Rough Cut is done!

Last night, hit that moment of "This is a stupid story, why would anyone want to watch it, what was I thinking?" Had to just push through it and persevere! Didn't help that I'd forgotten a sequence that I still needed to edit!

But this morning felt calmer and put together all the separate sequences I've been editing. I discovered that my "little 7-8 minute film" currently sits at almost 11 minutes. Oops. I'll have to step back for a few days and see if that's justified! But at least the rough cut is done to use as a sample of my work for this application. Since the fund is for new artists, presumably they won't be expecting perfection (though I am!!)

Understand now the "aaaa--aaand cut". There are these little moments that happen just before and after the official take that can be lovely.

Getting closer

Notes from yesterday's editing:

When I wrote the script, I had this idea of close ups on Objects (the machine, the mug, the shards, the sponge on the wall), but now that I'm editing, it's clear that the story is right where it should be: on the characters. They are front and center, as they should be.

I also would have thought close ups would be the way to go, but you have to think of the psychology of the moment - whose head are we in? Is she feeling close to or distant from the other character?

It's humbling that a "draft" of a scene that's one minute and 40 seconds has taken several hours of work over 2 days. And I'm still not completely convinced I used the right shots. I've got some alternate clips saved to the side, and I'm going to look at it again today. Reminds me of another writing tip: you can't waver forever on choices. You have to make a choice and proceed from there. Each choice affects the one to follow. Although I built some of the scene from the back when I was having trouble with the middle!

The good news is that after that I took on the only scene left and it went a lot quicker. Turns out editing a scene with 2 people is effort squared! I'm experimenting with some opacity effects for the scene - again, will have to see if other people think it's Too Much. But it's fun to throw some experimental stuff into an otherwise straight-forward narrative film.

After I re-examine yesterday's material, I'm going to pull the 7 sequences I've created into one big timeline to see what it looks like all together!! Hopefully something like a movie!

Chugging away - and a sound clip

As expected, this is the most difficult scene to edit. Lots of options and choices. That's a good thing to have, but sorting through them all and syncing the sound and making alternate versions of the scene is definitely time-intensive, and I'm still not done.

But it's still a wonderful experience. INCREDIBLE small moments - touches, hand gestures, small facial moments. This is what film is for - what we can't see on the stage - hell, we are ON the stage with the actors.

Fun to "eavesdrop" before and after a take - hear myself talking with the DoP or actors. Here's a snippet. The sound at the beginning is a funny owl-like noise by my DoP. Sorry, you won't get to hear me say "action" on this one - I just say "go." Will add another clip another time...

One down, one to go

Definitely learned this morning, after going back to the scene I was working on yesterday, that it's much easier to see what needs to be done and jump in and do it, after a good long break. So I was right not to force myself to keep working on it after I got tired!

This was the most complex scene so far. Not just choosing between takes but lots of angles to choose from. Unnerving to just jettison a shot that required an entire separate and time-consuming setup, but it just doesn't work with what I've put together. I console myself by thinking I'll use it for some other project someday.

On the other hand, I find now that I've put the story together visually that I'm missing a shot I'd now dearly like to have - a close up that just doesn't exist. I did create storyboards and shot lists, and it was never there. It's only now that I have the footage and the story is more "real" that I see so clearly what I'd like to have Just There. Sigh. I tried to create a CU by enlarging a piece of footage I do have, but it looks awful.

This was actually the last scene in the film, and it was very fun to work on the ending. I created some interesting effects with cross-dissolving and opacity. Will require someone else to tell me if it's over the top because I'm too pleased with myself for creating the effect!

I'm saving the most complicated scene for last. It's the one where the two characters interact and (gasp) talk to each other. That's the one where sound is actually going to make or break a take.

On the technical side, I've been very impressed with the way Final Cut uses memory. I've got all the footage on my external hard-drive, and working on it by cutting and copying and manipulating clips hasn't decreased my disk space at all. This is good news as I was expecting to eat up memory like crazy while editing. So that leaves me calmer about making as many variations as I want.

Two more scenes

Fascinating but physically exhausting work. In between making decisions about which take to use, or how to split together the first half of one take and the last half of a second there's just trying to learn the mechanics - which buttons do what?

I've found that I definitely need long breaks. I've been at it for 12 hours, but took three shifts with an hour or more between each - there's no way I could edit that many hours straight at this point.


But it's incredible to mold it into shape. Very different than editing words - feels more like the sculpting metaphor - broad strokes, then more and more definition and detail. Moving something, then moving it back - that part is like editing words!

With words, you're rarely just using what you've got. You keep thinking to yourself that maybe you can find a new way to say something. So editing film is somewhat freeing in that respect. What I have in my clip folders is what there is to work with. I can mix and match and manipulate, but this is not a big-budget film where I can go back and re-shoot. I see now why dailies on features are so important. There are definitely a few moments where now that I have the footage, I'd love another chance to get a slightly different angle. I will definitely have much more of an editor's mind next time I shoot.

I always thought of continuity as avoiding the broad errors - picking up a cup with different hands in different shots or wearing the wrong shirt. But I understand axis better now that I'm trying to fit together a medium and a close up - a shift too far in angle can be distracting. I get now why editors in interviews say ideally their work is invisible. You shouldn't see the jumps, the seams holding the clips together.

Definitely going to need some sound editing assistance - the buzzing of the camera is startlingly noticeable.

My editing music today was Glenn Gould's 82 recording of the Goldberg Variations - a brilliant sequence of moods and tempos - pure inspiration. His humming a reminder not to get too anticeptic and caught up in cutting to "perfection" whatever that is.

One Scene, two speeches and three-day weekend

(1) So I've edited Scene One! One minute thirty seconds - a slow quiet opening so far in this rough cut. Tougher than I thought, but a good section to start with, as it's probably the most straight-forward of all the scenes.

(2) I gave two speeches Tuesday. One was an information session on copyright for grad students at the University. I went in wishing I knew more, as I'm still learning about the area, esp. in Canadian Law, which could be changing soon, not necessarily for the better. The good news is I had a guy from the legal office there, and administrators there to justify campus policies so I didn't have to!

The other speech was the third round of a speech contest for Toastmasters. Yes, it's true. It succeeded in my goal of pushing my public speaking comfort level by being in a contest, and attempting to make people laugh, rather than just giving a straight-up speech. The topic was "How to Watch Sports" and one thing I learned giving the speech is that not everyone is as big sports fans as my household! Stunner! I came in third (of 8, not 4!), but more importantly, enjoyed myself on stage. I even made some of the old ladies laugh. And it's helped with my grieving process re: the Yankees' early exit.

(3) I'm taking tomorrow off and dedicating the next three days to editing, as I need a rough cut by November 1 to submit as support material with my application for Video Pool's New Artist/New Media fund. Have a fun idea for that to propose. Would be another great opportunity to get training while creating an actual decent-quality work.

Will also be taking in some of the Send & Receive Festival. If you're in Winnipeg, check it out - some cutting-edge sound/video stuff...

the first cut is the deepest

Day one of editing! So far just organizing and circling the footage and sound clips, but now am in a position to really dig in this weekend. I've got my scenes broken up in order - the story is all there! Now the fun begins - choosing among the takes, and figuring out which angles to use for which moments, etc. I need to sync the sound to the footage before I start chopping further, but I think I will make a first pass at selecting clips without the distraction of sound - just look at the actors faces.

Met with my composer last night, and am very excited about that! She played me a clip of what she has so far, and I was incredibly moved. As in pre-production with the artistic director, actors and DP, the idea that someone would create something new out of my story is just awe-inspiring.

Lo-ong weekend

Was AD on Jeff Bruyere's film, Tread Lightly, this weekend. Five locations and a car scene in 2 days. 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, and 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Great crew and cast - the community here is great for that. Everyone kept their sense of humour, even during the long days, and even though we don't get paid!

Some amazing scenes! Strongest memory is a giant hand smashing through a window and glass flying around the actor and then directly at me. Felt like slow-motion. Amazing. The sound was incredible. And very fun to watch cars at the bottom of Westview Park braking to see what we were up to with a Saskwatch howling on top of the hill. Or before that, when the fog machine made it look like Garbage Hill was on fire.

Good experience as an AD. Lots to think about and plenty to try to help plan ahead of time and figure out on the day, just to keep things going smoothly and moving along.

Notes for future reference:

- When using a generator, have an extra can of gas at the ready
- When shooting outdoors in Manitoba in October, have a campfire scene so you can go warm up, and provide hotdogs and marshmallows for all!
- When shooting a cabin scene, try to make it someplace you can get for free instead of having to pay by the hour. Ouch!

Now to start editing my own film! Finally!

Beyond Boundaries

Just returned from a very stimulating conference in Grand Forks, ND. The title was Beyond Boundaries, and the topic was technology in (higher) education.

Some great speakers. One of the most interesting was George Siemens, and the great news is my office has already lined him up to come speak at the U of M later this month. His work on connectivism reminds me of my neural net map research back in my linguistic grad student days. Everything old is new again.

Speaking of being a grad student, being at a conference where academics were discussing things with actual Real World Applications made me consider for the first time in a long time returning to school. I would definitely be interested in continuing to discuss some of the issues raised at this higher level, to learn more and put my own ideas out there. I get to do some of that through my current day job, but it was great to hear people talking about things that have been on the edge of my attention, and to formulate and articulate my own thoughts on these topics: the impact of technology on students and citizens in general, the implications of social communities on the web, whether classrooms are even needed anymore, what life-long learning means, etc.

So will have to think about that, but in the meantime, will learn more on the web, natch.