For this post, I will be discussing how I got from this draft of the edit to the picture lock! I will be uploading the final cut when I do my critical reflection post, but for the time being, I will explain the creative choices I had to make as editor to make what we had work! Please refer to that post for comparison when it is uploaded!
Before I begin, here are photos of my messy notes that I took while getting feedback from the director/when I was trying to figure things out!
00:09-00:10 (and also for 00:49-00:52)
The cut between these two shots are here on Sid’s head movement. I feel nervous using jump cuts sometimes as I know it doesn’t always work, especially as the jump-cutting seen in this section would not be seen elsewhere in the edit after Sid and Andrea meet. Although, after receiving feedback from Kieran, I gave it a go, and it worked fine. I just had to find the right spot to do so, where she isn’t moving much, but also the jump cut isn’t as visible so it kind of gets away with it. Not to say that I’m trying to pass it off as being a continuous cut, but rather it doesn’t feel as cinematically uncomfortable if that makes much sense! As discussed with my director, we wanted the first segment to feel uncomfy in how anxious Sid feels so that we resonate with her emotions, but there's a difference between a cut feeling obnoxious and intentionally ‘uncomfy’.
In this shot also, we had initially cut to a different close-up shot of the bag and then cut back to the wide. This also did not ‘feel’ great as it really takes you out of the film. The remaining on this shot of the bag was kept in for the picture lock as a result. (So rather than going in-out-in, we go in and then back out on a different shot where the progression feels more natural)
Montage around 00:36
In the cinehaiku project (this is relevant to my discussion), there was a section in the edit where I tried to increase the tension by adjusting the length of the clips it was switching between so it goes from long to short - so the duration of the clips get shorter as it gets towards the end of that specific sequence. But, it wasn’t quite liked when I received feedback on it, so I was wary to use the technique again (until I received feedback from Kieran saying that the clips should progressively get shorter). From this, I learned that I need to test out all my ideas as they, although they might not always, work sometimes. The difference between last time and this time, though, is that the clips its jump-cutting between are from the same shot with the same frame, so perhaps this is the key to making this kind of edit work! What also aided the ending of this segment is to cut straight after the movement of the mirror upwards in the shot shown at 00:39. I’m definitely a lot happier with this section of the edit than the previous cuts within the picture lock! I feel that it successfully captures the progression of time, while also Sid’s anxiousness and beginnings of her transformation, also while not taking the audience out-of-it. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to knowing how I could’ve improved this section within the crit (as with the rest of the edit too).
01:38-01:39
This bit needed re-jiggling. I moved it over a few frames and it works a lot better in the final cut. I think it started a little bit too early on the head movement around.
Not seeing Andrea’s face until 01:39
Although this can appear to be a creative choice, it was sadly down to the lack of coverage we had of Andrea. We don’t see her ‘turn around’ and face Sid until the ‘then what is it?’ line. I’m still not too sure how I feel about this section. In an ideal world, I would’ve had more shots to choose from and to see what works best, but I feel that this was the best I could achieve with what I had.
The ‘mirror-reaction-shot’ at around 01:52
The timings of this were off in this cut, we weren’t looking at the right shots for long enough, but with some re-adjustments, I got it looking better! This and a few other cuts needed some fine-tuning, but I felt that they worked okay after doing so.
Since this has already become quite a lengthy post, I’ll skip the fine-tuning cuts and go straight to the final few that I struggled with.
03:12-03:13
The first shot here has been extended, so we see the POV camera movement upwards to look around. I wasn’t fond of the shaky camera movement in this shot, but in making the other adjustments it definitely grew on me and I think it helps the transition between the two shots.
Final Sad Note
Although I try to end my blog posts on a positive note, while writing the last bit there, I realised I did the wrong export for sound and colour grade, so the version I’ve attached to this post is the version that is being submitted for this module. I’ll attach the version that I had hoped to include later on if I find the time. It's not the worst cut, as it's the second to last one to be specific, but it’s not the one that I, as the editor, felt happy with. I’ll obviously try to avoid this next time.
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