Critical Evaluation

Lewis Hague - 20043546

Throughout the module in post-production, I have learnt many aspects associated with editing film that have helped me produce my three editing tasks. From second-hand research I undertook outside of workshops, to the range of films we looked at in class. I now feel more confident in editing films and working as a team/collaborating with other people.

The 3 main projects we undertook throughout this module included a thriller/drama titled 'Night Journey', a documentary on rock climbing and a comedy titled 'Out O' Date'. Editing these three films has given me experience in being confronted with different styles of films to edit. One drama, one documentary and one comedy. All in which I discovered required different types of editing techniques. Chris was hugely helpful throughout the course; he taught us many things including the importance of building an emotional connection to the characters, which is fundamental to the success of a piece.

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The first task, 'Night Journey' I feel went well; Fraser (my partner) and I managed to create an atmospheric cut that engaged the audience with the character(s) on-screen. 

We used a couple of non-diegetic soundtracks/effects throughout the film that helped the story progress. From studying post-production, I have learnt that choosing the right music to use in your film is such an important decision. Most of the time it's your key to emotion, and you don't want anything too over-powering that will convey the wrong emotion. I'm happy with the tracks we chose; they're not too over-powering for the audience and they don't 'force' an emotion upon them, I feel they're more atmospheric than anything. 

The process of producing a fine cut Fraser and I were happy with went better than I expected. We first began by logging all the footage and re-naming it all on Final Cut Pro (FCP). We labelled the footage following the same format (e.g.) - 

How we labelled our footage

• (No sound on the clip) 

CU (The type of shot, in this case close up) 

NIGHT (The time of day)

EXT (Interior or exterior)

TRAIN PASSES (Short description of what's happening in the shot)

"• CU NIGHT EXT TRAIN PASSES"


We were taught the simplest way of labelling footage to make our job easier and more efficient when editing. Throughout the module I have learnt the importance of labelling all the footage and categorising them. Before-hand, I often shied away from labelling all the footage, I would only label a few clips that I felt were of importance. But I soon discovered that by labelling all the footage I would be able to edit much more quickly and efficiently. 

Whilst labelling the footage, we would label/categorise any good/bad takes that were worth using (or not). This once again made the process of editing quicker and easier. (Shown left) Each colour indicates whether the shot was a bad take, a good take etc. meaning if there were more than one take of the same shot/scene, we would be able to identify the best one straight away.



After logging all the footage, we began the rough assembly... so we created an assembly following this structure -

[Shots of the train passing through the countryside] -> [Shots within the train station] -> [All the scenes onboard the train juxtaposed with shots of the train passing by] we went with this structure because we wanted to initially let the audience know that the story will take place on a train, hence why we showed the train passing by on the tracks before we cut to the train station footage. It was also to create an intro before the story got going.

After looking through the footage I thought it would be a good idea to show the villain in the film straight away to create an impact/connote enigma. Later in the edit I added an echoing drum sound effect to introduce him 'with a bang'. The shot cuts to black and then the story itself begins, leaving the audience wondering 'who is this man?' I enjoy leaving the audience wanting more, I think it's an effective technique that helps keep hold of the audience's attention.

Me and Fraser devised a system of editing 'Night Journey'. We felt it would be easier if we collaborated with one another and threw ideas into the mixing bowl, went away and edited a section individually. Then we met back up, watched whoever had edited a section and made any changes then. This technique actually worked brilliantly. As Fraser or I were able to follow on from what the other person had done.

Once we had finished the edit, we watched it through many times and made any changes that were necessary. Any ideas we had, for example making the dream sequence towards the end slightly blurry to indicate it was in fact a dream, or Fraser's idea of fading out the shot in which the main protagonist falls asleep, to once again indicate that he is now dreaming were embraced.

Fade out to connote the idea of a dream

Dream sequence with an added blurred effect

We never had conflicting opinions which greatly helped with the process of the edit. Our thought-paths appeared to be on the same wave-length and the film we edited I think feels seamless and well-constructured.

Referring to Walter Murch's theory of six, we stuck with creating an emotional connection to the main character by always cutting back to him. The story progressed via the use of 'small-montages' of the train passing by and the dream sequence.

Strengths

I felt we created an atmospheric piece that is clear enough to understand but implements a sense of enigma.

The edit I think is well put together; a smooth piece with the combination of music

The use (but not over-use) of effects e.g. opacity, fade-ins, fade-outs on both the visuals and soundtracks/effects etc.

Cross-fade to show time passing

Weaknesses

The sequence towards the end in which the train comes to a halt, appears to be a continuity error in which the curtains are open and then closed again in the next shot, with the couple missing.

I wonder if some of the narration/dialogue appears random at times, but perhaps it was the script itself that felt 'strange'.

In conclusion, I am happy with the edit we have produced. The biggest thing I took away from this project was the importance of creating a connection to the main character, without it the audience don't care and why should you.

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The second task, 'In A Climber's Hands' was a documentary about a man rock-climbing as a hobby. Me and Fraser followed the same routine again by logging the footage, labelling it all and assembling a rough-cut.

Overall we are both happy with final outcome. We had a few problems along the way, such as creating a first edit with soundtracks we discovered we couldn't use, which was unfortunate because we both really enjoyed the edit. However our second and final edit we are just as happy with; the soundtracks used are not overpowering and the structure (interviews combined with scenes of him climbing/talking) felt fluent and well put together.

Adding titles to the opening shot.

The things I have learnt whilst editing the documentary include the following -

• The importance of cutting to the subject when they are saying something of importance.

• Interviews are key to the progression of the story.

• If the main subject talks about something, then show the audience what they're talking about... for example in our edit, the main character states  how Stanage Edge is one of the most famous climbing ares in Britain, so we cut to a shot of him stood looking up at Stanage Edge. (shown below)

 Me and Fraser followed the same editing process as we did with 'Night Journey' and once again it worked effectively; we were able to collaborate together when we needed to do so and edit together as well as separately when we needed to do so.

The strengths of our piece include the following -

The distinctive soundtrack put over the film that features a crockery/distorted sound effect that fits the piece/is not overpowering.

The length of time between the subject talking. We allowed enough breathing room for the audience to take in the scale and landscape of the scenery.

The amount of information we chose to include I felt was enough, and the information itself all felt relevant to the story.

Personally the jump-cuts I incorporated worked, because the piece is about a young boy rock climbing and the jump-cuts I feel would appeal to the younger audiences. It also shows the progression of time in a 'modern' way.

The weaknesses of our piece include the following -

The quality of the interviews were very poor, the sound quality was almost not usable so it was hard to find the right dialogue to use.

This shot should have been taken out - it's too overexposed and almost looks as if someone has photoshopped half of the picture out.

There are a few shots of him climbing that I feel go on for too long, and the shot themselves are not that visually pleasing. (shown below)

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Our final task was to edit a comedy titled 'Out O' Date', this time individually. I was looking forward to having the opportunity to work on a project myself,  as I had experienced working in a team for the last year and a half, so the opportunity to work alone and incorporate my own ideas was welcomed.

I am very happy overall with the edit I cut together, however I found it very challenging at times... I spent many hours on certain sections trying to perfect the audio as in certain clips the audio was either missing, or cars would pass, and cars wouldn't pass in other shots. In certain circumstances I overlaid multiple wilds tracks to try and make some sections blend together naturally.

Overlaying wild tracks... I also overlaid another wild track
of 'cars passing by' to make the scene more seamless.

Throughout the edit, I stuck to the importance of cutting quickly, not to stay too long on one person. A quick, snappy edit can increase the pace of a comedy and increase the humour. I also learnt the importance of cutting to people's reactions when something funny was said. It increases the comedic value if the audience can see the person's reaction to something.

I added many fade-ins and fade-outs to my sound effects/dialogue. It helped make the piece more fluent and natural. In one case, to end the scene in the car-park and introduce the scene at the house, I added a long fade-in of the milk van parking up as to make the transition feel natural. (shown below)

I also added a comedic tyre screech but decided to take it
 out after the feedback I received during the screening.

The sections in which the car approached and the woman walked over was a challenge to cut. I had to rapidly reduce the amount of time it took for the lady to walk over to the main protagonist.

The footsteps were a challenge to sync but I feel in the end I did a good job of making it look/sound natural.

The last section of the film in which the milkmen arrive back at the house I feel I did particularly well at. I feel I made the right cuts where they were needed, no shots carried on too long and the sound edit was strong enough for it to feel natural.

Unfortunately during the whole edit, I noticed a couple of 'blips' in the audio when I was cutting, the blips weren't in the audio recordings themselves but an issue within FCP that I didn't know how to solve. Apart from these hiccups I feel the transitions of sounds work well.

In conclusion I think my cut of the comedy 'Out O' Date' is well-paced, feels natural and the cuts arrive when they are needed. The sound isn't perfect and you can slightly tell when audio ends and comes back again, but I did my best in overlaying wild tracks, adding fade-ins etc. to make it seem as fluent as possible.

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Reflecting back on this module, I have made a lot of progress in my knowledge and understanding of editing. The research I have undertaken that is discussed earlier in the blog, combined with the sessions in class have made me feel more comfortable and confident in editing film. I have experienced working as a team and working individually, both in which I am now more confident with. I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge of editing next year and tackling any tasks that come my way.

'Out O' Date' update

After presenting my comedy edit 'Out O' Date', I have made a couple of changes to the following things:

• I have cut out the shot in which the second man looks at the sign whilst the woman is walking over to man (1) - this was because it looks as if he's about to say something but he doesn't.

• Cut out the part in which the woman says "Now take" twice, to make her say it just the once.

• The sound needing mixing a little because the atoms of the cars going past kept dropping off, and the opening 10 seconds needed car atmos adding onto it, so I've imported another wild track under the piece.

"Street traffic" wild track, I toned the volume down to make it blend with the piece.

Currently I'm burning all the data files from brief 1-3 onto a data disc.

'Game Of Thrones' - Avid

The American epic fantasy television drama series 'Game Of Thrones' needs a highly efficient way of managing an epic amount of source material while ensuring that the offline, online, grade and audio post maintained the high production values and filmic look of the original shoot.

The production chose local Avid-based facility, Yellow Moon, to provide offline editing and dailies service using Avid Media Composer. Using 16 terabytes of Avid Unity storage, the self-contained workflow was transported to Screen Scene in Dublin where the online was completed using Avid DS 10.5 and an integration of Avid ICON and Pro Tools to provide a finished audio mix to complement the stunning visuals.

Avid Unity integrated seamlessly with the HBO team’s Macs, which were responsible for transferring the dailies back to the US. Similarly, the team used a Cache-A LTO data storage facility for additional archiving, working once again in partnership with the Unity.

With such a huge production, I think it's brilliant how they have managed to create a seamless way of post-producing the series from around the globe. Footage is sent almost instantly to different studios/cities around the globe e.g. Los Angeles, New York, Dublin and London simultaneously. It shows us that as technology is advancing, and the world is becoming 'smaller'. Tasks that would have been seen as nearly impossible 20-30+ years ago are now achievable. 

"As the shoot wrapped in Belfast, all material moved to Screen Scene in Dublin, which was fully prepared for the remaining offline edit, vfx, sound post and picture finishing."

The Avid Advantage

One of the biggest advantages for the 60 people in Screen Scene working on the project was the fact that offline edit, sound post, vfx , grading and finishing were within steps of each other, playing a vital part in meeting schedule deadlines.

The Challenge

Create, edit, and manage an epic amount of content for an epic television series

The Solution

Design a highly-efficient workflow around a wide array of Avid solutions to ensure that the high production values and filmic look are maintained throughout every stage of the production process.

http://www.avid.com/US/about-avid/customer-stories/Avid-Workflows-Help-Bring-Game-of-Thrones-to-Life

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With such a big production budget (reportedly $60 million alone for the first series) and team, they have made it possible to work seamlessly from different locations across the globe. Game Of Thrones aside however, I think that smaller productions are still able to take advantage of the ability to transfer footage too and from one another to create the most efficient and fluent process of working possible.

Research - Editing a Comedy

Jeff Wolf

"Comedy editing is one of the more difficult styles of editing. If the actors delivery is off, the timing is off and as an editor, you need to “Try” to fix it for pacing and timing in the overall film." 

I agree with the statement above, due to the difficulties I faced whilst editing 'Out O' Date'. I spent countless hours trying to perfect the timing of each line, when to cut too and from each character. In the end I mixed it up a little by cutting straight to a character when they're speaking, or over-lapping their dialogue with a different image, and finally cutting back to a character's reaction whilst the other person is speaking. This technique worked for me and the piece as I think it flows nicely and features variety.

Four Principles of Comedy Editing

1. Timing is Key

Timing refers to the choice, control or judgment about when something should be shown, cut to, or cut away from. If you're lucky enough to have great actors, they will sometimes leave room for the audience to laugh and reflect on what's been said. If the performers are funny themselves, and have great comedic timing, then the job is easy. However if the actor blunders or is off the mark with the timing, then it's the editors job to find opportunities to enhance the humour or create humour where none really exists. This could be achieved by constructing a sequence that hopefully the audience will find amusing, figuring out when and where to cut, and crafting a rhythm of shots that will result in the biggest laugh.

Everyone has a different sense of timing, but you know great timing when you see it.

2. Use the Right Reaction Shot

The shot-reverse-shot is one of the most common used techniques for the building blocks of storytelling. When a character in a comedy says something funny, it cuts to the other person's reaction, and then back to the first person. It's up to the editor to choose the most 'appropriate' reaction shot to what's been said to get the desired reaction from the audience. Whether you want laughter or a snigger from the audience, choosing the correct reaction is key. 

3. Let the Audience in on the Joke Beforehand 

Sometimes it's best to let the audience in on a key bit of information first. For example in a horror film, we find ourselves 'screaming' at the screen because we can see the killer approaching their victim but they have no clue of what's approaching. "Tell them what you're going to do. Do it. Tell them you've done it". In other words telling the audience what is about to happen in advance of the gag. 

For example: Laurel and Hardy

1. Laurel and Hardy running down the street.

2. Cut to a banana skin on the floor (the audience may laugh, and know what's coming).

3. Cut back to them running, hold the shot and then have them slip on the banana skin.

4. Cut to their reaction/despair

This (3) technique I feel somewhat relates to my comedy edit of 'Out O' Date'. For example in the shot where the woman is walking across the car park, and I cut back to the second man's reaction in which he looks at the poorly worded sign on the supermarket entrance. We know as the audience the reason she's approaching and understand the man's reaction. Then I cut back to the woman arguing with man 1/showing his reaction.

4. Less is More

I have always been a firm believer in 'less is more'. I often think that holding back on something can create more of an impact, (often emotional) on the audience.

Cutting things out and showing less amplifies the humour. By shortening sequences, and eliminating stuff that isn't quite working or very funny, you can go from mark to mark to build up the impact of the comedy and get bigger and better laughs.

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After reading and researching about editing comedies, I feel more confident about undertaking the job of editing another one in the future. It has also made me more confident about the edit I have produced for brief 3 'Out O' Date'.

Brief 3 - 'Out Of Date' Feedback

I have received some helpful feedback on my comedy rough edit:

 To reduce the amount of time it takes foe the woman to walk across the car-park. Initially I thought I had cut this down enough, but I was told it still needed cutting down considerably, so I cut a second or two from each frame to reduce the length.

 Before, in this shot it looked as if the man was waiting around, so I cut on the point in which he is turning around, to create a snappier, more effective and believable edit.

The length of this shot was reduced as it looked as if he was about to talk.

 I created a quicker cut to show more of the woman's reaction when the man insults her. Thus hopefully creating more of an impacting on the audience.

The milk van initially came into the shot, but now I have cut it in which the van is already in shot.

- creating a faster paced, snappy edit.

The line in which the woman says "Oh bloody hell, I go' get' frozen peas"was in my rough edit, however I never cut to her saying it. This was because she is smiling in the shot and it put me off using it. But I was told a cut was needed when this line was said, so I created a quick cut lasting 1-2 seconds.




UPDATE

I have added a tyre screech sound effect for the van clip (above) to add comical effect.

Brief 2 - Climbing Documentary

Fine cut

Currently me and Fraser are fine-cutting the rock climbing documentary 'In A Climber's Hands' to make it ready for submission.

• We have extended the fade out on the second soundtrack to make it end on the beat/cut.
Why? The shot of him sat on the rock after achieving his climb is more effective with the sound fading out before it cuts to the shot.

• Cut out the sound of the wind and extended the previous sound to take its place/input a fade.
Why? The wind is obviously off-putting and poor quality.

• Cut the soundtrack (below) earlier and extended the fade, we felt the ambient sound of the footsteps worked effectively just below the interview fades in.

• Chris mentioned we had two endings, so we have taken the final bouldering footage scene and slotted it in-between the first sequence of bouldering/the scene of him climbing with harnesses.

Editing (25/04/13)

I this session, we continued to look at our narrative films that we will be presenting next week. Chris showed us some more possible topics for research, including the following:

• Senna (2010)
• Use of music in Shane Meadows films
• The Swimmer by Lynne Ramsay

Books:

• A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers
• Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis

Chris told us the correct way in which to post produce films:

Shoot -> Post -> Importing -> Converting (PRO RESS 422) -> Log -> Sync-sound -> 1st assembly

Chris stressed the importance of syncing up sound from the recording device (in this case the Marantz) to the visuals.