So this week I showed the edit again. This was essentially the same edit I have already shown but for a few small details.
First I fixed the sound errors that plagued my showing to Jerry and Maria. I had to go back into Final Cut Pro and do it the hard way. Not easy, but at least it actually worked. I have now layered more sounds into the forest sequence at the end of Segment 2.
Second, I extended some sequences where I trimmed too closely.
John and Amelie had seen the first edit way back in January 2009, and it was their reaction that led me to the large revisions and extra scenes that I created this past year. So, on the one hand they were not seeing for the first time but at the same time they were sufficiently critical that they would not easily overlook problems. And of course it had been a year.
So first, they agreed that so many of the problems that were apparent in the first edit were solved. Claire now seems human, we see her on the rails, before she goes off the rails, and we understand the simple plot points, which were confusing before. So that this is a success. They had some minor issues with the pace. In the forest sequence there still too many shots and not enough development, and the same could be said for what I call the fourth segment, once Claire leaves her sister and goes back into the forest. Now these comments don't correspond to what Jerry and Maria or what David said, so I am now on that phase in a project, where the problems and solutions are not so obvious and clear. Could a few trims of a shot, or the removal of one or two shots solve the problem? Or would all the problems be solved by sound design? And then there is the question of the next phase of the project, in which I look for a co-producer to join me in finishing the post-production. Does this include finding an editor who would solve these problems? And how do I go about finding a co-producer? I am already looking towards this next part, but I still have to remember that I have a few production bits to sort out, a few inserts (JC will hate the thought), and some off-screen dialogue I need to write and record.
Still, I have to say that I feel I have come to the end of one part of this project. I sleep much better, my mind is clearer, I am thinking about the next project, and I imagine a weekend where I don't have anything to do with the Tidal Barrier project.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Reaction
So I finished the edit last week and my first viewer was David. I wanted him to see it first, I suppose, for a little security. He has really been involved in the whole project but at the same time has always been able to stand back and see the larger picture. Quite the feat. So I wanted to test the new edit with him first, so that I could make some changes.
This was my first view of the edit now complete, with some shape.
I was still struggling with the club/bar scene. I just could not make this work, no matter how many tricks I tried. David thought I was trying too hard, that what I had achieved was competence primarily because I was trying to make it into something at odds with my own sensibility. I had to admit that whereas it has always been a struggle to find my voice during this project I was at least always singing alone. Now I had all the worlds music videos crowding into my thoughts - how do you escape? So, taking his advice, I simplified, reminded myself what I was trying to achieve with this scene, a mood, and re-cut on the weekend.
I have been thinking of the shape of the film. It has been broken into three segments purely for practical reasons. Now I realised that there other more natural structures arising. The first part of the film ends just when Claire decides to leave Paul. She has been offered Natalie's flat, her sister has just left, she climbs the stairs and comes to the doorway of the bedroom and observes the sleeping Paul.
From this stage a on of the structural piers of the film begins: we move into a realm of singular sound, that is there is no dialogue, Claire has no conversations with anyone, she does, acts, and in each of these acts there is a singular sound, one sound that stands or the scene. She washes the sheets, the sound of the washing machine, she rearranges the closet, the sound of the hangers moving about, she walks into Natalie's living room, the sound of the train across the street. This section ends when she goes out into Natalie's neighbourhood, enters the park, and looks into this void again. That is she has found that void has follower her here too. This structure happened by accident or not. I can't really remember, I only know now that I have to go back to Roland and begin finding quality sounds for this section, as currently these scenes use crude bits and pieces I found in the edit or off free sound fx websites. The quality of the sounds will be everything in this.
This section ends with the void, a blackout, the non-music underneath, and then a sequence of scenes, mostly with dialogue, where Claire has taken on this life. This is less contemplative, less reflective, Claire just does, and this continues until Sophie comes calling Claire, reminds her that she is living a lie.
The next pier now begins where she enters the forest and faces that void. Here now this is not about singular sounds. Is this section I started to play with layers of actual music. This is just temp track stuff, things I could never use, but I wanted to see how they would play out.
David thought that while a crescendo might be true here, it would not be made with melody and I think I knew that before we even sat down and watched it. But you want to certain of the wrong direction, and watching I was certain. Instead I re-edited, working on layering of sounds instead, that is non-music, non-melodic sounds, sound effects, and other incidental and natural sounds, the crescendo achieved instead by the layering of all these sounds.
Finally the question of the overall pace, now that it was running at just 93 minutes? He thought that now it was well within the limits of tolerance, so no longer of the long-take variety. Was this right direction? I don't know yet, as I didn't realise I was going here.
So last night it was the turn of my flatmate, Jerry, and his girlfriend Maria. Now, the showing was ruined somewhat my problems with the sound mix. I was trying with FinalCutPro to mix the sound so decided to try SoundtrackPro. A nightmare. The sound in the second segment was a mess, and with my film it made hard to gauge their reaction.
Still, I would say that I don't think the liked it, but they understood it. I think I succeeded in fixing the club/bar scene and overall the pace was not too long, actually sometimes it was too fast. I think I need to go back to certain scenes and extend them.
Two issues. They seem to find their answers to the questions I posed, for the most part. I had succeeded in making the questions clear, but for one part, in the girl's night-in, where Sarah brings out the book of family photographs. Due to the way it is handled, it seemed to have more significance than it warranted and caused some confusion, as they expected to find out more about this.
And lastly, Maria found the first part of the Norway sequence to be repetitive, but when I asked if it was too slow they said no. So how to solve that problem?
I start the new edit later this week. I am trying to arrange new viewings between Christmas and New Years. More on that.
This was my first view of the edit now complete, with some shape.
I was still struggling with the club/bar scene. I just could not make this work, no matter how many tricks I tried. David thought I was trying too hard, that what I had achieved was competence primarily because I was trying to make it into something at odds with my own sensibility. I had to admit that whereas it has always been a struggle to find my voice during this project I was at least always singing alone. Now I had all the worlds music videos crowding into my thoughts - how do you escape? So, taking his advice, I simplified, reminded myself what I was trying to achieve with this scene, a mood, and re-cut on the weekend.
I have been thinking of the shape of the film. It has been broken into three segments purely for practical reasons. Now I realised that there other more natural structures arising. The first part of the film ends just when Claire decides to leave Paul. She has been offered Natalie's flat, her sister has just left, she climbs the stairs and comes to the doorway of the bedroom and observes the sleeping Paul.
From this stage a on of the structural piers of the film begins: we move into a realm of singular sound, that is there is no dialogue, Claire has no conversations with anyone, she does, acts, and in each of these acts there is a singular sound, one sound that stands or the scene. She washes the sheets, the sound of the washing machine, she rearranges the closet, the sound of the hangers moving about, she walks into Natalie's living room, the sound of the train across the street. This section ends when she goes out into Natalie's neighbourhood, enters the park, and looks into this void again. That is she has found that void has follower her here too. This structure happened by accident or not. I can't really remember, I only know now that I have to go back to Roland and begin finding quality sounds for this section, as currently these scenes use crude bits and pieces I found in the edit or off free sound fx websites. The quality of the sounds will be everything in this.
This section ends with the void, a blackout, the non-music underneath, and then a sequence of scenes, mostly with dialogue, where Claire has taken on this life. This is less contemplative, less reflective, Claire just does, and this continues until Sophie comes calling Claire, reminds her that she is living a lie.
The next pier now begins where she enters the forest and faces that void. Here now this is not about singular sounds. Is this section I started to play with layers of actual music. This is just temp track stuff, things I could never use, but I wanted to see how they would play out.
David thought that while a crescendo might be true here, it would not be made with melody and I think I knew that before we even sat down and watched it. But you want to certain of the wrong direction, and watching I was certain. Instead I re-edited, working on layering of sounds instead, that is non-music, non-melodic sounds, sound effects, and other incidental and natural sounds, the crescendo achieved instead by the layering of all these sounds.
Finally the question of the overall pace, now that it was running at just 93 minutes? He thought that now it was well within the limits of tolerance, so no longer of the long-take variety. Was this right direction? I don't know yet, as I didn't realise I was going here.
So last night it was the turn of my flatmate, Jerry, and his girlfriend Maria. Now, the showing was ruined somewhat my problems with the sound mix. I was trying with FinalCutPro to mix the sound so decided to try SoundtrackPro. A nightmare. The sound in the second segment was a mess, and with my film it made hard to gauge their reaction.
Still, I would say that I don't think the liked it, but they understood it. I think I succeeded in fixing the club/bar scene and overall the pace was not too long, actually sometimes it was too fast. I think I need to go back to certain scenes and extend them.
Two issues. They seem to find their answers to the questions I posed, for the most part. I had succeeded in making the questions clear, but for one part, in the girl's night-in, where Sarah brings out the book of family photographs. Due to the way it is handled, it seemed to have more significance than it warranted and caused some confusion, as they expected to find out more about this.
And lastly, Maria found the first part of the Norway sequence to be repetitive, but when I asked if it was too slow they said no. So how to solve that problem?
I start the new edit later this week. I am trying to arrange new viewings between Christmas and New Years. More on that.
Monday, December 07, 2009
New edit one week away
So I have enough time with the edit these past two weekends to see where I am.
First, the new scenes? Well, I made some mistakes. The club/bar scene is missing a few shots, but of course we were short of time - 2 hours less than I had planned - so that is to be expected. As I have discovered with an edit, it is not that it needs to be longer, rather that you need to have choices, and I don't think I will have many. That would be the down side. Still, I can probably manage something with a few well planned interstitials, and also I have to keep reminding myself that I am still missing the music. I think in the scheme of the whole film I think you have to accept that you will find disappointment and I will probably be the only one who notices.
With the other scenes I am closer to what I had planned. Yes, I also made mistakes in the girl's night in scene, where I forgot a few transitions, but I can manage to get these fairly easily with a few pickups and music. Music in the scene is an essential part of the texture, just as it is in the club/bar scene.
On Sunday I already shot a few of the transitions and sound effects I need to complete the edit.
Onto the edit itself. Other than cutting in the new scenes I have been first trying to give the film more shape, first by deciding where it will be fast and where it will be slow. Fast and slow are relative terms of course. This film never clips along.
So I have been rather mechanical about this to start, but that would be the nature of the edit up until now, which was in some ways just an assembly, with the view to seeing the overall picture. Now I have gone to trim, deciding where I will make it tighter, cutting as close as I dare. I know I will need to work my way up to this, but it is start. This has been more successful than I imagined, as I have trimmed 6 minutes from the length just by this crude method alone.
I was especially happy how I trimmed the second segment. I had decided months ago that the part between moving into Natalie's, and the realisation Claire has in the forest needed to be be shorter and tighter. The incidents were simple, did not require a lot of contemplation, but also they needed to be shorter so that the bookends, moving into Natalie's, and the scene in the forest, when she overcomes her fear and enters the forest, could be longer. Now a shape is becoming clearer, and new ideas, especially around sound and music are arising.
I have included a kind of non-music, provided to me by Roland, since last spring. This was perhaps not a temp track as such, but it was just an idea. Now I can see that in the sequence where Claire enters the forest, before her trip to Norway, can hold more of this non-music, as a way of giving an emotional layer to Claire's internal shift. Next I can begin to think how I could start to think about the nature of this music or non-music.
I am missing a few ideas about sounds in the first and second segments, in the same way that I discovered in the third segment. More on this for the next post.
Next weekend I will finish shooting the new video pickups and then it will be time to show again. Now the true editing begins.
First, the new scenes? Well, I made some mistakes. The club/bar scene is missing a few shots, but of course we were short of time - 2 hours less than I had planned - so that is to be expected. As I have discovered with an edit, it is not that it needs to be longer, rather that you need to have choices, and I don't think I will have many. That would be the down side. Still, I can probably manage something with a few well planned interstitials, and also I have to keep reminding myself that I am still missing the music. I think in the scheme of the whole film I think you have to accept that you will find disappointment and I will probably be the only one who notices.
With the other scenes I am closer to what I had planned. Yes, I also made mistakes in the girl's night in scene, where I forgot a few transitions, but I can manage to get these fairly easily with a few pickups and music. Music in the scene is an essential part of the texture, just as it is in the club/bar scene.
On Sunday I already shot a few of the transitions and sound effects I need to complete the edit.
Onto the edit itself. Other than cutting in the new scenes I have been first trying to give the film more shape, first by deciding where it will be fast and where it will be slow. Fast and slow are relative terms of course. This film never clips along.
So I have been rather mechanical about this to start, but that would be the nature of the edit up until now, which was in some ways just an assembly, with the view to seeing the overall picture. Now I have gone to trim, deciding where I will make it tighter, cutting as close as I dare. I know I will need to work my way up to this, but it is start. This has been more successful than I imagined, as I have trimmed 6 minutes from the length just by this crude method alone.
I was especially happy how I trimmed the second segment. I had decided months ago that the part between moving into Natalie's, and the realisation Claire has in the forest needed to be be shorter and tighter. The incidents were simple, did not require a lot of contemplation, but also they needed to be shorter so that the bookends, moving into Natalie's, and the scene in the forest, when she overcomes her fear and enters the forest, could be longer. Now a shape is becoming clearer, and new ideas, especially around sound and music are arising.
I have included a kind of non-music, provided to me by Roland, since last spring. This was perhaps not a temp track as such, but it was just an idea. Now I can see that in the sequence where Claire enters the forest, before her trip to Norway, can hold more of this non-music, as a way of giving an emotional layer to Claire's internal shift. Next I can begin to think how I could start to think about the nature of this music or non-music.
I am missing a few ideas about sounds in the first and second segments, in the same way that I discovered in the third segment. More on this for the next post.
Next weekend I will finish shooting the new video pickups and then it will be time to show again. Now the true editing begins.
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