AV14 Screening

To prepare for the screening, I was put into the technical team where we discussed the best possible running order for our film, taking into account the tone and genre of each.

As part of the technical team, I went to the showroom media lounge where we would be showing our films before the screening to do a practice screening with all the films. This involved us doing a number of different exports to see which ones had the best quality as well as making sure they played back fine on the laptop we were using. I decided to use a 'same as source' export in the end as it didn't alter the gamma of the shot which was important in our film as there was a lot of dark colours onto of each other.

The actual AV14 screening went very well and our film was well received, which was positive especially as it was the opening film. The whole thing  had no technical problems and all the films played smoothly, making the whole event a success.

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Relating Outside Reading to 'The Conductor'

I have been applying things I have learnt through outside reading (mainly Walter Murch’s In the Blink of an Eye) during the editing process of ‘The Conductor’, so I can be more effective and create a better final film.

My main concern for this film, and all short films I edit, is how many cuts will be needed between different shots and whether or not these will work with the pace of the film or if they will be to obvious and to jarring for the audience. “What we do seem to have difficulty accepting are the kind of displacements that are neither subtle nor total.” ^{[1; Pg 6]} What Murch means here is that the audience’s attention will be drawn to the physical nature of each cut if they aren’t too subtle to notice or are completely different from one another.  When the audience recognises these cuts, their immersion and engagement with the story is broken and they become aware that they’re watching a constructed image, instead of being told a story.

Leading on from this, ‘The Conductor’ relies on the audience believing what they see is a visual construct of a daydream, so the audience must be fully immersed is fantasy style world in order to engage with the character and narrative. When I first assembled the film it began with the set up of the character, his location, his reaction to the location, then finally him doing his job (cleaning) before moving into the daydream world. After watching it back and showing it in the rough cut screening I remembered Murch’s rule regarding audience engagement: “Always try to do the most with the least.” “…you want to do only what is necessary to engage the audience—suggestion is always more effective that exposition.”^{[1; Pg 15]} This made me re-assess the cut and realise that almost none of the start was needed and could be stripped down to get the audience into the narrative straight away.

Finally, I’ve always tried to keep an objective view on each film I edit so that the cut isn’t influenced by my involvement with a specific shot or shoot day in any way. However, due to the group sizes of student films, it is almost impossible to be completely objective and distant from pre-production and filming on set so I always try to view it as an audience member, instead of ‘seeing around the edge of the frame’. “The editor… should try to see only what’s on the screen, as the audience will.”^{[1; Pg 24]} I have tried my best to do this throughout the majority of the edit, which I hope will be reflected with the outcome of our final film.

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Bibliography

1. Murch, Walter (1988); In the Blink of an Eye; New York: Viking Press

The Ideal Rushes for a Problematic Scene

The problematic scene is at 1:42 and shows the janitor imagining he is hitting a floating apple with a bat.

I encountered a number of problems while editing this scene, starting with the fact that it had been filmed on two different cameras, a Canon 6D and a GoPro. This meant that the white balance, exposure and picture quality were all different which made the two pieces of footage visually contrasting.

The performance was the next noticeable issue as, due to the short length of each take and camera positions, the actor kept stopping and starting at certain points in the script, instead of continuing with the direction for an entire sequence. E.g. when he hits the apple, he stops and looks around instead of continuing the action in the script.

 Finally, the framing of some of the shots, especially when the apple actually gets hit, was questionable as they were filmed differently to how we had planned due to geographical space and safety concerns.

My ideal set of rushes:

1. Same framing but get the actor to move into shot and block the view of the apple, then track right to reveal it. This would be to immerse the audience more as it makes them want to know what the character is looking at and see the events in the film through his eyes, allowing them to empathise more with him.

2. Close up of the apple, same as shown.
3. Front Angle MS of him bringing his hands up and then pausing. Then we would give him the bat and continue with the swinging action. This is so I have options to cut in and out of the whole take at any point in the scene during the edit, whilst keeping the camera position locked to prevent jarring cuts.
4. Same XCU of his eyes but then I would also have liked a XCU of the floating apple to build the tension between the two, and so the audience is aware of his intentions.
5. Cutting to a back angle shot here would have been good, so the audience can see the reveal of the bat in his hands, confirming what he is about to do.
6. Idealistically, I would have wanted a front and two side angle mid shots of him as he swung the bat, as well as a close up on the exploding apple itself, all filmed on the same type of camera. The actor would need to continue the motion and follow the script after smashing the apple, to prevent more unnecessary cuts being made.

Finally, all of this sequence should have been filmed with the soundtrack being played on set, so the actor could have timed all his movements to the music, making his performance seem less forced and rigid.

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