Friday, July 26, 2013

IN THE SHADOWS OF NOVEMBER EDITING WEEK 3

I took advantage of my vacation year starting over and took some time off from work and spent three days editing for 4 hours a day.  I've got 8 scenes down and it clocks in at 15:05 as it is. In theory it supposed to translate at one minute of screen time for one page of script.  At this rate it's just a bit more than one minute per page.  
The only major change I've made was to swap some of the scenes around.  Three of the characters have scenes outside of the main building where the story takes place so I could poke around and give the viewer a hint of what the world they are living in is like.  Originally it was two drama heavy scenes then a third lighthearted scene.  I swapped the last two scenes because I thought it would balance the feel a bit better.  They also give me a chance to slow the pacing down a bit. It just feels like it's going so fast.  Spent about 45 minutes editing one of the few exterior scenes into a series of 12 cuts.  Watched it and realized I was doing it completely wrong and found the best take so it's now in one shot with a very short insert.  When it's said and done it really comes off as a much more personal conversation between two characters.
Also edited the first of only two scenes that involve green screen.   I have the basics down and got everything across in the scene it needs but need to try and expand it a bit later.  We took some footage of Jenn facing the green screen and delivering her lines.  My goal is to get just one shot of the two actors together, even though there's 4 months between the actual shooting.  It'll take a great deal of time, trial and error to get it right but my goal is to have a video edit done first.  That way I can pass it on the two people who, hopefully, will do the music and then work on the details.  Same thing with turning the video we shot during the day into night scenes.  I found a tutorial on how to do it with Adobe After Effects but it's a complicated process so I'll do it in the second draft of the edit.
For the most part the scenes I've edited remain very close to the written page.  Twice I changed the dialogue order to flow better and there were a few lines I got rid of.  Also have to admit there was one cringe worthy line of dialogue I took out.  I'm sure there was some logic when I wrote it but once I actually heard it and saw it I just shivered.  Luckily none of the other actors in the scene reacted to it so it was easy to remove.  
Plan is to take a few days away from it, nothing this weekend, then go over two evenings next week.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

IN THE SHADOWS OF NOVEMBER EDITING WEEK 2

Only got over one night this week for editing.  I was editing one of the very first scenes and it turned out to be a bit trickier than I thought.  There is some sound contamination that will have to be dealt with later on.  It's not bad, just a steady buzz in the back ground from all the lights and microphones in the small room.  Planning on doing a few intensive days of editing, with time off from work, next week.   

Sunday, July 7, 2013

IN THE SHADOWS OF NOVEMBER EDITING WEEK 1

I had an idea for a promo for the video that included shots and dialogue of all the characters.  I went through the script and singled out which scenes would be best to build up the mystery and excitement of the  video to hook viewers.  I had some other ideas and collected some photos and sounds to use to make it more colorful.  I went down to PATV today and started to collect the clips and put them together and after about 90 minutes at it realized I was doing things completely wrong.  I was wasting lots and lots of time putting together special clips for a promo and would end up repeating a lot of it doing clips for the final edit.  I saved that idea for later and just spent some time reviewing the footage.
I watched some of the scenes that I tried camera movement in.  It's a very difficult thing to do right with the resources we have.  We don't have space for dolly tracks so some times we had to try some pretty basic moves.  Some worked and some didn't.  There were other times that we just did a simple pan as a person moved and I think those cam out best.  There are also some editing tricks I can do to get movement in the frame but I'm resisting to use some of them.  Camera movement can be very effective if it's used properly but some times directors can get carried away with it and it takes away the effect. "Star Trek 5," the Shatner movie, was one of them.  I remember how often he used camera zooms and, by the end of the movie, it was getting pretty obvious and had no effect on the scenes.  I remember there is a scene in 2010 where two characters are sitting and talking about what they miss from Earth while they are on a ship to Jupiter.  I didn't even realize it the first time I saw it but the camera was very slowly closing in on them during the scene.  It was so subtle I didn't catch it while it was happening but it really enhances the characters.
Going over to the station and focusing on the editing on Monday.  I'm hoping, since I did so much prep work that it won't take long but there is lots of footage to go over.  My target is to have the video editing finished in August but, I've learned, it always takes longer than I plan.