Edit update

I never meant to take this long to post, and in this case I have just been too busy to write something. But quickly, I am in the middle of a new edit. I have made some changes in the second segment. I felt that there was something not right in the middle of the film, around the arrangement of the scenes. Last week I though I had found the answer, but I was sidelined by a deadline for a new project I am working on. In the meantime my sound designer is waiting (more on that later). I plan to get back to the edit on the weekend. More details to follow.

Trailers

So I am also waiting for a revised version of the music from Joakim, plus a few missing pieces. And today I began searching for a sound designer.
Thinking back to the edit I began thinking that perhaps I could think about trailers. Now I don't underestimate the task. I think this is very special skill, in many ways very different from editing the feature itself. But still I thought I could see some ideas coming out of the edit, and the music has helped to solidify them. So here goes.

Well what...?

Well a long time between posts. It can be explained by a combination of frustration and despondency and a lack of anything substantial to say.
When I last posted I was preparing to go into a studio to begin sound design. That never happened, and today I am preparing to search for a new sound designer. No great surprise that when you begin post-production you are inevitably at the mercy of other people's schedules and decisions.
More than six months later the only progress that has been made is some revisions to the edit, and finally, after a long wait, the music has been added. But I cannot say that I am unhappy. When I showed the revised edit to Lukas (he assisted JC on many occasions) this past Thursday I was filled with a new confidence. The music and the changes have made a substantial difference to the film. I have a new clarity towards the whole film, and the direction I need to take.
All along people have suggested that what I really needed was an editor, and I agree. I know for a fact that the film would've been better, and better faster (though I will say editing it myself has meant that I learned an invaluable amount about writing, directing, and creating a film). The problem, where to find this editor? I needed someone who was experienced, and experienced of unconventional narratives. In both cases such a person would be hard to find, and when found would invariably be busy or expensive or both.
So now looking at the edit? The music has made the future direction of the sound design very clear, which was one of the reasons I waited for Joakim to get me the music before I began the search. I feel so much clearer about it so many ways that, the technical issues aside, I feel I could do it myself. I am actually quite keen to go out in the world and begin to collect sounds and then start layering them into the edit.
And showing it to Lukas, (who make a lot of good comments, but one stood out above all, which is that there was a clear contradiction between a loose abstract structure and certain well-constructed scenes, and why...? This meant in the revisions I began to look for ways I could loosen up these well-constructed scenes, to deconstruct them) another way out of the editor dilemma...which is to find an editor, or even two or three to provide some paper edits, after viewing over a day, which I could use to finalise the edit. Hence the time commitment and costs would be less of a problem. And considering where we are at with the film, that is closer to completion than at the beginning, how much interest would an editor have in the film anyway?
So some revisions to the edit, some revisions to the music, which Joakim has promised to deliver by the end of the week, and then the two-pronged search begins.

Post-production update

Well I have not posted in a long time. There is a little news but it is exciting.
Basically I am at the stage where I can collaborate with others on the sound, but that also means waiting for them to clear their schedules.
First, Joakim is busy in Oslo working on the sketches for the music. He expects to send me something by mid-November. Of course this is just the first stage. I will have any number of changes to make.
Several weeks ago I brought the latest edit up to Roland and the rest of the guys at Sound Disposition. From that showing we agreed the next step would be to spend a week playing and exploring. We will be using the sound library but also playing with instruments and other recorded sounds. By that stage I will also have Joakim's music sketches as well. Fundamentally we want the sound to affect the edit, to push back. I imagine myself recutting the picture to follow the sound design.
The playing session is scheduled for the last week of November.
Altogether I am quite excited about this next stage, if rather impatient.

Evolution just doesn't give up...

So I have just yesterday finished a new evolutionary edit.
I really feel that it the film is ready for the next two steps, so on Thursday I am bringing it to Roland and his sound design colleagues to get their feedback. The other step, is to brief the composer, Joakim, in Norway and get him to begin his sketches.
But I promised more on what the edit it contains.
I already reported that it now includes two sets of abstracts, the void, and Norway. I have done as I said, and began to differentiate them. The Norway footage no longer include slow-motion or any other non-natural effect. What makes them abstract is a combination of their position in the film, that is they break the film time, the juxtaposition of the individual shots, which by their nature are disconnected and incomplete, and then music and/or sound design. I haven't completely abandoned effects, however. Some of the pieces or incidental sound, such as the small boat idling, I have kept at 40% speed. I feel that music and sound effects provide an entry into the unconscious. The viewer might not be aware consciously of the effect, just know it doesn't sound right.
But more on what Robert and Nathan, the editor, gave as feedback...
I think I already reported that Robert said it was the first time he saw the film. I think I put this to the fact that I waded in, and began to attempt to bring a rhythm to the edit. Some of this came from my friend Sarah, who suggested I examine each element closely again - does it serve the film? Is it clear? Of course I had, and each element did serve the film and did point in the right direction, except that there were often three elements achieving the same thing. The viewer was confused because they excepted something new, not the same again. Some choices, and then some cutting.
Now Nathan being editor gave me some basic technical feedback...the way to cut from one shot to another, focusing on the reaction of Claire, instead of Paul's speech. Some of this I could respond to, some of this was impossible. I had made a lot of choices in the shooting which narrowed my choices in the edit. I could not regret it, as there was no other way to make the film. With experience I might have shot scene x differently, but I couldn't have known that before jumping in as I did.
Still the most fundamental suggestion was in cutting one sequence, the domestic fight between Claire and Paul that begins near the top of the film. Now to be fair, Robert and many others have expressed some confusion at this scene. Why does Claire stop Paul from leaving, when later she walks out on him, without even saying goodbye? My response was of course that she was conflicted. She doesn't know why she wants him to say. Relationships are messy. Nathan's and Robert's response was that not enough is revealed to account for this contradiction. So I removed the sequence. I struggled to solve some problems. This scene anchored the abstract sequence that started the film- what could I attach it to now? This was the most fundamental problem I needed to solve in this version.
So this was the edit that I saw with Cameron several weeks ago, and it was very strange the effect it had. Suddenly all the rest came clear. There were no pace problems, except perhaps some sequences were too fast. These were the bits I tightened up previously, fruitlessly trying to solve the more fundamental problem. I had to go in and restore some bits to sort out the rhythm.
So all of this I have included in this new edit which I will see for the first time at Roland's new studios on Thursday. More to report then.

The edit progresses...

For the first time in a long time I have a lot to report.
But also realise why I have struggled to keep the blog up to date: editing is more akin to writing than directing. It is solitary, introspective and causes me to be more introverted.
So, to update from the last post, I finished what I refer to as the radical edit the week before last. However, it essentially remains unseen, except for the very first section, which I showed to David. He did not have a lot to say, but what he did say came down to this: this seems to open up a whole chapter, this is another film entirely, this is not what you wrote, or directed, this could work, but do you want it to?
So for now I think I will take a look at it myself another night but for now...
The other edit, the evolutionary edit was finished just before the radical edit and now has been seen by David, Cameron, Robert and Nathan the editor (more on that).
I was heartened by the reaction. Clearly we are making progress. Most importantly, the new idea, to develop the abstract sections were well received and have gone a long way to solving the issue that I have been struggling to solve for the past months: what is Claire thinking at the beginning? If the viewer cannot form their own idea they will become bored 1/2 to 2/3 the way through the film due to confusion. I have seen it enough times in viewings.
I created two types of abstracts: one focused on Norway, the other on the forest and the void. I have not been able to understand or articulate why this is the case, but I suppose I could start by stating Claire is preoccupied by both these questions.
I began, as I have already described, by slowing time and playing with film texture. Just yesterday I began to think that this might be appropriate for the forest/void sections, but not for the Norway sections. I am not sure why, but it would solve one problem, which is that some people confused these two parts, wondered why there was a Norwegian tree in the middle of an English forest. So this would go some way in ensuring no one confused them.
I am now in the middle of a new edit, which is a response to the feedback I received last week. Some of this came from Cameron, who came along as a runner on a number of our shoots, but very especially Robert and Nathan. Nathan is an editor, and he and Robert managed to give me a paper edit, which has been more than useful.
More on this feedback in the next post.
In the meantime I hope to have the new edit finished by the weekend.

Radical?

So my plans for my new edit have so far not come off. Basically just a matter of people being too busy to take a look. It will happen...I just heard from David who had a look yesterday, but in the meantime I have some more time to think and wonder, have I gone far enough?
This is not an entirely new thought. I have been thinking of this for a time, and this came as a suggestion from my friend Sarah on a number of occasions.
First I wondered if the straight, linear structure was ideal. Second, I imagined an editor swooping in, and then announcing a radical plan: move that here, that there, ignore the linear structure.
So I sat in the garden this evening thinking through this as a principle. Of course you can't just decide to be radical.
No, I had to wonder instead if what I wanted to do was attenuate Claire's journey, and to do so was to rearrange, and as a consequence break time. In essence this is creating a film that followed the dictates of an internal journey, expressed externally as sense, emotion, sound, rhythm, feeling, regardless of linear time.
So now my next step. At least I have to give it a try.

Crisis overcome?

It is one of those situations, where you wonder if the solution is a solution, or just desperation, a confirmation of the true extent of the problem.
What I mean is that these past two weeks I have been very busy editing new material, and making some mid-weight changes to the edit, particularly the first segment of the film. I had planned to show the new edit last weekend, but I had to postpone, as I had not finished all of them yet.
It comes down to fundamental problem with the film, which I have been struggling to solve: the story is still too abstract, the audience becomes bored about half-way through. I had struggled to increase the pace, but I think it really comes down to confusion, they don't know what is going on. My friend Sarah, after seeing an edit in April, said she did not know what Claire was thinking, specifically in the first segment. Almost everyone agreed that the first segment of the film was the weakest, that when Claire leaves Paul the story picks up. Essentially Claire is a passive character in the first segment, which is problematic.
So how to show what Claire was thinking? I dare not write and shoot more material. I believe that at a point you need to make your film with what you have.
So I looked within the film and realised that there was elements present, some developed, some undeveloped, which are abstractions of the story which is in a way all about what Claire is thinking. First there is the title sequence, which uses Claire's trip into Norway as background. In the story the viewer will wondered what this referred to and this was answered when Claire goes to Norway, 2/3 through the film .
Then there are what I refer to as the Rothko sequences, several scenes which are centred around Claire asleep, but referrenced unconscious elements, particularly sounds. In viewings these went unnoticed, and I knew in the back of my mind that I had either to remove them or develop them.
So I have decided to develop these and see where it takes the story. First, I decided that I could think outside of referring to these as Claire's dreams, which freed me to think about how they could take place in the story on a purely emotional level rather as some part of pyschological-realism, a Freudian dream of Claire's. Not for me, this.
So a battle to define these points, first, which means that I may have to radically reshape parts of the edit, shape it to an emotional journey, rather than plot. Of course the story has never been about plot, so this is a good thing.
Then to find and develop the material that would make up these sequences. In this I was thrilled to look about and find all the mistakes I had made could come to value, specifically sequences which I reshot because they lacked detail and did not form a coherent whole. Now these negatives were positives. For example, I reshot the forest sequence, at the end of the second segment, where Claire finally meets her fears. Now the old footage could be a part of an an unconcious idea that Claire has earlier in the story, which she later completes in full. The incoherence and lack of detail in these old version now becomes a plus, an expression of a half-complete idea.
Finally there is the form that these take. I set out some rough rules, first that the static shots were shorter, that shots with motion were slowed down - yes, I am afraid that this could be a gimmick. Sound is especially important, and I played with slowing down and/or reversing sounds that occurred naturally within these sequences.
An unintended consequence was that this meant that some of the other abstract sequences no longer had to carry as much meaning and could be shorter.
Where I am now struggling is seeing the whole picture whent these new sequences are included. For this I need an audience once again.

A crisis or a natural turn?

So I showed the edit this past week, over two nights.
One to Joe, who acted as our very capable 1st AD, and works as an editor and a filmmaker as well.
The other, two friends, Oliver and Julia.
A lot of comments, good feedback. Oliver and Julia especially were able to find their own meaning in the film, which at the end, is the kind of reaction I wanted.
But overall what I found difficult is that no can agree on what is good, what is bad, where it works and where it doesn't, and so the way forward. I know the edit needs work, I know that are some problems I won't be able to solve, but I thought at least I would be able to see some way forward. But I don't.
The fundamental problem? It is still too confusing. I have always intended it to be an open text, but it is still too open. I need to be clearer but I am not at all certain how to go about this.
So one can conclude either that there is no hope, which is something no one want to contemplate, or that I require an editor with greater skills than mine, and better skills than the average. This needs to be someone special.
I should explain. I have made some changes, and for the most part these changes have been successful, but now I believe that we need to make a lot more progress, a leap.
Next steps? I have some notes from the edit, some obvious problems, a way of making incremental improvements and I will make these and show them in two weeks time. And then I will begin the search.

Music and placement

I have revised the edit, added the new material, so where is it?
Well two shots did not work, both of them street shots. One, after the 'girl's night in/out', suggests them driving off into the city, into excitement. The other just as Natalie leaves Claire's flat, after she asked her to look after her flat. Claire looks up into the wider world, up and out. But none of this comes across in the shots we did. When JC and I did them I was not convinced. There are compromises and compromises, but this a step too far. So they did not work, but now, in the scheme of the film I wonder if they matter.
But I should feel a sense of accomplishment. If I accept this 'loss' then I have completed the film. It has been over two years now. How could it take so long? Well, one reality hit, in this 'slow cook' method, that as long as you think 'there is still more to shoot' you never have to accept that you have to live with what you have in front of you. So, in the back of mind I didn't want to give in, to accept that this is it, for better or worse. So the last part, the smallest missing bits have taken as long as the larger part of the film.
So here we go.
The other part that I managed was to consider music. When I showed the last edit to my friend Sarah she suggested considering music in the sense of the big piece, not the 'played through' soundtrack, which suited my way of thinking and prejudices (I really hate the soundtrack as compensation for the lack of this or this).
I decided to place some temp track music into key places and think of what they must do after. This then is the beginning of my brief to the composer.

The opening, over the abstractions of the soft-focus void, the tree and the subsequent blackout.
To start I need to establish the film and the sound, the overarching themes, set the tone, suggest Claire's whole position and the scene to come. I need to a lot more thinking what this should be about.

Claire and Paul drive across London to have lunch.
A minor piece that stands for the ellipsis, the argument that turns their afternoon .

The Club scene, which is incidental, but still needs to express the hope and joy they are able to have together, tells us why they are together.

Claire follows Paul into the forest.
This must continue from the opening sequence, and suggest much to follow.

Claire explores her new neighbourhood, and comes across the forest again.
This is a minor piece, it must suggest both an end to this segment, but it is also a continuation, a reminder of what Claire is running from.

Claire's realisation that she cannot run from this idea, she enters the forest and faces the fear she has been running from.
This should also complete the sequence started at the beginning, developed in the forest with Paul, and reinforced above.

Claire returns to the cabin in Norway.
This follows closely on the forest sequence above, and needs to now look forward to the future, but also must speak to Claire's past in the cabin as well. We are entering another part of the film, so there needs to be change of tone and sense here.

Claire goes swimming.
A minor piece, here a suggestion of the peace that Claire could find.

After Claire leaves Natalie at the cabin, a montage of the landscape, of the places that Claire has been , but now without her.
I realised that this sequence is a death of sorts, and it must carry us into this final sequence, as Claire disappears.

So now more showings, and a lot more feedback. I just have to face it and go forward and see where we are.

Production update

Well a long gap there.
For the most part I have been busy with other things, such as finding new ways to pay for the next phase of the film.
Last Sunday JC and got through the last of the pickups...but we may be still missing one shot. Hard to believe how difficult it is to just finish it. Still, that should be production. I am going off to iLab in a few hours to pickup the transferred footage. I have been two busy to allow this to sink in. I am now in a situation of having to live with what I have. Up until now I have always been thinking I could shoot this or that.
But I am away for a week, now, partly in Cannes. I am trying to set up on meeting, but generally just seeing some films and getting a bit of sun.
When I return it is time for the final rough edit and more feedback.

On to music

First my apologies for not posting very regularly. It seems the closer I am to finishing the film the longer it takes to get anything done.
The pickups were shot on the 30th, but JC and I haven't been down to iLab to take a look yet. We are planning to go tomorrow. Essentially I finished the shoot and was off to Norway to visit some friends in a cabin high-up in the mountains. An necessary break and worth it.
But it wasn't all play. I spent a few days in Oslo and met up with Joakim who did music for a short film of mine several years ago. I intend to work with him again and I met up with him to brief him on the first steps.
So how did I come to this, deciding to include music in the film? I have said many times in this blog that I wanted to avoid include music to cover for the inadequacies of the film. I think now that I was being too hard. First all films will contain some parts where the director feels it fails and mine will be no exception. Second, music cannot be seen as another element, not as a cover for failure, but as another layer.
Of course I added musical elements long ago. Remember the non-music I wrote about that Roland provided me? The difference now is that those were sounds. There was no melody. The difference now is that I am thinking of melody and the way I saw myself to this point was hearing some music I thought could work.
I heard this music by composer Melissa Hui on a BBC documentary. It is called And Blue Sparks Burn.
You can hear a sample of the piece on Amazon. No. 8.
Of course I cannot use this particular music. I would need permission and some sort of rights deal, complicated and expensive - but hearing it in the edit (a temp track) helps me think how music could be used and in turn allows me to write a brief for Joakim.
What do I hear in this music? First the first violin thread. It is singular, like a voice, seeming to suggest our Claire. It it has an emotional quality, a song, but it is not sentimental or hackneyed. And the piano is never complete, always suggest more. At least that's my starting point.
Finally, it is not my intention to have a soundtrack, music running through each scene. Rather we will hear a piece as part of a montage sequence. With the music I will now need to decide if these sequences stand by themselves or require more cutting. The music will help with the final process of the rough edits.
So more work. JC and I still need to shoot a few more pieces, I need to incorporate the pickups into the next edit, and then include the temp-track music. And then more reaction.

Pickups - tomorrow

Just a quick note to say that tomorrow we are doing most of the pickups.
We start in the park in Wanstead, and finish in the flat in Dalston.
More details to follow, along with some updates on music and more.

Feedback and music

So I decided that I needed more feedback, particularly from some who have neither worked on the film or seen even parts of it previously. This past week I invited Paula, Ronny and Sarah to have a look. Ronny is involved in a way. He owns the cabin in Norway where we shot a third of the film, and he played a small part in it as well. Now Sarah knew nothing about it, but works in documentary in television, so would have a very different view on it.
This edit was the same I had shown in January. I wasn't looking for anything new, just confirmation of what I already knew, and this was the case. There was nothing new to report.
For example, the pace at the top of the Norway sequence is problematic. I did realise something new on this viewing, now that I had been away from it from two months: it is more than just pace or rhythm, but also the fact that Claire is alone for such a length of time. As Robert said long ago at another viewing, the audience already knows this. It looks beautiful but redundant.
So of course I can cut this sequence shorter. I think I know already that a lot of these shots don't work very well when they are shortened by themselves. I believe here you understand what Tarkovsky meant when he said that you can't impose pace upon a shot. Inherent in a shot is it's own pace. Rather I would have to remove shots entirely. My problem has always been not being certain what to cut. Here is where a real editor would do the job and I don't have one.
I thought of other ways that another voice could be added into this sequence, with radio and incidental music, and I will experiment with this on the next edit.
But Sarah's other primary comment: use music. Not incidental music, as I had always planned to use this, but a soundtrack. I have always resisted this, I did not want to use music to cover the failings of the film. Now I am a bit more philosophical: no matter how experienced I may be I will have failings. There is always the danger that a soundtrack could be used to just repeat what should be apparent on screen and in the scene, but I think back to the short film I did many years ago, when I worked with my friend Joakim. He added another layer into the film. So a soundtrack? I will at least consider it. Now I am busy going through my film music, using it to learn and feel my way through what is wrong and what is right for the film.
I still have plans for more making of videos, and then there is long-delayed pickups.

Where to...?

Before I finish the all the last of the production, all the final little bits, I have been thinking of the next steps. That is outside of what needs to happen in post-production.
After all the work that has gone into this I really need something with this film. I cannot imagine not making another film, but to what value if no one sees this one? At a minimum I need the film to be seen at some important film festivals. I don't expect to get into the big ones, or even the medium ones. I cannot expect to be in Cannes or Venice, or Rotterdam. I mean the smaller ones. So how?
Over a year ago I went to Cannes to meet sales agents. My thinking was to get interest as soon as possible from the people who will eventually sell the film. But then I began to have doubts. What sales agent would want to sell my film? I am completely unknown. At the same time sales agents get films into film festivals, so if they thought it had potential, or that I had future potential they would take a chance on spending time and money for not return. They would be thinking of sales for my next film, or the film after that.
Another plan: find a co-producer. This would be someone who believes in the film and myself, and would take it to the next level, to finish post-production, and then work to get it into film festivals. Finishing post-production doesn't mean that we have a 35mm print. We could finish on DigiBeta. Let's face it, unless I am exceeding lucky no one is going to put up the money to finish it on film.
The problem with finding a producer is where to start? There are so many people calling themselves producers. Even if someone has a credit it is hard to know who has done what, or if they were any good. I have a few leads, that is people I could approach for names which I will try. Otherwise I would be trolling IMDB, looking at films and sending off emails to people who I don't know and don't know me. This could take a long time and would be probably be fruitless.
Finally, another plan: to finish it myself, then go to the film festival programmers and try to convince them to show my film. This is of course the last resort.
Any of these will take a lot of effort, work, and time could easily fail. So which plan?

Making of...Final Shot

Now this is the last of the Norway Making of... In the near term I will be looking at collating some of the material from our work in London.
In the meantime I have met with JC to discuss shooting the last of our pickups. He was rather keen to wait for the weather to warm up a bit, and I didn't argue. So that is our next step.
In the meantime I continue to put together materials for marketing.

Turning point

I have been struggling with this post for a few days, just finding the words to explain what I have been feeling. How to put it? I realised this morning that it wasn't so complicated.
It came out of the showing I had over a week ago. Isabella, Ana and Mark came over and I presented the latest edit. I had trimmed a little out of the first and third segments, remixed the sound in other parts, and added new sounds in other areas.
First, I felt more comfortable showing it to them, which I attribute to the fact that the majority of the pieces are in place. I always start a showing by listing out the missing pieces and this time the list was shorter and less critical.
Their was response was quite good. There was some criticism, some thought the pace too slow, but not everyone agreed. Mark thought perhaps, and rightly so, that instead of pace it might be an issue of rhythm, which is something I would leave for an editor. They did not agree on the meaning of this or that sequence, but they all had their own ideas, and since this has always been an open text, this was a great victory for me. They might for their own questions, but I had not confused them.
Fundamentally, the issues are all to do with post-production, whereas before the problems were to do with production, to what I needed to shoot.
It is true I have some more production work to do, some off-screen dialogue, the bedroom shots, which I have referred to as the Rothko shots, the odd shot we need to help with the passage of time and lead us into the next sequence. All told, about 1.5 days of production which I would like to do as soon as possible.
It is soon time to get on with the next phase of production, selling it. So soon this blog will now change, no longer about production, now more mundane tasks, meetings, trying to get money or interest from producers, funding bodies, film festivals, and sales agents.
Before that I think I need a break. I look back at this blog and I cannot believe that I started this in 2006! It really has consumed a large part of my life. I think I would like to set aside one month at least where I do nothing but the day job, have no obligations, no other project to finish, to have a normal life.
It is just part of my mental health. I have even been collecting material for my next project. I think that I need this, need my mind to rest from this project for a little while.

More making of...

Okay, so the feedback process continues. More on that later. In the meantime I have completed another making of video, this again from Norway.

Making of...

I am now just getting around to beginning the new edit. I have made a few visits to Roland's sound studio, just today raiding his sound library. The plan is to include the new sounds, spend a little time getting the levels right. I don't have speakers in my edit setup so getting levels right has been a problem. This means spending a load of time mixing different sounds into layers has often been a fruitless exercise. Tonight I am going to try to set up my projector and sound system to read directly off the laptop and Final Cut Pro.
I feel I really need a new victim to watch the edit, ideally this coming weekend. So that is the plan.
In the meantime I show some of the Making of... videos and with his feedback did some trimming. Here is the first, a short piece on one of the scenes we shot in Norway. First us setting up, then rehearsing/discussing, and then the actual scene. Note that the sound has not been done, and the actual footage is just the DV dub - this is not the full-fat film by any means.

Editing geek

Okay, work has been progressing slowly. The plan is to re-work the new edit with some new sounds, and so I am meeting with Roland next week to go over it. I will be showing the new edit to some new victims next week.
In the meantime I have been busy going over all the other assets. I have completed a first draft of a producer's handbook, which is intended for potential co-producers and includes a long synopsis, director's notes, biographies of all the major cast and crew, the cast and crew list, 25 production photos, some making of... photos, and finally the state of the film.
I have also been logging and editing some Making of... videos. These are very much in the early stages but I will upload them here when I feel they are far enough long.
In the meantime some details of my editing system.














Yes, I did edit this on a Mac laptop, a two-year old 15inch, 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro.
Note the SATA Raid connector inserted into the ExpressBus. This links to my RAID Array below.
















I am seeing the edit on a 27inch EIZO monitor. I decided to spend on the money on such a high-spec monitor with the idea I may end up grading the DigiBeta version of the film myself, hopefully with JC's help.
















In the meantime the offline edit lives as MiniDV tapes, which I feed into Final Cut Pro 6.0 by way of an old Sony mini-DV camera.




















And on the floor, doing the dirty work is a 1.8Terabyte RAID Array in a box purchased from MacGurus.

More reaction

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.

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.

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.

I've said this before...

I've said this before, so I am wary of repeating myself.
But this past Sunday we finished the last of the planned shooting. How is that for a caveat. Only a year late!
JC and I had planned to watch the rushes at iLab last evening but they weren't ready yet. So we have the DV dubs and on Saturday I planned to begin capturing. This includes not only the cafe scene and girl's night scenes, but the car/argument and club/bar scenes as well.
I am now going into the next editing session with some trepidation. I can no longer hide behind the excuse that we still had more material to come. This is it. I have to say that, for better or worse, this is what we have to work with.
And how long will it be? And how can I give shape and pace?
More on that to come...

Next...

Just a quick update to say that we are shooting the cafe scene, and the girl's night scene this coming Sunday. This is the last of my planned shooting, that is the end of production, other than the odd shot or pickup we will get in the next month or so.
And also to say that JC were at the lab on Tuesday to take a look at the footage, and other than one shot that was a tad soft everything went well. I have not had a chance to place the footage into the edit yet. That will wait until after Sunday.
I can't say how much I am looking forward to getting back to the edit.

Photos of the club/bar scenes

So JC and I still have not made it down to the lab to see the footage, so I can't report back on our sucess or failure. I am still nervous about the whole thing. This day was probably our most costly relative to the number of minutes we shot. I wouldn't want to do it again.
I think there are too many other things going, especially getting ready for our next shooting day on the 22nd.
We are planning to take a look this coming Tuesday, but in the meantime David's photos...













Fritz and I discuss shots. Fritz was our 1st AD.














Lukas was JC's First Camera Assistant














JC adjusting lights. He had lights! This is probably the second time we had more than practical lights.


























The scene begins with Paul and Claire getting settled in.















Two of our extras doing their part to be a part of the scene.






































Thelma worked as our Bargirl, here talking to one of her regulars.


























Paul cues up at the bar.














Thelma behind the bar.














Bruno helped us organise the crowd.














Amy was JC's second assistant.






































Fred and Flora on the dancefloor. This is what it was about.

Club scene...

Just a quick note to say that we shot both the argument and the club scene on Sunday and it all went well. The footage went in yesterday and we expect an answer tomorrow. More news then, along with David's great photographs.

Next: the club/bar

Just a quick update. I have been busy getting ready for our next shooting date, November 8th. It took a lot of texts and emails to arrange this, and JC to reschedule his video shoot (thanks JC) to make this happen.
We will start in the afternoon, shooting the argument between Paul and Claire. This happens in the car and on the streets in Shoreditch. In the evening we are in The Camp, a new venture from James Priestly on City Road, from 6pm. So I am busy trying to raise a crowd, with a lot of help from Joana. We need a bar full of happy people.
A lot at stake - I can't afford to make any mistakes with this many people. We are not going to go back.
At the same time I am now busy trying to arrange the next and last shooting date, the cafe scene, with Claire and Sophie, and the girl's night in, with Claire, Sophie and Sarah. I am also busy casting this new part as well. More on that to come.

Feedback and the next step

So first David came by last Thursday to see the latest edit. This included all the new Norway footage, the footage from the September/Dalston shoot, and the new structure in the second segment. It has become a bit of a blur, all these changes, the point where I forget all the work I have done.
I think that this is the first time that David had nothing to say. So, yes, the edit gets better and better. What before may have caused some discussion or was questioned is no longer. It is coming together, in big and small ways.
And then the next steps. More scheduling problems means that the original plan to shoot the cafe scene and the girl's night in has to be delayed until mid-November. This leaves the bar or club scene to shoot. Does it make any different which we shoot first? None at all. I think I was simply putting off shooting the bar/club scene because of the expense and the risk. I don't have a lot of experience shooting crowd scenes and I can't afford to make mistakes and have to go back again.
I need help with the logistics of this so I turn to Joanna who has helped us in the past. I have just come from meeting her at the Green Papaya. Nothing really phases her (I wouldn't want to get in her way for any reason) so I just set out what I need and she is already on it. We will be looking at a club tomorrow night. More on this.

October update

Okay, a few things have happened since I last posted.

I have finished the revised edit and showed it to my friend, the actor and filmmaker Robert. I had been holding back showing it to Robert. He is a fan of my work, so on the one hand he would be too forgiving. On the other he is quite sharp and critical as well.

First I was disappointed in some ways with this comments. He did not notice the changes I made in the new edit! But of course I was being ridiculous. The whole point of that work was to make sense of this or that part. The test is whether he would not notice the new parts.

Well Robert had a few minor comments but generally was very impressed. So far so good. Yes, there is still a lot of work to do. There is still no shape or pace in the edit. There are decisions to be made in regards to incidental music and the non-music that Roland suggested in the spring.

I have rewritten all the scenes that I workshopped back in the spring. There was always something that bothered me about these scenes. One night I showed Flora the edit, and then we went to watch some bits from Antonio's L'Eclisse. I was especially interested in the scene where Vittoria first meets Marta. It is is girl's night in. There is no drama, and the thematic elements only appear by the by. I had written my scenes as drama, and clearly they were not. I, the writer was also imposing myself into the film.

One of the changes involves bringing in a new character and now I have to cast another actor. That is my next step.

And finally I applied to Cinemart at the Rotterdam Film Festival. This is market to meet co-producers. I send in two applications for two new projects for development, and also for Tidal Barrier for post-production. Of course my chances are slim but it is my first test of the film outside friends and colleagues visiting my flat. So we shall see.

Dalston report

We spent Sunday shooting pickups in Dalston. It was a long day, but very productive.
I wanted to fill in a few gaps we found in the editing. As I said previously this is my shorthand being rather too short.
It is amazing what a few shots will do to an edit. For example, in the final scene of this segment Claire watches Paul leave for work. This was shot from high, at a distance, too much of a distance to know who we are watching. We just needed a shot of Paul leaving the flat. I shot this from the top of stairs, as to suggest that here too this is Claire watching Paul.
The scene that followed has caused some confusion as well. When Claire is sure that Paul is gone she goes about erasing herself, removing all traces of herself from the flat and his life. But there was never enough detail for anyone to understand what was happening. I added another segment on Sunday, where Claire gathers up her clothes into a bin bag and throws them in the trash. Starting over again. Will this scene now make sense? Well I will need to show the new edit to a few people and find out.
In both these cases, given a larger budget you would simply shot them in the first place, but as I can only shoot what I am going to use I was happy to do it this way.
We also re shot scene and 8 and 9 to change the emphasis of this scene.
Yesterday Marc passed me the sound files and I synced them up with the rushes. Everything looks good. I spent yesterday with the edit, trying to piece it together. There are a few cuts which still need some more work, but overall what we did has been very effective.
Next steps. I now have more scheduling headaches. I am going to start writing a revised scene with Claire and Sophie, and a new character, and I will need to find this new actor. Then I will try to squeeze a day of shooting of this new scene in to October.

Norway results and more

Last Friday we got the Norway pickups returned from the lab and... everything was absolutely fine. We probably have one soft shot, but it is looks so amazing I think someone might think we did it on purpose.
I did a rough cut of the footage on Saturday, but I was without the sound files, so I did not spend too much time on the edit. More on that later. For now I am distracted.
I have more scheduling mayhem, so I working to shoot pickups here in the flat in Dalston this Sunday. Of course this means a load of preparations, especially just finding all those costumes. I may have to reshoot some scenes just because of costume alone, but in a way it is just as well. The scene concerned is Scene 8, when Natalie first visits Claire and Paul, and then Scene 9, the argument that Paul and Claire have after. This scene was always weak. First I think that the dialogue between Paul and Natalie is given too much emphasis. It it Claire's relationship to Natalie and Paul that is important. I also went too thin again, that is the shorthand is too short. There is too little material. So, it is just as well that I have to reshoot. I am going to look at rewriting or restructuring the scene tonight. More on this after Sunday.

Norway II Report

We returned from Norway late on Friday night and I think I have recovered enough to make sense of it all.
It did not start well. We made it to the airport in good time but were shocked to see how many people were at Stansted at that time in the morning. Sorting out the baggage was complicated but finally we managed and were told by Ryanair that we had enough time. We went through security, picked up a few things at the Chemist and went to the gate...and the plane was gone. It had left a few minutes early and we were a few minutes late. Essentially the long lines in security plus the crowded Stansted trains delayed us enough we missed it. So now what to do? Ryanair would put us on the next plane for £100 each. What a deal! This was hard to stomach considering all those people were there because Ryanair tries to get out so many planes at the time in the morning. Why reassure us we had plenty of time when they know very well we did not? If we had ran to the gate we would've made it.
After adding the costs of this fee against flying the next day but having to include the baggage costs, plus most importantly missing another day of shooting I decided to swallow this fee. There was a lot of messing around, first retrieving the luggage, then getting new boarding passes and checking the luggage again, going through security again, etc. All the while Flora is quite ill. Is this going to be a complete disaster?
Finally we airborne, Flora is at least able to sleep a little, as do we. All of us only had 4 hours sleep, if that. We land at Torp, buy as much wine and beer as we can carry, knowing the cost of alcohol in Norway, retrieve all of our luggage, and then wait while Roland gets the rental car. Another problem: EuropaCar has given our car away. We were more than three-hours late. They have another car, but it costs more than the one we rented and we have to make up the the difference. This is even more incredible than the Ryanair situation. We have already paid for the car. They would not lose anything regardless how late were were and they could've still rented the more-expensive car to the other customer. Apparently poor service from this company is not unusual.
Finally we are on the road and arrive in Risor in two hours. We do a little grocery shopping, load the boat and putter down the fjord. We settle in, eat some lunch, and then while Flora sleeps the rest of us, that is JC, Roland, and Lara and I, go out to reccy some of the locations that are away from the cabin. The weather is warm, with cloud and sun. The beach area is beautiful at that time of day. We probably need to do 2/3rds of our shooting here in the sun, but the weather forecast is not promising. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday shows rain with periods of cloud. Sun is only forecast for Wednesday. Can we do all this on Wednesday?
After dinner, with Roland and Lara sharing most of the cooking duties, I make my plan.
We will shoot the arrival scene on Tuesday. This is essentially a development of Claire's arrival at the cabin. I had struggled to show Claire's relationship to her past, with a set of mementoes that she carries with her throughout the film, even bringing them along to show to Sophie in one scene, but this idea was never clear to anyone. I finally realised that the past is already represented in Claire's return to the cabin in Norway, and that we required more detail here. How does she see the cabin? How does she approach the cabin? What does she do while she is waiting for nightfall? How does she break-in? Why does she wait until night-fall to break-in? How does she feel when she gets in? For continuity this is meant to happen in the rain.
On Wednesday we then had the unenviable task of trying to capture all the sun material in one day. We started by a couple of pickups, Claire seeing Natalie sunbathing out on the lawn. Of course Katrine, who plays Natalie was with us in Norway, so we cheated her presence by dressing Flora in some Natalie-like clothing.
Once that was complete we moved by boat to the beach area which was to be our base for the day. I have wanted to simplify the Norway segment by establishing some clear geographical locations, which partly meant showing Claire making her to the beach. I wrote a new scene to follow in the final part where we find Claire after she leaves her sister at the cabin, which we shot in the thick forest at the base of a ridge. We also developed the beach scene itself, and then the scene where she goes hiking with Natalie. Again, we cheated one shot by shooting from the neck down, and putting Lara into Natalie's jacket and scarf.
That brought us to around 7pm, the sun was fading and we were exhausted. We returned to the cabin and had a few beers out by the water, knowing that this might be best day we had and we needed to enjoy it.
We also later found that in tramping about in the forest we had managed to attract a large number of tics. Nasty little things. I had one on my neck, and two in the crotch. Everyone else was afflicted as well. We sat in the kitchen in our pants, checking each other thoroughly with a bicycle-lamp, and removed the little parasites. Roland now doubled as sound man and tick-removalist-specialist.
On Thursday, once the rain stopped in the afternoon we decided to return to the beach area and picked-up a few of the shots we missed on Wednesday. We shall have to see if we are able to change the colour-temperature of these shots to match the other material.
Friday was the same, except that Flora was now feeling well enough to go swimming in the fjord with Roland.
As we were loading the boat at 5pm, getting ready to leave, the sun came out again. It looked beautiful, but was too late to help us.
JC brings in the footage tomorrow and we shall see the results on Thursday. That's the next post.

More weather

And as soon as I posted the weather forecast changed.
Norway weather forecast.

I suppose this is better, but what does mixed sun and cloud really mean?

We shall see.

Sweating the weather

So the preparations are well enough along for me now to sweat over the long-range weather Norway weather forecast.
Hmmm. Only one day of full-sun. This is a problem. This is the Friday we are leaving. In the evening, yes, but we have a lot of material to cover (17 shots). And ground too, as the locations are some ways from our base (the cabin).
One day of rain is good. We have a number of shots (13) around Claire's arrival at the cabin, which for continuity, happens in either the rain, or it's-going-rain.
I have scheduled a number of shots for the Thursday (mixed sun and cloud), but that is being optimistic. It would better if it were sunny that day too. So, I can only hope for some change as we come closer to our shooting dates.

Norway preparations

So what are we doing in Norway?
I have just finished a first draft of the shot list, which includes nearly 50 shots, around 10 a day. Some of these are alternates, so I would guess in the end we will shoot 45 different shots.
This is certainly not about shooting pickups, this is all about developing the story of Claire in Norway.
Some highlights...
Claire arrives at the cabin
Until now I have included a metaphor for her past in a box of momentoes she carries with her, which included antique jewelery and photos of forgotten relations. It always felt a weak idea and most everyone found it either confusing or pointless. Now I realise that the image of the past is the cabin itself. She arrives in the day but waits until dark to break in, like a burglar. What does she do/feel in the meantime? It is David's idea to make the cabin a character itself - how does she see this place? Claire has come here because it is about the past, so her arrival and how she relates to this place are central.
Claire goes swimming
On Claire's first full-day in Norway she goes to the beach. This is about Claire finding a new energy in beauty and nature. Currently the scene is weak. I would like to simplify the whole Norway segment by first showing Claire making her way to the beach area. This means we will have a short-hand for these locations later, that is I we will be able reuse them again. And by creating a simple construct - Claire is going to the beach - I will be able to express more conceptual ideas.
Once she arrives at the beach we need to develop the swimming sequence so we understand what this means to her. More on this below.
Not quite the ending
Along with a few shots which are missing or which we felt are weak there is the ending. This too is underdeveloped. Some ideas, such as the coda sequence that follows her view of her sister, is strong, but I think could get more out of this scene by using shots of locations where we have previously seen Claire. For example, the places she passes through on the way to the beach. They would take on another resonance because Claire is now absent from them.
Before the ending itself it also felt that we needed another scene with Claire. She needed to develop in between. So what happens? I am calling this my Claire-as-an-animal sequence, in that I would like to see Claire now changed, as no longer self-conscious, as focused, and full of energy.
The ending
I have already written quite a deal about this, but suffice to say we thinking of other elements around that final shot. Or is it another ending altogether? I suppose we won't know until we have the material and have edited it altogether.
More on preparations coming soon...

More on the end

Whew, this has been a long time in coming. I apologise. I have had everything but the film to do this past month. Now it is officially August it is time to get back to it. I have nearly a month to get ready for Norway.
So I promised more on the ending. I have known for a while that it needed work. It was John who asked back at Christmas time, seeing the old edit, 'so, what happens at the end?'
First some comment from David. I am going to paraphrase. Remember in my last post, so long ago, that David changed his mind about the last shot after seeing the edit?

A problem might be that the pace, the shooting style, all the elements are the same as the other parts of the film. Perhaps they need to change and evolve? What about a different approach to the storytelling, shooting, editing and sound? Perhaps there is a faster pace as Claire moves through the forest?

David even detailed a sequence of shots that begins when Claire leaves her sister at the cabin and arrives at the final shot. I am not going to detail this here as I am going to meet David to work through this sequence on video.


I think that the new edit made the final shot work, but I think it was really down to the last shot but one: the shot of the mountainside. Prior to that I think the sequence of the landscape images works, but perhaps would work better with being set up: that is if Claire is absent in these shots she needs to be present before then. This means setting up something where we find her in the forest in a sequence between leaving her sister and this sequence.
More ideas below...but first some of the comments from David on the ending:
So altogether...
We create another part at the end, along with the first three, a part that starts after her view of her sister below and runs to the final shot. This includes a sequence of landscape shots where Claire is absent, it doesn't need her. This final sequence will develop the language of the film, perhaps a slower film stock (64ASA), a wider lens (we may to have borrow one!), perhaps a different pace for Claire, a different way she moved through the landscape, and then more. In what happens there is a difference too. I have been imagining images of her, capturing as if an animal, that is not self-conscious, instinctive, as a part of the place. A landscape, trees and shrubs, a small creek. It is light at the top, but down low, where the shrubs are concentrated it is dark, filled with shadows. We have not seen Claire for sometime so it takes some to make her out at the bottom-right of the frame, crouched over, concentrating on some task. We don't know what. Yes, she is drinking from the creek, like an animal at the watering hole. We come closer. She continues to drink, then looks up, hearing something. Then we write the sounds with the images, that is instead of sounds being an adjunct of the image, rather the images picture the sound, eg. we see what is making noise. Again we have left Claire behind.
We eventually reach the shot of the mountainside that presently work so well - JC calls this is Ozu shot. We use the last shot, but we also create other shots which build it, eg. fragments of her or the place, with perhaps her out of focus (soft) in contrast with the a sharp image in the foreground. The idea is that we play with the idea that she is a part of the landscape, using focus, light and shadow...
Is that what happens between leaving Natalie and the final shot?
Well more on this later this week after I meet with David. I promise to be more involved this month.

The last shot is saved

I said that I would like to do a post on the ending alone, but actually I think I could do more than one. There has so much discussion and thought on this end, I didn't know where to start.
So let's start with that last shot. This shot was my original idea for the ending going back over 1 1/2 years.
Here are three shots that illustrate the sequence.


The shot opens with Claire in the foreground, her back to the camera, standing still. She turns her to the right, as if she was looking at something or was going in that direction.
Instead she walks forward, to the middle ground, but to her left, goes behind some shrubs, and then goes under the large tree trunk that bisects the shot, then appears on the other side.

On the other side of the tree trunk she begins to climb the rock face.
At points she pauses in her climb, finding her way, or turning to look from where she came.

Eventually the climbs to the top of the ridge, and makes her way into the forest at the top. She is gone, and the shot is held there for some time. In the final take on our final day there were scattered clouds, so the sun would come and go. During the long hold after Claire has disappeared the sun came through some slight cloud, so the light seemed to pour on. It was probably my imagination but it also felt as if the bird song suddenly rose in volume and filled the air. In fact it was probably filled with the rackets of the speedboats in the fjord, but such is the power the moment.

Claire moves from being an oddity, an aberration to having a part in the landscape and eventually disappearing into it.
In the early edits the power of this shot, if there was any, was not apparent. It seemed weak, an unsatisfactory ending. I wondered if the gap between inspiration and execution was just too great. A good idea, but we hadn't found the shot or the location or the action or all three to support the idea.
I met up with David an expressed my misgivings about the shot. We were planning to return to Norway and should we consider another ending entirely?
He thought back and gave his verdict: is the problem with shot is that is some ways a literal reiteration of the story of Claire and the film? It's weakness then is that it is a repetition but not a development of the theme. Perhaps if the idea of the shot were expressed instead of the shot itself it could be stronger? This might be a simple as cutting the shot just after Claire turns her head to the left. Then going to black and the sound scape of the ridge, the wind in the trees, and the bird song rising in volume.
All this made sense, but David was referring back to an edit he had seen six months previously. He was coming later that week to see the new edit. What would he make of it?
So as it turned out, another example of the power of editing, for when David saw the shot, complete, in the new edit he changed his mind. As it stood the shot was strong and its power now seemed clear. The problem lay not with that shot, but with shots around it. It was a lack of material, and this needed to be remedied on the new trip to Norway.
We then went to discuss some new ideas and later David emailed some new thoughts as well. More about this in the next post, but to be certain about the final shot I created a different ending, one in which I cut the shot short. I showed this to a number of people but all of them agreed. The final shot, complete, is the strongest.
Now more about what happens to lead to that shot, for the next post.

More on the new edit and Norway

So a long time since my last post. Everything has been in limbo.
First, there was the Kent vs Norway issue. Could the Kent forest stand in for Norway? Well that question was answered by way of the new edit.
Since the showing at JCs place I have also shown it to David. Beforehand I felt that this edit was truly make or break. If I could not start to make it work now I would be in trouble. So David's response was quite important.
The shots we inserted from the Kent workshop made sense, for the most part, as part of the story, even if Kent didn't look like Norway. But what the new edit made clear was what could work worked, what didn't work was down to a lack of material and development.
Most of this revolved around the ending. Would that long take, of Claire starting in the foreground and climbing the ridge, and then disappearing into the forest, would it now work? I had met the week previously and his comment then was that the shot was in a way a literal representation of the film up until the point. Seeing the shot was not development, but repetition. But when I showed him the edit he felt that perhaps it did work. I could see now that we would be in for some difficult choices, but again this was also part of the process, and a great sign of progress.
The ending is where we will spend most of our effort, and it is also the most exciting part. I would like to do a whole post just around the ending, because think there is so much to say.
I also feel that we can no longer move forward without more development of the sound design, and so to that end, Roland is coming over to see the edit tomorrow. What might we do with sound as part of the ending?
And I am looking for some new test subjects, people who have not seen the film before. More on that.
So yes, we are going out to Norway for a second trip. We will not only fill in the gaps we had identified previously, but also develop other parts. This is tentatively planned for the end of August. We are just waiting to find a Camera Assistant and to be certain that David can come as well, and then I will begin making all the arrangements.
And the next post, soon about the ending.

New edit and more

I finished the latest edit on Sunday. I had already cut in the workshop video we had shot in May and April, and so the past two weeks I had been editing for pace, and patching up the sound. At the end, even though I had trimmed a large number of scenes, with the new material the latest edit was now longer. 98 minutes, versus just over 90 minutes.
I wanted to meet up with JC so that we could look at the Kent footage and make a decision - will it stand in for Norway? So I took the edit over to JC's place so we could watch it on his new projector.
Some conclusions.
Now, as edits do, even though it was longer than the last edit, it seemed shorter. There was a sense of focus, pace and rhythm. It was clearer because it was simpler, and the opportunities were more obvious. That is I could see the gaps, where I needed to do work, and what could work. I think that it was a big improvement on the last edit. I could also see that once I had shot the new material I would come to a point where I could no longer add anything more to the edit. I mean that if it needed to go further then I would need an editor, someone who bring something new to the project. I feel this is progress too.
The other conclusion was that the new material went a long way in addressing the lack of balance in the film. What I still don't though is whether the other new scenes I wrote are necessary. We haven't work-shopped those yet.
As to the Kent question, what gave it away was the lack of inclines and the dirt ground. Our Norway locations were steep and there is stone everywhere.
So I am now thinking of returning to Norway. More on this...