Week 10 - Workshop 2

Hi,

This week we learnt the theory of editing and some techniques to help. 

One of the first things Josh told us to do was try to use 99% straight cuts between shots (without transition effects). The whole idea is for the audience not to notice the cutting between shots. It's much less noticeable if the character is moving. Another good time to cut is when there is motivation (for example if a characters eyeline moves or there is an unexpected sound). This is called expected continuity.

We also learnt about continuity editing. 95% of the movies we see in cinemas are edited in the classical Hollywood way. Most films screen time are between 90 minutes to 180 minutes long, while the actual story goes for much longer (not so in films like Devil). The tricky bit for filmmakers is to cut out the unnecessary stuff (like people sleeping etc.) while still making the story understandable. Josh used the second Transformers movie as an example of telling too much, and not showing enough. In our film, we don't have Grant driving to the restaurant for his date as that would just be an unnecessary waste of time.

Another form of editing which was popularised by the Soviet Union is montage editing. This is a way to show time passing with a variety of different things happening without taking up a lot of screen time. In our short film we won't be doing this. 

Josh also encouraged us to use establishing shots, insert shots and cutaways to provide the audience with extra information.

Josh warned us that often when people start editing they try and finish the piece straight away. He recommended that we should do a rough cut first of the whole thing and then edit each scene on its own. We should make sure all the easy things are done right first, and make sure shots don't hang around too long after the main point has passed. This concept is 3 point editing: the inpoint setting, inpoint and outpoint of shots. Then we have to watch the whole thing and see what the timing and the pacing is like. Colour correction comes after this, and then we can let other people watch it and tell us what they think. Finally we make sure the sound and audio is perfect.

It's a lot of work and I hope we get it done in time!! I'm confident in my group though so I'm expecting the best!

The end.