Scene 37

When beginning my edit of Scene 37, I immediately found that it was easier to work with than Scene 34. The sound was a huge improvement, and there was a greater variety of takes and shots to work with. This did mean I spent longer watching through the rushes, but I think this helped me in the way that by the time I started putting things into order in the timeline, I already had a good idea of which takes were the best, and which shots I wanted to incorporate when. I also thought the scene allowed for more variety in the way we approached the edit, as selecting a certain shot to show at a certain time could hold suspense in a more obvious way than Scene 37 could. One example of how I found this to be interesting was when the couple standing behind our protagonist leave the room. I decided to show the man coming over from the left, but then cut to the reverse shot so that the audience cannot see whether they leave or not. Katherine then looks behind her, attempting still to appear focused on the conversation with Dickie. By the time I cut back to the previous shot, the couple have been lost off screen.

This scene did also present some notable difficulties though, and these mainly sprouted from the male actor playing Dickie. As he forgot his lines on a few occasions, he did not end up speaking the same lines in the same order in each take, and it was a difficult task to assemble the pieces of his lines into something that followed the script as closely as possible. But I was happy with how this worked out, as the conversation does work, and his pauses work well to indicate his uncertainty about where Katherines attention lies.

I also attempted for the first time to perform colour correction on the scene, which I am still unsure about now, as I feel the quality of the image has been somewhat distorted by doing this.

Scene 34

Editing this scene was lots of fun for me, as it showed the process editors go through when working on feature films. Looking through the rushes, reading through the script, it all felt very professional. It was interesting for me to pick up pieces of a scene that I had no idea what was happening within the overall story, and put it together in a way that both made sense continuity-wise, and also gave me chance to explore and experiment. I found that editing this scene was less of an initial challenge than the Ghostbusters one, simply because I was now getting used to Final Cut X, and it felt more natural making my way around it.

As I progressed through the edit, I found that the main issue was the sound. The background noise of the waves and passers by could be accepted as diegetic sound, and so not only wasn't an issue, but benefitted the scene. But the problem that did come from the sound recorded was when these background noises grew louder than the characters dialogue, making it hard to hear the most important aspect of the sound mix in this specific scene. Most lines that suffered from this were easy to get around, simply by using pieces from different shots or takes. But as you will most likely notice, around the middle of the scene there is a line spoken by the female actress that is only just audible. This could not be replaced with any other takes as just after the line is delivered the male actor sits back down next to her, and on the timeline of my edit this would have created a continuity nightmare. This problem is something I hope to address in my next edit, and hopefully get right.

The link to my Final Edit of Scene 34 is below:

Scene 34 Final Edit

2001: A Space Odyssey Match Cut

Possibly the most famous match cut of all time, this incredible cut spans the entire history and beyond of evolution and the human race, symbolically snapping between the first time tools were used to a spacecraft, and in one huge time jump, lasting a millisecond to us, showcases just how far our species has come. It is undeniably an impressive cut, and shows how so much meaning can be put into one simple edit.

Final Ghostbusters Scene Edit

After changing most of the cuts from the initial edit, and a lot of cleaning up, we decided that we had a finished version of the scene that was a vast improvement. The sound, although still far from perfect, was much more audible than before, and slightly cleaner. Obviously it was impossible to get perfect sound with the equipment we were using but I believe we did well eventually with what we had to work with. We spent some time making slight alterations to when cuts were made, and from doing this it was easy to see how changing the timing of a cut by one frame can make a big difference to the final product. After working with both Premier Pro and Final Cut X editing software, it has become clear that Final Cut is definitely for me. I am a visual type of person and the layout, design and smoothness of Final Cut mixes well with this. The main thing I have taken away from this project is how effective it can be to produce multiple drafts of an edit, first putting together a rough version and then smoothing out all the kinks. By doing this I believe we came out with a much better finished edit than we would have if we simply put one single version together. 

Below is the link to the Final Edit of our Ghostbusters Recreated Scene. 

Ghostbusters Scene Final Edit

Initial Ghostbusters Scene Edit

This was our first edit of the Ghostbusters Recreation Scene. It is evident that this edit is very poor, right from the beginning, but this was simply a rough cut, and was intended to give us an idea of the structure of the film. One point that stood out to us upon review of the edit was part way through the scene when we broke the 180 rule, which would confuse the viewer as to the positions of the characters involved. The scene is filled with continuity errors, that could be fixed with slight changes in the moment the cut is made. Another noticeable failure in this edit is the audio. The levels are up and down and the dialogue can barely be heard. To some extent this could not really be helped, as we were recording using only the camera mic, which is not of ideal quality at the best of times, but when filming wide shots the sound is almost inaudible.

The video link is below.

Initial Ghostbusters Scene Edit

Interesting YouTube Video Editing

I found this video highlighting the top 250 movies list on IMDb, and thought the editing was very clever, especially in some of the moments when it uses match cuts in quick succession. The video uses iconic shots from these films so that even though we have only seen the images for a second, we recognise the film and feel a sense of achievement for doing so. It is easy to admire the time and effort that went into creating this video, and see how well it works in creating a fast paced flick through some of the greatest films of all time.

Steps of Offline Editing

A list of steps showing what actions to take during the Offline stages of editing a project, to ensure the best quality piece of work possible.

• Start with lots of footage (rushes). Watch through these twice, the second time make notes as you go along for future reference. 
• Create 1st edit. Keep all the edits, just in case.
• Begin 2nd edit. Leave time between 1st & 2nd so you can approach it the second time with fresh look. Trim down the original edit to the stage where you can..
• Show to director/external expert.
• Make any suggested alterations, or completely restart 2nd edit.
• Once happy with this, walk away from it for a while, as to not get too attached to certain aspects of the project. This means that when coming back to it, you can see mistakes you may have made or add new ideas.
• Final Edit 1.
• Show to director again, receive feedback.
• Final Edit 2. (Repeat previous stage as many times as necessary)

Online editing to be carried out after this, to add any effects and grading that may be needed.

The Kuleshov Effect

This is something I stumbled upon when researching theorists.

 Lev Kuleshov was a Soviet filmmaker and supposedly the first film theorist. He believed strongly that editing in order to juxtapose shots was the core element of filmmaking, an idea that resounded through to his students, most notably the famous Sergei Eisenstein, who created montage as a form of editing. 

Reading about his ideas and the work he did was very interesting, especially his experiments into something now known as "The Kuleshov Effect", which illustrates how editing in film can be used to change the viewers interpretations of events, even when the core element of the footage remains the same. He would film somebody's reaction to something off screen, and by simply switching the thing they have seen, our opinion of the person reacting changes. This is a fascinating theory, as it demonstrates how editing can be used as a manipulative tool over the audience, an idea that has always intrigued me.

Above is an interview with Alfred Hitchcock, as he demonstrates The Kuleshov Effect and how it can be effective.