this project last week I discussed certain chapters from the The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video. The textbook described different camera angles the use of a montage in film and all the different composition techniques used to make interesting and aesthetically pleasing visuals.
This week I continued to read from the textbook and in Chapter 10 which is all about after filming… editing. The author Tom Schroppel discusses the main points that if you weren’t the director or the one filming it, you should read the script all the way through and make sure you understand how the audience should understand the story. Then watch everything all the way through so you know what you’re working with. Then as you go through the clips you need to keep a detailed log of everything you see. The more detailed the log the easier, faster and better the editing will be.
He also talks about a paper edit which isn’t always necessarily done by every editor, but after creating a log of all the good footage taken, the editor will cut up and arrange the log into a “paper edit” of the film/ project.
Another important tip to editing is making sure you vary your shots and think about the pacing of the story. If the story moves at a fast pace than the cutting should be quick. If it’s a slow or sad scene then slow the cuts down and hold the shots for longer. And when it comes to varying your shots, your audience has the attention span of about 8 to 10 seconds of the same thing then it’s going to check out unless you give it something different. So when cutting together a scene. Going from a wide to another similar wide is boring but going from a wide to a close up of something in the wide keeps the audiences attention and makes them want to watch more.
The final thing Schroppel talks about in chapter 10 is the importance of sound in editing and how it can be used to bridge two different scenes together. The use of sound bridge can be very effective. For example if your on a military base and two men are talking to each other about their upcoming mission about to leave and then you slowly here a helicopter flying getting louder then you cut to them in the helicopter flying to that mission with the same sound at full volume now in the background. The author also talks about the 2 main things to remember when mixing your audio and video. One, to improve the quality ad effectiveness of your original sound recordings, and two, to mix all your sound elements together in such a way at they help get your message across.
Montage Editing Inspiration:
Baby Driver hands down is one of the best edited movies I’ve ever seen. It utilizes music to drive both the plot and the editing choices. In just he opening scene alone there are over a 100 shots which averages about a second or two for each shot. This quick and faced pace editing keeps the audience on their toes and makes you feel the pressure and constant movement that the characters are feeling in the fast paced heists. Edgar Wright is also very known for his use for quick cuts especially quick close up cuts. In this film in particular you see it whenever a person interacts with an inanimate object you get a quick close up cut of it and that takes you to a different thing.
Mad Max has some of the industries fastest cuts and it’s because of this this that most of the action filmed in the center of the screen so that the audiences eye doesn’t have to search all of the screen and get confused. Since often times the reason why there is pacing in movies is so the audience has time to understand everything that is on screen in front of them. This film chose to be different and made the cuts so fast to the point where if the action didn’t stay in a similar spot on screen audiences eye wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Stranger things is know for using very creative wipes and pans in order to cut between the eerie upside down and the real world. Instead of just fading in and out of black or cutting from a shot fo the upside to the real world the wipes between them make them feel like they are connected which is what the whole story is about. The upside down is lurking just below the surface and if you cut between the two worlds then it would feel like they are more separated by using creative cuts it ties everything together.
My Montage:
As I described in last weeks blog post, I made a montage about the National Park and beach, Sandy Hook in New Jersey. After planning my shots and writing my script I went to Sandy Hook and filmed my montage. As I was filming I did hit a couple bumps in the road. I couldn’t bring my tripod every where with me. There were certain parts of the part that didn’t warrant for me putting down a tripod and certain places where it wasn’t feasible dragging it with me. So making sure most of my shots were still steady even when holding the camera was very important. I also had to combat the sun, making sure I didn’t over expose my shots and loose the image info to the light was another thing I was constantly aware of.
But as the shooting continued I got more comfortable with it and was paying more attention to vary my shots and use different composition rules. I changed my depth of field for certain shots, framed things using the thirds. And got some high angle shots as well as low angle shots.
Then when it came to editing, I new my narration was going to be slow and calming so I wanted my editing to be the same a slow and relaxing edit to show the tranquility and beauty of the park. I also went in and stabilized and color graded the shots to counter the bright sunlight that washed a lot of the images out and re-added back it’s vibrant colors.
Then when it came to sound editing, because their was a decent amount of wind I could only keep some of the nat sound I captured with the camera. The rest i added. This included ambient waves crashing and seagulls cawing. In the beginning I layered leaves rustling and wind blowing which faded into the waves. And then there were specific sound effects added to accent specific parts of the script, like kids laughing when talking about the fun on the beach, or the sound of gun fire and men yelling when talking about the fort being in service and then a boat’s fog horn going off when talking about the lighthouse guiding boats to safety. All of these small things were adding to help further tell the story and I think the audio really sells Sandy Hook’s variety and interest along with the visuals I captured.
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