David Lean

David Lean was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is known for many films including one in particular, 'A Passage To India' (1984)...

The director began as a film editor and throughout his career he stressed the importance of how things cut together. When he broke into the industry, he worked his way up editing different films, some of which included 'Pygmalion' (1938) and 'One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing' (1942).

Many people believe that his skills in editing helped him become such a great editor. Before researching editors, it was never apparent to me that editors can take on the roles of directing, producing and screenwriting. Lean believed that editing allows you to create more 'interesting' shots/scenes. For example, he described one scene he was editing as "boring" if he were to leave the entire shot as a long shot. But instead he chooses and pieces together a variety of shots within the scene to make a more fun and interesting scene. The speed of the shots creates the illusion that the audience are watching just the one shot, but it's the speed and the fluency of the scene and shots pieced together, that makes it work. He also goes on to say that editing is like piecing together a huge jigsaw. I believe that one of the key aspects of being an editor, is the ability to portray the footage in any given light you wish to do so.

Lean's films were categorised by some into two groups: the "ordinary" and the "epic". His early work consisted of shooting the lives of ordinary people in a moment of time, rather than his later work that focused on dramatic landscapes, unusual heroes and extravagant mise-en-scene. Perhaps it is because of his wide knowledge and experience in a variety of film-making that makes him such a successful director, producer, screenwriter and most of all, editor.

What is H2.64?

H2.64 is a video compression format, and is one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression and distribution of HD (high definition) video. The format allows you to achieve high quality video in relatively low bitrates.

Converting Documentary Footage

APPLE PRO RESS 422

Pro Ress is a video compression format for use in post-production that supports up to 4k.

MPEG STREAMCLIP

Earlier this week, I spent some time converting all the HD footage that's on my hard-drive to be able to edit with, without losing all the quality in the footage itself. The footage is for a documentary we're shooting on another module and the process I'm currently undertaking I feel is highly relevant to this module. We have been taught that we should do with any HD footage we shoot, as doing so will allow it to work more efficiently during the edit, without losing any of the HD quality.

Before doing this, I discovered that the picture quality was highly pixelated and the whole process of editing was intensely sluggish.  

The pictures illustrate the process I undertook, and due to this being the first time I've ever converted HD footage before, I wasn't expecting it to be such a long process. However saying that, perhaps one of the reason for it taking such a long time was because all the footage was streaming through my USB 2.0 hard-drive.

When I had completed converting the footage, I was left with the original footage, and the converted footage. The software is now on my laptop, however for some reason the 'Apple pro ress 422' option is not there... the version on the Uni iMacs is the same version I'm currently running on my laptop, and there is next to no information on forums on how to solve this issue, so for now I'll have to stay in the editing suite whilst converting any HD footage.

The Social Network

'The Social Network' (2010), directed by David Fincher, is a critically acclaimed film about the founders of the social-networking site, Facebook. The film won many awards, including the following:

• AFI - Movie of the year
• Oscar - Best achievement in film editing
• Oscar - Best writing, adapted screenplay
• Oscar - Best achievement in written music
• Bafta - Editing
• Bafta - Director
• Bafta - Screenplay

and many more...

I remember watching this film around the time I was about to start, or already had started university. At the time, I found the film to be a marvel in pacing, editing, sound design, cinematography and screenplay. In other words the piece as a whole is brilliantly crafted together.

Angus Wall, one of the two editors involved with the making of 'The Social Network', explains how they had to make sure that Arron's script was brought to life on-screen, whether through a slight thing the actor does with their body, or an inflection in a series of words. Despite the mess of all the different takes, they had to make sure it was completely seamless onscreen.

Angus Wall

He explains how the movie is fast-paced, along with the performances onscreen. The opening scene itself took nearly 3 weeks to piece together.

Kirk Baxter, the second editor involved with the making of 'The Social Network' explains how he was attracted to the fast pace of the film. initially, they created an edit that featured shots nearly entirely of the fast-paced dialogue, and upon watching it back, they discovered it was incredibly over-whelming. There were moments they needed to slow down, creating pauses and gaps.

He goes on to explain how the editing room was a very private place, and that if any problems occurred, all of them would funnel through David (the director) before reaching the editors themselves. I imagine this creates a stable, functional and efficient working atmosphere that can only benefit the editors' work.

The Social Network - Headquarters Scene

 The scene begins with a POV (point of view)

Then cuts back to the person's POV the audience has been looking through. This cuts familiarises the audience with the subject.

The same shot continues to track backwards with the character's movement. By keeping the camera/shot fixed on him, we see his emotion and empathise with him. The lowdown angle looking up at him makes him look more fierce, thus making the audience feel smaller in comparison.

Cut to a wider shot, to establish the setting and the actions he is making.




A shot, reverse shot sequence begins, initially with Mark's reaction to what Eduardo has done to his laptop.




Cut back to Eduardo, once again a low-down position to show his presence, emotion and body language.




Shortly after, we cut back to the boardroom, reminding the audience that what we've witnessed was a 'flashback'. Shot reverse shot of dialogue along with the character's reactions follow.

A soundtrack slowly fades in during the boardroom scene, creating a tense atmosphere filled with suspense. The soundtrack evolves into a mellow backtrack when the pair continue to argue. Emotion is conveyed throughout the scene, and with the combination of med-close-ups, the soundtrack, body language and facial expressions, the scene put together with great effect.