Friday, 25 February 2011

Account of Editing


“Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible  and film medium used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media, performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete output.”
To start our editing process we loaded our footage onto final cut pro which allows us to store this and edit it.  The first thing I did was to break down the footage into useable shots and place them into bins.  I labeled these categories i.e. Sky shots, Derelict shots, and direct and indirect.  However, the footage was already in order and broken into sections from the camera tape.  This was a lot easier than AS and allowed us too shoot for footage and more effectively.

After the ground work was in place we then laid the track down so that when placing shots on the timeline we could be sure to sync them with the music so that the lip syncing was in time.  However, I did have some difficulty when editing to make it as excited as possible as due our act being very organic we kept the script simple, but didn’t want to make the video boring.  This lead to us incorporating jump cuts, blurs and saturation of colour, we did this by using Final cut pro with adobe after effects.  However, I ran into issues with this as it was finding the boundaries where we added enough special effects to add to the cinematic effect without making it look over the top.  Furthermore, it was also a very long process as each individual from had to be edited to achieve the desired effect you cannot just apple the effects to the role video.
The saturation of colour shows what he sees in the world as as opposed to what it is really like as although it is sunny, in his eyes it is tainted with darkness from the loss of his love.



Furthermore, when moving onto the more elaborate editing style we researched into the editing technique of montage.  For inspiration we used one of Russia’s most prominent filmmakers, Sergie Eisenstein, he was essentially the father of montage and our mode of address as inspiration.  He was a huge help in shaping the theme of our video and helped us establish the apocalyptic feel.  This was furthermore exaggerating by the use of intercutting footage of the rubble and decay of urban London with shots of our artist.
In addition, by reversing footage i.e. the clouds this represents how our artist wishing that time could go back and he could change things emphasizes his heartbreak about the death of his love.  This could also emphasize how the world is decaying and blackening and how we wish we could reverse and change the worlds perishing.

Moreover, we subverted the commonly used convention of continuity editing by incorporating the montage technique which is less classical., and tries to shows the symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than simple psychical action for its continuity.  This style of editing worked in our favor as this broken up and jiggered style of editing representing our artists and how he is broken, torn and unstable, not the classical type of country and western he is subverting the genre like we are doing in our editing technique.  It also shows how his life is not smooth cut as it is normally portrayed in the media.  It is more realistic that things aren’t always perfect and he is a perfect representation of how one thing can interrupt your life in such a grand way.

In conclusion I feel through the use of montage, jump cuts and saturation of colour we have achieved an apocalyptic feel and a look into how our artist sees the world, which is very intimate. 

Sunday, 20 February 2011

Account of Shoot Day

Our shoot day was slightly different to the normal shoot day, as we shot all of our footage on location.  This was because of the fact that our location was 1:30 hours away from the Studio were most group film the second half of their footage.  This meant that we had to be very conscious of time and be definite in all of the shot, angles etc. and make sure that there was no technical or continuity errors in the film as we could not come back to Battersea power station and re-shoot.  We came across many problems with the scheduling of our shoot day from the weather to the security matters, this lead to rescheduling 2 or 3 times before we could actually film.  Although this created a sense organization on our behalf as we had prepared 2 or 3 times, so when the final day arrived we were sure we had thought of everything.
The day continued in this fashion:

Shooting schedule:

8:30 – Meet the crew in the studio to pack the van and talk about the day ahead

9:00 – Leave in the Mini bus with equipment and crew to Battersea

11:30- Arrive and have a security debriefing/ health and safety talk


12:00 – Begin shooting, set up tracking and play back- shoot on front of the wind turbine A +B

12:30 – Shoot more exterior of Battersea capturing the sun in the background

1:30 – Brief lunch

2:00 – Shoot interior, of “wind turbine A”


3:00 – Shoot the closing shots of realization of dead girl.

3:30- Shoot Walking through exterior tunnels and of industrial London

4:00 - Pack up tracking and play back and go back to Hurtwood.

This tight schedule helped us to stay focus and not go of the reason for why were at such a cultivating location. 
Once we arrived and had set up we looked over the storyboards, another member of our team 1 as we were switching between the role of director and in charge of playback to give a rounded feel to how everything worked and to keep on top of everything.  After we had setting up we did a couple of test shots, but unhappy with the amount of light on our artist face we decided to use a gold reflector to create more light and give him a golden feel, this job was taken on by another member of the crew Caterina, who was very good at this particular job.
Furthermore, his golden warmth was also represented in the sunny day that we were blessed, and further emphasized with warmth.

One of the strengths of this shoot day I think was our organization and hard work as although we did not have a vast amount of time to shoot we utilized every minute.  Another strength not just for the structure of the shoot day but also for our editing was that we shot in order.  This allowed us to have a clear picture of the story in our head and edit it to that same way when looking back on it in the edit suites, giving it an organic feel.

However, I feel a weakness could have been the cooperation from the rest of the group other than my self and James Burke and our teaching crew as some of the other members of the group did not pick up there end of the slack, leading to James and I to do it for them.  Although, this did not affect our end product or the running’s of the day as James and I were happy and capable to do so.


In addition, to having a security debriefing we also had to have two security guards with us at all time, keeping us save and also making sure we stayed in the designated areas.  However, this was no trouble as all of the crew were respectable of the location and behaved in a professional manner.

All in all, I feel our shoot day went very well and we achieved a lot in a small amount of time, we also all seemed to enjoy it very much shooting in such an established Location.