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.