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I feel I need to approach my next edit with a pre-planned workflow that I can rely on. I knew what my workflow was going to look like and was careful to be thorough in my set up and proceeding assembly cut and rough cuts, but having a written, step-by-step plan to refer to would be very useful.

Another thing I would have done differently is use more assemblies to edit specific moments and scenes. This would also allow me to give a director multiple options for editing a scene more easily than editing multiple options on different tracks proved to be.

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In our first lecture we were shown examples of oscar winning editing from the films Raging Bull, Born on the Fourth of July, and Everything Everywhere All At Once.

We were also introduced to some basic principles of screenwriting, and the concept of working closely with the script when editing a film.

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While we see these two men talk, their dialogue fades and we hear LaMotta's dialogue over the image. This gives the impression that the camera is from his perspective, watching them.

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Our first week's lesson in the screen academy in the screen academy focused on setting up our workspace and being thorough about it.

We focused on organising our bins and using the source browser to import files. Importing with the correct format was a big emphasis of the lesson too. Learning how to use VLC to inspect the elements of files proved very useful.

We were instructed to highlight a transcript of its' interviews, and edit together three or four small sequences/scenes from the interview.

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The slow motion used as Vicky sits by the pool pushes the audiece further into LaMotta's perspective. We are seeing now not only his vantage point but a representation of his state of mind. The emphasis of Vicky against the water and the lighting create a dreamlike image that is enhanced greatly by the decision to have it in slo-motion.

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Born on the Fourth of July, ed. Paul Rogers

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Born on the Fourth of July, ed. Paul Rogers

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The first hospital scene of the film showcased how simple editing decisions can create a strong sense of tone and atmosphere. Horrible images flash by as the camera moves through the hospital in this scene.

The very unextrordianry contiguous editing doesn't emphasise any of the number of horrible things on display, instead seemlessly inserting them into the scene. This conveys the feeling that these are everyday events at the hospital, giving the scene a distinctly uneasy tone.

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Our second lecture focused on different modes of documentary. The examples used were On Another Note and Unearthing the Pen.

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The coverage we were given for Insane Biking came with a variety of different visuals of the biking itself, including POV, slo-motion, ground-level views, various close-ups and tracking shots. This gave us a lot of options for our sequences despite the same-y nature of the subject matter.

The character of Andrew was to me so boring that he was interesting. An exampled that summed this up for me was his answer to the question: "what do you like most about biking?", which was something like "just biking, I don't know. Going up the hills and down the hills."

This made even more sense to me when he talks about his faith, saying that he gets to "play in god's creation" when he bikes. He just seemed happy to be there.

I decided to edit a sequence out of the latter section of the interview. I chose coverage with a focus on the surrounding environment for this.

I wanted to convey a sense of place in the documentary with it beginning in the car park and ending at the dirt tracks. I decided to show much of my chosen coverage without the interview as narration, particularly in the beginning and the end. What wasn't ideal however was the audio we were given, which impacted these parts a lot. If I was to do it again, I would work around this, probably by condensing the film a bit to include more interview dialogue.

What I would have done in hindsight was try to experiment more with how it was I edited the footage. I felt that it was filmed with the intention of looking "cool" and intense, and I limited myself with my choice of direction.

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Sound levels -  0ff the Grid Audio Exercise

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Sound levels -  0ff the Grid Audio Exercise

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In week 4's lab we practiced setting audio levels using the documentary short Off the Grid. We had access to better quality dialogue and ambient tracks. This was the first time we looked at the expanded audio menu in class, set clip gain and waveform and used nodes to manipulate audio.

What we focued on was the individual challenges presented by different audio tracks when trying to get them all to an equal level. We were advised to set dialogue tracks to a standard level of -12 dB, and ambient tracks to a standard of -14.

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This workshop was very useful for working with sound and video files, naming files correctly and splicing in synced clips. This was good practice for the final edit, where syncing was essential and splicing in footage would prove to be very useful.

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Data wrangling on set was a very simple job, I was only required on this shoot to work at the end of the shoot. However, I wanted to be there to see the shots come together and talk to the writer/script supervisor to get a picture of what my edit would look like. I wanted to do this because when editing for a film over the summer I was given some very disorganised files and poorly slated footage that I was totally in the dark about.

I made an effort to stay out of the way and helped out with moving equipment since I was essentially a free pair of hands. Seeing the film come together and speaking with the crew helped me get a comprehensive idea of what the film should look like.

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DAY 1: Naming files, importing files (12th Nov.)

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DAY 1: Naming files, importing files (12th Nov.)

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I arrived at a later time on my first day of editing, hoping to set up the project and throw together an assembly cut. What I wanted to do more than anything was select the best takes to use and figure out what was useable where.

However, due to an oversight I wasn't given the camera report and didn't recieve the sound report until I had already labelled the files. I labelled the camera files before attempting to put them in and when I did try to, I found that the MXF codec they were shot in wasn't compatible with Avid Media Composer. This wasn't the fault of the camera crew as they followed intructions but it did slow down the edit. I had to transcode them to mov on a different software.

By the end of day 1, I had only set up the project. If I were to do it again I would have booked the editing suite at the start of the day in case of any unforseen issues.

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DAY 2: Building an assembly cut, working toward a rough cut (13th Nov.)

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DAY 2: Building an assembly cut, working toward a rough cut (13th Nov.)

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On day two I was able to put together an assembly cut and do a good deal of selecting the ideal clips for each portion of the film. I didn't have the lined script with me until the afternoon, this was my own fault and I decided to work without it building the assembly cut. The major difficulty in building the assembly cut was matching the best audio clips with the best video takes, something I would have to continually adjust as the edit went along.

Kyle, the director, visited me at the halfway point of the day. This was very helpful as we were able to discuss the desired emotion for specific sequences and the length of important moments, focusing on what could and couldn't be cut in aiming for the desired time frame. Kyle gave me notes on the assembly cut as it was comparitive to his vision for the final cut.

In the second half of the day, I was able to put together a rough cut using the lined script. This was a very quick process as I copied the timeline from the assembly cut onto a new sequence and edited from there. I titled this sequence "ALTERNATE_ROUGH_CUT."

I found myself somewhat reliant on two audio tracks that sounded very different and each had their own issues. I sent these to Rushil, the dialogue editor, so he could let me know if they were useable. He got back to me by the end of the day letting me know they were. I also sent some clips to Jamie, the colour grader, to have a look at on his request.

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I was able to progress from the assembly cut to the rough cut with relative ease. The "alternate rough cut" was very useful as a template and comparison to the rough cut as it was shaping up. It also served as another option to show Kyle, as the rough cut I ended up putting together differed from the lined script quite a bit, and Kyle would now have the option between them.

When building the rough cut, I trusted my intuition as to which shots worked best for what dialogue. I did what I could to build sequences that were tight and seemless, and as I did I had to do a fair deal of adjusting of which audio clips I was using over certain moments.

For flexibilty, I edited alternate cuts for certain sequences I found tricky. I did this by editing together each short excerpt onto seperated video and audio tracks in the timeline, and I only did it for 3 seperate moments in the edit.

Kyle was able to have another meeting with me in the screen academy, which was ideal. I was able to show him both the rough cut and the alternate rough cut. He preffered my cut, but, importantly, we were able to compare the strengths of the two and combine some of their parts. We would spend the rest of the meeting discussing where we could trim down the time.

One issue was the absence of a score in the opening sequence. I told the producer and director that if I didnt have a score by this (the 3rd) day I would use an alternative. I was never given an alternative so I found my own on the 4th day. At the end of the day, I exported a rough cut to show the post team.

The room tone I opted to use was from elsewhere, as I saw problems in the room tone recorded on set, including its short length. I added room tone that I felt fit the scene, recorded in a similar location, and it sounded quite seemless with the dialogue.

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DAY 4: Aiming for a picture lock and the one minute test export (15th Nov.)

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DAY 4: Aiming for a picture lock and the one minute test export (15th Nov.)

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I aimed to have a picture lock by the end of the 4th day. The crew were all very happy with the rough cut and I didn't have two much trimming down to do. In the end only one line was cut and I opted instead to cut down each scene as much as I possibly could. I was working with a 3-page, dialogue heavy script and Kyle had been advised by Derek not to ruin the pacing when trying to fit it into 2 minutes, and had extended the time limit for the year's films to 2 minutes 45.

In the 4th day I managed to get the film down to ~2.50 and add the required resizing and stabilisation effects to the footage. I spent around 20-30 minutes looking, downloading and inserting music that fitted the tempo of the conducting in the introduction. Kyle had also sent me a rough recording of his ending score, which I added where I felt best. There was discussion over where it should begin, so I added it in three places and exported three endings as options that I sent to Kyle.

I also managed to talk to Rushil about the possible issues he would face in the edit and where the dialogue tracks proved tricky to select and arrange. I arranged a brief meeting with Johnny that he wasn't able to attend, so I texted him with some information on the state of the sound in the edit and give him a heads-up on some decisions I'd made in the edit.

By the time I had moved the first minute to a separate file and added the necessary timecode, the screen academy was shutting, so I left the one-minute text export to the next day.

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I wasn't able to edit on Sunday the 16th, but I was able to pop into the screen academy to complete my one-minute test export, which I uploaded onto "Editor AAFs." I was unsure on how to back time the timeline to add the 8-second clock at the beginning, so I decided to export it without.

I then had another look over the timeline and exported what I had done the day before to send to the crew and post team.

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I had a meeting with Susan early in the morning and went over my workspace. She was quite happy with the edit I'd produced and I was pleased and relieved at the lack of notes.

I was able to ask Susan about the arrangement of my dialogue and make the simple adjustment of adding some handle to the dialogue in the timeline, which I had so far isolated. This served as both a reference for Johnny (design) and extra handle for Rushil (dialogue).

In my meeting with Kyle, we watched back the cut, which Kyle was happy with. I was shown some detailed notes that Erin, the producer, had sent to Kyle, but these were mostly centred around creative decisions Kyle had set his mind on. Kyle had also brought the final score, which I was finally able to add in. It didn't take much time as it was only over the introduction, so I had no issue with adding it this late.

After some minor adjustments to some stabilising, Kyle told me that he wanted to change the aspect ratio. I was able to to this with a separate track before going through all the video and resizing to fit. This took up a good chunk of time.

All that was left was credits. It was useful having Kyle to help me pick fonts he was happy with, and after we had I was able to fill out the credits list and move onto the export. After backtiming the timelne, I added the clock and the napier screen academy card at the bottom. I copied the timeline and added the timecode and file name burn-in. The AAF export template found in post materials were easy to follow and I added the advised 120 frames of handle Susan informed me of. After exporting the AAF and MOV files I sent a detailed email to Johnny and Rushil. I also uploaded the original, on-set room tones alongside the room tones I had used and a handy alternative to my "editor AAFs" folder.

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We were asked before watching to identify whether we were watching a narrative documentary or a portrait. On Another Note was a portait, as it focused on setting, themes and mood, in painting a portrait of its subject, Sarah Kenchington.

What stood out to me were the scenes of Sarh playing her mechanical orchestra, which progress from images of her instruments close-up, showing the complex and unusual nature of them, to wides that ground her in her environment. The rhythm of these scenes was hypnotic and importantly gave the music room to breath.

Another element that stood out was the choice to edit the footage of Sarah's community from the beginning of the day to the end, ending on a sunset. This gave the documentary a great sense of direction and closure.

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Unearthing the Pen's titular subject, the young Locheng, outside a school he doesn't attend. 

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Unearthing The Pen (dir. Carol Salter) is a narrative documentary. This was used to identify key moments in Hollywood's somewhat traditional three-act structure. It was also reminiscent of Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey" story structure.

We looked at where elements of the 3-act structure were evident, comparing the film to graphs that represent the action throughout the 3-act structure. Susan described the Hollywood 3-act structure as being very useful to screenwriters as it can turn bland subject matter into something very watchable, and can make good subject matter very engaging.

The importance of acknowledging the intended structure of a screenplay or documentary is in having an idea of rising and falling action, and in knowing which moments to emphasise.

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WEEK 4 - Exploring story structure in narrative film

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WEEK 4 - Exploring story structure in narrative film

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In this week we focused on the film Skin (ed. Yuval Orr), and explored act structures in more depth.

We filled the films events out into the three act structure and had an open discussion on how this helped make the film engaing.

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In week 6's lecture on dialogue editing we looked at The Terminator and All that Heaven Allows, two very different films. We discussed subtext and context in the screenwriting and the principles of good dialogue editing.

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A frenetic driving shot is juxtaposed with an intimate medium-closeup that follows it.

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We used the car chase scene that follows the "tech noir" club scene as an example of exposition and the rhythm and pacing of dialogue editing.

What stood out me was how well paced the moments of levity and dialogue were in the middle of such a fast-paced action scene. The rhythm of the dialogue scene flowed so well despite the short time it took up in the film. For Sarah Connor, who is a confused victim caught up in the action, the outlandish dialogue is just another dissorienting event in the scene.

It proves again that your reading of the script should directly influence your approach to the edit.

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We watched an important turning-point scene in All that Heaven Allows, we discussed the importance of understanding subtext for the edit. The dialogue in the scene is deliberatley restrained and minimal, and the minutia of the performances are what's most important in the scene. Wordless moments of doubt, hesitation and warmth take prescendence over much of the dialogue.

We were taught with this scene that reactions are the foundation of any good dialogue scene. The characters' reaction to the dialogue have to be sufficiently edited into the scene.

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Over the couse of the MC101 booklet I took extensive notes on each lesson to help with my revision in the lead up to the exam.

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We got to watch some more unconventional methods of dialogue editing in Paranoid Park, wherein two scenes involve an extended shot held on only one speaker in a conversation, cutting to the seconds speaker right at the end of the scene.

This showcased how an extended dialogue scene can be edited unconventionally for thematic purposes. These scenes prioritise conveying a feeling or leaving an impression over giving us information about the characters.

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The Power of the Dog, ed. Peter Scieberras

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The Power of the Dog, ed. Peter Scieberras

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In The Power of the Dog, we looked at a dialogue that prioritised mood and tension. The scene was never orignially intended to have dialogue, so the actions of the characters are emphasised over the minimal dialogue in it.

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I watched Little Miss Sunshine for the second time just before the start of my edit, and I would revisit it when I felt uncertain of my edit as it was a big influence on me.

The way that the subject matter blends dark comedy with sincerity is similar to the tone of Shopping for Maestro.

The editing is tight, managing to fit a very eventful storyline into a concise 101 minutes. The editing in the larger ensemble scenes is deceptively simple, designed to be invisible. The film is carried on the backs of some very good performances.

I felt the same about Shopping for Maestro, so I tried to make sure as much of the performances were visible as possible.

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The first two stills are from Taste of Cherry, the latter two are from Where is the Friend's House?.

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Taste of Cherry and Where is the Friend's House?, ed. Abbas Kiarostami

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Taste of Cherry and Where is the Friend's House?, ed. Abbas Kiarostami

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The cinema of Abbas Kiarostami was very fresh in my mind at the beginning of the course, as I had just watched his films Taste of Cherry and Where is the Friend's House? at the end of the summer break.

In these films, the environment is almost a character in itself. It plays a large part in conveying their themes and reinforcing certain narrative elements. Sense of place is very important in these films.

They are both examples of slow cinema, so the editing in them is often slow and hypnotic in pacing, using dead time as a narrative tool.

The influence of these films is obvious to me in my choices when editing Insane Biking and in my rough cut and following drafts of Shopping for Maestro. They emphasised to me the importance of breathing space in an edit.

However, I consider their influence somewhat detrimental, as my early attempts at pacing in Shopping for Maestro were not all that good and took up too much runtime.

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I learned in the exam that I wasn't quite as revised as I thought I was. I was fairly confident that I was getting over 80% while I was doing the exam and surprised to see I hadn't.

What I can do more of next time is noting down specific actions in more detail, so that I have a reliable library of the various tools and commands in the software written down.